Kathy Streib, ASP,IAHSP,RESA, DelrayBch -South Florida - 561-914-6224

I just had to share this feel good story about my latest Staging client in South Florida. Did you ever have a client that you just thought "Why can't all my clients be this nice and easy to work with? I did a Staging Consultation last night and I walked away thinking it would be great if I could clone him as well as his wife, baby and Lotto, his Jack Russell Terrier.

"Be brutally honest with me." That was his request! When's the last time you heard that? He had already spoken with his landscapers; the painters were on stand-by; and there were absolutely no raised eyebrows or looks of doubt at suggestions I made. He'd watched some of the shows on HGTV and even clipped some "Before" and "After" pictures that he thought might work in some of his rooms.

Lotto, aka, Jack Russell Terrier, was never in the way and left the room when his owner told him to. Jeff said that the small water and food bowls set out for Lotto would be removed and put out only when Lotto needed them. No doggie odors, no doggie doors to conceal. Check that item off the list.

"I'd rather spend the money to repair the tiles that are broken rather than lose a possible extra $20,000 in the sale price. " Finally, a client who recognizes that by investing in upgrades, repairs and Staging, he's enhancing his ROI.

So, there were no Staging hints or techniques in this post but I felt I would be remiss if I did not express my "thanks" to a special client! My wish for all fellow Stagers is that you have the chance to have at least one Special set of clients like I've had.

P.S. Did I mention he offered me the best Espresso I'd had in ages?

Realtors and Home Stagers should be working together now more than ever! But how many have you actually met; more than just an exchange of business cards at a Chamber or Realtors function? We've all made presentations at Broker's offices, passed out cookies or brownies; had our drawing for a free Staged room or at one time, a Gas Card only to wait for someone to call.

Read on there's more. . . . .

Stagers let me tell you how I asked for a meeting and actually met a sharp, aggressive and nice Realtor and found out his firm has Preferred Vendors. I'd actually been introduced to Matt and his wife, a Realtor herself, at a Chamber of Commerce Business Card Exchange and had a good conversation with them there. You know how it goes " Yes, I'm familiar with Staging. No, I haven't used it yet. Give me a call sometime." We spoke more but I walked away thinking that this sounded like someone I'd like to work with. We traded calls and emails, and he finally called back to schedule a time.

Be patient, read on, I'm telling you why you should go ahead and ask for a meeting! During our meeting, he told me that his Brokerage firm has a Preferred Vendors list but that no onehad ever contacted him to introduce themselves to him. Not only that, he would be happy to put me in touch with the PTB who handle their list to see if I could get on it.

How do we know if we can be of service to someone unless we know what it is they need?

So has anyone out there been on a Preferred Vendors list? Would love to hear about your experience!

Everyone needs a little help when it comes to Staging their own home.

www.MrsHomeStaging.com

When you're Staging a home is it as difficult for you as it is for me to take pictures of bathrooms without seeing your reflection in the mirror? It's especially hard when the room is small. I'm so excited to begin my Staging Consultation that I often forget to get rid of "me" in my pictures.

Yep, that's yours truly in the mirror!

I've tried hard to maneuver myself so that I'm off to the side:

I'm the barely-there object in the doorway as reflected in the mirror.

However, it's even better if you're out of it completely. And, with the right angle you can capture not only what's in front of the lens but also other areas of the room as reflected in the mirror:

Over 80% of Buyers begin their home search on the Internet, giving higher priority to those listings that include several pictures of the property. As Home Stagers good pictures are important for our websites, blogs, and printed marketing material.

Helpful hints: *Take several pictures from different angles of a room

*Check to make sure you have sufficient lighting

* Absolutely make sure all commode lids are down

* When taking your "After" pictures try to show the room from the same angle as the

"Before" picture.

For more helpful please see Michael Yearout's latest blog. Michael's a professional photographer and his pictures are remarkable.

I'd been scratching my head all day and after finally choosing a topic, writing it in a new blog, adding pictures, and, yes, using Spell check, I had to restart my computer.

Since I'm still a relative "newbie" to AR, I've been "writing without a net" so to speak. I'd thought about writing my blog in a Word file where it could be saved and then copying it to my blog, but, well that would be too smart, wouldn't it. I did notice a message in the upper right hand corner.

"Draft auto-saved at 10:13pm"

What luck! I thought, that my blog would have been auto-saved somewhere. So here I am, computer restarted, logged back into AR and for the life of me, I have no idea where (if anywhere) my former almost-blog went.

I did a search to see if there might be a recent blog about this but decided to write a blog about it. So, unless I have to restart my computer again (it's been one of those days), then hopefully someone out in AR world will see this and give me a clue.

Until then, I'm going to restart my blog that I was writing in Word and copy it to AR when it's ready.

Wish me luck!