The Color of the Year
By Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR Magazine
So what’s the “it” color for 2010?
According to Pantone, it’s turquoise’s year to shine.
Look for this vibrant blue-green color to pop up in many fabrics, textiles and home interiors this year.
It’s a color that many people respond positively to, according to Pantone, which predicts the hot color each year by surveying designers. Many people associate the color with a pleasant and inviting form of escape, such as a tropical paradise, according to word-association studies.
“With both warm and cool undertones, turquoise pairs nicely with any other color in the spectrum,” according to Pantone. “Turquoise adds a splash of excitement to neutrals and browns, complements reds and pinks, creates a classic maritime look with deep blues, livens up all other greens, and is especially trend-setting with yellow-greens.”
Do you agree? Do you think turquoise is a good color to work into home interiors?
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Solve Design Issues On-the-Go with 4 iPhone Apps
By Erica Christoffer, Contributing Editor, REALTOR® Magazine
Help clients see the design potential in a living space instantly. Change the dining room color from lemon yellow to plum purple — before painting. Rearrange new furniture — before moving day. Get staging tips, watch design videos, and add curb appeal with these four iPhone apps.
Home Interior Layout Designer – Mark On Call
M.O.C. Interior Designer, LLC
$2.99
Customize the layout of a kitchen, living room, bedroom, bathroom, and more with the Home Interior Layout Designer app. Created by interior designer Mark Lewison, “Mark On Call,” and based on his book, “What Would You Do With This Room,” this app even lets you take pictures of actual décor and architectural finishes, such as carpet, flooring, rugs, etc., and add them as a “skin” to a surface in your virtual design plan. Use the pallet of colors, patters, fabrics, furnishings, wood, and stone options to explore the design potential of a room. The app also offers a measuring tool, design advice, sharing of designs between app users, and the ability to make a shopping list for all your customized home purchases.
HGTV’s Staging and PropertyScripps Networks, LLC
Free
This app offers the “best of” from HGTV, including real estate videos, pictures, tips, and advice. Watch clips of HGTV shows “Curb Appeal,” “Designed to Sell,” and more. Getting ready for an open house? Look up tips and tutorials on staging and design for better buyer appeal. And see before and after photo slideshows of room transformations.
ColorChangeIndivigital
$2.99
Take a picture of a room, a wall, or the exterior of a home, then upload it to the ColorChange app to try out different colors on any surface in the image. Did your client wonder aloud what the bedroom would look like in a shade of green? Give them a visualization of that color in seconds. The app also comes with editing tools to alter the brightness, saturation, even zoom-in or erase. Save images in a photo gallery to compare the same room in different paint colors.
Eden Garden DesignerHerbaceous Software, Inc.
$0.99
When a home is for sale during the winter or spring, it might be hard for a buyer to picture what the yard or garden will look like in the warmer months. Now you can show them with Eden Garden Designer. This app lets you create and share a virtual garden. Either snap a picture of the yard/garden, or use one of the preloaded images that best suits the home. Maybe you want to add new plants or landscaping – try as many plant and landscape combinations as you like. If you know what’s already in the garden, select and arrange those plants and flowers to see how the garden will look in any season.
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5 ‘Hip’ Ideas for Do-it-Yourself Staging
By Erica Christoffer, Contributing Editor, REALTOR® Magazine
Looking for some quick home staging ideas that don’t cost a lot? Here are five inexpensive “Hip Tipz” from stager Charlene Storozuk that will help you show off a home with painting techniques and found objects.
1. Paint bedroom furniture antique white and the walls a darker tint. Add crystal hardware such as a chandelier or light fixtures for added elegance to create a French-inspired bedroom.
2. Frame a favorite tea towel for display in the kitchen.
3. Make the rooms off the hallway appear larger by painting them a lighter shade than the hallway.
4. Vintage door panels make an interesting headboard when painted.
5. Make a sloped ceiling appear taller by installing a shelf underneath at height of lowest point of slope.
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Stage the Home for Online Curb Appeal, Too
By Stephanie Decker, Staged Marin Homes
Curb Appeal in real estate terms used to mean how appealing your home is to potential buyers when they view the home’s exterior. It was the first time they were seeing your home, and it sets the stage for the rest of your home. But this has changed with the use of Web sites such as Realtor.com, Facebook, and the local and national real estate agency Web site that is listing the house for sale.
