Home Staging Pennsylvania- Hart & Associates Servicing the Main Line, Philadelphia, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery Counties.

I know I had vowed to take this weekend off but I got so caught up in getting things done so I could have a break that I did not have time to blog. Below are my latest adventures:

 Thursday:

8:12 I have a full day today so I am off to an early start. I let the nanny drop the boys off at school and I head to my first appointment for the day. I am scheduled to do a consult for a client that is going through a divorce. Unfortunately this is something that I experience a lot and since divorcing spouses do not want to work together to get the house sold, I am usually brought in to give an objective opinion and advice. The home is 45 minutes away but I enjoy the scenic ride.

9:02 I arrive at the client's home. It is charming and has a large beautifully landscaped lot with a flagstone patio and a screened in porch that can be used for entertaining during the warmer months. What I am shocked by are the 2 large PLASTIC GEESE on the front lawn. I make a mental note to bring up the fowl later once I have established some rapport with the client.

9:04 The home owner meets me outside and gives me a quick tour of the yard. We then head inside and he explains to me that the home has already been staged! I must have looked puzzled because he quickly tells me that his realtor brought in her own stager to assist him and he is now switching realtors because the home has been on the market for 9 months. When the realtor goes, so will the staging props.

9:11 I take a look around. The stager has helped him with the living room, dining room and family room as well as the kitchen and some rooms on the second floor. It does not look BAD but I am not impressed. The stager brought in used furniture and mismatched pieces. It gave the home a warm, lived in look, but in my opinion it dated the space and made it look older than the 16 years young that the home was. I asked him what he paid for the stager and he said it was FREE. I realized that I had to put on my best sales pitch because this man's home has not sold in almost a year, it has been staged and to be totally honest I felt the staging hindered people from really appreciating the space for what it offered.

9:55 I finish touring the home and sit down with the client. The home offered a lot of selling features such as a yard lovely lot, a  finished basement, spacious bedrooms and hardwood floors. What the home lacked was an updated kitchen, a second floor master bedroom, and a third bathroom. Since I could not miraculously create a third bathroom, I recommended to my client that he invest his money into drawing the buyer's attention to other selling features such as a large family room, large first floor master suite and spacious eat in kitchen. I then said what is sometimes the last thing clients expect. I TOLD HIM NOT TO STAGE HIS HOUSE! Since he is going through a divorce and had limited funds, I felt it was better for the other stager to come in and remove her items and for him to invest his money into new carpeting for the family room and the master bedroom than to rent furniture from me that would just be sitting on top of outdated carpet and floors- it was sporting some lovely shades of teal and pink from the early 90's.  When I said that statement the light bulb went off for him- he then understood that staging was not just plunking "things" into a room to make it look like people lived there- staging was about marketing his home, showcasing his home's best assets and appealing to the target audience that was going to be looking at the home. What this stager put in the home was hokey, outdated and frankly looked lower end that the young professionals that would be purchasing this home.

10:17 As the client walks me to my car he asks me to not only send him the consult but to also send him a proposal to stage his home too. It was not what I expected but I realized that he understood that he needed to make some changes with how his home showed and how buyers felt about the space. I promised to get him a proposal later that day. As I was leaving I told him that since I was being honest with him about the carpet needing to be replaced that I also had to be honest with him about one last thing- THE GEESE. To quote a bald pop princess "I am a little bit country" Where I grew up people put fake birds on their lawns or on top of their boats to keep other birds from shi&#ing on their boat or lawn. When I pulled up to the home I thought "Oh my, this man has a geese poop problem, how unappealing." So I asked him- "Do you have a problem with Geese pooping on your lawn?" "No!" he replied shocked at my question. "Well then why do you have 2 GIANT LIFELIKE PLASTIC GEESE on your front lawn?" I asked. "The other stager thought they made a nice focal point" he explained. With that the geese went bye-bye to their new home in the shed.

12:00 Another consult- a story for another blog

2:15 A color consult and advice for a bachelor- an even more interesting story. Thank GOD I am married...

4:30 Send quotes, write consults and send more quotes.

The lesson for the day? Some fowl are foul. Some staging is just "plunking things into rooms" and some staging is marketing your home.

 Friday

 Today is my son's graduation from nursery school so I AM NOT WORKING.

9:03 Hubby and I run to Starbucks so I can recaffeinate. We then head across the street to a client's model home that I am staging to drop off some items that were delivered the day before. I give him the tour of the space and we unpack the items. I realize that the company sent me the wrong color items and I spend 12 minutes on hold trying to figure out how to resolve this crisis- I AM STILL NOT WORKING TODAY.

10:17 We pick up my mother in law to go to graduation. We have packed a picnic lunch for the celebration afterwards and it is a terrific day.

11:32 Nicholas made me so proud- not only did he sing wonderfully in his show but he also behaved the entire time which is remarkable for a 5 year old boy that is surrounded by 17 other boys on a stage looking for laughs from mom and dad. It is official now- he is not a baby anymore.

1:38 We are home from graduation and the picnic. I put the kids down for a nap. Chris goes to mow the lawn and I decide to go to-  THE STORAGE UNIT! What is wrong with me I wonder?? I have to go pack my car because I have an emergency staging the next morning. I go to the unit and assemble the kitchen items, the foyer accents and a spa like yoga basket to put in the awkwardly shaped room off the master bedroom hoping to allow buyers to see this as a yoga studio or other zen like space.

3:47 I am home and off to take the kids to my in laws for dinner when the phone rings. Remember the 3.2 million dollar client from last week? The same client that I pulled all the items together for a job, shopped for 8 hours, wrapped and packed all the items, had the client cancel  that night, returned all the items and STILL HAD TO PAY MY STAFF FOR A STAGING THAT DID NOT HAPPEN?? Well, his realtor called and he did not sell the house after all, still needed us to stage it and needed us to stage it soon..... I AM STILL NOT WORKING TODAY. I call the rental company, send out a new contract and send out emails to schedule the job for next week.

The lesson for today? When you own your own business YOU ARE ALWAYS WORKING and if you think you have an offer on your home, at least make sure that the buyer's wife has seen it before you cancel the staging. Chances are, if she has not, she may not buy it based on her husband's opinion alone.

Saturday:

8:03 I slept in today. As soon as I get up I realize that I have a home to stage and I cannot have "the day off" until it is done. I get the kids dressed and into the car. They are my helpers. I pay them in donuts and bribe them to stay quiet with a portable dvd payer and threats.

10:53 We are all done- it was a quick job- just accessorizing the living room, kitchen, family room, foyer and aaaaaaahhhhh yes- the yoga room. It looks great. I decide to add "surface staging" to my menu of services as an option for clients that cannot afford furniture rentals.

At last I am free for the weekend- all that is left is to take the kids to the local fair, have my inlaws who are in town for a wedding drop by, baby sit my niece and celebrate my father in law's bday... and I thought staging was hard work!