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MASTER SERIES CLASS: VACANT PROPERTY SPECIALIST 2.0 | May 1-3 2018

November 14, 2017 by melissamarro


  • Vacant Property Specialist 2.0
    May 1, 2018 - May 3, 2018
    9:00 am - 6:00 pm

Vacant Property Specialist 2.0 is an advanced course, for those who already have had at least some home staging training and experience.

Tagged With: hands-on training, home staging classes, vacant homes

MASTER SERIES CLASS: VACANT PROPERTY SPECIALIST 2.0 | March 27-29 2018

November 14, 2017 by melissamarro


  • Vacant Property Specialist 2.0
    March 27, 2018 - March 29, 2018
    9:00 am - 6:00 pm

Vacant Property Specialist 2.0 is an advanced course, for those who already have had at least some home staging training and experience.

Tagged With: hands-on, home staging classes, home staging training, training, vacant homes

MASTER SERIES CLASS: VACANT PROPERTY SPECIALIST 2.0 | February 6-8 2018

November 14, 2017 by melissamarro


  • Vacant Property Specialist 2.0
    February 6, 2018 - February 8, 2018
    9:00 am - 6:00 pm

Vacant Property Specialist 2.0 is an advanced course, for those who already have had at least some home staging training and experience.

Tagged With: hands-on training, home staging classes, home staging training, vacant homes

You get what you pay for. Cheap home staging can cost you thousands!

October 24, 2017 by melissamarro

It seems that our Jacksonville home staging company has been called in a lot lately to “fix” the market presentation of properties that were previously staged by other companies. Whether it is the listing agent contacting us, or the homeowner, the conversation always seems to go the same way. “We went with the cheaper option.”

Why the cheaper home staging company can often cost significantly more money. 

In any market, there will competitors who seek to win business by offering a product or service at a lower cost. The question is, is the value of your home really something you want to gamble with? Too often, sellers believe that there isn’t a difference between staging companies. I mean, it’s just furniture, right? Let’s check out some of the homes, staged by another staging company, that we’ve had to “clean up” lately.

800 staging in jacksonville flThis MLS photo, from an executive home in Julington Creek Plantation, was staged by a “budget company” who only staged a few rooms in the home. (Thank Goodness!) While the homeowners previously believed staging was a good idea to help sell their home, they left this experience with a sour taste in their mouth. After several months on market, with no activity, they fired the stager, and the listing agent and found a Realtor who knew that it wasn’t the home, it was the staging that was sub par.

Before I show you Rave Home Staging’s photo of this same room, let’s just discuss why this staging should not be considered acceptable by any Realtor or Homeowner.

  1. The plastic is still on the lamp shades.
  2. There is no solid focal point to the space. There are so many things going on, including an overly bushy ficus tree, drawing your eye away from the fireplace, that there is no real place to look.
  3. The furniture, art, and accessories used in this space, do not meet the demographics of the potential home buyer. Remember, I said this was an EXECUTIVE home. Does this scream executive to you?
  4. There is not enough seating in this room for the family that would live in the home. While you can’t tell from this photo, or the information I’ve provided so far, this is a 4 bedroom home. This is the only living room. While you may not have known that, the stager did. If you had the income to afford this house and this was the only living space in a 4 bedroom 2600 sqft house, do you feel like it would be optimal for your family?

Now. Let’s discuss how we approach home staging, and how we changed the space. First off, the lead stagers at Rave Home Staging follow a 3 point method of styling each property. First we determine how to work best with the architecture of the home. If the home is contemporary, then we will likely stage with more contemporary pieces. If the home is traditional, then you are likely to see a more traditional style. Next, we determine the demographic of the likely home buyer. How old are they? How old will their children be? This will give us a baseline on the style of decor that will most likely appeal to the potential buyer. Lastly, we determine the likely psychographics of the potential home buyer. How will they think? What kind of activities are this buyer likely to engage in? We create a lifestyle setting around all of this information. Let’s take a look at how that differs from the previous photograph.

lifestyle home staging in jacksonvilleNotice how much more seating is in this space than the previous space? It doesn’t feel crowded, but it does feel like the full room has been utilized. How many more people can actually comfortably fit into this room now?

Notice how the large mirror over the fireplace draws your eye to it? There is a clear focal point. The other two large pieces of art seek to balance the scale of the room, while drawing your eye up to the high ceilings. The room pulls out to feel like a larger space.

