Ryan McCann and Tilt

I am very excited to be working with an exceptional Edmonton Realtor, Ryan McCann. Ryan will soon be offering his clients professional photography as well as home staging consultations (from Tilt) with his listings.

With over 3200 brokers and Realtors in Edmonton, sellers have so many to choose from!!! Sellers can shop for Realtors that offer them the ‘most’.

I have found Ryan’s marketing to be unique and ‘with the times’. Why? Well, firstly, his business cards have a QR code on them that, when scanned on your smart phone, bring you to his website. My next business cards must have this as well! Too cool.  Nextly, his website is unique and trendy, and it looks unlike any other Realtor sites I have visited (do let me know if you have seen some unique ones out there lately in Edmonton as well). Check it out and you will see what I mean.

           http://www.ryansellsedmonton.com/

There are many factors that determine how quickly a property sells: price, marketing, condition of the home and location, location, location. Having a Realtor that is eager to do the most to get a property sold quickly gives sellers piece of mind.

Ryan's service comes with professional photography--great pictures that boost online curb appeal, heightening buyer interest, as well as a home staging consultation from me--designed to help home owners best prepare their homes to appeal to the most buyers. Going with a Realtor that offers these services, is a huge marketing advantage and I am excited to be a part of it.

Have a great weekend everyone!

JILL

Staging in Edmonton

Did you happen to catch the article about home staging in Avenue Magazine's April issue?
Here's the header:

Personality Crisis: Home stagers can make your house more saleable by removing you and your memories from the premises

If you already done so, check out: http://www.avenueedmonton.com/articles/page/item/personality-crisis

Not only is the article interesting and relevant to my life-- but I love the images too (by Daniel Rossi). I confess... I took a hard look at the crafted backgrounds and thought to myself "that would have been a fun set to have built".

Anyway, the article is written by Eliza Barlow but contains an interview with both Rhonda Wilson of Revealing Assets and Jill Gargus of Simply Irresistible Interiors-- owners of two other Home Staging companies here in Edmonton. I have had the pleasure of meeting Rhonda before and I actually do contract work for Jill.

Three years ago, after being a substitute teacher for awhile, I decided I wanted to look into becoming a home stager. I contacted a couple of companies seeking any advice on how they got into the business. Jill was actually the only one who got back to me. I constructed a portfolio of of the room re-designs I have done for friends and family in the past as well as some of the images from displays I have created at Treasured Memories.  Jill decided to take me on and taught me a ton about staging. After a brief relapse on chasing a career in education, I came back to staging last year! I plan on never looking back.

Back to the article. Barlow makes mention that "house-hunters don't just shop with their eyes; their noses are also in overdrive." So true! A couple of properties I have staged in the past few weeks have had "smells" and unfortunately, the best smell for selling, is no smell at all. Even smells that you would normally think would be 'good' smells can be 'bad' smells. You never know what people may be allergic to, or what smells they may associate with some unpleasant childhood memory. I personally blast our house with assorted Bath and Body Works wall flower scents-- but if we had to sell- I know they would quickly become unplugged.  My wall flower scents (as Jackson West, staging guru, would say) are great for dwelling, not for selling.

Check out the article and let me know if you found anything surprising or interesting.

Have a wonderful sunny day!

Home Staging on a budget!

On Tuesday I staged a split level home in the Millwoods area on a minimal budget. The home owners had little money to invest on staging but recognized they could use the advise of a home stager. In this particular situation organizing services were also necessary.

To stage the home, I tried to use most of what they had and focused on decluttering, rearranging and neutralizing. When I arrived the day before the home owner was still working on putting away some of the clutter and doing some painting as recommended so the before pictures are a bit chaotic.

First impression BEFORE:

First Impression AFTER:

Living room BEFORE:

Living Room AFTER: (The love seat was removed as one of the dogs was confusing it for a fire hydrant. Not a smell that helps sell a house. Also, this room could use an area rug but unfortunately the furry friend would have used it as the new place to 'do business').

