Home Staging Indianapolis Blog

Houses on the market for sale should be considered products such as cars, shoes, computers, etc. It is the home seller’s job to present their product in an appealing manner that helps to influence the purchasers’ decision to buy. A house on the market needs to look different than a home that is being lived in by a family. In order for properties to compete enough to earn an offer, the home must look inviting and receptive to the properties target market; instead of exhibiting the style of the current homeowners.

How can listings compete while preserving the sellers ‘equity?

Properties that are properly prepared, packaged and ready for promotion are the properties that produce a marketing advantage. Minor home repairs, updates and pre-sale packing along with visual merchandising and emotional messaging are key ingredients in staging successes. Regardless of price and location, staging professionals can bring along a significant value to the selling process.

A staged and market ready property allows the house to compete for the best market position possible by looking more appealing to potential buyers.

The value of staging is easy to understand once you understand why it is important and how it truly can impact the properties salability; yet some homeowners are not aware of the advantages. Some homeowners may be under the impression that showing their homeas it is will entice buyers; they may believe their own sense of style and interior decorating is enough to intrigue any buyer in the market.
In most cases, this is not true. Such a belief can cost the homeowner time and money regarding the sale of the house. You can choose to be lucky and hope to attract a buyer or you can choose a more strategic marketing approach to home selling.

This choice belongs to the sellers, however working with a professional and qualified stager can help them understand the “what and why” that needs to happen and how to leverage their offerings in the marketplace with the proper use of target marketing.

Staging has grown in popularity and many houses on the market have been modified by some level of home staging. These houses are in a better position to sell quickly in comparison to a home that looks cluttered, unkempt, overwhelming, dated, and “lived in”. Of course, potential buyers will understand it is a previously-owned home, yet they still want to envision it as if it is a “newer” home, their “dream” home.

We still need to work on bridging the gap of understanding that staging is a marketing approach to sell properties and is not a decorating treatment to make a house look pretty.

Agents, are you looking to increase your list to close ratio and have your home sellers appreciate your complete marketing approach?

Wishing you a successful year ahead!

Linda

Linda Barnett and the Home Matters Home Staging team of Indianapolis, Indiana has been awarded the prestigious 2011 Angie’s List Super Service Award, an honor given annually to approximately 5 percent of all the companies rated on the nation’s leading provider of consumer reviews on service companies.

“Our Super Service Award winners are the cream of the crop when it comes to providing consistently high quality customer service, as judged by the customers who hired them,” said Angie Hicks, founder of Angie’s List.
Home Matters goal is quite simple; “we create stylish…. warm and welcoming houses that captures the buyers’ attention from the moment they are introduced to the property. We focus on the buyer demographics, the selling features, lifestyle selling techniques and the strategic placement of furniture, accessories and art that translates to a powerful marketing tool! By doing so it shows that staying focused on their clients and their needs; honors, awards and recognition will follow. This is such a special honor for us because it is the second year in a row and because it comes from feedback of those many home owners that have used our services.” Barnett said.
Barnett-A Staging Professional, Interior Decorator, former Realtor and Home Staging Trainer- founded Home Matters Home Staging and Redesign in early 2004 and today operates one of the largest and fastest growing Home Staging companies in the mid-west having serviced over 2,000 clients with 5 property stylists. Barnett- was trained in 2004 as an Accredited Staging Professional (ASP) and extended her education in 2008 by becoming SAR Certified, and again in 2009 by becoming certified as a CSP and is a recent graduate of the Staging and Redesign Advanced Staging Course taught by Matthew Finlason, star of the HGTV series “The Stagers”. Barnett- is lead instructor for the Staging and Redesign (SAR) course and is an Indiana State certified instructor through the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency and the Indiana Real Estate Commission offering certified training to Home Stagers and Real Estate agents including a GRI continued education classes on Home Staging for the Indiana Association of Realtors at the IUPUI Campus at Kokomo, Indiana. Barnett- served as Technical Editor for the Home Staging for Dummies book, which was released by Wiley Publishing, Inc. in May of 2008. Barnett- has received the RESA-PRO designation by meeting the 5 mandatory requirements the last of which was Passing the RESA-PRO Home Stagers Ethics Exam in August of 2010. Barnett is also a professional business coach and mentor for Staging Professionals throughout the U.S.
Home Matters has received much media coverage from television segments as well as many newspapers and magazines articles. Linda and her teams’ extensive body of work earned her a nomination for the 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 Professional Stager of the Year Award from the Real Estate Staging Association (RESA) and have been named “Best in Class” Home Staging & Redesign Company by the F.C. Tucker Real Estate Company for 2008, 2009 and 2010. Home Matters was named 2010 “Best of Indianapolis Home Staging Company”, by the Indianapolis Monthly Magazine. Home Matters also enjoys the highest of customer satisfaction rankings among all staging companies by Angie’s List and is the recipient of the Super Service award for 2010 and 2011 for Home Staging. Barnett- is President of the Indiana State Chapter of the Real Estate Staging Association (RESA), a position she has held since 2008. Barnett- has been asked to share her expertise in Home Staging on several occasions as a member of the Panel of Experts at the 2011 RESA Conference and again at the 2012 RESA Conference as a round table facilitator.

