Annie Pinsker-Brown | Stage to Sell, Los Angeles Home Stager

Home Staging for Seniors: Preparing Your Home for Sale in a Soft Real Estate Market

Ready to move into a retirement community or assisted living, but worried about selling your Los Angeles home in this tough market?

Professional Home Stager Annie Pinsker-Brown of Stage to Sell will provide you with easy and affordable tips to prepare your home for sale.

From de-cluttering to paint and wallpaper removal, we'll cover it all.

Come ready with your questions!

Friday, February 27th, 2009
10:00am

Culver City Senior Center
4095 Overland Ave.
Culver City, CA 90232

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Annie Pinsker-Brown | Stage to Sell
Owner & Principal Designer
310-384-1084
www.stagetosell.biz

"We get you to SOLD so you can get on with your life!"

************************************************
Stage to Sell is the premier West Los Angeles Home Staging Company.

Owner & Principal Designer Annie Pinsker-Brown is an ASP Home Stager, a member of IAHSP (International Association of Home Staging Professionals), an affiliate member of the Beverly Hills/Greater Los Angeles Association of Realtors and a member of the Culver City and West LA Chambers of Commerce.

Annie has Staged LA homes for Bravo's hit show "Million Dollar Listing" and TLC's "Property Ladder." She has also been featured in recent articles on Home Staging in Los Angeles Magazine, The New York Times, Costco Connection and Frontiers Magazine.

If you would like to see more of our Home Staging work, visit our website. There is an extensive gallery of before & after photos, as well as a list of our Staged properties currently on the market.

On Monday I attended the Brook Furniture Stagers' Appreciation Event in Los Angeles. I loved hearing from Internet Marketing Goddess and my dear friend Cindy Lin of Staged4More about all the things I could still be doing to increase my visibility on the web! Truth be told, I also loved having her stay at my house, read books to my kids and watch American Idol with me but that's a different story.

I also found Ashley Whittenberger of The Interiority Complex an inspirational businesswoman and mom. She's not only talented, but incredibly savvy and I learned a lot from chatting with her.

Sharon Ball's Feng Shui talk was fascinating and gave me a few "aha" moments about the why's behind Feng Shui principals.

Touring Brook Furniture's distribution warehouse was amazing (though it really was freezing in there). I was so impressed with their incredible warehouse, how they have a whole section just for TVs and one guy whose job it is to make sure the TV works before it's sent out! Not to mention an industrial size washer/dryer to clean their rental linens between jobs. There was furniture stacked up to the ceiling, but everything was clean and well-organized and it's obvious they run that place like a tight ship!

Not to mention, it was great seeing all the wonderful AR Stagers we know and love like Cathy Lee, Wendy Timmons and about 40 more.

Thanks to Michelle Minch and Stacey Bisel who put on the event. It was a great day!

Oh, and please take a second to vote for me (you can vote once a day!) in the StartUp Nation Leading Moms in Business competition! I appreciate your vote. :)

*************************************************************************************

Annie Pinsker-Brown | Stage to Sell
Owner & Principal Designer
310-384-1084
www.stagetosell.biz

"We get you to SOLD so you can get on with your life!"

************************************************
Stage to Sell is the premier West Los Angeles Home Staging Company.

Owner & Principal Designer Annie Pinsker-Brown is an ASP Home Stager, a member of IAHSP (International Association of Home Staging Professionals), an affiliate member of the Beverly Hills/Greater Los Angeles Association of Realtors and a member of the Culver City and West LA Chambers of Commerce.

Annie has Staged LA homes for Bravo's hit show "Million Dollar Listing" and TLC's "Property Ladder." She has also been featured in recent articles on Home Staging in Los Angeles Magazine, The New York Times, Costco Connection and Frontiers Magazine.

If you would like to see more of our Home Staging work, visit our website. There is an extensive gallery of before & after photos, as well as a list of our Staged properties currently on the market.

For anyone who read it, here's a quick followup to my original post on Murphy's Law and the Case of the Moldy Sofas.

As you may remember, we recently did some interior design work for the common areas of a low income housing development in Downtown Los Angeles. And much to our surprise, when we arrived onsite and opened the sofa/loveseat/chair/ottoman boxes, they were covered in mold.

Our vendor (EuroModerno) immediately contacted their supplier who said that the mold "should wipe off and stay off." But a couple of weeks later we went back to check, and a bit of the mold had begun to return. Well this was obviously not going to work for us or our clients, so we asked them to exchange the whole set for a new one (mold-free this time please!). Unfortunately (as Murphy's Law usually works), the set was out of stock so we had to wait another 3 or 4 weeks. But eventually the new set was shipped out and we went back this past Friday to finish up the installation. The new set was completely free of mold! We put the old set back in the boxes from the new set and Fed Ex is scheduled to pick them up next week. All in all, a happy ending to a crazy story. Now we're just waiting to hear back from EuroModerno about a partial refund for all our extra time and "hazard pay" for wiping off the mold the first time!

