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Kristy Morrison
CEO –Capital Home Staging & Design
APSD Certified Master Trainer
with www.StagingCareersCanada.ca

(613) 832-8958 / info@chsd.ca
www.CapitalHomeStagingAndDesign.ca
@OttawaStager

Interested in a career in home staging? CLICK HERE
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Posted via email from Capital Home Staging & Design

A little help with my home staging business please… part 1 of 4

I get so many questions each month from our APSD Certified Home Stagers, Stager Pro’s, Property Scene Designers and of course, most come from the APSD Certified Trainers because they are moving at a very fast pace and need answers quickly! Here, I want to cover some of the most common questions, so I can give you all a little ‘help’ this month.

One of the questions that I recently answered was how to deal with homes that are priced too high for the market.  I think I answered this question for home stagers on the East Coast, West Coast and in Canada this month!  It is a great question because it means you are acting with integrity.  Is staging going to still help sell this home in a short amount of time if it is overpriced by $50,000?

Good and effective staging always helps but if there are 10 other homes in the area for sale as well and the homes are all ‘apples to apples’ and they are priced correctly, chances are, nothing is going to help until there is a price reduction.

In a buyer’s market, staging will help to sell faster and for more money, just like in a seller’s market, but your pricing still has to be somewhat realistic because today’s buyer has so many choices.

So what happens when you get called in to do a staging and you know that it is overpriced, that the staging is going to sit there and you can’t do anything about it?

Today, you have to be better than just another Certified Home Stager.  That is why all the APSD Certified Home Staging Professionals also learn marketing and business…it is not enough to just be a good stager anymore.

Before you go to the property, do your homework.  Take a look at the listing online if it is available.  Next, go to Realtor.org and Zillow.com to check out comparable listings and sales.  Make sure the properties are as comparable as possible.

While Zillow has not had a good reputation in the past for accuracy, today, they have really come up to par and are now an excellent resource to use.   Print out the information you find.  A few flyers in the local neighborhood are also helpful, especially if you have collected them (assuming you work in a regular area and can maintain a file of flyers) and not the asking price on the flyer, the selling price and the DOM which you can often find from the local listing agent, the MLS listing or on your local assessors site.  There are many ways, find the one that works best for you…*

***Continued next week!

***To receive Karen Schaefer’s APSD  Certified Home Stager Session #1 Free CD along with the Session #1 workbook, Karen’s book on the ‘5 Steps to Selling a Property or Listing in 30 days or less’ and her favorite Pocket of Emotion, just go to www.APSDmembers.com or call            1-877-900-STAGE      

Tags: a home staging business, Accuracy, Acting, Amount Of Time,Apples To Apples, career home staging training, career in home staging, certification for home staging, Certified Trainers, Choices,classes for home staging, Comparable Listings, East Coast West Coast, for home staging business, Good Reputation, Home Stager,Home Stagers, Home Staging Business, Home Staging Training,Homework, Integrity, Marketing Business, Moving, Pace, Realtor, S Market, Scene Designers
Posted in Home Stager, Home Stager School, Home Stager Trainer,Home Stager Training, Home Staging Business, Home Staging Career,Home Staging Certification, Home Staging Event, Home Staging Marketing, home staging statistics, Home Staging Tips | No Comments »

Posted via email from Capital Home Staging & Design

A little help with my home staging business please… part 1 of 4

I get so many questions each month from our APSD Certified Home Stagers, Stager Pro’s, Property Scene Designers and of course, most come from the APSD Certified Trainers because they are moving at a very fast pace and need answers quickly! Here, I want to cover some of the most common questions, so I can give you all a little ‘help’ this month.

One of the questions that I recently answered was how to deal with homes that are priced too high for the market.  I think I answered this question for home stagers on the East Coast, West Coast and in Canada this month!  It is a great question because it means you are acting with integrity.  Is staging going to still help sell this home in a short amount of time if it is overpriced by $50,000?

Good and effective staging always helps but if there are 10 other homes in the area for sale as well and the homes are all ‘apples to apples’ and they are priced correctly, chances are, nothing is going to help until there is a price reduction.

