Meeting Matthew Finalson

At the 2010 RESA Confrence I was able to meet Matthew Finalson! I love him on TV as well in real life! His personality is so much like mine!

If you ever need a staging company in Ottawa Matt, Keep Capital Home Staging & Design in mind, we’d be glad to help!

Kristy Morrison

Staging & Redesign Professional

613-832-8958

www.CapitalHomeStagingAndDesign.ca

Posted via email from Kristy's posterous

2010 RESA Home Staging Confrence

Well,

I’m back from Las Vegas where this Canadian weather is definitely taking a tole on me! Burrrr (I tried to harness the weather to bring some back to share but I was not successful!)

So Shell Brodnax (the President of RESA) pulled together one AMAZING home staging conference! BRAVO

We had a huge line of highly educated home stagers as well as some staging celebrities!

Matthew Finlason from HGTV’s “The Stagers” attended and pumped the whole confrence up! His excitement for staging and Las Vegas was definitely contagious! If you have ever seen him on tv then you know what I’m talking about!

Bethany Souza also from HGTV’s “Designed to Sell” attended. I loved her talking about home staging and “Stage” presence and how staging on TV is MUCH different than staging in “Real Life” I was sooo happy to hear her say those words! Bethany is an inspiration to strive for the best!

We also had MANY very educational speakers. I have learned so much from each of them and I am VERY excited to implement it into my business.

Ricardo Bueno- Using Social Media to Grow your Business, I have implemented this from DAY ONE getting back! “Posterious.com” (what I’m using right now) will allow me to increase my productivity while still being able to remain a top social media contributor!

David Avin-  a “visibility coach” said it best in his book “It’s not Who you know, it’s WHO know’s YOU!” becoming top of mind is definitely my goal with in my business and David has given me the tools to define how I can do it. I HIGHLY recommend his book “it’s not who you know, it’s who know’s you”.

Ginny Mees- a Realtor® from California discussing networking and “women in business”

Audra Slinkey- President of a home staging & redesign traning company discussed critical key’s to websites which I’m VERY happy she covered! (Watch out for a new web site in the future)

Terrylynn Fisher- Working with Realtors® this subject was very interesting! We learned that we see the agents commision is 6% of $300,000 is $10,500 but of that everyone needs a piece of that pie so while many home owners think that their agent is walking away with an “Easy 10g’s” it’s not so simple! After marketing, broker split, company split, and approx 25% taxes they only come away with $3,000 (and that is IF they didn’t spend over $1200 in marketing a month) This was a real eye opener! I knew that agents did not take home 100% of the comission but now that I understand it better I can talk to home sellers on WHY they charge 6%. When you throw staging into the mix it is guaranteing agents DO NOT WASTE there marketing dollars because it’s a PROVEN fact that when a home is staged it sells 6% FASTER than a non staged home AND for more money! (this is also VERY benificial to the home owners because the price increase will reflect on their bottom line profit)

Lori Kim Polk –Working with investment teams. I love how they discussed how flippers and property developers need to stage there homes as well. To save and make money on there investment.

Melissa Marrow- Melissa spoke about becoming the “go-to” company and she is DEFINITELY that! In South Carolina she is #1. She currently has approximately 80 properties staged.

 (yes all at the same time!) this is the definition of being the “go-to”company.  This is what I strive to be, Ottawa’s #1 home staging company, we are well on our way but as a new business I am sure we will get there with time.

Kathy Neilsen & Michelle Minch- Talked about photography 101, implementing this in my own photo’s will improve my portfolio dramatically! Now all I need to figure out is how to watermark my photo’s

Ashley Whittenberger- owner of “interiority complex” a great company for stagers & decorators. Talking about pricing and how to figure out where you belong!

Eric Pelton- Lawyer (now I hate law it makes me sleep but he was quite good!) I’m going to TM, SM, AND © EVERYTHING now because I need to as a business, just protecting myself!

Mike Robbins- a VERY inspirational speaker! “Be yourself, everyone else is take” I couldn’t of said it better myself! EVERY stager is NOT equal! Were not, each and everyone of us have different personalities, skills, education, talents, and more. It’s what we do with who we are that will make the difference to our clients!