Style of furniture. The rich leather sofa, fur topped ottomans, and modern wing back chairs make the home feel richer, more luxurious. The combination of textures and textiles, wood, leather, glass, warmth, and sheen, create a cohesive space that potential buyers, in this demographic, aspire to live with.

The furniture doesn’t feel forced, or formulaic. It feels like a well thought-out designed space. As home stagers, we aren’t designers, we are marketers. As such, we need to understand all of the thought processes and triggers that create the urge to buy.

The result is always what is important. In this case, the home sold in less than a week after switching agents, and home stagers.

The BIG DIFFERENCE is not only in time on market, and the cost of maintaining a home of this cost.  The big change is what a potential buyer would pay for the other house, vs the one we staged. While all of the “bones” are the same, the perceived value is quite different. If you saw both of these homes on MLS, side by side, would you believe they had the same list price? 

A look at another home stager VS Rave Home Staging

Let’s take a look at another home we were recently contacted to re-stage. This time, the Realtor suggested that the homeowner hire us, primarily because they had seen the difference in the house above and asked that Realtor about it. The seller, convinced that they had done better research and would get a far superior product, but still spend less money than hiring us, contacted a different company. This was another one of those, stage only the key rooms of the home kind of companies.

cheap stagers in jacksonville flOn the surface, this Julington Creek Plantation Home is staged much better than the first home staging company. The listing agent contacted us, letting us know that the seller was incredibly upset at the level of staging in this property. They hate the all-white, beachy decor for this neighborhood. Since this community is a more traditional community, known for A+ schools, family activities, and sports, this style of decor isn’t likely to be too popular among those living here.

While I would agree with any stager that said that the seller’s stance on “all white” is more of a design decision, there are elements here that made me feel that the stager working on this property simply missed-the-mark. Again, let’s go through them, from a staging point of view, not a decorating one.

  1. Colors and styles are part of understanding demographics of potential home buyer, and not just decorating decisions.
  2. This 4 bedroom, 2271 sqft home doesn’t have enough seating for the family that would live here. This will make the room feel “too-small” for potential buyers. The general rule of seating is always number of bedrooms + 1 (as two people commonly share the master bedrooms) is the minimum number of seating. This living room has 4 seats – 3 sofa seats and one chair. That is one short of the 4 bedroom + 1 additional required.
  3. This same objection is carried over to the breakfast area. Again, only 4 chairs implies that this living room and breakfast room is only suitable for a 3 bedroom house.
  4. Rug on Rug. This is NEVER a good thing. Rug on rug implies there is something hiding underneath the rug, like stains.
  5. Dinky table in the TV hole. While almost everyone hates the TV holes that were popular in the late 1990’s, early 2000’s, when this home was built. The new buyers will have to live with it and this isn’t showing what to do to overcome the objection of dated architecture.
  6. The furniture is appropriate for the price point of the house, except there just isn’t enough of it. This doesn’t sheepishly imply that there is more room for stuff later, the awkward bar angle and tightness by the breakfast area, implies that it might not all fit, or at least “we didn’t know how to put it there and not look crowded”.

As before, let’s take a look at what Rave Home Staging did with the space after we received the contract, which was immediate by the way. The seller advised us that the staging company was honorable and when they heard about how much he disliked the staging, they immediately removed it and did not charge the full contracted price.

home staging in julington creek Julington Creek home staging

We don’t happen to have the same angle of this space, so I’ve included multiple photos so you can see how our version of the room relates.

how to stage with built in tv spaces

Breaking down the spaces again….

  1. Seating for 6 in both the living room and the breakfast room, without making the room feel crowded.
  2. Adding a console and TV in the nook show how the architecture still works for today’s family.
  3. Rather than ignoring the empty space toward the back window and simply filling it with a fake plant, we created a small office space for the family. As this is a fairly small home, and office space is important to today’s buyers, we’ve added value where previously there was none. It was dead space.
  4. Rich colors, full of texture, art, and design, match the buyer demographic more fully.
  5. Once again the space feels full, but not stuffed.  There are clear focal points and the usage of the rooms feel obvious and complete.

Just as before, if you saw both of these homes on MLS, which do you think would sell for more? Saving a few hundred dollars in staging costs is not typically the wisest solution when preparing your largest asset for sale. Instead of focusing on what you will spend, focus on what kind of return you would like to see on that investment? Then call the company that will provide that.