In a buyer’s market, staging will help to sell faster and for more money, just like in a seller’s market, but your pricing still has to be somewhat realistic because today’s buyer has so many choices.

So what happens when you get called in to do a staging and you know that it is overpriced, that the staging is going to sit there and you can’t do anything about it?

Today, you have to be better than just another Certified Home Stager.  That is why all the APSD Certified Home Staging Professionals also learn marketing and business…it is not enough to just be a good stager anymore.

Before you go to the property, do your homework.  Take a look at the listing online if it is available.  Next, go to Realtor.org and Zillow.com to check out comparable listings and sales.  Make sure the properties are as comparable as possible.

While Zillow has not had a good reputation in the past for accuracy, today, they have really come up to par and are now an excellent resource to use.   Print out the information you find.  A few flyers in the local neighborhood are also helpful, especially if you have collected them (assuming you work in a regular area and can maintain a file of flyers) and not the asking price on the flyer, the selling price and the DOM which you can often find from the local listing agent, the MLS listing or on your local assessors site.  There are many ways, find the one that works best for you…*

***Continued next week!

***To receive Karen Schaefer’s APSD  Certified Home Stager Session #1 Free CD along with the Session #1 workbook, Karen’s book on the ‘5 Steps to Selling a Property or Listing in 30 days or less’ and her favorite Pocket of Emotion, just go to www.APSDmembers.com or call            1-877-900-STAGE      

A little help with my home staging business please… part 1 of 4

I get so many questions each month from our APSD Certified Home Stagers, Stager Pro’s, Property Scene Designers and of course, most come from the APSD Certified Trainers because they are moving at a very fast pace and need answers quickly! Here, I want to cover some of the most common questions, so I can give you all a little ‘help’ this month.

One of the questions that I recently answered was how to deal with homes that are priced too high for the market.  I think I answered this question for home stagers on the East Coast, West Coast and in Canada this month!  It is a great question because it means you are acting with integrity.  Is staging going to still help sell this home in a short amount of time if it is overpriced by $50,000?

Good and effective staging always helps but if there are 10 other homes in the area for sale as well and the homes are all ‘apples to apples’ and they are priced correctly, chances are, nothing is going to help until there is a price reduction.

In a buyer’s market, staging will help to sell faster and for more money, just like in a seller’s market, but your pricing still has to be somewhat realistic because today’s buyer has so many choices.

So what happens when you get called in to do a staging and you know that it is overpriced, that the staging is going to sit there and you can’t do anything about it?

Today, you have to be better than just another Certified Home Stager.  That is why all the APSD Certified Home Staging Professionals also learn marketing and business…it is not enough to just be a good stager anymore.

Before you go to the property, do your homework.  Take a look at the listing online if it is available.  Next, go to Realtor.org and Zillow.com to check out comparable listings and sales.  Make sure the properties are as comparable as possible.

While Zillow has not had a good reputation in the past for accuracy, today, they have really come up to par and are now an excellent resource to use.   Print out the information you find.  A few flyers in the local neighborhood are also helpful, especially if you have collected them (assuming you work in a regular area and can maintain a file of flyers) and not the asking price on the flyer, the selling price and the DOM which you can often find from the local listing agent, the MLS listing or on your local assessors site.  There are many ways, find the one that works best for you…*

***Continued next week!

***To receive Karen Schaefer’s APSD  Certified Home Stager Session #1 Free CD along with the Session #1 workbook, Karen’s book on the ‘5 Steps to Selling a Property or Listing in 30 days or less’ and her favorite Pocket of Emotion, just go to www.APSDmembers.com or call 1-877-900-STAGE

Posted via email from Capital Home Staging & Design

Researching your niche to make sure it is fun, abundant and profitable. Part 3 of 4

In part 2 of this series we talked of the importance in creating a niche for your home staging business.  During this part I am going to show you exactly how to do the research in order to make sure the niche you choose is fun, abundant and profitable.

As you commit to your niche it is always tempting to slide backward.  It is just human nature as we fear that there will not be enough work.

That is why it is not enough to just love doing a certain type of  home or working with a specific genre of agent and so on.  You have to do your research.  Yes, it is always awesome to be able to do something you love and you are, by being in the home staging industry.  Now though, you must take the next step and do your research.