So as you can see my 2 days of non stop learning is going to serve me well!

I am looking forward to fine tuning my business, while still providing outstanding customer service to everyone with exception staging results!

I am also VERY excited for the 2011 Staging confrence!!!!

Shout out to some stagers I’ve met:

-Bernadette & the JERSEY GIRLS –New Jersey, Matthew Finlason –British Columbia (now California), Jeffery Johnson & Partner in Crime –Orlando Florida, Lisa Hall –Maryland, Lari Kim Polk –states, Heather Stewart –British Columbia.

SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!

Kristy Morrison

Staging & Redesign Professional

613-832-8958

www.CapitalHomeStagingAndDesign.ca

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http://capitalhomestaginganddesign.blogspot.com/

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Quick Tip: Accent walls

When designing a room, a lot of people tend to implement an accent wall into the decorating scheme essentially to add visual interest and design flair. But one mistake I seem to see time and time again is that the wrong wall is chosen to accent. The purpose of an accent wall is to highlight an architectural feature or object that you would like to act as a focal point. An accent wall serves no purpose if it’s hidden behind a gigantic china hutch, only revealing an inch of accent colour around the edges of the hutches perimeter. Chances are the accent colour wouldn’t even be noticed. And I’m not saying this is the worst decorating mistake you could ever make, but it really does not extenuate or compliment anything with great effect. Let’s remember to keep the ‘wow’ factor present in all aspects of your exciting new decorating concept.

I always like to see a wall with a decorative fireplace accented. Even a wall with a beautiful window treatment can act as a very attractive focal point. So, when choosing an accent wall, remember it has to have something to accent. Fireplace, window treatment, artwork, a staircase…anything you want. Give your accent wall the attention it deserves!

Happy decorating!

Jennifer

(Image courtesy of Google Images)

Kitchen Designing Tip #1 - Spacing Around An Island

Many people these days are trying to take advantage of the Home Renovation Tax Credit by updating their kitchens. Since kitchen renovations are usually a once or twice in a lifetime thing, there's no better time to change the layout if you are unhappy with the current one. Adding an island into a kitchen layout can be tricky, specially if there isn't one there already. You want to make sure that there is enough spacing around the island to work in the space comfortably. The minimum amount of space you want to leave between 2 opposite work surfaces is 36 inches. A more comfortable amount of space would be between 42 to 48 inches. You want to consider how many people are going to be working in the space at once. Also, you want to make sure there's enough room if you want to have a bank of drawers and an oven door open at the same time opposite each other. You want to feel comfortable in a space you are spending alot of money on as well as making it useful for yourself.

Natasha

Tips for Sellers, Emotionally detaching from your home

Here is a video on some tips on why emotionally detaching from your home prior to the sale of it is crucial! as well as some safety tips for selling when you have kids!

Decorating 101 - Part 3

A well decorated room is a visually interesting room. Think texture! Most people are tactile which means they like to feel surfaces rather then just look at them. Try to select fabrics, pillows and accessories that are neat to the touch and create personality in the space. As long as you have coordination within your design then you are off to a fabulous start! You can have a lot of fun with this element because texture is limitless, don’t limit yourself! Remember a room needs layers (visually) to create depth in the space.

Correct scale and proportion are also key to a well thought out space. In a small space, be weary of purchasing heavy or chunky pieces of furniture. Glass surfaces, for example, are great for freeing up visual space. However, in a large space, build up the bulk. Don’t go overboard but try to find pieces with substance to them.

Create balance! Try to avoid loading up one side of the room and then leaving the other side nearly vacant. Visual balance is pleasing to the eye so make sure there is some sort of balance, whether symmetrical or asymmetrical. Trust that your eye can pick up what doesn’t look right and never dismiss trial and error. You will find your solution eventually.


What's missing? A focal point. More Decorating 101 to come.


Happy decorating!


- Jennifer

(Image courtesy of Google Images)

How to measure for a sectional couch -Video

This video will show you how to measure properly for a sectional couch.
If you want to learn anything please let us know and we will be glad to try and make a video of it.
Check out more video's on our YouTube Page.