Angie’s List Super Service Award winners have met strict eligibility requirements including earning a minimum number of reports, an exemplary rating from their customers and abiding by Angie’s List operational guidelines. Service company ratings are updated daily on Angie’s List, but members can find the 2011 Super Service Award logo next to company names in search results on AngiesList.com.

Angies List

Indianapolis, IN Home Staging Professional, Gregory Henry, a design consultant and operations manager with Home Matters Home Staging was named Rookie Stager Of The Year at the Annual RESA industry convention held in Las Vegas on February 1st, 2012.

The RESA Home Staging Industry Awards are the most prestigious awards in the Home Staging and Redesign Industry. Professional Home Stagers from all over the world compete for awards in a variety of categories, including Professional Home Stager, Rookie Home Stager, Home Staging Business, Home Staging Product and Service, Home Staging Innovator and Home Staging Spouse.
“I cannot convey how honored I feel just to be considered, let alone win the award in this category” Henry stated. Henry is a graduate of the Atlanta College of Art with Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design with a minor in Photography. Henry also holds an accreditation for staging from ISRP.

Home Matters Home Staging of Indianapolis, Indiana also had finalists and winners in other RESA awards categories such as Linda Barnett, owner of Home Matters who was a regional finalist in the Professional Home Stager category and Gary Barnett, Director of Operations for Home Matters who won the Home Staging Spouse of the year award.

The winners in each category were first voted on by the RESA membership and the finalists were judged by a panel of Home Staging Industry experts.

For further details about Gregory Henry, Home Matters Home Staging and Redesign or for contact information please visit our website: www.homemattersllc.com.

What do you make of a professional home stager that advises some of their clients not to stage?

Well, I certainly want to continue growing my business which may sound odd from someone saying they advise some clients that it is not in their best interest to stage NOW. But one of the founding principles of my business is to be trusted by my clients. I have always believed that every action I take today is either building or destroying my reputation for the future. So, from day one I wanted to be known as someone my clients could trust and rely on. With our real estate agent clients, TRUST is a huge factor, knowing that when they place their clients in our hands that they are placing their own reputation in our hands as well. That is a huge responsibility and one I think needs to be taken most seriously.

Seems like every day we hear stories from our clients that make us stop and evaluate where staging fits into the selling process. It is not realistic to make the comment that everyone should stage their home prior to putting it on the market. We all know where staging fits into the selling process, but we find ourselves asking more and more where staging fits in relationship to return on investment and budget constraints compared to everything else that has to take place in preparing the home.

On some occasions, I am asked to evaluate the best use of a set budget amount that the home owner has to spend and how to prioritize that investment to maximize their marketing potential. And the factors I have to take into consideration can be overwhelming at times. Some of those factors are related to the condition aspect of the property such as outdated light-fixtures, countertops, cabinets, faucets and hardware, old tired and outdated wall colors and/or wall treatments, worn carpeting, overgrown or sparse landscaping and the list goes on and on and on. When a home owner is considering all of this the question inevitably becomes “What’s the best use of our limited funds?

