Every once in a while I run across a great article. Kari McCoy has been a Realtor for 25 years and owns the Kari McCoy Group, Residential Real Estate, at Coldwell Banker. She wrote a recent response to a question titled, "Is staging a waste of money?"   This question was in the opinion area of My Roseville Blogsite. I thought her response was very timely and to the point. Clearly this Realtor knows the value that Home Staging brings to her clients.

Dear Kari:
I am changing jobs and my wife and I need to sell our home quickly, but we don't want to give it away. My wife has been talking with several of her Realtor friends and they say we must have our home staged. Our house looks fine and my wife does a great job. Do we really have to spend money on this staging thing?

Answer:
The good old saying in residential real estate is, "The way we live in a home and the way we sell a house are two different things" and that "less is more." Statistically, a staged house will sell faster, and for more money.
When your home is put up for sale, your house becomes a product again and must be presented in a way that will appeal to both a broad range of tastes, as well as people.
Staging is the idea of highlighting the positives and minimizing the negatives so that you have a better edge than the competition.
Make your house more desirable than all those homes that are competing with yours. The idea is to win. How do you win and get the best price and the quickest sale? Home staging!
When you sell your home, you need to shift gears from regarding it as your home to the thinking of it as a product.
Staging does not usually mean spending a lot of money or time. It neutralizes your home so that potential buyers can see the property for sale instead of the furnishings inside it.
The old adage that you get only 15 seconds to make a good first impression is as true with a home as it is with people.
Home staging is not to be confused with home decorating. To stage your home, clear the clutter, make the space look larger and depersonalize it by removing family photos and collectibles.
Usually the stager will try to work with items that are in the home already. The case may be just moving them around, or into other rooms. This holds true for both the interior and the exterior.
For example, if there are big trees which block the house, you can trim them or remove them altogether. Once you neutralize or take items away, you make room so the buyers can better imagine their own things in the house.
Staging the exterior of the home can make a small yard look large, too. It can create ambience and make the buyer want to stay in your yard, and not run off to the next 55 homes the Realtor has to show them.
Please know that in today's market, you definitely need more than cookies in the oven and flowers on the table when you're selling your home.
The wall colors should be natural or tastefully chosen by a profession decorator.
Ask yourself, "What is going to get us chosen over the other 250 houses?"
Right when the buyers hit the front door, you want to make them feel the very best about your home. Remember, you are not selling your home, you are selling your house.
Staging is one of the best advantages you can provide for your property. Ask your local Realtor if he or she can provide you with a list of professional stagers.
Talk with more than one and ask questions such as "How will they tackle your home, "What do they recommend" and "What are the fees or costs?"
Kari McCoy has been a Realtor for 25 years and owns the Kari McCoy Group, Residential Real Estate, at Coldwell Banker. She can be reached at 941-9540, sold@karimccoygroup.com or at karimccoy.com.

Artful Journey Designs and Staging has partnered with stager Ryan Dressel of Stage Right Design to best serve the home staging needs of the Sacramento area including Roseville, Granite Bay, Rocklin and Lincoln. Together they have created Stage Right Design with unbelievable home staging for clients. Their team has made a positive mark for home staging in the Sacramento area with over $79 million worth of Real Estate, in which 87% of the staged homes sold for their list price or above. Most of their staged homes have sold in the first 20 days, the quickest being a full price offer of $2.5M during the Staging. Their goal is to help you sell your home with honesty and integrity as professional real estate stagers who know what it takes.
Stage Right Design is the only home staging company that will help market the homes that they stage. They send out a "New Listing" blast to their client base of over 3000. They also have a special "Investor Package" designed for multiple listings.  Sign up for their Listing Updates. You won't want to miss out on any of these beautiful staged homes. Do you have buyers?
Call today 916-300-0402
Visit them at: http://stagerightdesignllc.com  or  http://artfuljourney.net

Savvy Investors in today's market are calling on the services of Sacramento's Premier Staging Companies:  Artful  Journey and Stage Right Design 
The Roseville, Rocklin, and Granite Bay areas, are booming with foreclosures and investment properties.  There are great buys in these areas and with the help of professional home staging services, these properties are selling in record time.
These investors are NOT just your average "flippers".  They really do make the home the best that it can be that shows well for prospective buyers.

