CMHC Market forcast May 2011 & what does that mean for staging in Ottawa?

CMHC Market forcast May 2011 & what does that mean for staging in Ottawa?

The CMHC has released their spring 2011 Ottawa Housing Market Outlook. I receive many questions how this affects the staging market so I figured I would take the time to explain how staging could work for you in the predicted markets.

"Current demographic trends will continue to put first-time homebuyers and downsizing empty-nesters at the forefront of Ottawa's housing market activity, thus raising the popularity of more affordable housing types such as condominium apartments, townhouses and semi-detached homes," said Sandra Perez Torres, CMHC's Senior Market Analyst.

This means that home owners that are selling the above type of homes are in the perfect position to make the most money from their homes when they are selling! Buyers whom are downsizing as well as first time home buyers typically have one of the following issues/ thoughts a) limited funds or b)  lack of desire to fix or address things prior to moving in.   Now how dose this thought pattern affect sellers? Well first-time home buyers as well as downsizing / empty nesters do not want to find a home they have to invest additional money into after the initial purchase of the home. They are typically looking for “move in ready” homes where they do not have to wait for a year to be built.

          Professionally staging in this market will help home owners maximize the value of their home by having it evaluated in a way that assesses ROI (Return on Investment) resulting in quick sales attracting multiple offer situations. Staging is not just setting up a home so it appears attractive it is MUCH more than that. Staging is effective marketing of a property. We assess many things that affect the purchase of a home such as: lighting, traffic flow, room sizing, focal points, cleanliness, inviting touches, and ways for the home owner to invest a small amount of money to result in a greater return. 

Majority of home owners turn a typical $225 consultation into thousands of dollars of savings BACK into their pocket. One home seller of ours last year turned their consultation suggestions into an additional $40,000.00!!

100% of our clients have either saved money or made more money through staging their home prior to sale!

For mor information on CAPITAL HOME STAGING & DESIGN, visit www.CapitalHomeStagingAndDesign.ca or call 613-832-8958

For more information ON CHMCH, visit www.cmhc.ca or call 1-800-668-2642.
OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - May 30, 2011) - Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) released its latest forecast for the Ottawa Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) today in the Ottawa Housing Market Outlook, spring 2011 edition.

Kristy Morrison ISRP, IDDP, IOP, PCC, VT

Property Stylist & CEO

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

Capital Home Staging & Design

-2009 Better Business Bureau Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics Winner

-2009 & 2010 RESA Rookie Stager of the Year Finalist (top 5 stager in North America)

Services we offer:

Home Staging, Interior Redesign, Colour Consultations, Furniture & Accessory Rental, Home Flipping Consultations, Interior Decorating Guidance, Organizing.

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Should you used a Decorator or Stager to get your home ready for sale? -Capital Home Staging & Design Ottawa

This is a question that is frequently asked who is better to get a home ready for sale a “Stager” or a “Decorator”! well let’s first start of by outlining the DIFFERENCE between decorating and staging.

1)      Decorating: Is making a home a reflection of what you LIKE and putting a stamp of YOU on your home. A decorated home says “HI! I live here and this is what I LOVE!”

2)      Staging: is making the home a house. Removing aspects of who lives in the home and preparing it so the home doesn’t have a statement of “I LIVE here” its more “Don’t YOU want to live here”

With those two guidelines I hope it is obvious now that a professional Stager is best to hire when getting a home ready for sale. Not saying a decorator cant do it but they should ALSO have their diploma in home staging as it is completely different! As a professional stager we know our ROI (Return on Investment)! We know that in a certain price point of home WHERE to invest your money so it results a HIGHER return on investment! A client I recently had was selling a $400,000 home in Dunrobin and her real estate agent hired us for suggestions. We did our tour of the home and determined that at that price point, location, and target market that replacing their well maintained laminate counter to a granite would NOT give them a return on investment as their “Decorator” friend had suggested few weeks prior! She said it is a MUST because the kitchen is the main room in the home! Although I do agree with her statement that kitchens are quite important when selling I DON’T agree that investing $5,000 on granite would result in getting the $5,000 back at the time of sale. If you are NOT going to make money by doing certain things then DON’T DO IT! it’s not worth it!! Instead of putting in granite take that money and repaint the dark walls or add carpet to your unfinished basement THAT is a better return on investment!!

You can find a professional home stager on the Real Estate Staging Associations web page www.realestatestagingassociation.com they are all listed there and if you DON’T see them on the list then maybe they are not the right company for you. I can talk about the benefits of using a RESA stager but that’ll be another blog! In short…..stagers that are a member of RESA take this industry seriously. They are held to specific ethics and standards as well as being deemed a COMPANY not a hobby stager.

