Lafayette, LA

I’m all about cross-promotion! As a result, I have a new cross-promotion project called "Stager of the Week." Each week, I'll showcase a Professional Stager so that you can "meet" them. Stagers are an excellent way to not only help a property look its absolute best, but to get that property sold as quickly and for the highest price possible.

This week's featured Professional Stager is Michelle Molinari of Feature This…Interior Decor and Virtual Staging in Abbeville, Louisiana. Here’s my interview with Michelle:

How did you initially get into staging?
I grew up in the Design field. My mother graduated from The Interior Design Guild in California when I was very young. My earliest memories are literally of being in an upholstery shop, stroking fabric samples. I was painting custom artwork for her clientele at the age of 14. I started to work with her as a young adult, and now, we are partners in our staging business, Feature This... Interior Decor and Virtual Staging.

What is your most effective marketing strategy to get realtors or sellers to use your services?
We just show them our portfolio. Seeing is believing - that's what staging is all about and we have a stunning portfolio if I do say so myself. And, we are priced affordably. We believe staging benefits everyone, but especially those who have the most to lose. We like the tough assignments, when the house is seriously in need of a better public image.

What is one fun thing about yourself that most people don't know??
I love to karaoke.

Are you involved in any social media marketing other than Active Rain (Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, RealTown, etc.)? If so, how do we connect with you?
I wish I had more time to get into some of the other social medias, but we tend to stay pretty busy. We do blog on www.energizedseller.com. It's a great resource for the motivated homeowner who really needs to get informed and ask questions about today's real estate practices.

What is your favorite computer application?
Right now I am madly in love with WEBEX. We have several team members over a large area, I love having conducting meetings with them with my cat on my lap.

What is your favorite food?
Hands down, Cozy Shack's Rice Pudding! Second runner-up - Thai Food!

What one piece of advice would you give someone who is hesitant to utilize the services of a professional stager?
If your time is a valuable commodity, hiring a stager is the only way to go. Our sourcing abilities are our greatest asset. We not only know what to do with a budget, but how to get it done.

If you could be a made up super hero, what would you be called and what would your super powers be?
Well, we were actually talking about that this week, beleive it or not. Ok, not in the superhero capacity exactly, but we do call my mother and partner, Carol, the Fairy Godmother of Decor. She's just a get-it-done type of person, and it amazes me how quickly she can affect change. It's like, you walk out of a room, and when you come back in, she's done something miraculous to it!

What one piece of advice would you give someone who wants to become a professional stager?
Don't go it alone! Marketing, , consulting, designing, sourcing, execution, and de-staging all take VAST amounts of time and resources, just to stage even one listing. Having committed and talented partners is the only way to stage for a living and "have a life" at the same time.

Thanks for taking some time to get to know Michelle Molinari. Now, go learn more about Michelle and the entire team at Feature This…Interior Decor and Virtual Staging!

Michelle Molinari
Feature This…Interior Decor and Virtual Staging
Company Website
E-mail Me

Want to be an upcoming featured Stager of the Week? Just e-mail me! Use a Stager! What are you waiting for?

~Renae - Market 4 Real!_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Need help with consistently marketing to your leads and your listings? Don't put it off! Contact us today for assistance and get started on the road to turning your leads into clients and your listings into SOLD properties!

What an incredible day yesterday was! I just have to share it. This story may be long but it is worth the read.

We took on a new project last week, a large-scale redesign in the interest of future equity for the client, a young man in his early twenties.

I met this man two years ago, at a local nightspot. He asked me to dance, and after about a minute of chitchat, we realized we were related distantly on my grandmother's side.

A few short weeks after that, he was in a car accident. It was very, very bad, and no one expected his recovery. Some doubted his very survival. He was sent to a hospital in New Orleans, due to the massive head and body trauma he experienced. Lots of prayers were said by our small, rural community, and we would hear updates every few months.

Still in a coma.

In a semi-coma.

Said a word today.

Squeezed a hand today.

Last week I saw him for the second time in my life. He's out of the hospital now, living with his parents, wearing a brace, still learning to walk and talk, and getting on with the business of life.

