Not All Staging Bananas Are Ripe & Ready

So my home selling pets, would you like to pick a house stager but are not sure which in the bunch to hire? Plus does the fact that when you think about it, it seems like there are more and more people becoming Home Stagers almost overnight?

Well, you are right; it can be a tough to know which stager you should work with, especially since staging is still relatively new in most parts of the USA. You are also right if you noticed that there are many new bananas rapidly joining the staging bunch.

To make a wise and informed pick, you need to understand that unfortunately a “professional stager” may just be an average green Jane or Joe who just fell out of a training tree. Many are transformed into “professionals” because they sat through a one, two or three day foundation training workshop. That's it, as little as one day, and WA LA a new staging banana with a title tacked on.

So be wise, home staging credentials that hype “trained,” “certified” or “accredited” can be a bit deceiving… especially considering that it can take as little as one day to be trained and graduated from foundation training programs. This is not to say that there are well qualified real estate stagers who have been professional trained. But remember, above everything, the ripeness of EXPERIENCE trumps all else... even “credentials."

Unfortunately, the home staging industry is an unregulated wild bunch. Because this so... sellers are at risk, especially in this tough selling market. Actually, picking a green stager could cost you some green. So while staging looks mighty tasty, to those of you who are looking for some hope and help, don’t blindly accept the fact that a stager, with a horde of initials after their name, is experienced and fully yet knows what to do to maximize your homes staged appeal.

So how can you pick out a ripe experienced stager? Well, it is not the difficult, if you keep in mind that home staging is an “image” industry.

Considering it is a stager’s job is to create a good first visual impression of home seller’s property, then a good stager needs to do the same for themselves. A good stager knows the importance of and how to present a good visual first impression of their company and their work.

To start to weed out amateurs from the experienced, first consider looking closely at the stager's portfolio for examples of their work. Also, make sure that you ask the stager if they ACTUALLY staged the properties they show in their portfolio... believe it or not there are some foundation training programs that give green stagers a set of “starter” portfolio photos. Finally if you have any doubts, you can always ask the stager for testimonials from past clients and/or references.

So that’s it, considering its a jungle out there, this is pretty easy. That is all you need to know and do to be a good home selling monkey and pick the ripe stager.

Staging It Forward...
Me


POST SCRIPT of THANKS: Thank you to Rich at the "The Official Active Rain Blog" for seeing the merit in this post and selecting it as a WINNER in the Carnival of Real Estate. CLICK HERE: To read "The Top 10 Rides" in the 89th Carnival of Real Estate.

It's back

Te deck party that is. After a long, but not so hard winter, the Sheraton Hotel and Marina in downtown New Bern, NC is party central again on Friday afternoons. What better way to wind the weekend down than to meet your friends on the deck. Beautiful view of the Trent River, live music, food, and if you so desire adult beverages. See you there soon.

Turkeys in New Bern

Today I was showing property in Greenbriar, located in the central part of New Bern, and while my customer was checking out the back yard she cried out look across the ditch. Lo and behold there was a wild a wild turkey not 25 feet from us. First one I have ever seen. And who would have thought right in the middle of a subdivision.

Help is on the way

In about 3 weeks work will be complete on the stop lights in the James City area. For those that aren't familiar with what I am talking about, there are 4 stoplights starting at Williams Road and continuing through to Airport Road, Taberna, and Thurman Road. These lights have outdated internal electronics thus limiting the options of the DOT Engineers to time the lights in a manner that would allow for efficient traffic flow from one light to the other.

As we speak the DOT is replacing these lights with state of the art equiptment as well as making intersection improvements at Williams road that will help the gridlock that we have seen at certain times of the day. These improvements are not the cure all to our problems, but in the short term they are our best option. Let hope it works.

New Stoplights in James City

The internal electronics of the four stoplights in James City are going to be replaced within the next few months. These stoplights are located at the intersections of Williams, Airport, Taberna, and Thurman Roads.

Several months ago I met with a business owner in James City who suggested that better timing and a left turn light at Williams would really help traffic flow and reduce accidents. I relayed this information to DOT Engineer Duayne Alligood and several weeks later he emailed me and said if we could come up with $100,000 he could replace the lights at the intersections mentioned above and do some other improvements at Williams and Airport Roads to allow for easier left turns. Several weeks ago the General Assembly voted to give $77,000.00 towards the replacement cost and the DOT Division 2 Board Member Cam McRae committed to give the balance needed to complete the replacement.

Mr. Alligood told me that by replacing the internal electronics of the existing stoplights with state of the art gear will give them the ability to remotely control the traffic flow in the James City Corridor. By having the ability to remotely control the lights perhaps the timing of the lights could be changed several times a day to allow for peak traffic times. Hopefully the 4 stoplights can be timed in such a way that the residents in Taberna will not have the long wait, with no oncoming traffic, that they have to deal with now.

I would like to thank Mr. Alligood, Mr.McRae, and our legislative team for their help with this matter. There are long term solutions being worked on for helping traffic flow on Highway 70, but for now it is going to be the lower cost, common sense solutions, that we will have to utilize to help with traffic flow.
As with anything new I am sure there will be bugs that will need to be worked out after the new lights are installed. If you have any suggestions please send me an email at Tyson@Century21.com.

You Can Stage It... Even if THEY Still Don't Get It

In the 4 years I have been staging, I now notice a new trend taking place... the number of calls we get directly from home sellers, prior to their hiring of a Realtor, is on a sharp rise. But the odd thing is that while staging has been out there now for a number of years, it still AMAZES me how snubbed, ignored, and misunderstood the staging message has been by the Realtor community in general. For what ever reason, many Realtors seem to have shut down any possibility to understand any opportunity staging offers.

