Home Stager Karen Hubert

Home Staging is all about the feeling. The feeling or mood created for a target buyer.

I remember a few years ago, my children and I traveled to Ireland. The only experiences of Ireland I had up until then were pictures of the beautiful country and the Irish Rovers. I do remember how listening to an Irish Band in an Irish Pub, really added to the experience.

When we were traveling around Ireland, we visited some of the tourist places like the Blarney Stone Castle and yes we kissed the blarney stone. While we were visiting a gift store we decided to buy a CD of traditional Irish music to listen to in our rental car as we traveled around Ireland. It was amazing how different traveling felt while listening to this music. As we traveled the “Ring of Kerry” along cliffs and narrow roads lined with trees that joined above the road to form a tunnel, we listened to our music. Every once in while we had to stop to let the sheep go across the road. The hydrangeas were in abundance in all the gardens we passed and were the deepest blue I have ever seen and I didn’t know that yuccas grew as tall as the sky.

When we arrived back home and tried to listen to the same CD, it just didn’t have the same feel while sitting in the family room here in Canada.

Good home staging really creates a feeling for a prospective buyer. Whether it is a family feeling using toys or a DVD on a coffee table or even a game to represent family time together. Cheese and crackers, wine bottles can represent entertaining friends and soft music can represent relaxing in your home or give a spa feeling in a bathroom. All these elements help buyers emotionally move into a home for sale. The mood should appeal to the target buyer to get it sold.

Karen Hubert

Center Stage Design.ca

Home Staging Solutions

Hello activerain friends,

It has been a while since I have done any writing here on Activerain. I have been very busy moving my business forward and things keep progressing. I have done more than twice as much work as last year so far, so things are looking up.

I staged a home last week that sold in one day and I just had to share. Most of my staging has taken at least a month in this market to sell so it was quite refreshing to finally be back on track. Everything was right with this project though. The home wasn't listed first. The homeowners did a lot of painting and carpet cleaning and preparing their property for two weeks. This makes all the difference. They did pretty much everything I had suggested.

After two weeks I went in and staged their property. I believe the selling price was right on the mark as well. The home sold before it hit mls. Can't beat that.

This is the second time these homeowners had hired a stager to sell a home. The last time it took 9 days to sell. YAAAA!!! Mine sold in only one.

They were quite impressed. But who wouldn't be if I do say so myself.

Here is a couple of pictures.

I still need a wide angle camera for better pictures. It is difficult to see the whole room. These are just a few.

Karen Hubert

Center Stage Design.ca

Hello Activerainers,

I have written an article for "Changing Gears.ca" website on changing gears in 2009 for selling real estate. Here it is:

Hiring a Real Estate Stager is Being Proactive in Today’s Market

As we say goodbye to 2008 and we begin 2009, we find using all services available to us for selling real estate, increasingly more important.

Real estate staging is one of the services that can be used by homeowners, builders, property developers and realtors to help their properties stand out from the competition.

Real Estate staging is a process of preparing a property for sale to give it the best chance possible for selling quickly and for the most money possible.

Real Estate stagers know what buyers are looking for and can offer great advice.

Homeowners benefit from an objective viewpoint so they can visualize what buyers will see when viewing their property. Vacant properties are best viewed furnished by a stager since buyers have difficulty seeing their furniture in the empty home. Vacant properties always appear smaller.

Realtors have many benefits from partnering with a real estate stager. A real estate stager will act as a third party, trained in sharing issues with homeowners that might otherwise be difficult for realtors who are trying to get hired by the client. Staged properties look better so the realtor will have great on-line pictures for buyers to view. Another advantage for a realtor is they can do open houses and feel happy about the property since it will show better. Since staged properties sell quicker, realtors will have more time for other listings and the investment of marketing dollars will be less.

Being proactive in the real estate market for 2009 is very important to selling real estate.
Enlisting the help of a real estate stager for 2009 should be at the top of all real estate professionals and sellers agendas. Don’t wait until the property isn’t selling to think about it. Your clients will be more impressed if everything available to them is taken advantage of prior to listing and sellers, you will have greater success making the return on investment you want and in the time frame desired. Wishing all of you great success this year.

Karen Hubert
Center Stage Design.ca

What is it about builders and their electricians that they cannot get light fixtures in the middle of the ceiling or over where a table is definately supposed to be set.

Everytime I do a vacant property, I seem to have this to deal with. Anyone else having this same issue? Very frustrating.

I am asked to set this space up as a living/dining room but the light fixture is placed in an awkward place. If there is a chain, you can swag it if the builders will allow you to put a hole in the ceiling but this is not always possible. Especially in new condos. The new owners can apply for permission, but as a stager you can't do this unless you have 3 weeks to wait for the permission.

This is just another good reason to have a stager work with builders to avoid awkward installations. Stagers have the forsight to see any problems which will have an affect on selling the property. Door placement, lighting placement, etc. which will affect where furniture can be placed when the property is selling. Staging the property after the build, shows potential buyers where they can place furniture easily. Takes out any guess work for the buyer.

One vacant condo I staged was quite small but the main space had to be set up as living/dining. The furniture rental company had little left for me to choose from at such short notice so I had to make do with what they had. All the furniture was large. I was able to place all of the furniture but the light fixture was a problem. It always amazes me how small a space looks and then you put furniture in that you think will not fit and it does. This is one reason it is more difficult to sell vacant properties. The spaces always appear smaller, contrary to what most people think.

I came up with an idea and it was a little awkward but it got the light over the table without putting a hole in the celing since we weren't allowed to do it. In retrospect, I don't think I would do this again since it was unconventional but I really wanted the light over the table. The agent explained to potential buyers about the condo building rules and that when they purchased the condo they would be allowed to put the hole in the ceiling wherever they wished.

We put a hook in the crown moulding which was filled easily after destaging so nothing was damaged.

Here is a picture of the unconventional method of getting a light fixture over the table. I would not recommend this to any stager out there.

After staging this property, I even filled in the cracks in the crown moulding where two pieces were joined since it looked awful. i also had to try to get big glops of mortar off the main window with the best view of the valley. This was tricky since it was on the outside and on the 7th floor. With the help of my handy man husband we got it off. All in all we got the job done. This was not my favourite.

Karen Hubert

Center Stage Design.ca

As a Home Stager, I believe there are actually 3 First Impressions when buyers begin their search for a home.

1. 80% of buyers today are surfing the internet to locate properties to view. For this reason, more than ever it is important to prepare and stage your property before listing it on the market. Amazing photographs for the internet are your first most important first impression. Be a home on buyers list to see.

2. The second very important first impression is curb appeal. If you want buyers to enter your front door then they need a visual invitation to do so. Buying a home is an emotional decision and buyers need to get a feeling of wanting to live in your neighborhood. Help them get through the front door.

This lovely garden takes you right to the front door



3. The third very important first impression is your homes entrance. Presented to welcome potential buyers and a visual that draws them in and makes them feel like they would like to stay.

Something as simple as a painting and a vase with seasonal flowers can be very inviting.

Or a hall table to put your keys on.

It only takes a fraction of a second for buyers to make up their minds about whether to view a property or not, or whether to bother entering the front door or to waste any time going through.

To find out more about why the internet is so important today as a first impression, especially in a buyers market situation, tune into

Gina McNew's "Diva in the House" radio show. Active Rain's Terrylynn Fisher is a guest and she talks about many interesting topics. I highly recommend it. Go to www.canadianstagingprofessionals.com scroll down and on the right you will find how to get into the show to listen. The show was recorded on April 4,2008.

Karen Hubert-Center Stage Design