Providing Services to Prepare the Home for Sale

Testimonials are what makes my business successful.

Referrals and word of mouth is almost the only marketing Stage-Show-Sell, LLC does.

 

I would love to share two of these with all of you 

 

Thank you Virginia!  You did a great job on this Grosse Pointe Woods house I listed!  Patience, lots of hard work, an eye on how to bring the best out of this 30's house...a cooperative seller and, of course, a realtor who believed in you and was "in your court" (me!) - we did receive a great offer within 3 weeks of listing.  I firmly believe it was due to you taking the time to prepare and not having us rush into listing.

Beth Pressler Realtor

 

 

 

 

I can’t begin to say enough for the magic that Virginia performed in preparing my parent’s home for sale!  My parents had lived in the home for 61 years and, as you can imagine, there was quite a collection of “stuff”.  I was overwhelmed and my agent put me in contact with Virginia.  She went over and above what I expected of a stager.  She organized everything, brought in contractors, hauled trash to the curb, and oversaw the entire project.  Without any major updating, the home was finally ready for market in a little over a month from the start.  I was amazed at the transformation!  She had taken a tired little bungalow and turned it into a cute, charming home.  In just under three weeks we had an offer!  Thank you Virginia and I would definitely recommend your services to anyone.

Carolyn - Home owner

Please visit or revisit this posting to see the home that had an offer in 3 weeks

 

Thank you Virginia!  You did a great job on this Grosse Pointe Woods house I listed!  Patience, lots of hard work, an eye on how to bring the best out of this 30's house...a cooperative seller and, of course, a realtor who believed in you and was "in your court" (me!) - we did receive a great offer within 3 weeks of listing.  I firmly believe it was due to you taking the time to prepare and not having us rush into listing.

Beth Pressler Realtor

I can’t begin to say enough for the magic that Virginia performed in preparing my parent’s home for sale!  My parents had lived in the home for 61 years and, as you can imagine, there was quite a collection of “stuff”.  I was overwhelmed and my agent put me in contact with Virginia.  She went over and above what I expected of a stager.  She organized everything, brought in contractors, hauled trash to the curb, and oversaw the entire project.  Without any major updating, the home was finally ready for market in a little over a month from the start.  I was amazed at the transformation!  She had taken a tired little bungalow and turned it into a cute, charming home.  In just under three weeks we had an offer!  Thank you Virginia and I would definitely recommend your services to anyone.

Carolyn - Home owner

 

A few months ago an agent introduced me to her friend/client who's father passed away.

The house is set in a wonderful neighborhood of Grosse Pointe Woods.  This is the first time that I've been called in by this realtor and really wanted to make a good impression on her and of course her client.

 

The kitchen hadn't been updated since, let's say,....day one.

Our challenge was to make it presentable to potential  buyer without putting in a lot of money.

 Our agenda was to make it feel more spacious

This is the kitchen before.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The kitchen felt small with 3 door ways.  One led to the back door and basement, the 2nd one led to the hallway to bath and bedrooms and the third, which I'm standing in, led to the dining room.

 

This is the kitchen after

We removed the doors to the back door and hallway.  This opened up the room right away.  The doors have been left for the new owner to decide what to do.

Painting the yellow walls to a more soothing neutral color.   We removed all the window treatment (there was a lot) 

 Now it's charming.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The dining room before

Removing the Draperies and all rods, painting out the yellow walls, updating the light fixture and removing the green tattered carpet made a big difference.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The dining room after

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The family room before

 

 

 

 

The budget, again, was very tight.

We removed the tired green carpet to expose the hard wood floors.   The big challenge was the padding was stuck to the floors with age.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We tried every product out there to remove it.  The only thing that would remove it was scrapping with a very sharp putty knife.   The floors are beautiful and the new owner can decide to sand them down, carpet or live with them being a little imperfect

carpet padding

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The draperies were removed to open up the room.  The walls were painted to make the fireplace pop.

It worked.

Family room after

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

99% of the staging was done with the sellers furniture.  All we added was a few nick, knacks, bedding and talent.

We don't have to rent expensive furniture to stage a home.

1st bedroom had the hard wood floors exposed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1st Bedroom after

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2nd bedroom before

I have to admit that this is the first time I've had to deal with indoor/outdoor carpet in the living area of the house.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It turned out very well

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The bathroom I did a post on earlier.  I truly think that this bathroom helped sell the house.

The master bed room is upstairs in the cute bungalow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's not green carpet up there.   It's vinyl flooring.  

 

 

Master after

I was so excited that the budget allowed for carpet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Friendly Wager with a Realtor on Home Staging Impact - I Won!"  The market conditions for the area showed the Realtor that the home should be on the market for 6 months.

My record is getting offers in two to three weeks.

 

  We had an offer in 3 weeks and it's scheduled for closing in a few weeks.   I won the wager and hopefully more jobs from the realtor

 

Exterior while working on it

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Will she call me again for another job????????????????