As an example, with a $2,000 budget, there are things on this list that must be addressed before the staging option should be considered. Placing my nice furniture and accessories in a home in dire need of new paint, new carpeting and upgrades will get me and my business $2,000 dollars but do little to increase the marketability of the home and therefore does little to increase the sales potential. My best advice in those rare cases is to put the monies into repairs and cosmetic fixes first and then if there is money leftover then and only then should you stage the property. Condition issues and repairs should trump staging when allocating funds for the potential sale.

A cold hard fact is that not all homes that are “for sale” will be sold. The statistics are really staggering concerning number of listing verses the number of homes that actually sell.

“How far do we have to go before it is a sellable product?” It appears that if you’re not competing in the top echelon of your market on price, condition, presentation, one would have to wonder if your product (house) is really competing at all. And then there is “How far do we have to lower the price to make it a sellable product?” I’m not sure that is relevant in many cases today because there are many sellers up-side down or close to it, with limited or no funds to bring to the closing table and are left with the “all of my options have been exhausted feeling”. So with great sadness on my part, often times I’m helpless to provide the solution so many desire and truly need to project their properties forward and toward the SOLD sign. I can and do recommend they trade some creative services like cooking, sewing, for storage space at their neighbor’s house or take on extra work to buy painting supplies, but I’m sure to them it’s an insignificant suggestion and not the answer they were hoping for. In reality, I sometimes have to turn them down on staging before the condition factors have been addressed because I know that it is in their best interest that I come to that unfortunate conclusion. How about you? Have you ever had to turn them down because you didn’t want to let them down?

Many years ago Indianapolis residents used the name INDIA-NO-PLACE to describe our city. That was before auto racing reached new heights in popularity with the Indianapolis 500 open wheel racing craze, the NASCAR Brickyard 400, and even a short stint with Formula One racing. That was before Mayor Hudnut started the downtown revitalization project that completely gave our city a facelift, particularly in the downtown area and before the insurgence of many companies moving to the area cashing in on Indiana’s central location for transportation to all points in the Midwest and East Coast. And that was even before the Indianapolis Colts moved to town and brought with them many Division championships and even a Super Bowl Championship along the way.

Now years and years later in our world of Indy Home Staging we have seen big change that at least gives the impression that the name should more notably be INDIA-SOME-PLACE. Right?

Since starting Home Matters Home Staging seven years ago, we have seen our business grow from twelve staging’s that first year to well over 150 stagings and over 250 consultations a year. It went from a one woman operation to a five woman and two man operation. We have seen staging companies swell in numbers. We’ve seen the Stagers Expo come to town and this September 9th and 10th, we will see another spectacular event take place in our great city. Drum Roll, Please!

We will not only have the (SAR) Staging and Redesign Class taught here at the Home Matters Office by yours truly (Sept. 12-14th) but we will have (SAR) Advanced Staging Training taught by none other than Matt Finlason. I never would have guessed just seven short years ago that we could see a HGTV Star come to our staging world here in Indy. But at last it is true. We are Winning Big!

Matthew’s class is exciting and delivered as only he can do. He’ll be teaching us how to create exceptional imagery, some marketing and overall business concepts as well as…well just take a look for yourself at the outline for his class.

See the full version at http://activerain.com/blogsview/2416686/get-into-the-winner-s-circle

How home staging can help your house sell. Home staging is more important than ever these days because of the competitive housing market. Getting your home in order and following these home staging tips can give you the edge you need to help your home sell fast.

This is the title and caption of the recent video I worked on in partnership with the Marketing department from Angie’s List. The video is shown on their national web site to help educate Angie’s List Members about Home Staging. I am always pleased and very proud when asked to contribute to the public’s education about Home Staging. I’m even more pleased with this particular video because it is being shown to Angie’s List members nationwide.