Oh, and please take a second to vote for me (you can vote once a day!) in the StartUp Nation Leading Moms in Business competition! I appreciate your vote. :)

*************************************************************************************

Annie Pinsker-Brown | Stage to Sell
Owner & Principal Designer
310-384-1084
www.stagetosell.biz

"We get you to SOLD so you can get on with your life!"

************************************************
Stage to Sell is the premier West Los Angeles Home Staging Company.

Owner & Principal Designer Annie Pinsker-Brown is an ASP Home Stager, a member of IAHSP (International Association of Home Staging Professionals), an affiliate member of the Beverly Hills/Greater Los Angeles Association of Realtors and a member of the Culver City and West LA Chambers of Commerce.

Annie has Staged LA homes for Bravo's hit show "Million Dollar Listing" and TLC's "Property Ladder." She has also been featured in recent articles on Home Staging in Los Angeles Magazine, The New York Times, Costco Connection and Frontiers Magazine.

If you would like to see more of our Home Staging work, visit our website. There is an extensive gallery of before & after photos, as well as a list of our Staged properties currently on the market.

I was inspired by Melissa Marro's blog by the same title to write a little about my own growth as a Professional Home Stager over the last 4-1/2 years. When I first started my Los Angeles Home Staging business in 2004, I was one of the only small companies doing Staging on the west side of LA. There were some Stagers who worked only on estate properties ($3 million dollar + homes), but only one or two of us working on your average every day properties. So many of the Realtors I approached in those days were under the impression that Staging was just for estates. Now that Staging has become more well known, we almost never have to answer the question "What is Home Staging?" I feel that's progress!

But I digress. I really wanted to show you some photos of my work then & now. I am constantly updating my portfolio because after awhile it just gets too big and I have to start weeding out. Now I update it monthly and remove anything that I can't stand looking at, which is usually anything older than 6 months! I am so embarrassed by the photos you're about to see, but I will put aside my ego in order to give you a good laugh and to show you that everyone has to start somewhere!

DINING ROOMS

THEN: Ok so all these old photos are actually all from the same house I did YEARS ago when I had first started my business. It's pretty obvious I didn't have much in the way of an accessory inventory at the time. I mean what was I thinking with that empty cake stand on the table? Or is there actually something in it in the corner? What is that? Schmutz?! Not to mention that the white candles in clear glass candlesticks don't even show up with the white walls behind them! This tablescape (and the furniture) are lacking any pizzaz whatsoever.

NOW: Ok, so this is better! Some colorful vases of varying heights on the tablescape, and a buffet in the background with a triptych of modern art to tie into the color scheme. Not to mention the furniture is much more contemporary and substantial.

LIVING ROOMS

THEN: This one just horrifies me. For starters, what are those ugly candlesticks on the coffee table?! I used to have this thing for putting all my rugs at an angle. Sometimes it could work - in this case NOT! I also used to just use the throw pillows that came with whatever sofa I rented to save $$$ on buying new ones. Now that I have over 300 throw pillows in my inventory I would NEVER allow a sofa to look like this - UGH!

NOW: Ahhh, much better. First of all the rug is straight! Everything feels more in scale with the room. I love the art, and as you can see, I used my own pillows to dress the sofa!

Here's another one I like. It just feels so much warmer! The colors aren't too matchy-matchy, but still they feel cohesive.

BEDROOMS

THEN: Now this one really makes me cringe! What was I thinking with that awful Ikea bedding? It looked so nice in the store! Now if I were held at gunpoint and had to use this bedding again, I would fold the bedspread down on the bottom third of the bed and let the white sheets at least break up the pattern. And I would've used lighter throw pillows and more of them to help distract from the print. And of course now I would never leave the night stand looking so empty without even a book or candle to keep that poor lamp company!

NOW: What a change! This Santa Monica condo has a much more contemporary look and feel. The colors are rich and modern, while the nightstands are tastefully appointed. And the art ties in with the beachside location of the home.

Here's another one. The wall was already a burnt orange color so we used that as our scheme for the art & bedding. My assistant almost killed herself getting those 6 mirrors hung in the perfect configuration, but it was worth it as this photo makes me happy every time I look at it! I also love how the throw is perfectly messy. I hate having my throws folded perfectly across the bed. After all, they're "throws" which, to me, means you throw it on and let it fall as it may!

