Providing Services to Prepare the Home for Sale: Virginia Tatseos (Stage-Show-Sell)

It can be very expensive to have items that are only used for one thing.

Yes we do charge rent for our items when we stage but it takes a lot time to recuperate the expense and breakage.

Recently I purchased two mirrors to hang on a wall.  One was to hide an ugly circuit breaker box on the left side of a window.  The other was to balance the look and went on the other side of the window.    I took marker pens and wrote cute things i.e.   Call me when you get home, on one of them.  The other had a grocery list.

They were purcahsed at Target and we horrible to hang.  I think someone was drunk when they attached the hangers to the back.  I could not get them to hand straight without poster putty on the corners.

I thought I'd never be able to use them again.

 

This week, the dinamic duo, used one for a bed table.

Clever we are

The home owner loved it.

 

 

 

I can't say it any better than this.

Please read the post below

 

The house that is our competition has been reduced $35,000.   In my books that mean the realtor has lost $1050 in commissions.   Wouldn't it have been cheaper and smarter to pay for a consultation with a stager?

 

The presentation of rooms is so important. Little things mean a lot.  Fresh color on the walls.  Bold colors in the rooms and the correct placement of furniture.

We can call it de-cluttering, re-designing or staging.  What matters is that it's done.

Marianne and I finished staging a home this past week. The sellers know when they put it on the market that they wanted it sold.

They wanted to purchase a new home then put the old one on the market.  The did not want to be living in it while is was on the market.

We realize that not everyone can do this esp. in this economy.  They are lucky and smart.

I started working with them last June so they had the time to do all of my little "honey do" projects.

They painted and cleaned and tweaked here and there.

 

Yellow paint is now gone.  Bed direction is changed.

Draperies are open and clutter removed.

 

We used their furniture and used our bedding and extras.

 

This is what their small bedroom looks like now.   This will be their MLS photo

 

This is one of their competitions MLS photo.

This is the 2nd bedroom in the house we just staged. 

Before

 

 

 

After

The walls were painted.  It's difficult to see with the afternoon sun streaming in.

Exercise equipment was removed and the bed was moved to another wall.

 

 

 

Our competition MLS photo and they have just reduced their price by $35,000 and are going for a short sale.

I know that if they had called in a stager first the house would have sold and they wouldn't be in this short sale situation.

 

What do you think??

Our living room   before

 

 

 

 

After.  The walls were painted.  The couch from the FR was moved to the LR and slip covered.

 

Competition Living Room

 

Why aren't the realtors working with a stager to have the homes sell faster and for more money?

 

Sellers.   Don't wait for your agent to bring up staging.  Call a stager today

 

 

 

Yesterday I attended my Con Ed class to keep my license active for yet another year.   My license is in holding, and has been for 2 1/2 years, and I want to keep it for many reasons.  

The best reason is that it keeps me up to date on what is going on with the news laws and challenges for my realtor associates.

During the lunch period the conversations turned to the millage votes that were held in many cities the day before.

 

Troy Michigan mileage was voted down.  That will impact many of the cities services.  Many of which has been a selling point for the homes.  It's my understanding tha the Community Center will be shut down.  The Parks and Recs Dept will be run by a private business.    

It will be interesting to see what services are really cut.

What peaked my interest was a realtor who was adamant that the Bloomfield Twp. mileage  passed because 45% of the absentees ballots were not returned.  She assumed, of course, that only seniors used the absentee system.  She knows that seniors don't like to pay taxes and of course they would have voted no.

 I thought that was absolutely amazing.  Absentee ballots are used for seniors who are out of the area during the voting, seniors (like myself) who always vote absentee and business people who don't want to take the time to stand in line to vote.   Many young mothers vote absentee because they don't want to stand in line, esp. during flu season, with young children.  They also don't want to count on the snow issue.  So it's a lot easier to get the paper ballot and be able to read it through and vote with knowledge.

 

So now we know who votes absentee.

Now the facts on the vote.

There are 33,123 registered voters

10,667 cast their ballots OF WHICH 5,661 were absentee votes.  (over 53%)

The mileage passed with 5,647 for and 5,014 against.

 

That's a close vote

6206 ballots were mailed to homeowners for absentee votes

5661 of those were returned to the twp (91%) by my math

 545 were not returned.

Approx 10% of those with absentee ballots voted at the polls.

That leaves about 500 absentee ballots not used.

 

3281 of the absentee ballots voted yes

2371 voted no

That's a 3 to 2 ratio.

Considering the same ratio would have applied to the remaining ballots means that it still would have passed.

 

The blame, if there is any blame, goes to the 2/3 of the voters who did NOTHING.

 

I'm happy to say that I voted yes.  I want to keep my community, Bloomfield Township, strong. Bloomfield Township has never, in my memory, turned down a good mileage.  The extra mileage for the few years will be offset by the lowering of my taxable value do to the economy. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bill Bouscher of Prudential Great Lakes Realty gets it.  He understands staging.   Company statistics for 2009 indicate that he was number one, in closings, for December and ninth in his company for the year.