We were contacted by his family to redesign the house he bought for himself, that he had been working on renovating right before the accident. His family wanted us to assist in completing his plans for the house, using his money still in savings, in anticipation for the day when the doctors say he can live unassisted.

This young man can answer yes or no, but cannot truly communicate in the capacity that our regular clients can. He gets frustrated. He knows what is going on for the most part, but he cannot really contribute his two cents. And here come these ladies who are going to be making big decisions and reinventing many aspects of his house over the course of the next six months, making areas more accessible, safe, functional, and beautiful.

Since the accident, change is a challenge for him that he struggles with every day. He is not wheelchair-bound, but movement is a very difficult and a slow process for him even still, and decisions about the layout are important. On the financial side, the investment he made in this home is crucial, as he is disabled now. This house is his main asset. Building up the equity is crucial.

We worked up some plans for him, and we created each room virtually, as it will appear when we are through renovating and decorating. Yesterday, we presented our plan as a slideshow. I personally was very nervous about whether or not he would like at all what we had in store for his house.

As the slideshow morphed each room in his house, he said "WHOA!" and pointed to some of the specific things we changed in each room and we could describe each item or reconfiguration of space. His face lit up with pleasure, and when he asked if he liked it, he nodded vigorously and said "Oh Yeah!"

It was very emotional for me personally, and I was never, ever so grateful for the time I have invested the past two years learning to Virtually Stage. I don't know how else he, or his family, or even WE could have made our way through this redesign without it with confidence of his approval. Seeing these images will help him internalize the changes we will be making to the interior and exterior and begin to the process to accept them, which is a huge challenge. We now know he likes the colors. We know he likes the furniture and layout. He understands we will change many aspects of his house, and he has approved those changes.

It was the best day for "Feature This... Real Estate Staging and Interior Decor" that we have ever had.

~Michelle

Certified Professional Stager, Feature This... Real Estate Staging, www.FeatureThisDotDotDot.com
Lead Virtual Designer, www.CurbAppealForDummies.com
President, Acadiana Real Estate Staging Association, www.AcadianaRESA.com

Thank you for your interest in the communities of Arnaudville, Breaux Bridge, Broussard, Cankton, Carencro, Church Point, Grand Coteau, Lafayette, Maurice, Milton, Opelousas, Scott, Sunset and Youngsville. Please visit www.SandyThibodeaux.com for more information regarding the communities, and all available homes.

Please feel free to call or email me Sandy@SandyThibodeaux.com for all your real estate needs.

Been to a listing with an aroma so unpleasant, it can prevent a sale?

How about a listing with a suspicious perfumed scent you just know is there to disguise something sinister?

Homeowners and Realtors are taking drastic, expensive, and unnecessary measures to eradicate the smells generated by pets, smokers, and the ever-present stinky and unhealthy mildew associated with the high-humidity that permeates Louisiana and all the Gulf Coast states.

There is a fast, easy, and affordable, solution that works on every possible stink one can ever encounter.

Not to get too gruesome, but even crime scene cleanup pros know exacty how to attack a malodorous dwelling, and have the odor and it's originating bacteria destroyed permanently and without chemicals.... SWIFTLY!

NO REAL ESTATE OFFICE SHOULD BE WITHOUT ONE FOR MALODOROUS LISTINGS!!!

You have probably heard of it, and dismissed it. Or maybe you have used it, improperly, and not acheived the purported results. But the bottom line is this: Industrial Strength Ionizers, when used according to the square footage, are 100% effective to eradicate odor, permanently, and in less than two hours. One use!!!

The secret is in the strength. Yes, you must leave the house. Return two hours later, and the home smells like it has been freshly bleached clean from top to bottom. Open the windows and air it out. In 10 minutes the air becomes inert. There is all kind of science behind the effectiveness of ionizers. They use them in hospitals, and the infection levels in surgical rooms have dropped to zero. Ionizers kill bacteria, and bacteria causes most horrific odors. They also wrangle paint fumes, smoking & cooking odors, and anything else you can wrinkle your nose at.

The only way an odor can re-occur in a properly ionized environment is if the source of the stench is REINTRODUCED, but old and imbedded odors are GONE FOREVER.