Kitchen and Dining BEFORE:



 Kitchen and Dining AFTER:

Master Bedroom BEFORE:

 Master Bedroom AFTER:

Bathroom BEFORE:

Bathroom After:

Basement  BEFORE:

Basement AFTER:

Basement BEFORE:

Basement AFTER:

The house went on the market on Wednesday, and already there is a pending offer. Great news for the home owner, Realtor and Tilt Staging and Design!

Happy Friday everyone!



No Sale Tree Left Behind..

Attention stagers and home owners alike! Michael's has some great sales on faux trees... Faux trees- who cares right? For regular decorating, I agree- fake plants don't sound so hot BUT  for home staging (preparing your home to sell), faux plants/ trees are a must.

Great faux greenery
- Gives life to a space
- Adds natural colors
- Brings the outdoors in
- Can encourage buyers to look outside (Which is great when the surrounding area is a selling feature... if it  looks onto a shadey alleyway however-- consider drawing the sheers.)

Anyways I picked up as much as my car could handle... unfortunately it had some other things in it for a job that were taking up half of my trunk.  I managed to get 3 great looking trees for great prices. My favorite (the palm) was on sale for $80.00- STEAL of a deal. The other two were much less expensive and are more traditional looking. I will be changing their pots to black ones shortly.

Speaking of my car and its trunk.. A new SUV coming soon for me! I am getting a Volkswagen Tiguan. I wasn't quite sold on it (they don't make it in a standard with all wheel drive ) until the sales lady showed me that not only do the back seats go down, but the front passenger seat does as well. I will never have to leave a tree on sale behind again!

http://www.vw.ca/ca/en_ca/new_models/tiguan.html 

I like the grey and brown. What color do you like?

Out of the trunk

This weekend I finally emptied my trunk... I have had numerous items follow me home over the past week. I hadn't bothered to take them all out of my car because I had no chance to organize my storage space until now.  I have got to admit though- I sure was nervous parking anywhere with so many items in my car, just a window break away from being stolen... Looking back on this, what thief would really be interested in a tortoise print blown glass vase?

I removed most of what had followed me home (usually I get these sorts of tag-a-longs from Home Sense) and took a few photos of some of them. I did find other items in the trunk, however, that made me think to myself—how did that come home with me? These items are heading back today to find someone new to adopt them.

So here a few of the great items that did make it out of the trunk. (Please pardon the photos poorly taken with my iphone).

This vase was a steal of a deal!
Though these square canvases aren't anything too special, they are perfect for staging. They will add color without distracting buyers.

    

These awesome candle holders were also a great deal. Unfortunately I only bought 2 of the 4 they had. I later went back to take home the other 2 but of course they were sold!

 

I just loved this turquoise vase and had to get a little art to go with it.

Silk pillow covers, orchids, shower curtains, throw pillows, wall art- Oh my!

Who knows what will follow me home this week!



The Staging Warehouse

I finally checked out the Staging Warehouse in person today to see what sorts of things they have. The Staging Warehouse offers Certified Staging Professionals great pricing on well kept furniture to be rented for staging vacant properties. It is a great way to keep inventory costs down for stagers as well as to keep staging costs low for customers. This is a great place for me to rent clients quality items to bring their empty properties the style and personality that buyers want.  This sort of bare bone staging occurs when investors are selling rental properties, when flippers are placing properties on the market, when people have moved out of a property with little success selling, etc.  Staging a vacant property helps buyers imagine a lifestyle they may desire. Even though the stuff (furniture and accessories) doesn't come with the property-- buyers will get a higher sense of value in purchasing a staged property, because of the high end look.

Have a great day and enjoy the sunshine!

Add Color!

Adding color to this white room was easy! 
Color can easily be added to any room through wall art and accessories. It can also be easily changed should one grow tired of the colors chosen as nothing in this transformation was permanent.