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm curious for responses from  both stagers and realtors.

 

As part of the service for owners and agents I take and edit the photos and create a tour.  

Our MLS is IDX compliant which means that the realtors can't brand their tours with their infomation.  Is there any reason that I can't brand the tour with my staging information??

 

Do you think it would benefit the realtor and or me?   Has anyone tried doing this?

 

 

 

 

I found this absolutely frightening.  How many homes are not secured ?  How many homes do we have staged and we don't know if the realtors are locking the door into the garage?

This message is for stagers, realtors and home owners.

 

We all know that all our president has to do is create a rule or say there is an emergency and it's done.

Look at the swine flu.  He said there was a epidimec and 'pow' two weeks later is was gone.

Let's get him to impose a rule on wall paper.  The glue must self destruct after 5 years.

The wall paper should just vaporize.

Wouldn't that make our lives just a bit easier?

 

 

 

Kitchen Before

 

After Stage-Show-Sell, LLC crew attacked the offending paper

Breakfast room and Butler's pantry after.

 

 

 

I love what I do.   No Where Else Could I Make Such a Change.

 

 

 

Stage-Show-Sell.LLC has many tools boxes.   One for electrical, one for staging, one for hanging art work and of course one for cleaning.

The q-tip, along with toothbrushes,  has become indispensable in the cleaning tool kit.

 

One of the last staging jobs that we worked on had flies.  Lots of flies everyday.

The owners daughter said that they have been in the house for the past 10 years.

We all know that we all see flies dirt and uncleanliness.  The house wasn't dirty.  It did need a once over yes but it wasn't dirty.

 

My crew took q-tips to the window tracks and sliders.  We then vacumned them all.  The windows were cleaned and then a bug and spider spray was applied to all.

It's been three weeks and there is not a fly (dead or alive) around.

Flies like to lay their eggs in the window sills and when the sun hits them, even on cold winter days, they will hatch.

Not a fun subject but and extremely important one.

 

 

As an Orchestrator of Estate Is do everything that necessary to prepare a home for sale.   This includes cleaning out the stuff that WE ALL seem to accumulate.

The past couple of weeks I've looked at my own home as I've it's an estate.   Oh my, what changes I'm makiing.

Closets are being dumped.  I'm working on the basement.  Papers are being scanned and tossed and more.

I found this in my closet and thought I would share it with you.

Yesterday while waiting for the rain storms to dispate I played on AR, AGAIN

http://activerain.com/blogsview/644623/Eco-Living-Style-On

Julia game me some ideas that I would share.

My yard has rocks, stones, pebbles and gravel.   LOTS

I thought that I would play with Eco friendly candle holders.

 

I think this is going to be a great project with my grand daughter.  X-mas gifts for teachers?

Hang artwork without putting holes in the walls

Sounds interesting and very promising.  3M Command Picture Hanging strips uses Velcro to hold art on the walls.  They come is different sizes for different weights of art. 

I purchsed the set of small strips and tried them out.  The directions are clear, though the print is small, and easy to use.  4 small strips cost $2.97.   That's a hefty price for hanging art work so I'd recommend it for homes that are fanactical about not putting holes in the walls.

It's a great system.  One piece of velco on the back of the art.  Push the 2nd piece into it .  Pull off the protective strip from the glue and add it to the wall.  It's easy to hold small level on the top  and just push it onto the wall

My test of the product worded just fine.  The first strip I didn't pull the release strip far enough and it removed the paint on the wall.   The 2nd one worked just fine with no damage.

Once the piece has been removed from the wall it's a throw away.  No way that it can be reused :-(

That's expensive.

To make the product a little more cost effective I put regular adhesive velco on the art work and the expensive strips on the wall.  That's a lot cheaper and cost effective.

The regular glued velcro tore the paint off the wall  when I removed it.  Luckily that wall needs painting anyway.

The possibilities with this system are endless.  Want to hang somethig from the ceiling :-)

How about a piece that you want to hang on an angle?

 

 

and the next time you use it you want it square

 

(check out the image of the art on the opposite wall and the camera lens  :-)   )

This would save me from removing and repositioning the hooks and wires.

I like the product.   Hope 3M comes out with a cheaper price.

Chairs on the walls   OH MY

We've all seen trends come and go and of course in staging we want them to go.

  

This chair on the wall was in a home that we staged a couple of months ago.   Of course, we took if off thinking that it was a little too much for a home that was for sale.

This past week I was in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.  

Maybe I was wrong and should have kept the chair on the wall.   The museum has good taste doesn't it?

What do you think?   New trend in staging

Stage-Show-Sell, offers affordable home staging solutions in the Birmingham – Bloomfield and surrounding areas in getting your home ready for the market. We service both home sellers and realtors. We have the experience, our own rental furniture and accessories to stage many homes. We specialize in Estate work. The house can be put into our hands for the whole process of getting the house on the market.