This Granite Bay home, was a recent foreclosure. It was completely remodeled and upgraded. Before it was listed for sale, these smart investors called upon the services of Artful Journey and Stage Right Design.  They purchased one of our "Investor Packages". It was staged in one day, received multiple offers 2 days later and is SOLD within 1 week!  This Investor knew that the home needed to be shown in its best light with warmth and personality. They were on a tight budget and they wanted to get a good return on their investment... and they sure did. Not only were the investors happy, the REA who sold it was happy, and the neighbors were thrilled to see the upgrades and sale of this beautiful home in their neighborhood!
Isn't that what selling homes is all about?

To be a successful Realtor®, you must have client leads. No leads, no business; it is that simple. You may feel that your job is to sell homes, and it is if you have leads. It may be helpful to think of yourself as a lead generator first and Realtor second. Qualified leads are what will help you grow your business and keep you in business.
When business was great and you had more business than you could handle, who needed to market? The phone rang off the hook, bidding wars occurred on front lawns, you quickly learned how to write a contract faster than your competitor and actively cultivating leads was not required. Bidding wars and the phones ringing off the hook are no longer happening. That kind of business is a distant memory.

Use the following techniques to fill your pipeline with qualified leads:

1. Set a homes sold goal to determine the number of leads you need to generate. If you want to sell 50 homes a year (a modest number), you need to average 4 home sales a month. The number of leads you need to generate depends on following the lead quality and your conversion to sale ability. If your lead is of reasonable quality, you can expect to convert at least 2 of every 12 leads into a sale. That means you need at least 24 leads a month to close 4 loans. The 12:2 ratio is based on a database size of 300 and is your warm list. This is your referrals and repeat business list. Your conversion rate may vary depending on your database size, experience and sales ability.
To help you market more effectively, track your leads and identify where the lead came from. By doing this you will be able to determine which marketing tactics are the most dollar productive.

2. Know your profession. This seems obvious. But, knowing your profession is about more than just knowing your subdivision. The real estate profession is complex and constantly changing. Knowledge of industry trends, knowing neighborhoods, the types of houses within subdivisions, the school system and sales ability is required. Converting leads into sales requires a good foundation in sales techniques. It won%u2019t matter how many leads you get if you can not convert them into closeings.

3. Identify and construct your databases. To generate a large quantity of leads, you will likely want to market to different target markets.
These markets can include:

Warm list (personal sphere)  friends, family and past clients. This group will provide you referrals (if you ask) and repeat business. To receive referrals from this group stay in contact on a frequent and consistent basis.

Cold list geographic or demographic farm. This group will provide leads once they get to know you, which takes time (12-36 months). To build trust with this group contact them at regular intervals and provide something of value such as an informative brochure, educational seminar, useful homeowner tips etc.
Your databases are the gold in your business. It is important to keep it up to date so that you have a powerful referral and repeat business generator. The number of homes you sell is in direct proportion to the size and quality of your databases.

4. Choose how you want to contact your warm and cold list.
Although you may choose different marketing methods for each list type, some methods work for all contacts.
Common marketing methods include:
Newsletters
Postcards
Email
Seminars
Imprinted give aways
Personal brochures
Letters
In addition to the common methods listed, you may choose to use some of the database-specific marketing ideas provided below:
Warm list marketing ideas phone calls, handwritten notes, lunches and parties. Because this group knows you, plan on contacting them 24 or more times a year. By contacting this group on a frequent and consistent basis, you are keeping your name fresh in their minds. When they are asked if they know of a Realtor, your name will be top of mind.

Cold list marketing ideas shopping cart ads, bus bench ads, newspaper ads and providing CMA information as part of your value-added offering. Because this group does not know you, plan to consistently contact them and provide keepable information. Contact this group at least 12 times a year. For every 50 people you market to each month for 12 months, you can reasonably expect to generate one sale. If you plan to generate 50 sales from this group, you need to market to approximately 2,500 people. If you cannot afford to market to this large a group, reduce the size of your target. This will also reduce the number of leads you can expect to generate. Use some of these ideas to also generate leads:
Present seminars on a regular basis. Invite past clients and their friends to seminars about investing or hold regularly scheduled sessions for first time home buyers.
Exhibit at trade shows. Most major cities hold a remodeling show, bridal show and home and garden show each year. If marketing to a specific demographic, exhibit at a show that caters to this demographic.
When you decide on what methods to use, follow up systematically to ensure that you achieve your desired results.

5. Educate, ask for referrals and reward your warm list. Each time you contact your warm list, reiterate that:
a. you are in the business of real estate,
b. you are good at what you do, and
c. you prefer to work on a referral basis.
Ask for referrals by requesting that your warm list contacts you if they know of someone who needs your services. When people refer you to someone, reward that behavior immediately. The key to rewarding referrals is reward the referral, not the deal closing. Remember your warm list job is to send referrals, not qualify clients. That is your job.

