Staging : Sell your home faster, make more money

In this business, I really value the importance of my relationships with professionals involved in all aspects of house flipping projects. Real Estate professionals have a great insight on what is currently selling and where changes can be made to maximize profits on the sale. Contractors can help us with budgeting home improvement costs.

Where should you focus your efforts for maximum return on investment?

Cleaning/Decluttering

Fresh coat of paint

Staging

Renovations

The list is endless, so how do I prioritize?

Every home is different and our design style is often personal and unique. As confident as you are in your taste, I believe in the importance of getting a second opinion. Reach out within your network for advice on what can be done to your home in order to showcase it’s best qualities (and take focus away from it’s flaws!)

For example, an accent wall colour may bring the perfect focus in your living space, but most potential buyers will see it as a painting project (not move in ready/additional cost to them). Our condo had a bright orange accent wall… which wasn’t to everyone’s taste.

The first impression a potential buyer gets of your home is no longer by walking in during an open house! With access to multiple search sites and MLS listings,  potential buyers may click on to the next listing if the images do not entice them to stay longer on yours.

I scoured different sites and found a few very interesting facts:

1. 98% of staged homes sold above asking price (source HGTV’s designed to sell)
2. Staged homes on average experience a 3% minimum increase in final sales price, versus non-staged homes. On a $400,000 that’s $12,000! (Source http://www.stagedhomes.com)
3. “Your investment in staging costs less than the first price reduction” Barb Schwarz, Creator of Home Staging
4. “Homes that sold after four weeks on the market sold for 6% less than ones within the first 4 weeks.” Survey by the National Association of Realtors.
5. “The staged homes realized on average a 6.4% increase over the list price.” Coldwell Banker Broker survey on 2772 homes in 8 cities.
6. “Staged homes sell, on average, within 35 days of being placed on the the market. Homes not staged took, on average, 175 days to sell” Based on a StagedHomes.com survey.

Seems like a no-brainer to me. Don’t you? I would be interested to hear your experiences in home buying/selling. If you had to do it again… what would you change?

I love knobs… sometimes all you need is bling

The key to increasing traffic to your website is in the choice of title and key words for SEO, right? (I like to pretend I understand geek language). Knobs, check. Bling, check…I have a feeling this may backfire. Oh well, live and learn.

Adding new hardware to a simple IKEA dresser or thrift shop find can really turn drab furniture into an showcase piece in your home.

I’m obsessed with the US-store Anthropologie (they also own Urban Outfitters).  They have 3 stores in Canada (yeah, eh!), but they’re all in Toronto… What about Ottawa, Montreal and Vancouver? Seriously, couldn’t they share? They ship up North for a $20 flat fee (duty fees apply).

Great selection of knobs (check it out here.)

Alternatively, you can try visiting your nearest Pier 1 – Some of their stores carry a few different kinds. Hardware stores like Home Depot and Lowes are great if you’re seeking a more traditional look (chrome, brushed bronze, stainless). For an eclectic look; www.etsy.com has thousands of handmade knobs sold through different retailers.

Vintage dresser + Paint + Bling = BAM!

Credit for before and after pictures from Design*Sponge (original post here)

For my recent dresser transformation I spray painted the original hardware. (More $$ in my pocket!) 

Before

After

Thanks for stopping by my blog, until next time!

Those IKEA names, what do they all mean?

I woke up at 3AM this morning, sweaty and panting. Not from a sexy dream, but instead, a nightmare involving me and a giant human-eating IKEA dresser named VERISTAAD. I’m not kidding, the thing was chasing me (the last surviving human), around a deserted warehouse. Sorry Fender, you didn’t make it, you were too slow.

So it got me thinking… What do the IKEA names mean? And more importantly, WHO is living in my house?

IKEA is an acronym for I – Ingvar (first name of the founder), K – Kamprad (last name of the founder), E – Elmtaryd (the farm where Ingvar Kamprad grew up) & A – Agunnaryd (the name of village near his childhood home. What would yours be (if you actually grew up in a farm/house that had a name)? I grew up in a small town, but our house was just called “maison” (translation – house). But for the purpose of this exercise, my big-box furniture store would be called JFMF… it would probably make more sense in Swedish.

Wikipedia’s page has the break down of categories here:

• Upholstered furniture, coffee tables, rattan furniture, bookshelves, media storage, doorknobs: Swedish placenames
• Beds, wardrobes, hall furniture: Norwegian place names
• Dining tables and chairs: Finnish place names
• Bookcase ranges: Occupations
• Bathroom articles: Scandinavian lakes, rivers and bays
• Kitchens: grammatical terms, sometimes also other names
• Chairs, desks: men’s names
• Materials, curtains: women’s names
• Garden furniture: Swedish islands
• Carpets: Danish place names
• Lighting: terms from music, chemistry, meteorology, measures, weights, seasons, months, days, boats, nautical terms
• Bedlinen, bed covers, pillows/cushions: flowers, plants, precious stones; words related to sleep, comfort, and cuddling
• Children’s items: mammals, birds, adjectives
• Curtain accessories: mathematical and geometrical terms
• Kitchen utensils: foreign words, spices, herbs, fish, mushrooms, fruits or berries, functional descriptions
• Boxes, wall decoration, pictures and frames, clocks: colloquial expressions, also Swedish place names

I had a look at my recent purchases for one of my staging projects (read post here)

KIVIK fabric sofa – Kivik is a Swedish village of under 1000 habitants and a Scandinavian last name.

LACK coffee table – Varnish or angry (slang).

VIRSERUM frames – Another Swedish village, which ironically does NOT have an H&M.

ALVINE RUTA rug – Alvine is a Swedish female name… Ruta possibly stems from the Swedish turnip Rutabaga (learn something new every day!)

I also found this link that generates your IKEA name and furniture type. It turns out I’m a double bed.

Based on this information, my angry warehouse attacker was more likely a coffee table called LACK. 

Who’s lurking in your PAX wardrobe?