Karen Otto, Home Stager, Plano, TX 469)964-0516 www.homestarstaging.com

ATTENTION: Home Stagers in the Dallas / Ft. Worth area

I would like to put this out there for anyone interested in attending an informal gathering to discuss the potential of forming a DFW RESA Chapter here locally.

YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE A RESA MEMBER TO ATTEND.

Here are the details:

• Where: IKEA Frisco, TX in the upstairs dining area
• When: Wednesday, March 11th, 2009
• Time: 10 AM - 12 PM
• Why: To discuss RESA and forming a local chapter
• What to bring: Your ideas, thoughts and insight!

IKEA Frisco, TX www.ikea-usa.com 7171 IKEA Drive Frisco, TX 75034 (972) 712-4532 Get directions

Please let me know if you are interested in attending (so I won't be there all by myself!) by Monday, March 9th.

Please visit the RESA website for more details on the organization and come prepared to share your thoughts and vision on how we can unite locally and drive our industry and businesses forward!

Home Sellers if you already haven't, prepare to change.

Especially in the current state of the housing market (& limited numbers actually buying & those that are -are being extremely picky with what they are purchasing) seriously ask yourself this question;

"Is it really going to hurt too much to make a few changes that can expedite the sale of my house?"

As a North Texas Home Staging Professional I am sometimes faced with clients who feel that;

• their homes
• their choices [whether cosmetic or structural] and
• the way they are living is perfect for them so why change?

Marcia! Marcia! Marcia!

It's time to stop focusing on how you live in YOUR house and get on with the business of selling this property to move into your NEXT home!

NO MORE

Or deep down do you just really NOT want to sell this house? And I am very serious.

Your short term pain of having to make some changes will result in long term gain, the successful sale of your home.

I'd like to help you get there.

Here are 10 Easy Changes to Improve the Marketability of your home

1. Wall paper removed and paint colors changed
2. Furniture removed, rented, re purposed &/or repositioned for optimal showing
3. Turn a room back to it's INTENDED purpose (I don't care if the office works in your dining room and you have to move some cables around! A buyer needs to see the DINING ROOM - don't make them guess)
4. Personal decorating choices removed(and yes even if you like those bottle caps glued to your game room wall and it's going to take you forever to remove - a buyer is thinking that 10 fold)
5. Collections, excess "stuff" and anything you can live without for a time boxed and packed for your move
6. Rent a temporary storage unit if necessary1-800-PackRat or PODS will come right to your door
7. Spruce up the yard, mulch and plant some flowers, even if that means having to water them
8. Get some updated fixtures [including dated fan kits] installed
9. Clean, clean and clean some more- even if you have 6 kids, work and the dishes & laundry never get done - now is the time to get it done or hire someone who will.
10. Keep the house in show ready condition at all times [the good news is that once you've done all the above, it will be easy to keep ready at a moment's notice!] and be flexible when showing

Still need some assistance in marketing your property?

Proudly serving real estate consulting services to Collin County and North Dallas, Realtors, Sellers & Investors, , Home Star Staging is here for you Texas!

By TwitterButtons.com

I'm actually what I'd consider a "newbie" twit - a user of the site twitter.

Although I set up the account awhile ago I'd been staying on the fringes of the phenomenon and decided to get my tweet wet this week.

I am still not 100% sure how to incorporate this into my business marketing strategy (or how it really all works but rest assured there's lots of info out there about it to read) but I'm up for most anything - especially if it's free and connects me to awesome people around the world and most importantly here in our area.

In the past 2 days I've been twiddicted - reading, following, being followed, tweeting....and then...

This very morning convinced me there is power in tweeting based on a little direct message I received from the CEO of ezinearticles.com, Chris Knight - a webzine I've had articles published at in the past (and need to get back to writing).

I am "following" Chris Knight on twitter & he in turn is "following" me.

I am trying to send each follower a "thanks for following"direct message and I sent one to Chris to say thanks and that I use the articles from ezine@articles as handouts to clients and students and that I love his site.

This morning I got this message back from Chris:

Glad you like it. :-) I followed you because I find the whole Home Staging thing pretty interesting even though it's not my industry.

Chris Knight / ChrisKnight

(YOU too can follow Chris here)
follow me at http://twitter.com/ChrisKnight

That spoke to me.