*** UPDATE ON THIS PROJECT *** This home went under contract in 7 days after being restaged and relisted! Now that is the success we are looking for!

Filed Under: Before and After, Budgets and Economics, Home Staging Blog, home staging skills Tagged With: control buyers eye, demographics, home staging, how we are different, optimal layouts, psychographics, removing objections, return on investment, vacant homes

How to make the most money after staging your previously listed home

May 9, 2017 by melissamarro Leave a Comment

So, you’ve finally decided to stage your home? The bad news is that you’ve already missed the buyer pool who would have paid you the most money. The good news is that you are in better shape to get top dollar than you were before you staged. In order for home staging to be effective, there are some things that you need to do NOW, however.

The best buyers for your home are always those who are anxiously awaiting new listings to hit the market. They’ve already been looking and haven’t found what they want yet. They are willing to pay much more than buyers who are just entering the market. Frustration and disappointment increase their emotional desire when viewing a properly staged home that works for their family’s needs. These buyers only exist in the first couple of weeks of your home hitting the market. After that point, you begin contributing to their frustration, not solve it.

Let’s face it, if your house has been on the market already, they’ve seen it. Sure, you may not have known about them, but that’s because they didn’t care about your home enough to make a showing appointment. If they did, and your house didn’t meet the cut, then you are definitely working against the curve.

stage your home before listing

When listing your house for sale, time is money…

 

How to make the most money after staging your previously listed home:

Update the listing with high quality photographs showcasing the staging. This can’t be over stated. Potential buyers are first shopping online and they really only care about the photos. If the real estate photos aren’t enticing, they won’t get excited. Quality photos of a great staging job, can create high levels of increased perceived value. This may create a bidding war, if you haven’t waited too long on the market.

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Change the price. This is one tactic that seems tricky, but understand that in most Multiple Listing Services (MLS), buyers only see what’s on the “hot sheet”. Hot sheet homes are ones that are either new on market (and you already missed that golden opportunity), have a change in status (like falling out of contract), or have a price change. Notice that I said a price change, not necessarily a price reduction. After getting the photographs back, have your Realtor reassess the pricing of the home with the current competition. Even if you only adjust the home by a small variance, say $100 in either direction, it is usually enough to land on the “hot sheet” and get buyers taking another look at your new digs.

Host a broker open house. A broker open house is different than a standard open house as the goal is to get Realtors, not buyers through the front door. Your Realtor will need to do this part. They should also have some kind of food and giveaway to entice other agents to show up. Since your home has likely been seen by many of the local real estate professionals, they will need to see that what they have to sell has changed. By seeing the home in a new light, they may realize they have customers who were waiting just for a house like yours (who may even have seen the previous before photos in MLS).

Invite the agents who previously showed the house back to see it. Yes. You are having a broker open, so this may seem redundant, but the agents who previously showed the house DID have a buyer who wanted a house like yours, but didn’t select yours. This is a great time to invite them back out to the house and get their feedback on changes. Find out if their customer has moved on, or if they are still looking. If they’ve moved on, get a commitment from them that they’ll show it again, if they have a buyer that is a match for them. They will. If you hadn’t showed them the change, they might not have, however. They instead would remember what their customers said about the house when they showed it before.

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How to make the most money selling your home:

Now that we’ve gone through how to make the most money after staging your previously listed home, let me give a quick piece of advice. If you really want to make the most money possible selling your home, STAGE IT BEFORE YOU LIST IT. As I said, at the beginning of this article, the best buyers – the ones who will pay the most money for a home – are there BEFORE you list it. Don’t try to save a couple of thousand dollars by waiting to see “if it doesn’t sell”. Even if it does sell, it can be guaranteed, that if you sold it without staging that you left money on the table. Period.

Buying a home is an emotional choice. People don’t buy four walls, floors, and windows. They buy a life. If your home gave them anything less, you were paid too little for it. End of story.

You may also enjoy reading: The Curse of the Vanilla Box. Selling an Empty House.

Filed Under: Budgets and Economics, Home Staging Blog, Marketing Tagged With: control buyers eye, home staging, home staging costs, marketing, perceived value, removing objections, return on investment, vacant homes, vanilla box

The curse of the vanilla box. Selling an empty house.

May 3, 2017 by melissamarro Leave a Comment

This is as real as any horror flick out there. Imagine shopping for a new home. As all the Zillow.com ads say, “you’re not just looking for a house. You’re looking for a place for your life to happen.” But what you find are either lived-in messes, where you will need gallons of paint, primer, and possibly a vat of Krud Kutter, commerical grade cleaning products, or on the opposite spectrum bland vanilla boxes.