Its your home, ensure you are making the right decisions prior to sale by working with a professional that has real world experience and know’s when to invest and when to save money with in your home.

Above you can see a DECORATED dining room is made to reflect the home owner. The STAGED dining room is more neutral and can appeal to many types of buyers.

Kristy Morrison ISRP, IDDP, IOP, PCC, RESA-PRO

Property Stylist & CEO

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

Capital Home Staging & Design

-2009 Better Business Bureau Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics Winner

-2009 & 2010 RESA Rookie Stager of the Year Finalist (top 5 stager in North America)

Services we offer:

Home Staging, Interior Redesign, Colour Consultations, Furniture & Accessory Rental, Home Flipping Consultations, Interior Decorating Guidance, Organizing.

See the full gallery on Posterous

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RESA 2011 Staging Confrence -Attended Kristy Morrison of Capital Home Staging & Design

I just got back from the 2011 RESA (Real Estate Staging Association –North America) annual home staging conference. The conferences started in 2010 and doubled in 2011. It was such an exciting experience to meet stagers from all over North America (AND we had some from Europe!) I wasn’t able to find any other Ottawa stagers (but I hear their were 3 others) at this event but their was a ton of Canadians! (Shout out to Laurie Cole in Fredericton! And the team of Toronto stagers too many to list!!)

The first night of networking and food was a nice way to meet the other attendees. I was also floored when people started coming up to me and saying how excited they were to meet “THE Ottawa Stager”….it was kind of fun being given that title I do have to say!! (Thanks for that one Cecilia Cannon –Chicago!) I felt like a mini celebrity! LOL

This 2 day packed event was completely mind blowing! I think I’m a learning junkie as I am so focused on learning all that I could possibly learn! Here’s what was on the agenda:

-Wealth Building Strategies for Stagers
-How to close more sales
-Building a dynamic repeat & referral business
-Inventory Management (THIS was quite exciting to find a program that me and my team can use efficiently!)
-How to effectively use accessories
-Growing your business by bringing on other stagers
-How to use your own staging statistics
-Staging your business……interesting right!?
-and much much more!

Then the awards ceremony in the middle served a buffet style dinner (you know I sat near the food!)

Now that I am back I am ecstatic to see that my team of exceptional girls were able to continue our appointments and got us to our JANUARY MONTHLY GOAL already!! Way to go girls! This dedication from my team members allows me to focus on rewriting my notes and starting to implement things in areas I feel we need to expand on.

Kristy Morrison ISRP, IDDP, IOP, PCC, VT

Property Stylist & CEO

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

Capital Home Staging & Design

-2009 Better Business Bureau Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics Winner

-2009 & 2010 RESA Rookie Stager of the Year Finalist (top 5 stager in North America)

Services we offer:

Home Staging, Interior Redesign, Colour Consultations, Furniture & Accessory Rental, Home Flipping Consultations, Interior Decorating Guidance, Organizing.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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White or off white which is the right choice?

I recently attended a paint seminar with a local painter and many local decorators and the white paint debate came up. Many designers were on board with a "famous tv designer" who says pure white is "wrong" and should NEVER be used. They all said that an off white is the best choice like "designer white" or "cloud white" for trim and doors. Well I STRONGLY disagree with the "never" aspect of the statement! Their is a place and time / situations where tinted whites are appropriate and when a pure off the shelf white is also appropriate.

Tinted whites are great when you want to lessen the intensity of the trim work when it is up against the coloured wall. But this is a VERY expensive way to go as all trim, doors and ceilings (unless they are painted a Colour) should match. This will take 2-3 proper coats of paint on every inch of space to the proper colour. Changing a door from white to tinted white can also ruin the look of the door as factory painted doors look better than a home painted door (spray painting them can also increase the price though they do look good when finished) Decorators really need to consider the home owners budget as changing the pure white trim to a tinted trim is it REALLY conducive and necessary to the design or is it a ploy "up sell" and get a bigger referral fee from the painter?
If the room would benefit from a tinted paint and you can afford it them go for it! I do agree that it does change the look of the room. 97% of people can't tell the difference between pure white and tinted white so is it worth it?

I do love pure white for many reasons and here are a few:
-Allows for easy touch up and spot fixing if you don't have a "tinted" white -save thousands of dollars by spot touching instead of full base board cutting in & painting.
-makes a great baseboard or crown moulding stand out as crisp, clean
-highlights architectural features

Now I am not saying your decorator is wrong but they and you need to evaluate your design concepts (ex: are you highlighting, hiding or minimizing the baseboards?) your budget, time frame and purpose. If you are SELLING do NOT waste time and money changing it into a tinted paint colour keep it simple.