Click on the Angie’s List Logo to watch the YouTube version of this video.

If you listed your home for sale this winter or are thinking about listing it yet this Spring, consider the impact of a thorough outdoor cleaning on your marketing photos, open house presentation and overall curb appeal. After nearly three feet of total snow, not to mention several inches of ice, this winter has taken it’s toll on Indianapolis’ landscape. There are some effective ways homeowners can revive their home’s exterior from the dead of winter and warm-up potential buyers during this Spring season!

The first thing to ask yourself is, “Are my shrubs overgrown?”. Do the shrubs accent the house or do they completely obscure the view of the home from the street? Are there far too many shrubs? Many well intentioned homeowners buy a plethora of cute, little bushes from one of the big box stores that have turned into an overgrown mass of shrubbery in a few years. So, start in early Spring by trimming back the overgrown shrubs and thinning out the masses to give prospective buyers a peek at the house that’s been hiding behind the foliage.

After such a harsh winter, often times you’ll find dead or sickly looking plants. Since you are wanting to sell as quickly as possible, this is not the time to try to nurse a plant back to health. It’s best to simply remove any unsightly greens, by digging up the plant altogether or trimming out the dead branches. Many flowers, both perennials and annuals, will have died back, leaving last years foliage and flower stalks. Simply rake out this plant debris and throw into the compost heap.

Next you’ll need to define the border where your lawn starts and your landscape beds stop. You’ll want to imagine connecting your beds with soft curves that a riding lawn mower could easily navigate and re-edge these bed lines with a straight spade. Dig straight down on the lawn side and at a 60 degree angle from the bed-side so that these cuts meet about six inches deep and create a V-shaped trough.

Lastly, apply a premium hardwood bark mulch, 3-4″ thick over all the landscape beds, being sure to keep the same thickness into the V-shaped edging trough you created in the step above. The lawn side of the “V” should keep the mulch from spilling into the grass. Spend a little extra time feathering the mulch smooth and you’ll get a much better overall look and feel.

Here’s a great small business that we found here in the Indianapolis area that makes the order and delivery of Indianapolis Mulch fast and easy! And I just love the video! http://www.themulchmonkey.com/

How many times have you wowed a potential client with your portfolio, only to have your moment of glory interrupted by the “deer-in-the-headlights” look that came over their face when you presented your quote to stage their home? This is exactly what happens when consumers don’t recognize the value of home staging.

Consumers typically buy a product or service based on their perception of its value in relation to its price. As home stagers, we need to keep this concept in mind as we try to convey the value of what we do to potential clients. Thanks to the ever-increasing media coverage of home staging and the highly-competitive nature of today’s real estate market, most home sellers now understand the importance of preparing their home before putting it up for sale. Still, home staging is a service which is often undervalued by consumers because they lack a clear understanding of the process and skills required to take a home from the “before” to the “after” images they see in magazines and on TV. So how can you help your clients recognize the value of home staging in general, and your skills and services in particular? I suggest that it all boils down to two basic points: education and differentiation.

Education starts with letting clients know that the price they pay for home staging is a wise investment. Your services are valuable because, by transforming their homes into products with greater mass appeal and marketability, you help ensure faster, more profitable sales. To prove this point, keep the appropriate national, state and local statistics on hand.

Education also includes providing information about the process of home staging (e.g., cleaning, de-cluttering, developing a design plan, selecting appropriate furnishings, packing, transporting, installing, de-staging, etc.). Clients tend to get a better sense of our value once they understand how much work is typically involved in completing a project.

Differentiation means letting clients see what sets you and your home staging company apart from the competition. This is the time to show off your credentials, your portfolio, your results, your statistics, your testimonials and your knowledge of buyer demographics. Including images of your warehouse, inventory, and delivery truck(s) in your portfolio or other marketing materials may help clients envision what you can do for them as a one-stop resource. Taking the time to provide clients with a quote detailing all services, fees and specific areas of their home to be addressed can further underscore your value.