Let’s say for example that you have decided to focus on staging homes that are in the $1-$2 Million dollar price range.  You may have an affinity for affluent home, own several great home staging décor items that lend themselves well to high end staging’s and not enjoy doing small homes, hence your selection.

Now you have to go out and find enough $1-$2 million dollar homes in the area in which you are going to offer your home staging services.

There are 3 things you need to pay attention to:

1)    Are there enough homes in your home staging area within this price range to support your home staging business goals?  This is easy, if there are several neighborhoods with this type of home, the answer is yes, if there is only one, I would proceed with caution.

2)    If there are enough, how many are for sale, how often do they go for sale and how long do they stay for sale?  You need to make that there is enough turnover to keep your home staging funnel filled with home staging jobs and the only way you can do that is by finding out these statistics. Once you know there are enough, how often they get listed for sale, you also need to find out how long they stay on the market.  If they generally sell in under 30 days without any staging, they will be hesitant to use your services in a buyers market.  In a sellers market, this may not be the same case as then, they will be looking to get a higher price so you need to know what type of market you are in when you begin your research.

This is not difficult information to find, usually you can find it on the county assessors site, city-data.com, zillow.com or by calling a local real estate agent in the know.

3)    Finally, do they have a history of buying?  Specifically, do they have a history of buying home staging services.  Again, this is where your agent will come in handy as an agent that works the area would know whether or not these homes have a history of buying home staging services.  If they don’t have a strong history at this point, the other point upon which to inquire would be if they are trending toward home staging services.  So it may be a new idea or need in the area that is just now coming.  Either way it is great news.

Remember, yes, choose your niche according to what you love, and what you are good at but be a business person first and do your research.  That way, you will also love the income you are now making with your new niched home staging business.

***To receive Karen Schaefer’s APSD  Certified Home Stager Session #1 Free CD along with the Session #1 workbook, Karen’s book on the 5 Steps to Selling a Property or Listing in 30 days or less and her favorite Pocket of Emotion, just go to www.APSDmembers.com or call 1-877-900-STAGE

Tags: 3 Things, a home staging business, Affinity, best home staging training, Business Goals, career home staging training, career in home staging, Caution, certification for home staging, classes for home staging, Dollar Price, Focus, for home staging business, Fun, Genre, Home Staging Business, Home Staging Services, Home Staging Training, Human Nature, Jobs, Love, Million Dollar Homes, Niche, Staging Area, Staging Homes, Statistics, Turnover

This entry was posted on Monday, August 15th, 2011 at 11:28 am and is filed under Home Stager, Home Stager School, Home Stager Training, Home Staging Business, Home Staging Career, Home Staging Certification, Home Staging Marketing, home staging statistics, Home Staging Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Researching your niche to make sure it is fun, abundant and profitable. Part 3 of 4”

Posted via email from Capital Home Staging & Design

Throwing Marketing Mud against the wall with your home staging business.

« Researching your niche to make sure it is fun, abundant and profitable. Part 3 of 4

Throwing Marketing Mud against the wall with your home staging business.

The last thing I want to delve into during this series, when it comes to developing your home staging niche is that of marketing.  I could have easily discussed this at the beginning of this series but it fits well here too.

There is a saying in marketing when you have not clearly defined your target and thus spend your marketing dollars blindly which is ‘Throwing Marketing Mud against the wall.’

That saying made a big impression on me when I first started actively marketing my home staging business and then my home staging training services.

I realized that I needed to carefully define my customer so I could clearly craft my message and deliver it in the right form of media to my future client.  This means that I  was not going to be able to say everything to everyone but rather, deliver the correct message to the correct person and highly increase my chances of conversion.

The same is true for you.  Once you choose your niche, and do your research, you have to start marketing.  Wouldn’t it be easier to market to your specific client?  That way, you can easily define what is important to them, what sort of problems they are running into and show them the solutions to these problems in your marketing.

If you are trying to say the same thing to every client, you will be lucky if it resonates with even a few. Plus it puts you in the same category as all the other home stagers who are saying the same thing to everyone as well.  Now who do they pick?