6. Brand YOU and make yourself known in the community. All of your marketing materials must have a consistent look and feel. Include your photo with all marketing pieces, you want people to be able to recognize you, and it always helps to put a name with a face. Include your email, web address and direct phone number on all marketing materials.
When marketing to a farm, be visible in the community. Sponsor a youth athletic team, present talks at local civic group luncheons, join the local chamber of commerce or advertise in the community newspaper.

7. Be systematic. To generate a high quantity of leads, you will enjoy the greatest response if you have a plan and are systematic in the way you execute that plan. For example, when working a farm, choose a direct mail piece that has 12 cards. Get set up on an automatic mailing program so that these pieces go out the same time each month and you do nothing. To maintain consistent and frequent contact with your warm list, block time out in your daily planner and identify the type of contact you will be making. Then, complete that contact task each and every time. A consistent and systematic approach will result in more leads and more closed loans.
Most Realtors tend to market heavily for a short time to increase business. Marketing is then halted to handle the resulting business increase. When business slows marketing is started again only to halt when business increases. Sound familiar? This roller coaster ride creates the "rich man, poor man" effect and the crazy busy, bored silly phenomenon that many Realtors experience and that ultimately drives them out of business. To break the roller coaster ride effect, create a plan. Choose both high touch and high tech marketing pieces. Determine which marketing pieces can be automated so that you do not have to do all the work yourself. Carve out time each week and devote yourself to the business of generating leads. It takes discipline and time to generate leads. With a plan in place and the willingness to do the work, you can build your business and be successful no matter the market.
© 2008 by In Touch Today Corporation and its licensors. This article may be reproduced only in its entirety.

I am always looking for great advice to help homeowners sell their homes. Whether I think of it myself, or I find it from a friend, I enjoy spreading the word.
This article is from Real Estate Marketing Expert Lisa Mullins that I think you will enjoy.

According to NAR's 2008 "Profile of Buyers" and how they find properties, it makes sense to market listings using the 80/20 rule:
33% find their property through a real estate agent
32% find their property through the internet
15% through a "for sale" sign
Based upon this 80%, how would you develop your listing marketing strategy?

Let's start with marketing to other real estate agents. After placing the listing on MLS, this segment is virtually disregarded by many listing agents. Do you know the top agents who are most likely to show and sell your listing? Do you have their email addresses? How do you market to them? With inventory levels high in many areas, it's important to keep your listing "top of mind" to those top agents. Prudential Real Estate Affiliates has "ecards", which are effortless to send out. Some agents use Constant Contact, and some use "Floor Plans Online". Whatever you decide to use, be consistent with your contact to agents, highlighting the most compelling features of the house.

Next is the internet: Let's begin with the basics of photos. Do your photos present your listing in the best possible light? Do they help your listing stand out from the competition? Are you maximizing the number of photos allowable on every site? Since over 87% of all buyers begin their search on the web, attention to the quality of photos becomes one of the most crucial marketing tools. Also, which sites is your company on which enable you to create a differentiation for you or your listings? Have you claimed your listings on trulia.com or zillow.com? Do you place your open houses online to drive traffic? Consumers (including us) love the detail of the information, the ability to search unassisted, that it's 2/47 and real time and the interactivity of the internet. Web presence for listing will grow rapidly for buyers as they demand more information and technology to assist them in their home search.

And, as uninspiring as they are, "for sale" signs still work. While they're not that exciting, they remain a basic tool for a consumer to find a home in an area or neighborhood with which they are already comfortable. The effectiveness of for sale signs also increases with listings with high curb appeal.
In the next few years, success in marketing listings will include a meshing of a strong, compelling and unique online presence, including social networking sites and comprehensive marketing to local, targeted agents. Top agents will persist in pushing the envelope in getting their inventory to stand out from the crowd.

I almost forgot....print advertising? A whopping 3% and dead last on the list of how buyers find properties.
Contact Lisa Mullins at http://www.themarketingbistro.com for more ideas on real estate, technology and effective marketing.

Here are some fabulous tips from a super staging friend Cindy Bryant of Houston, Texas.
If you are looking to sell, you might want to read  Remodeling Magazines 2009's Cost vs. Value Report (CSV).  This will give you an idea of where you'll get your biggest Return On Investment (ROI) before you begin your remodeling project.
These are the top 10 updates from that report from HGTV Front Door.
·  Spruce up or replace your siding.
·  Add a deck.
·  Tweak your kitchen.
·  Repair or replace windows.
·  Overhaul your kitchen.
·  Strip the bathroom.
·  Find cash in the attic.
·  Earn bucks from the basement.
·  Add space to add value.
·  Add low-cost landscaping.
 