What makes Bill so successful?  He is a professional.  He understands the power of getting the home ready for the market.   His team approach of using Stage-Show-Sell, LLC to prepare the homes and his pricing strategy have made him successful.

Every home that we teamed up on, when the seller used his pricing, had an offer within two weeks of hitting the market.  The sellers who didn't use his suggested listing price stayed on the market longer.

Their homes had offers within two weeks when the sellers agreed to reduce the price to his suggested lising price.

 

Price, condition and location are the keys to a successful closing.   Bill Bouscher and Stage-Show-Sell, LLC is the successful team.

 

Are Stage-Show-Sell,LLC and teamwork the key   to his success?

 

 

 

Tomorrow I get to de-stage this Royal Oak home.   I'm very proud to say that again it had a MULTIPLE offers within  two weeks after staging.   This time it will close.

The realtor is singing my praises.   The owner loves me She knows the reason is selling is the staging.   She asked me not to de-stage until the papers are signed.  That doesn't work here.  We must de-stage before closing or she will have to pay rent to the purchaser.   That gets real messy.

 

Please all of you keep your fingers crossed that this house closes Friday at 3.

 

Transaction closed with record breaking speek.  Everyone is so pleased.

 

Staging works

 

 

This adorable Birmingham home was on the market for two years without an offer.   Two weeks after staging with Stage-Show-Sell., LLC it had an offer.

The cape cod had a bedroom and sitting area on the upper level with a beautiful bathroom.

The entry level had a bedroom and a full bath.

These were also staged.

Tha basement was confusing because it didn't have a purpose to the buyers eyes.  The seller  used it for a media room and that wasn't selling the house esp. with it vacant.

Having the basement staged gave the buyers the option of knowing that it could be used for a bedroom.  Please note the exit window.  The basement could also be used as an office or media room

 

 

 

One of the nice things about having the business a little slow this week is the chance to play with different programs.

This home was re-staged in December 2009 after the buyer couldn't close on the home.

I thought this would be a good opportunity to try the Photosynth program again.

I'm looking for opinions on the program and it's potential in marketing homes for sale.

Royal Oak staged by Stage-Show-Sell, LLC

My AR family I need your opinion

Tis the season to be de-cluttering.  Thought you all thought I was going to say Jolly.  :-)

Well I do wish for the Jolly but I want to stress the de-cluttering.

This time of the year we give gifts and we receive gifts.  Some of the gifts we really like and others well we could really do without.

Now before grabbing all those gifts and shoving them in the closet take a hard look at what you already have.

What you all ready have a dust buster?  and now you have another one !!    Decide if you want to return the new one (Good luck) without a receipt and get half the money the gifter (think I made up that word) paid for it.  Toss out or donate the old one and get a income tax credit for it   (my favorite is donating things that work)   Or a really fun thing is to thing of who really needs one and put it away for re-gifting during the year.  Put a tag on it so you know who its for AND MARK YOUR CALENDAR for that person birthday that you already have the gift.

Great time to be singing Whistle While You Work and enjoy.

Dump that closet that's always been too full.  Throw everything on the bed from your closet.   Put them in stacks of sizes.  Yes we all have severl sizes in our closet. Toss out the ones that are too big because none of us want to go back there.   Toss out the ones that are several sizes smaller than what we are wearing.   Let's face it, no matter how many New Years resolutions we make to exercise and loose weight, it's going to take time to get there.   Time means style changes.   The clothes are ugly by the time we get down to the weight we want to be AND when we get there we deserve new clothes.

 

Get your kids in on the action.   Have them dump their toys out and decide which one are complete.  Which ones they haven't played with in a long time and are still good for donating and which ones need to go out the door. This really makes the kids feel good when they know that their toys are going someone else for someone to play with.

Oh right, they are all collectibles.  Right.  They are only collectible when you are buying them.  Not when you are selling them. I know because of all the estate sales   The truly great toys like Lego ...keep for your grand kids.

Pretend you are moving and do you want to pay someone $$ for shipping things that you haven't used for years.

Now go out there and make this time your Boxing Day.  Box things up and get rid of them.  It will make you want to sing.   Tis the Season to be Jolly Fa La La La La La La

 

 

 

I'm fascinated by Photosynth and what the possibilities that it has.  The only problem is that I'm having a terrible time getting it right.

So, I hoping that there are more AR members who are playing with it and we can support each other.

This home was staged by Stage-Show-Sell, LLC in November of 2009.

 

This project took me about 10 hours of playing and experimenting  It's not right but it's close enough to start the group with.

As you can see one of the problems that I'm having is getting it to start where I want it to start.  How do I get it to recognize the first photo.

The Microsoft help section leaves a lot to be desired.