Once you know your customer, craft your message to speak specifically and directly to them…solve their problems with your marketing.  Not only is this more specific and direct but you will be able to use your marketing dollars more wisely as well.

Now you can spend only on the marketing and advertising that focuses on your defined market instead of ‘Throwing Marketing Mud against the wall.’

So, if you like, you can spend more on them, resulting in even morehome staging jobs, because you don’t have to waste your marketing dollars on the clients that you don’t want to attract.

Ultimately, you will spend less time and money advertising because you can remove those clients and properties that don’t apply and put all of your effort into attracting the right client.

***To receive Karen Schaefer’s APSD  Certified Home StagerSession #1 Free CD along with the Session #1 workbook, Karen’s book on the 5 Steps to Selling a Property or Listing in 30 days or less and her favorite Pocket of Emotion, just go towww.APSDmembers.com or call             1-877-900-STAGE      

Tags: a home staging business, best home staging training, career home staging training, career in home staging, classes for home staging, Conversion, Correct Message, Correct Person, for home staging business, home stage training, Home Stagers, Home Staging Business, Home Staging Training, Marketing Advertising,Marketing And Advertising, Marketing Business, Mud, Niche, Target

This entry was posted on Monday, August 22nd, 2011 at 11:02 am and is filed underHome Stager, Home Stager School, Home Stager Trainer, Home Stager Training, Home Staging Business, Home Staging Career, Home Staging Certification, Home Staging Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

 

Posted via email from Capital Home Staging & Design

Throwing Marketing Mud against the wall with your home staging business.

« Researching your niche to make sure it is fun, abundant and profitable. Part 3 of 4

Throwing Marketing Mud against the wall with your home staging business.

The last thing I want to delve into during this series, when it comes to developing your home staging niche is that of marketing.  I could have easily discussed this at the beginning of this series but it fits well here too.

There is a saying in marketing when you have not clearly defined your target and thus spend your marketing dollars blindly which is ‘Throwing Marketing Mud against the wall.’

That saying made a big impression on me when I first started actively marketing my home staging business and then my home staging training services.

I realized that I needed to carefully define my customer so I could clearly craft my message and deliver it in the right form of media to my future client.  This means that I  was not going to be able to say everything to everyone but rather, deliver the correct message to the correct person and highly increase my chances of conversion.

The same is true for you.  Once you choose your niche, and do your research, you have to start marketing.  Wouldn’t it be easier to market to your specific client?  That way, you can easily define what is important to them, what sort of problems they are running into and show them the solutions to these problems in your marketing.

If you are trying to say the same thing to every client, you will be lucky if it resonates with even a few. Plus it puts you in the same category as all the other home stagers who are saying the same thing to everyone as well.  Now who do they pick?

Once you know your customer, craft your message to speak specifically and directly to them…solve their problems with your marketing.  Not only is this more specific and direct but you will be able to use your marketing dollars more wisely as well.

Now you can spend only on the marketing and advertising that focuses on your defined market instead of ‘Throwing Marketing Mud against the wall.’

So, if you like, you can spend more on them, resulting in even morehome staging jobs, because you don’t have to waste your marketing dollars on the clients that you don’t want to attract.

Ultimately, you will spend less time and money advertising because you can remove those clients and properties that don’t apply and put all of your effort into attracting the right client.

***To receive Karen Schaefer’s APSD  Certified Home StagerSession #1 Free CD along with the Session #1 workbook, Karen’s book on the 5 Steps to Selling a Property or Listing in 30 days or less and her favorite Pocket of Emotion, just go towww.APSDmembers.com or call             1-877-900-STAGE      

Tags: a home staging business, best home staging training, career home staging training, career in home staging, classes for home staging, Conversion, Correct Message, Correct Person, for home staging business, home stage training, Home Stagers, Home Staging Business, Home Staging Training, Marketing Advertising,Marketing And Advertising, Marketing Business, Mud, Niche, Target

This entry was posted on Monday, August 22nd, 2011 at 11:02 am and is filed underHome Stager, Home Stager School, Home Stager Trainer, Home Stager Training, Home Staging Business, Home Staging Career, Home Staging Certification, Home Staging Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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Posted via email from Capital Home Staging & Design