I know it's unbelievable. But I have a first hand experience, involving a cousin, a pack of chicken necks, a hot car, and a one very incensed sister:

My cousin, Steve, borrowed Michelle's car while we were on vacation. He was house sitting our beach house near Galveston, Texas. It was JULY. He wanted to go crabbing, which requires chicken parts. HE LEFT A PACK OF CHICKEN NECKS IN THE TRUNK OF THE CAR. When we came home a week later, the scent was overpowering and absolutely condensed in that Mustang. No amount of air circulation or deodorizing products put a dent into the thick stench of death that permeated the car's upholstery. Two days with the doors and trunk wide open didn't help one iota. Car detailers said the car was a total loss!!!!

A lady we know heard about the problem and offered help. We went to her house, gagging and hanging our heads out the windows, for 45 minutes, to Houston. She put this little box in the car, rolled up the windows, snaked an electrical cord to an outlet through a crack, and invited us in for iced tea. Michelle was a train wreck, as the car was NEW and chicken rot was not covered by her insurance. About an hour later, the lady said the car was ready. To our shock, the car smelled super-clean. We didn't believe the smell would not return, but we were grateful it was gone for a while. Except, it never, ever, EVER came back. Michelle had that car for 7 more years! And, I am happy to report, Cousin Steve is still alive and presently resides in the Austin area with all his limbs intact.

We are now very proud to be able to offer

brand new units for $649 to Realtors and homeowners alike!

We also rent our units for $79./for a half-day rental.

NO REAL ESTATE OFFICE SHOULD BE WITHOUT ONE FOR MALODOROUS LISTINGS.

Contact us if you would like to know more. Shipping is included with the price, and we absolutely take credit cards, and offer you a money-back guarantee!

Sue Eldredge - Certifed Staging Professional

Abbeville, Louisiana

www.featurethisdotdotdot.com

and

www.curbappealfordummies.com

If you know what color "Haint Blue" is, then you may be shocked to find that not everyone everywhere knows what shade this color is, or what it can to do for homeowners today.

Haint Blue is most commonly used on houses in the southern region of the United States; however, many cultures around the world describe similar protective properties of this color.

The word "haint" is European in origin, and generally refers to bodiless spirits with a less-than-nice agenda. The color Haint Blue supposedly has the unique property of repelling spooks, confusing them by blocking their ability to gain entry into a home. There are references to "haints" being unable to cross over water, so perhaps the blue color just ticks them off by reminding them of their shortcomings as paranormal entities.

First batches of haint blue paint in the U.S. in the 1850's and were made by hand at the construction site, using raw materials such as blue-colored minerals and ochers, milk, and lime. It was noticed that bugs wouldn't land on the dried paint, quite likely an affirmation for proponents regarding its ghost-busting abilities. However, most likely, it wasn't the power of the color that the bugs were avoiding, but more likely, the lime the paint was made of.

Many cultures claim to be authorities on the exact shade and mystical properties of Haint Blue, which is also called Gullah Blue, Dutch Boy Blue, Dirt-Dauber Blue, and what they call it here in Louisiana... "That Blue Color Mosquitoes Hate." The color is quite sought after, and can be found on homes, both historic and on new construction. The color is extremely popular for the porch ceiling and under the eaves.

Regardless of the myths surrounding Haint Blue, painting a historic house with a color with such colorful past gives us a sense of continuity, a sincere gratitude for the ingenuity and perserverance of our forefathers, and an appreciation of their deeply-held beliefs.

It also gives us something to think about as we sip lemonade on a hot day, and stare up at the wasp's nest anchored to our porch ceiling coated with our largely impotent modern-day latex Haint Blue paint.

Please be advised: The actual shade of "Haint Blue" varies, as the formulas were mixed by hand with local pigments. Haint Blue can range from a pastel violet-blue, such as a periwinkle, to a rich shade of warm turquoise, and everything in between. If you believe your house is plagued with poltergeist activity, call your local paranormal investigative society to find out what shade of Haint Blue is most effective in the haints in your county.

~Michelle Molinari

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