Kristy Morrison
Capital Home Staging & Design
613 832-8958 / info@chsd.ca Www.CapitalHomeStagingAndDesign.ca

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Staging tips for the holidays!

          

Example of bad Christmas decorating during sale.                                                 Example of proper decorating during the sale of a home.

Christmas is a hard time of season to deal with as we work full time, have gifts to buy, parties to attend or host, and you may have added the sale of your home as well. Here are the top 5 tips for decorating your home so you can still enjoy the holiday as well as still appeal to potential buyers.

1) Think "Holiday festive" thank birth of Christ, Hanukkah, etc. you still want your decor to stay neutral so you appeal to the most amount of buyers. You want your decorative items to used to celebrate a holiday rather than a specific religion as Ottawa is multi cultural and we want to appeal to all religions.

2) Don't skip the Decluttering: when it comes to selling a home decluttering is a natural part of the process. Just because you may be in a time crunch because of the month don't skip this part as adding holiday decor to a home with out decluttering will be overwhelming. For every holiday decor piece you add remove one normal decor piece (or two if you have many decor pieces or collectibles)

3) Add comforting feelings: This is the BEST time of year to have baked cookies, cakes, cupcakes etc displayed and presented in a way that buyers want to enjoy the delicious treat! Because of the time of year you'll want to hit home with the potential buyers that their home could be just as cozy and comforting.

4) To tree or not to tree.....that is the question! Well if you can decorate the home in a festive way with out a tree i would say go for it. However if you have small children it will be hard to convince them that Santa will still be able to give gifts with out a tree. So when it comes to trees try and select one that is about two feet from the ceiling and as skinny as possible with out it looking top heavy. This will allow for more floor space to be shown off and give the appeal of a large floor home.

5) Curb appeal- You still need to attract buyers up into the home so don't put out anything large or what may be considered tacky by potential buyers. Hide giant blow up snowmen, reindeer, Santas, candy canes, snowflakes, or even lots of flashing lights. Opt in for the simple look as when it comes to selling "LESS is MORE" simple white lights lining the roof peaks, walk ways and large attractive windows (Note: if your window's need replacing or look rough don't highlight them with lighting)

 Now your ready to sell this winter season or maybe even decorate your home in a way that will appeal to everyone!

if you have any holiday decorating or staging questions please do not hesitate to call me!

Kristy Morrison
Capital Home Staging & Design
(613) 832-8958 / info@chsd.ca
www.CapitalHomeStagingAndDesign.ca
@OttawaStager + @CapitalHStaging

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2011 / 2012 paint Colour trends

According to the Ottawa Sun's article this weekend Sico paints and their Colour experts say their are three trend themes to look out for. They called them Inviting, Authentic, and Dazzling.

Inviting is the trend to make the house feel homey & comfortable. This is colours that remind them of familiar things that make them happy. Such as "clear sky's" (blue) "juicy fruits" (red) "strawberry & violet" (mauve) "sunny fields" (yellow) and shades of coral, moss green and lavenders. These colours are informal, relaxed, and allows home owners to cherish their home.

Authentic is very earthy and full of timeless beauty with wood, clay, earth and denim tones. Here less is more. Popular colours included sand, cream, blue, brown, yellow. These tones are supposed to relax and have a pleasing feeling.

Dazzling is energetic of clean pastels and zingy tints these colours are hot pink, brilliant yellow, lime green, turquoise. Thank goodness they said these colours are BEST applied as an accent wall or Colour blocked to a neutral Colour.

Now that i have read the article and see their predictions for Colour trends all i have to say from a stagers point of view is "I sure hope not!!!!" inviting and authentic colour's can be quite attractive for living (never for sale) Of all of my Colour consultations I have NEVER done a consultation where the owners requested the new trends nore have I recommended to do the new trends....why....well TRENDS CHANGE and that's every year! So unless you have so much disposable income your can paint your home every year I don't suggest a "trend" design. When we do a Colour consultation we talk with the client about colours they like and dislike and come up with a plan using those colours our clients like. Now with that said we also make suggestions as to thinking outside the box but the choice is ultimately up to our clients! What do you think of the new Colour tends coming up? Which set would you choose? Kristy Morrison
Capital Home Staging & Design
613 832-8958 / info@chsd.ca Sent from my iPad

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Free Hugs Campaign - Official Page (music by Sick Puppies.net )

We all need to open up a little. :)

Kristy Morrison
Capital Home Staging & Design
613 832-8958 / info@chsd.ca Sent from my iPad

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