Montreal West Island, QC

Last week, a writer from PropertyWire.ca interviewed me for an article on home staging and its impact on the home selling process. PropertyWire is a new Canadian on-line community of real estate and mortgage professionals.

The PropertyWire article on home staging, "Staging as Added Value to Your Business," is geared more toward real estate agents, but anyone buying or selling a home may be interested to see home staging discussed from the viewpoint of industry insiders.

For the record, though, I'm not big on the whole cinnamon / baking cookies thing before a buyer comes to visit. It can seem so contrived.

And I don't think all family pictures need to be removed either. This is one of three common home staging myths that are referred to, but not linked to, at the end of the article.

I'd love to hear what you think of the PropertyWire article. Thoughts, anyone?

Originally posted on www.readysetsold.ca

I have a love/hate relationship with January. I love the feeling of renewal and fresh beginnings that comes with the first month of the year. But by the last week of this torturous, outrageously long, cold, dark, icy month, I'VE HAD IT!

And so it was that last night I dragged my sorry, grumpy self out of the house for dinner with some of my girlfriends at a local restaurant, Steak et Frites, here in Kirkland, Quebec. This is a group of women I lovingly call my Ya-Yas, so named after the book Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells. (If you haven't read it and you're a woman, you must run and get it immediately.)

My Ya-Yas are an amazing group of women who care, listen, laugh, share, complain on occasion, and fight the good fight.

And we do it all together every 6 weeks or so thanks to one Ya-Ya in particular, my friend Nancy Elliott. She is the social convener of the group, one of the best moms I know, and a person who always seems to have her priorities in order.

I left the restaurant feeling like my very soul had been hugged, and I awoke this morning fully re-energized -- which is quite remarkable considering the fact that I woke up at 4:15 a.m.

I am so, so thankful for my Ya-Yas, and for Nancy -- who pulls us all together, knowing it will be good for us whether we know it or not.

"All the home staging in the world won't sell an over-priced home." That's what Nairn Friemann, a great New York home stager, told us during my first day of home staging training back in 2007.

I was reminded of those words today as I went out to preview homes for sale here in Montreal's West Island and saw a beautiful house that's just come on the market.

The home is gorgeous: not too country and not too modern, well-renovated kitchen, nice lot, no loud colours to turn off buyers, no disproportionately large furniture eating up entire rooms, stylish accessories, lovely art and lots of light.

But it's over-priced...by quite a bit. And the agent knows it.

The owners of this home have undoubtedly heard from all of their friends that their house is absolutely stunning. And it is.

But friends don't tell you that the windows need replacing, that the garage floor is a wreck, that the roof is at the end of its life, that the low ceiling in the basement will be a problem for many buyers, that the bathroom hasn't been updated. (In the case of the bathroom, they're impressed that you've actually managed to do so much with so little!)

But these are things that a real estate agent will consider and point out, especially a buyer's agent.

Now, I'm both a Montreal home stager and a Montreal West Island real estate broker so rest assured that I loudly sing the praises of home staging and what it can do to help homeowners sell their home more quickly and for top dollar. But what staging won't do is sell an over-priced listing.

So sellers, when pricing your home, listen to your agent, not your friends - because all the staging in the world won't sell an over-priced home.

I'll take a month of doing better over 12 months of doing the same, any day of the year.

That's a mouthful, I know. Let me explain.

For every keen, eager and, OK, sometimes naive person who embraces the New Year ritual of setting resolutions for the year ahead, you'll find a wise, learned and, yes, more pessimistic soul who shakes their head at the futility of setting goals that are likely to be broken before the calendar even flips to the next month.

I'm in the former camp: keen, eager and maybe naïve. And I have no intention of going anywhere.

I know that some of my resolutions will not be followed for more than a few weeks. But I also know that some will.

And the bottom line is, I'll take a month of trying to do better over 12 months of doing exactly the same.

I'll take the positive effects of trying to take better care of myself in the long, cold, dark month of January over writing off my efforts at more exercise, more diligent vitamin-consumption and better eating before January even starts.

I'll grab onto the optimism that comes with a New Year over the cynicism of believing we can't reinvent ourselves and our worlds, at least to some extent.

I'll take good intentions over no intentions.

And I'll forgive myself for my foibles, along with those of the people around me, as long as I (and they) keep trying to do my best, every day, in whatever form I can, knowing that "my best" varies depending on any number of real-life circumstances.

Bring on the New Year! I'll try my best. Again and again.

Happy, happy New Year, my dear friends.

Originally posted at www.readysetsold.ca/blog

I've always been proud of what I did for a living. I was a criminologist for 18 years, and though I sometimes got flak for working for the federal government, people usually had the impression that what I was doing was honourable, that it would help make our world a wee bit safer.

When I stayed home for 5 years to raise my two sons, that too was honourable.

When I left criminology and started my Montreal home staging business, that was at least interesting and gutsy. I thought it was honourable too - helping homeowners get the most from their investment, and helping buyers see the true potential in a property.

And then I became a Montreal real estate agent. And something changed. Now, when I tell people what I do for a living, I usually get one of three reactions:

1. Suspicion. I see it in their eyes and in their body language (it's the criminologist in me). They want to get away from me as quickly as they can politely do so, and they certainly don't want to divulge any personal information for fear that I'm going to add them to my "contact" list and never let them go.
2. Pity. I experienced this recently on a trip to Los Angeles. Without fail, every person who heard I was a real estate agent looked at me with pity. "Oh, poor you. " I was not prepared for this. And then when I told them that here in Montreal, we haven't had the crazy down market seen in so many U.S. cities, they think I'm also a spin doctor (see point above on suspicion).
3. Boredom. Either they used to be a real estate agent themselves, or half their neighbours, friends and family members are or were. Yawn.

I help people sell their home. Their HOME.

And I help people find the house that will become their next home.

Home: The place where they will find peace, raise their family, seek sanctuary, create memories, gather with loved ones, find comfort, heal from wounds and mould themselves into the powerful creatures we all are meant to be.

There's honour in that, isn't there? There's gotta be.

Originally published at www.readysetsold.ca/blog