Why aren't Realtors getting it? Well, I have a feeling that what many Realtors think staging is... actually is not all that it is.

• If a seller goes on line and finds a list of "10 Things You Can Do To Ready Your Home for Selling" and does as it advises... THAT IS home staging.


• If seller’s Realtor then comes to look at the home and directs them to do 10 more things, that better readies their property for selling, and they do those things... THAT IS home staging.


• If a Stager is hired and they find and additional 10 MORE things for the seller to attend to and the seller and/or the Stager do them... THAT IS home staging.

Just as selling a house does NOT always require a Realtor, staging a house does NOT always require a Stager. However, home sellers who have worked with a good and reputable Stager have learned that we do see more issues that work against the homes sale and offer more creative ideas and solutions to ready/package/market a home for selling in ways they never considered.

First, and most often, the service a Stager does is give advice. We guide, direct and counsel home sellers as to what they can do to BEST to prepare their property for selling. A Stager can also coach sellers on how to quickly, easily and inexpensively accomplish and address that which can be done to help make the home more appealing. Consulting services from good Stagers are, in some markets, less then $100. If needed, Stagers can come in and help do some of the things that need to be done to prepare the home for selling… including “setting” the interior space.

Information is power. The more you and your Realtor knows and understands what home staging does and does NOT do and when to use our services , the more empowered you both are.

So don't let the words "staging" or "Stager" trip you up. While these words are relatively new, what we advise has been given as advice in real estate sales for year. All that has really changed is that there is an entire INDUSTRY now committed to understanding the intricacies of how a home can be best merchandised and marketed as a product so that it entices them to buy.

Staging It Forward...

Me

POST SCRIPT of THANKS: Thanks you REACHED.COM for seeing the merit in this post and selecting it as a WINNER in the Carnival of Real Estate. CLICK HERE: To read "The 8 Top Picks" in the 87th Carnival of Real Estate.

Fox in the Hen House or Quail House

The Craven County Board of Commission unanimously agreed tonight that we should ask our Legislative Delegation in Raleigh to pass a local bill that would allow for fox trapping from January 2nd till February 15th. They heard from area farmers, hunters, and a NC State Wildlife Biologist, and all agreed that the over population of fox in Craven County was causing problems with the decline of Quail, Turkey, and other bird and small mammals. Some were concerned that a rabies outbreak was imminent unless something was done to control the population.

Chipping Away the "PRICE IS KING" Myth in Home Selling

The way many Realtors and home sellers rely on pricing as a marketing strategy for home selling is not entirely all it is cracked up to be. Believe it or not there is a simple yet profound parallel lesson both Realtor and seller can gain from the way Lay's potato chips are packaged, priced, marketed and sold and how real estate is packaged, priced, marketed and sold.

First, lets me be clear... when it comes to selling anything, be it real estate or potato chips, price IS king. It is a fact that the selling market will only get the price the buying market is willing to pay... this is what makes price "KING". However, I think that too many agents and sellers collapse the concept of "KING" down to mean it is the ONLY thing that matters when it comes to selling real estate. They don't understand the total ramifications of HOW pricing is but one factor managed and integrated into the overall marketing and selling process of real estate.

With that in mind, let's crunch on the pricing lesson of the potato chip...

Recently I saw a persuasive news segment on CBS Sunday Morning. In the piece the correspondent reported on the dynamic and well-regulated world of food labels. Interviewed for the segment was the Product Manager at FritoLay that was responsible for marketing their "natural" potato chip product. FritoLay knows that while Classic Lay's Potato Chips (Bet'cha can't eat just one!) have been a snack "staple" in America for years, consumer tastes change. Because markets and tastes change, FritoLay knows they must ongoingly develop products… including potato chip products.

Surprisingly on camera, the FritoLay's marketing manger shared a company "secret" about one of their newer products... the Natural Potato Chip. She revealed that Lay's Natural Chips are for the most part exactly same product as Lay’s Classic Chips. BOTH are nutritionally the same product and are made using the same type of potato and are cooked in the same way. The only real difference, between the two, is that "natural" chips are salted with sea salt, a salt PERCEIVED to be more natural, are cut thicker and are put in bag that looks more earthy in color and has a matte (paper bag like) finish. Classic Chips go into a shiny red and yellow bag.

Ok, so what! Both bags of chips are the same. What's does that have to do with price?

Well, there is one other BIG difference between Lay’s Natural and Classic chips. FritoLay admitted that they put LESS chips in the Natural chip bag AND the then charge MORE for them. That's right, less product for MORE money. So if price really is KING, how could they get away with this? Well, FritoLay's knows that buyers buy what they want...some potato chip consumers want "natural" chips. Buyers do not perceive Classic Chips as natural... even though they really are. If FritoLay wants to sell chips to the "natural" buyer, they have to sell a product that is viewed as "natural" they know he packaging then becomes essential in driving home the "natural" point.

So even though these chips are basically the same, because the potato chips are packaged in a way that buyers can easily and visually relate to them... they buy them. FritoLay knows that buyers buy products, as simple as potato chips, when they connect to it.

Or said another way... even though homes are often the similar, when homes are packaged (staged) in a way buyers can easily and visually relate to them... they buy them. Stagers know that buyers buy products, as COMPLEX as a home, when they can connect to it. A real estate stager's job is to package a house in a way that the buyer will relate to. In a chip, THAT is what staging is all about.

So, while it is important for a home/listing be priced right, don’t be misguided into solely believing the "Price is King” myth… if you do then your home/listing may just end up sitting there on the market as a Real Estate Couch Potato.

Chip It Forward...
Me