I realize that many of you warm climate stagers don't understand the challenges that we go through. Yes I do know that you are having a cold snap. Gee what is it this week 60 degrees :-)
Last weekend we de-staged a home, during a snow storm, in Madison Heights. That means getting the supplies damp, slipping and sliding on the ice walks and driveways. Try loading your car when there is no purchase for your shoes on the ground. Right after that we had to stage another vacant in Royal Oak.
Understand how complicated it is by understanding that vacant house have to be winterized. That means turning off the water and putting anti-freeze in all the pipes and TOILETS. We women have to know where the nearest fast food restaurant, with facilities, is.
There are no utilities when the house is a foreclosure and there is no one to pay the utility bills. That means no heat and no electricity.
This is like going back 100 years and staging a log cabin except there is no wood burning stove.
What damage can happen to our furniture and linens in this cold damp climate?
What happens to us trying to unpack boxes with gloves on our hands?
Oh, mother nature, please let this be a short winter.
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
Virginia,
It sounds tough, but I wonder if on a foreclosure there is money for staging, then why is there no money for utilities, which should be very low when nobody lives there.
I have never been brought into stage a home without electricity and heat, I think I would need these two necessities turned on in order for the home to show well. Prospective buyers will appreciate the 68 degrees of heat in the home.
Running plastic bins of accessories into a home through snow and ice certainly takes practice. I am always nervous of dropping my expensive vases if I slip on the ice. Winter is a bit tougher.
Eddie, it depends on the bank and on the realtor. Some of the realtors have gotten real smart and pay for the staging themselves and some of them have the bank pay them back after closing.
Kate, I know how you feel. It's a real balancing act. The showings go a lot faster when the house is cold. They buyers don't waste any time.
Virginia ~ our contract requires that the homes we stage must have electricity, heat, and running water. If those aren't present, we can't work there or leave our inventory there! I hope it's a short winter for those of us in the colder climates!
Our contract also requires heat and electricity. Being in North Idaho, it can get COLD! Maneuvering our inventory in and out of the storage units in the snow will be a challenge this year; sometimes we have to move some things out in order to get at things in the back. It's our first winter in these units so I don't know how we'll do it.
We also require that the driveway, sidewalk and stairs be cleared of snow. I worry about our moving crew's safety.
I grew up in New York, so I don't take our semi-tropical Florida winters for granted! When I have been tempted to complain about having to load or unload in the rain, I have actually thought of you northerners and what you have to go through. Though I don't suppose I could get any sympathy for having to stage in our hot, humid summers?