By Charlene Storozuk, Dezigner Digz
Last year I wrote an article about giving purpose to every inch of usable space. Not only is that important, but it’s also key that these bonus areas help make your listing memorable.
BEFORE
Here is the before photo of an open area in the master bedroom of a small townhouse we recently staged. As you’ll see, the home owners were using this area of the master bedroom as a mini-gym. There’s nothing wrong with that when you are living in the home. In fact, I thought it was a really good use of the space as it served their needs — they didn’t want to use the equipment downstairs in the basement.
However, now that the home owners were planning on selling, I needed to focus on this area to make the listing pop. Sure, this space already did serve a purpose, but it wasn’t what I felt would appeal to the majority of potential buyers.
Based on the demographics of the neighborhood and the size of the home and yard, I determined that the potential buyers would most likely be a young, professional couple – first-time buyers, without children. So I decided to appeal to the female audience and create a luxe space where she could pamper herself and take a bit of “me time” before they start a family.
Therefore, I went with the idea of designing a dressing room. (The female version of a man cave, I guess.) Not everyone has a space in their home that they can forfeit to turn into a dressing room, so in my mind, I view a dressing room as somewhat of a guilty pleasure or luxury. Continue reading »
By Charlene Storozuk, Dezigner Digz
Sadly, summer is officially over. However, if your home is currently on the market, now is not the time to bring your outdoor living space to an end for the year. If you do that, you’re taking away one of the selling features of your home.
At one time, buyers were just looking for a decent-sized yard. Today, on the other hand, they are reaching beyond just the basics. Buyers want attractive outdoor living spaces that they can use for both entertaining and relaxing. The longer you can keep this area set up for showings with outdoor furniture and accessories, the better.
Which one of these photos looks more inviting to potential buyers?
By Charlene Storozuk, Dezigner Digz
Recently, I was called in by a local real estate professional to do a “walk and talk” home staging consultation. In the great room of this gorgeous, open concept home, was a super-sized, orange leather sectional couch. It was situated across the width of the room with its back facing the foyer–not the first thing you want potential buyers to see when they walk in the door.
Given that only a small section of the couch was actually against the wall, the fireplace was cut off from view and the space had lost its feeling of openness.
By Charlene Storozuk, Dezigner Digz
Photo Credit: Berlyn Photography
Fresh back from the International Real Estate Staging Association Conference in Las Vegas, I’m ready to hit the ground running with the information I gained while there!
This year we saw an amazing lineup of speakers: Ashley Whittenberger, Jackson West, Sandy Dixon, Tammy O’Brien, Alice Chan, Audra Slinkey, Jana Uselton, Melissa Marro, Christine Rae, and Dan Eason. One that really stood out and resonated with me was keynote speaker Matthew Finlason. You may know him from the HGTV series “The Stagers” — that’s right, the rambunctious, style icon that everyone loves.
In his address to the 360 professional home stagers in attendance, Finlason highlighted how staging has moved beyond sterile spaces and boring beige. In fact, he is leading the charge on staging “outside of the box” and is doing so with amazing results.
Before decisions are made on wall color, furniture, accessories, or artwork, Finlason researches the neighborhood to get a sense of who is living there. He gets a feel for the age group, such as whether the locals are single, young married couples starting families or retirees. He does this by visiting the local hangouts–thecoffee shops, bookstores, and pubs to name a few.
Based on his findings, Finlason then pulls together a picture of whom he thinks the target audience will be for that specific property and presents it to the real estate professional. In fact, he says that some of real estate pros are shocked by the amount of research that goes into his presentation. Continue reading »
By Charlene Storozuk, Dezigner Digz
The holiday season is over for another year, and many of us use this time to make personal resolutions for the year ahead — such as promising to lose weight, spend less money, make more time for ourselves and our families, and the list goes on. If you’re like me, it’s a rolling list that gets carried over from year-to-year, yet never seems to get accomplished.
This year, I decided not to do that. Instead, I’ve made a list of resolutions for my home.
Have you made a home resolution list for this year? If not, give it a try, especially if you plan on selling your home in the not too distant future. It’s never too early to get your home looking its best for potential buyers.
Here are a few items that are on my list in random order:
Tackle the basement storage area. Items that have stayed in boxes since our move five years ago are obviously items I can live without. If I haven’t used them or missed them in that time period, chances are I won’t yearn for them if they are given away. The key for me will be to not look inside the boxes. If I do, I know I’ll find an excuse to still hang onto each and every item. Maybe I’ll get my hubby to take a peek inside each box before they “exit the building” though (just in case).
By Charlene Storozuk, Dezigner Digz
BEFORE
With the growing number of home staging training schools popping up to make a fast buck, the result is a glut of “home stagers” in the marketplace with absolutely no experience and no idea of how to run a business.
Are you willing to put your client’s largest investment into the hands of someone without the expertise necessary to get the results you need? This could turn out to be a very costly mistake.
Here are some things to keep in mind when selecting a home stager:
Lowest Quote/Free Consultations
Beware of home stagers that come in at a much lower bid than others. Usually it’s reflected in the quality of accessories and furniture that they will provide.