The appeal of your home comes long before a buyer even gets to your front door — it starts online. And it is not just your front door that sets the stage, it is your entire house that the buyer can see, long before ever getting to your house.
So the first item of business: Make sure your photos are capturing your listing from the very best angle!
The photographs real estate agents use for a home on the Web are crucial. It is best to use a professional photographer who specializes in taking photos of homes for sale but if you can’t afford one, there are several things to consider. Real Estate Blogger Web site recently released an article listing the Top 10 Tips of Photographing Your Home for Sale.
Among the blog’s tips:
- Try a tripod. It will not only help you keep the camera steady, but it will also allow you to concentrate on more important things—like getting that perfect picture.
- Watch your lighting. Don’t turn on all of the lighting in the room and close the drapes, you’ll get “halos” around the room’s lamps. Use the camera’s flash to get an even photo. Also, take photos of the outside gardens in the shade—it’ll look better than when taken in the bright sun.
- Haul the clutter away. Take down the personal photos, too.
Remember: The photographs are your calling card. So if the photos aren’t representative of your home’s appeal than the buyer will never get to your front door. There’s always another house just a mouse click away!
Once potential buyers are lured by your photos, you’ll want to make sure the home’s curb appeal doesn’t let them down when they’re there in person.
Take these steps:
- Make sure your porch has adequate lighting and is clean and has easy access. Sweep the porch, remove the cobwebs, wipe off the finger marks from the doorframe, and polish the hardware. If the paint is chipped or cracked, make sure to touch it up.
- Make it clutter free. Just like the inside of your home, your outside needs to be clutter free too.
- Tend to the landscaping. Remove any overgrowth of landscaping that makes it hard to reach your front door.
- Take an unbiased look. I actually have the sellers walk out to their curb to look at their home from the buyer’s perspective. It allows everyone to understand what needs to be done.
- Add some flowers. Every season has blooming plants. Even if your landscaping isn’t close to your front door, you can always add a pot with blooming plants — whether a few or just one.
I like to use terra cotta pots, which is the most neutral and flattering style pot for any season. In the freezing climates it may be more difficult to place fresh blooming plants outside. So if you can’t, make sure there are fresh flowers greeting buyers once they walk in the door.
Also, when selling a house in the winter (and the holidays have past), I use spring blooming flowers rather than winter blooming plants — this helps to build anticipation and joy for spring.
So before that For Sale sign ever goes up outside your home, prepare your home online. Then your total curb appeal will be ready to draw in buyers!
Stephanie Decker
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Stephanie Decker of Staged Marin Homes in Mill Valley, Calif., has more than 20 years in the interior design industry and has her California Real Estate license. She combines her interior design experience with her real estate knowledge to successfully stage properties, ranging from under a $1 million to over $5 million. Decker is an advocate of home staging, speaking and writing about its value in the real estate community.
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Design for Amateurs: Your Guide to Style
By Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR® Magazine
Can you still design a chic room without being a designer? I recently stumbled upon this article by Pedro Arrais, Guidelines for Home Design: Helpful Suggestions From the Experts, that breaks down good design for amateurs.
He offers several simple design principles for sprucing up interiors that might inspire you for your listings — he covers everything from where to place the furniture and artwork to how to bring balance to a room.
Among the tips:
Don’t match everything. Instead mix your colors, fabrics, and textures in a room to add more visual interest and make it more memorable. Also, vary the height of the furniture.
Beware of neutral overload. We love to reach for the beiges and tans to make homes move-in ready but you can also risk it being too blah. Mix neutrals with some vibrant pops of color.
Create zones. For instance, “place furniture perpendicular to the main architectural element of a room — for example, a couch should face the fireplace or the window,” Arrais writes. “Fill in the rest of the space with armchairs or other furniture.”
Get the right picture. The best height to hang artwork is 5-feet or more off the floor. Then, it will be eye level for a person standing.
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HouseLogic: A Home Owner’s Treasure Chest
By Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR® Magazine
The National Association of REALTORS® launched a new Web site this week that helps home owners make smart decisions when it comes to maintaining and increasing the value of their homes. The Web site — HouseLogic — allows you to plan and organize home projects as well as access tips and how-to advice on how to tackle each project.
