Marianne Sweet on Home Staging

If you are still on the fence about the value of professionally staging a home for sale, here is another benefit to consider:  staged properties command higher appraisals. Certified Residential Appraiser Linda Shurtliff, owner of Troy-based Reliable Residential Appraisals, LLC agrees.  “A staged home has much more appeal than an unstaged home.  A staged home [...]

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Gary Keller, one of the country’s top brokers and author of best-selling book “Shift:  How Top Real Estate Agents Tackle Tough Times” was on ABC’s “Good Morning America” last week.   Mr. Keller gave his opinion on how to increase your chances of selling in this market. Selling Your House in a Down Real Estate Market [...]

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Most Home Stagers agree, however, that Staging encompasses all 12 of these improvement projects, as a good Stager will advise if, and to what extent, these improvements should be undertaken to increase the marketability of the property. The article can be viewed here: http://blog.homegain.com/home-improvement/homegain-2009-top-12-home-improvements-survey-results/ I have already had an agent ask if $300 for Home [...]

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From my staging colleague Cindy Bryant, owner of Redesign, Etc. in Houston, TX: Helping home sellers achieve their goal. Offers will come faster. Marketing strategy. Effective selling technique. Selling a home for all it’s worth. Taking a tried and true approach. Always looking better than the competition. Get better appraisal values. Internet photos will show a must see [...]

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After owning a Home Staging business for over 5 years, I think I have heard every possible objection to hiring a Stager, from “I know what needs to be done” to “I don’t want someone touching my stuff”.  The biggest objection by far, however, is the cost.  In this economy, people just don’t have a [...]

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When potential buyers view a house for sale, they need to see rooms presented as they were intended.  The master bedroom shouldn’t be an exercise room, the bathroom shouldn’t be a pet station, the garage shouldn’t be a storage unit, and unless you have more than 3 bedrooms, resist the urge to make one an [...]

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A link to a “virtual home staging” site was sent to me recently, and naturally, I had to investigate.  Ahhh … the wonders of Photoshop.  The owners of this site will take uploaded photos of your vacant rooms and plug in furniture to make it appear furnished.  The “after” photos actually look pretty good, although [...]

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As I head to Florida for a much-needed vacation and annual Spring Training game (Go Tigers!!!), I leave you with an excellent Q & A reblogged with permission from my staging colleague Cindy Bryant of Redesign Etc, Inc. in Houston, TX.  Her post on Active Rain is spot-on and truly reflects the most common questions [...]

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We know that the three most important factors for a successful real estate sale are location, price and condition.  While the seller can make changes to the price and condition of a property to hasten a sale,  no one can amend the location. What happens when the location of the house itself is desirable, but [...]

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With the brief glimpse of spring that we experienced over the weekend, thoughts turn to buying and selling houses.  “The Real Estate Season” is fast approaching, although maybe not fast enough for some of us! Sellers?  Be prepared.  If your house has good curb appeal and is priced appropriately, your showings will increase.  Put your [...]

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Every year, Washington State real estate and mortgage blogger, Larry Cragun publishes The Magnificent Seven, an award he gives to some of the best real estate blog posts he has read over the previous year. Larry plows through thousands of posts over the course of a year to cull his list down. A daunting task, [...]

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