Even though Home Staging is not Chris's industry, his industry is helping promote it and he himself finds it interesting! So for any home stager in Chris's neck of the woods - you may have found yourself a follower too!

So with that little testimony I invite you to join twitter and follow me.

Where it leads is up to you!

By TwitterButtons.com

Update: Recent "tweet" by ezinearticles - Chris mentioned my blog and then linked the home stager catagory here - if you go to that link you'll see some of our very own AR home stagers:

EzineArticles@homestarstaging blogged about her twit with me: http://is.gd/kPjn Home Staging is a new category we launched last year: http://is.gd/kPj918 minutes ago from web

As a Professional Home Stager, I always recommend when selling that it's important to have furniture in every key room. Key rooms include all main living areas, kitchen and master bedrooms.

Vacant rooms are very difficult for buyers to visualize and often leave them sorely lacking in terms of connecting to the home.  

In some cases understandably sellers have not gotten around to furnishing key spaces for lack of time, funds or desire to choose something - it happens! However when selling it will pose a problem should a key space remain empty.

Some key problems with vacant spaces are:

• No identifiable purpose for the space (buyers see so many houses in a day they won't remember you had a formal living, dining, den and game room if there was nothing to remember in those spaces)
• No focal point
• Scale is hard to determine (vacant rooms actually feel smaller - buyers believe their furniture will not fit)
• Flow issues may present a problem
• Minor flaws, blemishes and small cosmetic details stand out creating problems

Below is an example of a recent home staging where a key selling space was not immediately identifiable. Using what the owner's already had (no rental furniture) along with a few pieces from Home Star Staging's prop inventory (but could have easily been found elsewhere) Here's a simple cost effective way to re purpose furniture you may already own to highlight a key selling space in your home that may be lacking furniture. 

Dining area before 

Dining Area After

Furniture pieces used:

• "Buffet" is owner's bedroom dresser re purposed with mirror taken off
• Dining table is owner's white plastic outdoor patio table covered in a damask table cloth (legs that showed were thoroughly cleaned)
• Parson's Chairs $10 each from a garage sale and  covered in cotton slipcovers on sale at Target $7.50 each. Home Star Staging's prop inventory finished the look.  

Get creative with what you already own. The results may surprise you.

Home Sellers, if you're lacking vision or need some assistance in re purposing what you may already own, Home Star Staging is here for you!

Proudly serving, Collin County and North Dallas, Realtors, Sellers & Investors, ,  Home Star Staging is here for you Texas!

How is that possible? Let me explain. 

Hiring a Professional Home Stager  for an affordable home staging consultation has an excellent return on investment for anyone thinking about selling a home.  

Money is tight for everyone. Home sellers need to know what updates and upgrades will be the best return for their dollars spent. 

As a standard part of Home Star Staging's home staging consulting services (as well as a standard practice for many home staging service providers throughout the country), we help home sellers identify where to target home improvements and updates and what will provide the best return on investment (ROI). 

Home Star Staging recently provided a home staging consultation for a home seller who had not yet listed their home. These pro active home sellers were in the planning stages of getting their property ready for sale.  

After viewing the property and giving my professional assessment there was one recommendation that ended up returning their investment of $125 and would end up actually saving them over $1,000 more that very day. 

Prior to my consultation the seller had decided they were going to replace carpet in one part of the house. Although no contract had been signed, the vendor had been chosen and there were samples of the carpet to be installed.  However, upon inspection, I found that that there really wasn't a need for this new carpet.  There were only minor blemishes and one small area where the carpet would benefit from carpet stretching, nothing that a good professional carpet cleaner and installer couldn't fix for a fraction of the cost of newly installed carpet.  The carpet was in good shape. 

In almost disbelief the seller's questioned my recommendation and I assured them that it wasn't the best use of their dollars to do so. This recommendation alone would save them over $1,000 in costs to replace the carpeting.  A pretty decent return on their home staging consulting investment wouldn't you say?  

Home Sellers, for an excellent return on your home staging investment, a cost effective home staging consultation with a professional home stager is a wise financial decision. 

Proudly serving, Collin County and North Dallas, Realtors, Sellers & Investors, ,  Home Star Staging is here for you Texas!