You can register at the Web site for a free account and you’ll then be able to customize the site by creating your own to-do lists, setting project reminders, and finding ways to save money and increase the value of your home. You’ll also be able to take some quick, fun quizzes on many of the housing tips offered on the Web site to see if you mastered the topic.
Check it out: www.houselogic.com
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Desire to Go Green in 2010
By Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR® Magazine
Nearly 50 percent of American adults say that their New Year’s resolution for 2010 is to go green, and even more said they are going to strive to reduce their household energy usage this year, according to a new survey by Move.com.
If they hold true to their “green” desires, Realtor.com offers some help in narrowing their search for a home. Home-shoppers can now customize a search to include energy efficient homes on Realtor.com.
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“I Don’t Do Windows” – Not Something You Want to Say When Selling Your Home
By Charlene Storozuk
Just as your eyes are the mirror to your soul, the “soul” of your house is mirrored by your windows. Make sure you don’t neglect them when preparing a property for sale.
In fact, Feng Shui principles view the windows as the eyes of a home.
Here are a few pre-listing tips for making the most of your windows:
1. Make sure that every window sparkles — both inside and out. Not only will it give a property that well-kept look, it will also let more light into each room which is very important for showings.
2. Replace any cracked window panes.
3. Repair and neatly paint weathered window frames.
4. Inspect all windows to ensure that they open. Make sure that all paint is removed from the panes. A razor blade, used with caution, will usually work well to scrape off unsightly paint.
5. All windows should have window treatments. A ”naked” window gives a room a cold, unwelcoming feel. Select a treatment that is suitable to the size and shape of each window. Make sure that it also compliments other decor in the room.
6. If there are no treatments on the windows, gear the amount spent on treatments to the price point of the property. For example, a budget blind may work quite well in the den of an entry-level home, however, in a multi-million dollar property, that just won’t fly.
7. A quick fix for a window with no treatment: Install a decorative curtain rod with interesting finials. Purchase a neutral fabric remnant and drape it over the rod in a swag-like manner.
8. Open all drapery and blinds for showings and open houses. (Back to point No. 1 about letting in as much light as possible.)
9. Avoid heavy, ornate drapery. It tends to make a room appear smaller.
10. Remove outdated window treatments. They will add years to your home’s perceived age.
11. To make windows appear higher, hang the curtain rod further up above the top frame of window. For even more height, use floor length drapes.
These are just a few tips to get you well on your way. Feel free to add more to the list.
Charlene Storozuk
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Charlene Storozuk is the owner of Dezigner Digz, a professional home staging and interior decorating company based in Burlington, Ontario. Her work is featured in the book FabJob Guide To Become A Home Stager, 2009 edition. She serves as regional vice-president, Canada for the Real Estate Staging Association and is a past recipient of the North American Leadership Award for her work as founder and president of the Halton & Hamilton-Wentworth RESA Chapter.
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Take a Quiz: How Well Do You Know Green Real Estate?
“Green” is a buzz word in the real estate industry. But how much do you really know about this eco-friendly way of design? Take REALTOR® Magazine’s new green real estate quiz to see if you make the grade.
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Affordable Staging Tips for Any Listing: Your Questions Answered
We had a great webinar last Thursday on how you can stage your listings without breaking the bank. In case you missed it, you can playback a recording and download the slides at REALTOR® Magazine.
Our speakers—staging pros Terrylynn Fisher and Christine Rae—provided attendees with dozens of staging tips and even provided ideas on how you can spice up those REOs. During the webinar, we ran out of time for questions but our speakers offered to answer your questions here.
Many real estate professionals and stagers have furniture they use from listing to listing. A lot of that furniture may be cheaper and is fine for many of their listings. But how about your high-end listings? Should you use the cheaper furniture in those listings or will that do more harm than good?
Christine Rae
CHRISTINE: Absolutely not, cheap looks cheap and sends a message of cheap. The whole essence of staging today is to target the buyer who is likely to purchase—they don’t want to see cheap anything. People buy aspirationally whether it’s a $100,000 or several million $$ property they want to fall in love with—feel special and attempts to skim/slough speaks volumes….not just about the house but also about you.