Cindy Bryant is the owner of Redesign Etc.  Home Staging & Redesign Specialist in Houston, Texas.  Staging Your House To Sell By Professional Home Stagers!

Getting your house ready to sell can seem overwhelming, but it doesn't have to be. Just keep in mind that you're wanting potential buyers to be able to see their own family and possessions in your home.

In order to do that, your home must have more "blank areas" than usual to allow buyers to imagine their things in your space. Since you're going to be packing for your move anyway, go ahead and get a start on it now. Box up out of season clothes to make closets seem more spacious. Remove family photos so buyers don't feel the house is already "taken". Give them opportunities to visually place their possessions by having less of your own spread around the house. Allow your house to still feel comfortable, but never crowded or cluttered.

If you need specific advice, we would be happy to help you prepare your home for sale. Please call us at 916-300-0402 or 916-517-5710
Professional Home Staging Company for Sacramento, Roseville, Rocklin, Placer and Sacramento County.

I saw 2 rainbows the other day, yes, 2 rainbows.  We have been pounded by much needed rain in NorCal lately, so seeing some sunshine was great... seeing 2 rainbows was amazing.  Does this mean that this year will be graced with double fortune?
It really depends on how we look at it.  Attitude defines your success, but planning ahead keeps you afloat.  OK...staging as we have done in the past has slowed.  By comparison, the first quarter last year was much better... but it was different.  Consults were the bread and butter.  But with many of the REAs becoming buyers agents, we have found some sunshine with investors and agents that are working with REOs. Will that be our Pot of Gold?  Who knows, but we have had to change our business model a bit.  Don't be afraid to add a new twist on your business.  Think about the long run.  These times will change... absolutely!  The market will get better in time. 
My partner and I have weathered this storm only because we planned ahead, we continued to get in front of people, and we put funds aside just in case. We cut back on the things that just weren't working for us and kept the things that have.  We also have been marketing our lil' hinneys off.  I feel bad for others who didn't plan or were caught off guard. Those who thought that this wonderful business would take off and carry them through.  Are you following that rainbow to your Pot of Gold?

We want YOU to have a unique Staging experience. Do not stage your home until you have looked at our services first. As experienced real estate stagers, we take great pride in what we do. Homes are selling in this market. With our combined efforts, we are unsurpassed with customer satisfaction, strategic marketing, and upscale furnishings. Recently featured on KFBK Real Estate Talk, Sacramento Magazine, Sacramento News and Review, Sacramento Real Estate Voice, and Sacramento Staging Voice. Results speak for themselves. Average Days on Market as of 5/20/09 is 33.
Lori Kim Polk is the Founder and Lead Designer of Artful Journey Designs and Staging, a full service Home Staging and Design Corporation combined with Ryan Dressel from Staged Right Design located in Roseville, California. Recently featured in Sacramento Magazine, Sacramento News and Review, KFBK radio and SMUD's Home of the Future. We proudly service Granite Bay, Rocklin, Lincoln, Sacramento and surrounding areas. Call us today at 916-300-0402 or 916-517-5710 for our premier services. "The art of selling your home!" "Stage Right with Artful Journey!"
See our listings here.

Lori Kim Polk is the Founder and Lead Designer of Artful Journey Designs and Staging, a full service Home Staging and Design Corporation combined with Ryan Dressel from Stage Right Design located in Roseville, California. Recently featured in Sacramento Magazine, Sacramento News and Review, KFBK radio and SMUD's Home of the Future. We proudly service Granite Bay, Rocklin, Lincoln, Sacramento and surrounding areas.
Call us today at 916-300-0402 or 916-517-5710 for our premier services. "The art of selling your home!"

It is time to reflect on changes we need to make in order to achieve the things we want in the upcoming year. By moving into 2009, I wonder what changes you are thinking about.  Hopefully they are much like mine... to achieve financial, business, and personal goals.

With the global forecast of gloom and doom, the market on a spiral, banks and mortages in turmoil, homeowners loosing their homes, realtors looking for anything.... you will for sure say that it is a difficult time. So what do we do?

I believe in what I do and in myself. I believe that you do too - regardless of what is happening.  By working together, we can not fail. As a team we will succeed.  I challenge YOU to be the first to start the change.  Kick out the old and bring on the new.  Your attitude will prevail.

Together we can beat the odds and achieve our highest goals.  Make 2009 the best year yet!