Let’s take this fine specimen of a house. It is lovely in every fashion. Unfortunately, it is about as boring a vanilla box as it comes. Carpet: check! Freshly painted walls: check! Windows: check!

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Are you excited about moving onto the next photo, holding in anticipation of what it will bring? Does this home make you feel like this Zillow commerical does?

Do you feel the next phase in your life starting here? Do you think that image on Dad’s phone where he says, “If you have a bad dream, you can come to our room. Your mamma snores.” would have been so powerful an image if it had been a picture of an empty vanilla box? Would it have created the same imagination of the “dream life” Dad was trying to portray to his little son?

Let’s check out what this SAME EXACT HOME looks like staged and see if it fits a little better into the Zillow commerical “dream life”.

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  • come here if you have a bad dream
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Yes. These are the same rooms, from the same direction, taken with the same camera & lens, by the same photographer. Do they FEEL different to you? Yes. Of course they do. People buy homes on emotion. Once they get through all of the rough data, which home to pick is all a matter of connecting to it emotionally. I’ll let Elizabeth Banks showcase this point for me in her Realtor.com ad.

Just like those mini quiches, staging skews buyer’s perspectives. Unlike the quiches though, this isn’t a bad thing. Home staging showcases the possibilities of the life that could be lived in the home. Think of it more like It’s a Wonderful Life looped up with a little A Christmas Carol.  Sometimes seeing how things could be can really make you appreciate what’s here and now!

Filed Under: Home Staging Blog, Marketing Tagged With: entertainment, home staging, real estate commercials, selling home staging, vacant homes, vanilla box

Does home staging in Jacksonville really work?

March 30, 2017 by melissamarro Leave a Comment

The question regularly comes about, whether directly asked, or in a round about way, of whether home staging, here in Jacksonville, actually works. Can you PROVE that home staging saves time on market or gets the seller better offers?

As the owner of Rave Home Staging, one of my favorite things is to watch how quickly our homes go under contract. The argument could be whether that is because they are simply priced better than the competition, or whether the staging helped. This is when a good old nitty-gritty look at market comps helps prove the point.

A look at a $650,000 home in Queens Harbor Country Club

The owner of this home is one of our regular investor clients. This was his personal home. When deciding to live in the home or sell it vacant, he decided his family was better off moving out. Because he is very familiar with the value that home staging provides for his Jacksonville flip homes, he called us out to make a difference in this very personal sale.

One of the reasons that this real estate investor decided to stage his personal home, despite the fact that this would be a pretty heavy price tag, the cost of vacant home staging is 1% of list price, is because he knows that in the end, he will receive a return on investment greater than the cost of staging.

Now that his home has gone “under contract”, looking at the numbers, he’s absolutely right! Take a look at the photo below. In it you will see that 13440 Troon Trace Lane, Jacksonville, FL 32225 was only on the market 43 days as compared to similar homes, with lower costs per sqft, that took approximately 100 days on market.

jacksonville home staging statistics

The average price per square foot in this neighborhood example is $178.21. The subject house is 3,255 sqft. The average list to sale price ratio is 97%.If our investor’s house closes using the average ratio, they will sell for $630,000 ($193.54/sqft). This means that they will sell at $15.33 more per sqft, = $49,899.15.

The “high” cost of staging this $650,000 was $6500, and should, statistically create a return on investment of more than $50,000 to this seller. That is a 764% ROI!

So, let me ask you, would you write a check for $6500 to receive a check for approximately $50,000 at closing, approximately 90 days later? This is why professional real estate investors and home builders use our service. Isn’t it time “average homeowners” did?

Filed Under: Budgets and Economics, Home Staging Blog Tagged With: home staging costs, return on investment, roi, vacant homes

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Melissa Marro is one of the best known stagers in the US. She is an annual featured speaker at the Real Estate Staging Industry’s Convention held in Las Vegas and currently holds the position of President for the Board of Directors in the trade organization. Having grown not one, but two large home staging companies, one in FL and one in SC, in the last decade, her no-nonsense marketing techniques can help transform any staging business into a top producing local brand. Her company, Rave Home Staging, a Jacksonville, FL based staging and training company, is currently on target to hit one million dollars in revenue in 2017.

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