Yes, the magical people at SayNoMore! Promotions have signed on to be our exclusive partners in making EcoJoe a SUPER PURPLE COW in your real estate marketing. As you know, EcoJoe is gift ready and everyone/earth/pet friendly, but getting your logo on there is even better!

The available areas for imprints include:

-Front of the box
-Back of the box
-Top of the box
-On either side of the box

Check out more examples of 1-color and 2-color imprints here.

In today’s competitive market, it’s important as a home seller to find cost effective ways to add value to your home and make it stand out to home shoppers. Many sellers will take time to research their real estate agents with great detail. When building your team of home selling professionals, shopping for and hiring a stager for your home is just as important.

If you run a search on Craigslist for “staging” under real estate services, several pages worth of stagers pop out. All of them promise to sell your home faster and for more. Good or bad, how do you know? Do you dare to use your equity to gamble on a stager you randomly found on the web?

Here are 5 tips to important tips when on how to hire a qualified stager:

1. Ask for qualifications. But don’t mistake this with the letters behind this person’s name on his/her business card as qualifications. When I was working as a Realtor, although I had passed my exams, it didn’t mean anything until I was out on the field.

Qualifications = how much work has this person done in the staging industry?

Ask to see resume, portfolio, past before & after pictures and certifications and continue education if this is important to you. Ask questions about their work when reviewing their portfolio to generate a conversation about how they might work for you. A nice starter can be, “Oh, tell me about the story behind this picture!”)

2. Ask for their professional policies. As a professional, for example, if you are a bank teller, there are certain procedures to follow when a customer shows up at your window with a wad of cash in their hands, right? If a customer is doing something inappropriate, such as depositing someone else’s check into his/her account, there are certain protocols to follow, correct? Similarly with running a small business, which most of the stagers are. You want to do business with someone who has strong ethics and professional policies because this reflects their professionalism. When your potential stager comes over for a consultation (many>>> Read more on Staged4more's blog!

Note: Staged4more is an eco-friendly company and we believe in recycling everything, including blogposts. This is the first in a weekly series of refreshed posts we’re calling “Restyled” from our earlier blogging years. This post was originally written in October, 2006 and has been “Restyled” for your reading pleasure. Let us know what you think!

Hey folks!

So I have had my flip cam forever and I have just been recording random family stuff and traveling stuff for my own amusement. I finally put it to good use for my business last night for recording a 90-sec video pitch for one of my business partner Edith Yeung's new pet project: bigsuccess.tv

Using flip is super easy, but I must say recording is hard. After an hour of bumbbling and mumbling, I finally had a decent sounding video to show the world. It was very difficult for me, because I was not happy with the way the lighting worked in my house or how I looked on screen. After 30 minutes fiddling around, I decided to screw it and take a less formal approach by sitting down and propping the camera in my face. Because the more formal sounding I am, I think the more boring I sound.

I was 20 secs over, so I had to edit everything done and cut out the unnecessary sentences. I was clueless since it was very first video recording E-VER! But luckily the amazing Mike Mueller came to rescue via twitter. (@mikemueller or http://areweconnected.com/) 3 hours later fiddling around Window Movie Maker, I was able to upload it to Youtube (first time too!!!)

Please take a look and give me feedbacks: http://apps.facebook.com/bigsuccess/watch?contestant=35

I think it's a little boring, but it's my first video (ever!) editing and filming, so I welcome any suggestions to spice it up.

Also feel free to vote for me: http://apps.facebook.com/bigsuccess/watch?contestant=35
and connect with me on facebook: http://tinyurl.com/3jryvf

My first video was not too bad of a disaster, but it was actually pretty fasinating and fun. Now I know how to put my flip video to use better, I will definitely record many more. No longer a video virgin....

Cheers,
Cindy

I was very honored to be invited and got invited to speak. The most incredible thing is of course visiting seeing friends in the staging industry and meet new ones.

If you are coming to see me speak, PLEASE DOWNLOAD THIS WORKSHEET:handout-los-angeles-stagers-appreciation-event

Brook Furniture is generously hosting a day of networking, learning and lunch for all Los Angeles Home Stagers. And the best part? Its FREE!

Who? All professional home stagers are invited

Where? Brook Furniture Distribution Center

18960 E. San Jose Ave.

City of Industry, CA 91748

When? Monday February 9, 2009, 10:00AM

The Agenda:

10:00 - 11:00 AM Networking and socializing

11:00 AM-12:00 Noon Presentation about SEO (search engine optimization) by Professional Stager Cindy Lin of Staged4more

12:00 - 1:00PM Lunch and presentation about adding custom window treatments to your offerings for additional income, presented by Ashley Whittenberger from The Interiority Complex. Lunch is generously provided by Brook Furniture.

1:00 - 2:00 PM Tour of the Brook Furniture Distribution Center. A behind the scenes look at their warehouse facility.

2:00 - 3:00 PM Presentation about Feng Shui and how it applies to home staging by Feng Shui Expert Sharon Ball

3:00 - 4:00 PM Additional networking and socializing

This event is free, but please RSVP so we can get an accurate head count. Here is a link to the Evite:

If you have any questions, you can email Michelle Minch at Michelle@MovingMountainsDesign.com or contact Connie Tebyani (805)553-9952 or Connie@PlatinumHomeStaging.com .

I look forward to seeing you all there!

Hello ladies & gents

I am in the process of finishing up my book on real estate marketing that is set for publishing this spring and want to incorporate a few more case studies.

Please email me cindy@staged4more.com if you are interested. I am looking for case studies of agents who:
*transformed their businesses after incorporating home staging as selling strategy
*have successes of selling homes after the properties are staged:
if this is the case, please share the details of the listing: listing price, sold price, days on market, sellers' comments, etc.

These interviews will be done via podcasts or blog formats and will be incorporate into the book as well (double exposure!) I am looking to incorporate success stories nationwide.

Cheers,
Cindy

cindy@staged4more.com