It always amazes me how many people DON’T ask for references or ask for samples of previous work. Pros who are proud of what they do are not offended if you ask these questions!

Enjoy,
Rebecca

Rebecca

The ultimate goal for a stager is to create the image of a lifestyle that will appeal to a wide range of buyers.”When people are looking to purchase a home, they are buying a new lifestyle,” Mr. Finlason says. “They don’t have the answer on how to define that lifestyle, so we do it for them.”

The first episode of The Stagers will air at 10 p.m. ET/PT on July 1 on HGTV.

Read the entire article here.

Enjoy,
Rebecca

Information is power, and that couldn’t be more true when it comes to real estate. Catering to savvy buyers and sellers who crave Web 2.0 tools, Fizber, a for-sale-by-owner Website, aims to connect buyers and sellers. Despite pricing uncertainty in the current market, the site’s traffic continues its upward trend, landing the site at 41,318 on the WebReport 100k - up almost 84% over the past 60 days.

What sets this “homes for sale by owner site” apart are a myriad of helpful tools. Some are available on similar sites, but it’s nice to have them all assembled under one tent.

Among the offerings:

Drive Score - Find the perfect neighborhood with a Google map mashup that displays regional events. All you do is put in an address and local events will populate.

As a seller, this tool is useful if there are local attractions that you want to flaunt. As a buyer, Drive Score helps you get a better idea of neighborhoods you might not be too familiar with.

A widget to help sellers and agents promote for-sale properties is available as well.

Climate Watch - Particularly useful if you are looking to relocate, climate look up reveals annual weather information about towns and cities. Aside from quality-of-life issues, weather is also a major factor when it comes to insurance. Avoid potential problems and learn about the locale you are researching versus the rest of the United States with a series weather-related graphs and charts.

Home Staging - Ever look at a property online and decide not to visit it because of the displayed pictures? That’s because you assume that only the best pictures will be used to promote a property. Despite everyone and their mother owning a digital camera, simply put, many of us are not good photographers. That’s where home staging comes in. Designed to put the best face on your home so that it sells quickly, Fizber lets you search the nation for home-staging providers in your area. A rapidly growing trend thanks to all of those cable TV real estate shows, the expense, more often than not, pays for itself.

Street View - There’s nothing like seeing a neighborhood and property in person, but when I’m stuck at my day job, hitting the road isn’t an option. Folks in the market for a house will appreciate Street View, a Google map that allows you to explore city neighborhoods. Virtually strolling an area around a property’s address can help buyers evaluate a neighborhood - before deciding if it’s worth making a physical visit.

The technology of Silicon Valley comes to Main Street on Fizber. The site’s clean design, litany of useful tools and over 70 partner sites are keeping people coming back for more.

When many home sellers ask for free home staging estimates, what they really want is your expertise and advice for free. The brand new Staging Diva Sales Script will teach home stagers how to avoid getting caught in the ‘free estimate trap’ and turn homeowners into home staging customers with one concise phone conversation.

June 11, 2008 – A new resource called the Staging Diva Sales Script has been created by home staging expert Debra Gould, also known as the Staging Diva, which will help home stagers avoid bankruptcy and burn out by not falling into the ‘free estimate trap’.

With the dismal state of the real estate market today, desperate homeowners are scrambling for an edge when the time comes to sell. Many of these individuals are turning to home stagers to advise them on how to best decorate their homes to stand out from the others in their community that will be in competition with theirs when it gets listed.

That line between ‘free estimate’ and ‘free advice’ becomes blurry when a home stager agrees to visit with a home seller to estimate what staging will cost. From the moment a stager enters the home, they are bombarded with questions; ‘What color should I paint this room?’, ‘Do you think I should move this furniture to the basement?’, ‘Is it okay to leave my dining room as the children’s playroom?’ While these questions are very important for any home seller to consider, asking them of a home stager is the same as asking for free home staging advice.

“A professional home stager can increase the perceived value of a home by between $10,000 and $70,000,” says Gould. “Home stagers deserve to be paid for their expertise and advice since the home seller stands to make a handsome profit from their services.”

In a fierce race for new clients, too many home stagers agree to visit home sellers to provide a free estimate for staging their home. This will almost inevitably end up in “a fast road to burn out and bankruptcy”, according to Gould, who teaches home stagers how to build a profitable staging business. Instead, Gould advises home stagers build a rapport over the phone with a potential new client, carefully explaining what home staging is, why it works, and how their expertise can benefit the home seller.

“It’s not necessary to visit a home to know what staging will cost, especially if the house is furnished,” explains Gould. She goes on to say, “Most home sellers are living in their homes and a stager will be working with what’s already there. If the home stager has any experience at all, they’ll know from a telephone interview, approximately how long it will take and roughly what staging will cost. But they have to be confident enough to explain it thoroughly to a home seller who has probably never hired a real estate stager before.”

Serious home sellers looking for expert home staging advice should be willing to pay for a service that will result in a quick sale for top dollar. Home stagers considering themselves professionals should not be wasting their time and gas running the roads for free. To help both stagers and sellers understand each other better, Debra Gould has created the ‘Staging Diva Sales Script: How to Avoid the Free Estimate Trap and Turn Homeowners Into Home Staging Customers in One Phone Conversation’. This resource enables home stagers to effectively communicate what they do in that initial phone call. This Staging Diva Sales Script is available at http://www.stagingdiva.com/homestagingsalesscript.html.