The biggest challenge we face as an industry is lack of complete understanding of the craft. Staging started as a clean and fluff sort of thing, but it is way more refined now…before it would be like painting walls with primer and not finishing the job.
Terrylynn Fisher
TERRYLYNN: I agree with Christine. If you use cheap items what kind of buyers are you attracting? The buyer who can qualify for a high-end home has high-end furnishings and won’t relate to cheap décor. It will diminish the home you are “showcasing” and you aren’t really “showcasing” it.
For ANY property you need to be sure the furnishings you use match the décor and style of the property. Like a Victorian or country farmhouse vs. modern or traditional. The curb appeal we spoke of needs to be stellar, but the insides have to match as well so that when they walk through the door they get what they expected—only better. Congruity is important.
Who traditionally pays for staging: Seller or the real estate agent?
CHRISTINE: Staging is a three step process—essentially its marketing. I believe the seller should pay—they stand to make the most ROI. However, many agents have invested $$ on consult—and assign it from their marketing budget. Some agents pay a set amount of $200, some invest $500 or $1,000—depends on the package they decide to do with the stager of choice and their ability.
TERRYLYNN: It depends. When we do our StagersListExpos all over the country we ask these questions. In some areas, the real estate professional pays a portion or all, but we don’t encourage that. Those are typically the sellers that will move the staging back when you’ve left because they have nothing invested in it. They don’t understand it, even though the real estate professional who is paying for it does, so they don’t value it.
Some real estate agents pay for the consult and the home owner pays for the staging. It’s all up to what you arrange with your staging partners.
A partnership can be formed with guidelines as to how you want it handled and it can vary to fit your budget, your client’s budget, etc. BUT it’s their benefit and their return on investment, it is an expense of sale.
If you find a quality professional stager (CSP’s are trained to do this) they know how to “sell” staging to the home owner/seller. If you don’t know any, just send an e-mail (terrylynn@stagerslist.com) or give me a call (925-876-0966), we can help. We have stagers all over the country in our database.
Should the home owner (seller) expect the real estate professional to help with staging?
CHRISTINE: No in my opinion—never. You don’t do house inspections, cleaning, mortgage finance so why should you do staging? I believe it totally sends the wrong message. You are experts in real estate, law and pricing, it puts your negotiating strength in jeopardy if yesterday you were schlepping furniture instead of marketing the property they will pay you to sell.
TERRYLYNN: Help, as in pay for it? See my previous answer. If you mean help, as in staging, well many agents think they know how to stage, but they don’t know anything about demographic staging, style or architecture, color mapping, or the principles behind the placement and balance in a room. Staging is NOT decorating, so the purposes are different.
You can’t take a class and learn how to stage. You either have it or you don’t. The Realtor Elite program (www.StagingTraining.com) teaches you the what, when, and how to “sell” staging to your sellers and prepare them for the home stager to come in and have the conversation, do the consultation and staging.
The seller understands your area of expertise and the stager’s area of expertise. A seller usually wouldn’t expect it, and you should explain that you are committed 100% to your area of expertise and expect the professionals you use to be 100 percent committed to their area of expertise.
After all of the duties you have as a real estate agent on their behalf, only about 10 percent of your time is left for staging. The staging professionals give 100 percent of their time to staging. As the client, which would you rather pay for?
How would I, as an agent, address using a stager with my sellers without offending them?
CHRISTINE: Why would it offend them? Even if the house was amazing (and statistics show 75 percent of owners believe their décor is great!), if you change your own perception to think of staging as marketing—of doing everything in your power to get the property sold quickly and for the most $$ why would they be offended?
What is crucial is the correct communication skills. It’s why we developed the CSP Elite agent program—to educate on who, what, when, where, and the how of staging.
TERRYLYNN: Do you mean that they might be offended that you are implying their home is not perfect as is? Well that too is a script taught in the Realtor Elite class. The gist of it is that you explain what staging is and what it is not (decorating).
You then explain the differences between personalization and depersonalization and where each has its function. You also talk about the effect of staging and statistics and theories as to why and how it works.
By the time you’ve done that with that knowledge base, they believe you know what you are talking about and will generally allow the stager to come and talk to them about the particulars of their home.
It’s really not personal. It’s not the seller’s home anymore, it’s a product that will be the buyer’s home. Once they make that mental shift, they are generally more open to the conversation and eager to have the home stager come and see what they have to say.