Differentiation also means conveying the strong interpersonal skills that make you valuable to home sellers and realtors. With each passing year, there are more home stagers competing for clients by bombarding realtors and neighborhoods with marketing materials and visits. Often the stagers who get hired are the ones who not only have excellent technical skills, but strong “people” skills as well. Your interpersonal skills show realtors and their clients that you can remain tactful and professional in even the most difficult situations, which we all know to be a not-so-rare part of the home staging process. Good interpersonal skills will also get you welcomed back for follow-up visits and referrals.

Conveying your value as a home stager can be as simple as educating consumers and differentiating your skills and services from the competition. Keeping these points in mind will not only help you grow your business; but may have the added value of alleviating “sticker shock” when your clients see the bottom line.

Drum roll please…  Late last week we were notified that our company Home Matters Home Staging, Redesign and Training, located here in Indianapolis, Indiana has earned the very coveted Angie’s List Super Service Award for 2010.  The award is given to only 5% of the millions of companies rated by Angie’s list members from accross the entire country.  Obviously I am overjoyed that such a high profile company as Angies List has given us this honor.  The Home Staging industry is clearly moving into the mainstreem.

The following is the press release.

_________________________________________

Award reflects company’s consistently high level of customer service

Linda Barnett and the Home Matters Home Staging team of Indianapolis, Indiana has been awarded the prestigious 2010 Angie’s List Super Service Award, an honor bestowed annually on approximately 5 percent of all the companies rated on the nation’s leading provider of consumer reviews on local service companies.

“Our Super Service Award winners are the cream of the crop when it comes to providing consistently high quality customer service, as judged by the customers who hired them,” said Angie Hicks, founder of Angie’s List.

Home Matters goal from the very beginning of the company still remains in force today. They simply provide the most meaningful and valuable experience for their clients so that they can sell their homes and move on with their lives. By doing so it shows that staying focused on their clients and their needs; honors, awards and recognition will follow.   “This is such a special honor for us because it comes from feedback of those many clients that have used our services.” Barnett said.

Barnett-A Staging professional, interior decorator, former realtor and Home Staging Trainer- founded Home Matters Home Staging, Redesign and Training in early 2004 and today operates one of the most prolific Home Staging companies in Indiana having serviced over 1,200 clients with 4 design/staging specialist. Barnett was trained in 2004 as an Accredited Staging Professional (ASP) and extended her education in 2008 by becoming SAR Certified and again in 2009 by becoming certified as a CSP. Barnett earned the RESA-PRO designation in October 2010.  Barnett is a Home Staging Instructor for the Staging and Redesign (SAR) company and is also an Indiana State certified instructor through the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency and the Indiana Real Estate Commission offering certified training to Home Stagers and Real Estate agents including a GRI Continued Education class for the Indiana Association of Realtors at the IUPUI Campus at Kokomo, Indiana.  Linda served as Technical Editor for the Home Staging for Dummies book, released by Wiley Publishing, Inc. in May of 2008.  Barnett currently is a finalist for the 2010 RESA Professional Stager of the year award and has been a past nominee of this award in 2007 and 2009.  Barnett will be a member of the “Panel of Experts” at the upcoming 2011 Real Estate Staging Associations (RESA) International conference in Las Vegas.

Angie’s List Super Service Award winners have met strict eligibility requirements including earning a minimum number of reports, an exemplary rating from their customers and abiding by Angie’s List operational guidelines.

Service company ratings are updated daily on Angie’s List, but members can find the 2010 Super Service Award logo next to company names in search results on AngiesList.com.

For further details about Home Matters, Home Staging and Redesign or for contact information please visit our website: www.homemattersllc.com.

Angie’s List collects consumer reviews on local contractors and doctors in more than 500 service categories. Currently, more than 1 million consumers across the U.S. rely on Angie’s List to help them make the best hiring decisions. Members get unlimited access to local ratings via Internet or phone, exclusive discounts, the Angie’s List magazine and help from the Angie’s List complaint resolution service. Take a quick tour of Angie’s List and view the latest Angie’s List news.