Liz Gallagher, RESA member.

We have been Staging in the Montreal area as a team for the better part of 2 years and I myself much longer. We have advertised, blogged, campaigned door to door, done cold calls, conferences, networking, you name it we have tried it.

Just last week we got a call from a desperate Realtor to do a home consult and carry out the staging. The home in question had been her listing for 5 months and with the mandate ending soon she was desperate to sell this home. She herself had tried everything to get the owners to tidy up, fix up and spruce up the place but to no avail. The owners were overwhelmed with things to do and not knowing where to begin. With the Home Harmonys' plan now in place the order of "to do's" were getting done in a timely fashion.

Before Home Harmony's take over there were visits from other Realtors that literally could not get their clients over the threshold! Yup, that bad and the owner thought she was "keeping on top of things"

Well, it took 6 hours and 3 of Home Harmony's crew to pack up, relocate, re-design and stage this 4 bedroom home. Advertised as a "Staged Home" the Open house drew record numbers. Louise Garai, our associate on the South Shore arrived about an hour before hand to ensure the home was presentable. In the Realtors own words "this was the best open house ever!" There were comments from visitors on how other similarly priced houses in the area couldn't compare to this one ... the agent is anticipating that the home will sell this week with two offers from interested parties who visited on open house.

Needless to say the home owner is thrilled with the result and her comment " WHERE WERE YOU 5 MONTHS AGO?

Hopefully there will be a SOLD sign on this front lawn very soon.

Hi Again,

As per the requests here are the pictures of Home Harmony's new record.

Although not as upscale as some staging we have done, the changes made to this little bungalow were dramatic enough to get peoples attention ...

Only the rear wall has been painted in this room ... AMAZING isn't it.

Yes, Home Harmony has achieved a new personal record. In the 16 hours following the "Open House" the owners had 3 interested parties ... two of which were bidding for the home. In 3 days and 98% of asking the papers are signed and the new owners take possession by the middle of the month!

From the start of renovations (removing borders, painting, fixing broken tiles, changes fixtures ...etc) this house was prepared in 5 days. To show how versatile this staging set was, a young couple and a couple in there late 70's were the two interested parties. Amazing what some paint, furniture, accessories and creative Stagers can do.

Special thanks to Louise Garai for an outstanding job of managing the project and keeping it on track. To Michelle King for providing a good sense and vision to the project and getting us over a hump with a exactly what we needed when we needed it (great mirror) To our renovation man, Danny who made our project a priority and completed it in record time and to Lori Gardener for giving us an extra set of hands. THANKS TO ALL.

This is what Home Harmony's team work is all about ...

Hi there,

I apologize for taking longer than I thought to post these pictures ... here they are. Not great but if you look closely you will see pillows wrapped with fabric to work with the existing drab curtains, bed runners made from strips of fabric and whatever else we could dig up after rooting through cupboards and boxes.

This very dated 1940's home was ORIGINAL ... right down to the carpeting! I'm not sure how the wallpaper even hung on for so many years. Despite our suggestions and the agents, to bring in our handyman to lift the carpets (hardwood beneath) , strip the wallpaper and add a fresh coat of paint the owner (in her early 90's) flat out refused " I'm not changing a thing ... I like it like this" Although she was now living in a lovely retirement home, did not want us to touch a thing ... so while the daughter kept her busy for the day we made a few small changes ... we may sure to get the job done so we didn't have to return and possibly face the owner again ;o) .... the daughter and the agent were assuming responsibility for the changes but we didn't want to be anywhere near when she returned.

The house sold 2 days later on the Open House ... "Granny Like" but the buyer saw the potential.

We had removed the sofa covers to find this lovely gem hiding ... you should have seen what was on there!

Would you call this a master bedroom? It's hard to see but the pillows are covered with a piece of dark fabric, the runner on the bed another 2 pieces and the curtain topper, all different material pieces but matched well enough to finish this room. We found a flat white sheet to cover the old spread. Now that's Staging!

The dinning set had been left behind with a few other lovely pieces. We changed the layout of the room and worked with some old china and glassware to set the table ... the picture doesn't do it justice, it was quite elegant when it was set. The art on the left is actually an old fame we found in a closet and by inserting a piece of fabric we created matching decor!

Hi there,

Here we are again, July 1. How does this happen so quickly every year? "Less than 6 months till Christmas" you'll hear folks say.

Stagers, it's time to prepare for an influx of calls (think positive) from home owners that haven't staged or sold their homes. Last year, we witnessed an increase between July and November. Homeowners are trying to insure that their homes will sell before the end of the year (increased chance with staging) The others that won't enlist will I guess, resort to dropping their price by thousands if not 10's of thousands. My biggest pet peeve! Why not spend as little as a few hundred or even a few thousand on Staging before reducing the selling price? ... WHAT HAVE THEY GOT TO LOOSE? … If anything they have kicked started the moving process by having us de-clutter and organize. Our clients always say “it’s so much easier to prepare for an "Open House" because everything has a place and everything is in it's place". Others wonder why they have been living like they have when they could have been living this way all along!

If the average person could only see the benefits of a staged (re-designed) home. I think a lot less would hesitate and actually hire us to do the job. There is a large misconception about what staging really is (we need to get the message out there) . I believe they think they must live in "show room" conditions when staged.... HELLO ... it's your stuff we're staging with! Re-design is an amazing relatively painless and inexpensive process that will make your home welcoming and could quite possibly earn you some extra cash! Why wouldn't you go for it? Accessories can help in some cases maybe a cozy throw, a mirror a picture and some candles ... all of which can be taken with to the next home ... oh yeah... did I mention we can help you out on that end too!

Well, enough said (maybe too much) ... off to enjoy the rest of this patriotic holiday.

HAPPY CANADA DAY !