For more information about The Staging Diva, visit her website www.StagingDiva.com or reach her by phone at 416-691-6615.

About Debra Gould - ‘The Staging Diva’
The creator of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, Debra Gould has staged millions of dollars worth of real estate, including seven of her own homes. She is the president of home staging firm SixElements.com and has trained over 800 home stagers to start and grow their own businesses through http://www.StagingDiva.com.

Debra has gained international recognition through features in major media in the US and Canada including: HGTV, CNN Money, CBC National News, CBS Radio, Global TV, City TV, The Wall Street Journal, Women’s Day, Reader’s Digest and more.

If you watch Design Star, you’ll know this Latino cop who loves interior design.

Who’dda thought?

Enjoy the videoclip Verdugo sent in to be on the show!

Full Story Here!

Rebecca

Kathleen Garvey from Ft. Myers Florida takes All in first ever Stager Idol Competition sponsored by the Real Estate Staging Association.

Stager Idol Winner Announced
Ft. Myers, FL, June 07, 2008 –(PR.com)– The Real Estate Staging Association (RESA) is very proud to announce Kathleen Garvey of Enhanced Interiors & Home Staging has been selected as the winner of the very first Stager Idol competition for Professional Home Stagers, the property merchandizing arm of the Real Estate Industry. Kathleen Garvey has been a professional stager in Fort Myers Florida has many supporters, Joe Hall, Affiliate Chairman of the Cape Coral Realtors Association of Cape Coral, FL, says homeowners and real estate professionals should “Experience the Difference” a home stager can provide when selling a property. With Kathleen Garvey’s staging expertise, creativity, and knowledge, rest assured that the property will be showcased as one of SW Florida’s finest properties. The extra touches Kathleen adds to a home make a world of difference in selling a home quickly. They are very proud to hear of her “win” and Jeffrey D. Peterman General Manager; Aaron’s Corporate Furnishings said, “With great energy and enthusiasm, Kathleen Garvey takes staging to the level of excellence that sets the bar in the industry. In our continuing effort to support Home Staging in SW Florida, Aaron’s Corporate Furnishings congratulates Kathleen on the outstanding international win of Stager Idol.”

Garvey went through 4 stages of the competition. First there was a public vote to determine the top ten finalists. Those top ten submitted staging projects in a report format and those were judged by the Celebrity Judging Team to move to the Final Five Finalists. The Final Five submitted another project and the round continued to the Top Three contestants. Those contestants participated in a final round of judging consisting of a phone interview with each of the celebrity judges.

Celebrity Judges; Ann Maurice; the House Doctor, Stephanie McWilliams with the HGTV hit show Fun Shui, Margi Kyle of TV’s Desperate Designs reviewed the staging projects and award points to each contestant ultimately Garvey pulled ahead in points and was determined the winner.

Garvey will receive, fame and cash and prizes totaling over $12,000.00. Sponsors of the competition include Real Estate Staging Association, Certified Staging Professionals, Dewey Color Systems, Smart Stagers, Brook Furniture Rental, Kirkland’s Home, Active Rain, 3 Ddream.net, Feng Shui Cure, Feng Shui Plaza, Village Workroom, Interior Redesign Industry Specialists (IRIS), Inventory Guardian, Stager Talk Magazine, Real Estate Shows, Trade Secrets, Diva in the house Radio.

For more information on Stager Idol or future sponsorship opportunities please contact Shell Brodnax at shell@realestatestagingassociation.com. For more information on Kathleen Garvey please call 239-849-6009 or visit www.Enhancedinteriors.net

Well, who knew little old Rochester would come in at #2 for Hottest Housing Market? Although the majority of big cities are experiencing a housing price “adjustment”, smaller cities who never experienced a big bubble are still chugging right along. Click the link above for full details on the top ten cities on the rise.

So, if you’re looking for good housing prices with a potential for going UP in value, check out my fair city of Rochester, New York!

And if you ARE trying to sell a home in less than favorable market, do yourself a favor and learn some home staging techniques (my e-book at http://home-staging-secrets.com is a good place to start and way cheaper than hiring a professional stager).
Rebecca

So do some spring cleaning and then indulge in a new color, or two. At those prices, you can easily enjoy living in a staged home right now! No need to wait to put your home on the market to add a little panache.

Rebecca, who is currently remodeling her kitchen!

P.S. I just tested out the 3 paints mentioned above and was very pleased with Kilz and Behr paint. Dutch Boy, which is the lowest price of the three, was very runny and did not provide good coverage compared with Kilz and Behr. So, although cheap is good, the cheapest is NOT so good! Just thought I’d share my experience with you.

Here’s a quote straight from the article posted at: http://www.kansascity.com/business/story/551615.html

“Specifically, home staging would be considered “advertising fees” and would fall under the allowable selling expenses.

Second, you may be able to negotiate with your Realtor and add the expense to the commission paid for selling the house. Either way, the same result is accomplished, and the services provided will be considered deductible.

That said, if the home stager recommends the entire interior needs a fresh coat of paint, these selling expenses are not allowable deductions.

Bottom line: Paying for the home stager’s services is deductible, while expenses for repairs, maintenance or permanent redecorating of the house are not.”

Tax time is coming soon, so be sure to keep track of your deductible Home Staging expenses,
Rebecca

Read more at:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/20/REDOUF7J4.DTL