Remember a consultation with a stager can be as little as $250 to $500, and if the sellers want to do all the work themselves, they can. So they are really just committing to getting valuable information that will allow them to have a more marketable product for the buyer. The result will be that the seller stands to gain more return on investment and they benefit from that.
Who wouldn’t have a conversation about earning more equity when selling? It’s no obligation to talk to the home stager, most will do free bids. But I recommend at least paying for the detailed report that they’ll leave, so you can take advantage of their expertise.
How should you attach wall art to avoid holes?
CHRISTINE: Use Wall respectors. You can buy them at www.stagerslist.com
TERRYLYNN: Christine is right, my two favorites are Wall respectors and Heavy duty wall hangers, both available at www.StagersLIST.com.
This is really important to me because I’ve had in the past (prior to using the heavy duty wall hangers) art fall off the wall when the nail or clips did not stay up in the wall. One dinged hardwood floor and I found these and haven’t stopped using them since. They have never failed me.
The heavy duty wall hangers are reuseable and very sturdy and you can install them without a tool. I am always amazed when I do it myself and they come out of the wall fairly easily too. Check them out.
The wall respectors will even work on plaster, and it’s hard to find things that work on plaster.
What kind of special paint was used to paint the kitchen appliances in the example you showed during the webinar?
BEFORE
TERRYLYNN: A rustoleum product, or other brands that are specially made for high temperature applications.
AFTER
They come in spray cans and are not terribly expensive. They work really well, but you don’t want to use a brillo pad on them or anything.
Can you provide more information on where to find the countertop resurface finish paint?
TERRYLYNN: www.GianiGranite.com is the Web site and we’ll have that resource page on www.StagersToolbox.net.
Is your team paying for the staging or are you doing the work yourself for your listing?
TERRYLYNN: What do you mean is my team paying for the staging? Do you mean the seller? When I stage my own listings, I often hire a stager to do it as they handle talking to the seller about paying for the staging, the pet odors, wallpaper, replacing carpet, etc. I don’t have the awkward conversations that can taint my future interactions with them, like when I have to negotiate a contract or repair.
A client once said to me “I had no idea you’d have time to stage my home, I thought you’d be on tour and taking care of the marketing”. That was an eye opener for me. I tell the client I give my full attention to their listing and they don’t want me out staging someone else’s home.
The stager’s I hire get paid to stage. They don’t do it for free. In addition, I have inventory because I’ve been involved in this for so long. My stagers can use my inventory, but the beauty of it is that I don’t have to keep updating my inventory if they stage for me as they have the most current accessories and know where the furniture is that is relevant to the project.
The client’s don’t want to see the same items in every listing. They want a different and current look and if you stage to demographics, you have to have more variety. A good stager on your team handles all of that and you don’t have to pay for storage for a lot of outdated items. Make sense?
For the REO sales… do you include all the furniture in your staging?
CHRISTINE: A job is priced based on what is being done. Contactors do paint, repairs, flooring, etc. A stager would be paid for consultation (list of things to be done) PLUS accessory and furniture rental if it belongs to the stager and labor costs to do the work.
Staging is three steps: consultation (i.e., action plan of what needs to be done); get the work done (someone has to do it– home seller or contractors of the stager team); and showcasing—placing furniture, hanging art, arranging accessories, lighting, etc.
Are the banks letting real estate professionals stage the REO properties?
CHRISTINE: Banks who assign property to an agent want it sold. If you are working directly with a bank I would say your work would be best directed to an investor, who takes care of the condition and showcasing with a stager. You would have to treat each property as individual situations.
As mentioned, stagers are being hired by asset management groups to bring furniture in and showcase.
And who pays the costs?
CHRISTINE: Stager is paid upfront by the bank.
BEFORE
Do you think Miracle Method should be disclosed to buyer? Some chemicals like dripped finger nail polish remover dissolves the epoxy.
TERRYLYNN: I always recommend disclosing it in the TDS and providing the paperwork given about care of the shower, sink or whatever .
AFTER
I have used it in my own home and routine cleaning has never hurt the finish. I have never personally known anyone to drop nail polish remover in the bath so don’t know about that. I have also seen it done and 8 years later sold the property again and it looked great. It holds it’s color very well too.
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