Well, thank you for taking this trip down memory lane with me! I hope it makes you laugh with me and not at me for some of my Staging faux pas!

Oh, and please take a second to vote for me (you can vote once a day!) in the StartUp Nation Leading Moms in Business competition! I appreciate your vote. :)

*************************************************************************************

Annie Pinsker-Brown | Stage to Sell
Owner & Principal Designer
310-384-1084
www.stagetosell.biz

"We get you to SOLD so you can get on with your life!"

************************************************
Stage to Sell is the premier West Los Angeles Home Staging Company.

Owner & Principal Designer Annie Pinsker-Brown is an ASP Home Stager, a member of IAHSP (International Association of Home Staging Professionals), an affiliate member of the Beverly Hills/Greater Los Angeles Association of Realtors and a member of the Culver City and West LA Chambers of Commerce.

Annie has Staged LA homes for Bravo's hit show "Million Dollar Listing" and TLC's "Property Ladder." She has also been featured in recent articles on Home Staging in Los Angeles Magazine, The New York Times, Costco Connection and Frontiers Magazine.

If you would like to see more of our Home Staging work, visit our website. There is an extensive gallery of before & after photos, as well as a list of our Staged properties currently on the market.

This will go down in history as one of my most physically demanding jobs because there were (count them) 4 LEVELS! A basement office, the main level with living/dining rooms & kitchen, the bedrooms upstairs and then a gorgeous roof deck on top!

It was a lot of work but the Realtor & clients were thrilled with the transformation!

LIVING ROOM

This room was a challenge because of the awkwardly situated fireplace. The room wasn't deep enough to have the sofa across from the TV so although it may not be ideal for watching television, this layout actually gave the fireplace more prominence.

DINING ROOM

The dining room has both French doors leading out to the downstairs patio, as well as a built-in bar (not visible from this angle). As you can see, it is right next to the living room so we created a division of spaces with the placement of the sofa, as well as the plant.

KITCHEN

The Realtor mentioned that buyers had a hard time with this kitchen because it felt so stark with the white melamine cabinets and the gray countertops. The colorful accessories are all it took to warm it up. Also, though there would've been room for a small eat-in set in here, it would've blocked the cabinets lining the side wall. I felt the extra storage was a huge feature so I decided to leave it open, with just art on the wall.

MASTER BEDROOM

This room had great "bones" and only one problem. As you can see from the second photo below, there was a TV niche above the fireplace. However the niche was obviously built for the old style TVs and not the new plasmas. Only a very small flat-screen would fit horizontally in the space so we decided to Stage it as a beautiful display area and to have the agent speak to the fact that there are cable hookups as well.

GUEST ROOM

The second bedroom was large enough for a full or queen sized bed. And since there are 4 levels in this townhome, parents of very young kids will not be chomping at the bit to buy this place. So we decided to Stage it as a teenager's room or guest suite.

OFFICE

In the basement, right off the garage, there's a very large room that houses the laundry closet (to the left and not visible in these photos). When we came to see the space, the room was VERY dark and dungeon-like and the terracotta tile floors were cold, not to mention damaged. Staging this room as a large home office will show its appeal to anyone who wants a workspace in their home. We brightened it up with 2 lamps and brightly colored artwork.

ROOF DECK

I mean if you're going to buy a home in Southern California, you probably enjoy outdoor living and entertaining. And this roof deck has it all! There are actually 3 separate seating areas up here. The 3rd one (we Staged it with a chaise lounge & red umbrella) is back behind the very large AC unit (which we masked with tall trees), so some may not notice it on first glance. But when buyers head back downstairs after enjoying the view, they will see it through a large plate glass window above the stairs.

If you're interested in learning more about this property, visit the MLS listing for all pertinent details.

*************************************************************************************

Annie Pinsker-Brown | Stage to Sell
Owner & Principal Designer
310-384-1084
www.stagetosell.biz

"We get you to SOLD so you can get on with your life!"

************************************************
Stage to Sell is the premier West Los Angeles Home Staging Company.

Owner & Principal Designer Annie Pinsker-Brown is an ASP Home Stager, a member of IAHSP (International Association of Home Staging Professionals), an affiliate member of the Beverly Hills/Greater Los Angeles Association of Realtors and a member of the Culver City and West LA Chambers of Commerce.

Annie has Staged LA homes for Bravo's hit show "Million Dollar Listing" and TLC's "Property Ladder." She has also been featured in recent articles on Home Staging in Los Angeles Magazine, The New York Times, Costco Connection and Frontiers Magazine.

If you would like to see more of our Home Staging work, visit our website. There is an extensive gallery of before & after photos, as well as a list of our Staged properties currently on the market.