AFTER
Some home stagers may offer you free home staging consultations. As my parents always told me, “nothing in life is ever free”. There’s always a catch and in this case, it may be that he or she has absolutely no experience and may give your client potentially harmful advice.
Web Site
Make sure that the home stager has a professional Web site; not just a “cookie-cutter” mini-site provided through their training school. In today’s world, anyone serious about doing business must have a Web site.
If the home stager you are considering hiring does not have one, perhaps he or she is more of a hobbyist.
Having a Web site demonstrates that the home stager means business and takes a serious approach to what they do. Make sure you look for testimonials from other real estate professionals as this speaks volumes as to their credibility and capability.
Portfolio
When interviewing your home stager, ask to see either prints or a CD of photos from his or her portfolio. If they don’t have this, you should pass on this person.
In today’s world of technology, with the click of a mouse, photos can be taken from one home stager’s Web site and plunked onto another’s site and passed off as their work. Continue reading »
By Charlene Storozuk, Dezigner Digz
Staging a Man Cave - BEFORE
As you know, in real estate every square foot counts (especially when it can be turned into liveable space). That’s just what we did on this project. This vacant attic had great bones and a lot of potential for many uses such as an additional bedroom or a home office.
Since this home already had four bedrooms and a fifth bedroom staged as a home office, I chose to go with something a little less conventional for this room. In fact, this was a first for me.
I decided to turn the attic into a “man cave.” The room’s shape and the fact that the home owner was not finishing the walls with drywall, leant itself to the feel of a cave.
The living room in this home had orange broadloom, which we had previously ripped up to expose the hardwood underneath. We decided to take that broadloom upstairs and lay it down in our newly created man cave. Continue reading »
By Charlene Storozuk
BEFORE
Something that I always stress to my clients is the importance of removing outdated, worn or non-neutral carpeting when selling your home.
Many home owners make the mistake of providing for a carpet allowance in their asking price. They believe that the future home owner will want to choose their own carpeting.
There is something to be said for the future home owner having that choice. However, in many cases carpeting can be the deal breaker that will make a potential buyer move on to the next listing.
Many of today’s buyers are looking for move-in ready homes and others may not have additional funds available for the upgrade.
This issue came up close to home recently. We are in the process of preparing a family member’s home for sale. The carpet was in excellent condition; not a wear mark or stain in sight. You couldn’t kill that carpet if you tried. It makes me wonder how the carpets of today will look 40 years from now. Many of them won’t stand up like this if I had to guess.
The only negative about the carpet was the color: orange. While that was the color of the day when it was installed, it’s just not that high up on the carpet color wish list now. Continue reading »
By Charlene Storozuk
Selling your home is a stressful event, but doing so over the holiday season can kick the tension level up a notch. If your home is on the market over the holidays, you might be wondering if you should deck the halls or give it a pass for this year. That is, if in fact you celebrate the season.
When deciding whether to decorate or not, take the demographics of your neighbourhood into account. If the majority of home owners in your area do not celebrate the holidays, you may want to follow their lead and not decorate your home for the festive season either.
Here are some things to take into account if you are going to decorate:
- Less is definitely more. Combat clutter by keeping your holiday decor to a minimum and choosing classic, tasteful pieces.
Avoid displaying holiday collections. I happened to mention one year that I like nutcrackers. I didn’t even own one at the time, but now, 10 years later, I would have to guess that there are close to 80 of those little fellows standing guard in my home during the holidays. If I were selling, I’d want people to look at my home, not my collection.- Decorations should be in good condition. This is not the year to bring out Grandma’s tattered Santa Claus or Rudolph with the missing nose. Let them hibernate.
- Use an artificial tree for this year. You can place some pine boughs in a large bowl and dress it up with a few pine cones and holiday balls. You’ll still get that real Christmas tree scent without the mess.
- Never leave tree lights on when you are not home. If you have a showing booked, turn the lights on just before the appointment and be sure to come back right after to turn them off.
- Consider the safety of small children that may be coming through your home. Don’t leave out small decorations that could become a choking hazard.
- If Felix the cat has a bad habit of knocking your tree down on occasion, you might want to forego putting your tree up this year. Murphy’s Law says that Felix will do this just when potential buyers are on their way over for a showing.
One last thing: once the holidays are over, make sure you take down your decorations soon afterwards. As well, if the listing photos were taken while your home was decorated for the season, make sure that once mid January rolls around, new photos are taken. Buyers that see a Christmas tree in your living room while viewing your property online in March will be tipped off pretty quickly to the fact that your home has been on the market for a while.
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.
By Charlene Storozuk
Before a property goes on the market, it’s important that every room be showcased in a way that portrays its intended purpose. If not, potential buyers can become confused as to the function of the space. Take a look at the room in the photo below.
Photo Credit: Charlene Storozuk
For the current home owner, this room functioned as a flow-over storage area for excess furniture. Want to hazard a guess at what the builder intended this room to be?
You’re probably thinking that it’s a family room, aren’t you? That would be a pretty good guess.
At first walk-through of this property, I thought it was a family room as well. After all, there was a couch, love seat, and end tables in there.
Here’s a hint: Do you see the chandelier hanging from the ceiling?
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