Real Estate Staging / Home Staging Blog

Politics and the 4th of July go hand and hand. So for this week's Good Words I wanted to pick words I believe are an American truth. Unfortuently at times, no matter how truthful words are, they just are not heard.

This is because regardless of who speaks the truth, we often will first filter it through the person that is sharing them. If we have not agreed with something else the person has said, then the truth is not heard. But the truth is the truth, no matter who speaks it. It can not be altered, it can not be spun, it can not disguised.

So if these words resonate in your heart, then who said these words should not matter. For it is a truth for you too.

But if you are curious know who did say them, then you will find your answer in the first comment on this post.

My best to you and yours. I wish you a safe and happy 4th of July.

Move U.S. Forward...

Me

For more "Good Words" Click Here to see others that make up this series.

Home stagers... I didn't want to make a big stink about this, but I am thrilled to announce another staging training & certification course is now available to you.

While I know you all are well trained staging professionals and have already worked hard at learning the foundational basics in the business and art of home staging, I also know many of you still feel grossly inadequate and under-trained.

I've read your posts that tell the tales of how your competition rubs your nose in the fact that they believe they are better educated then you... ESPECIALLY when it comes to the skillful use and application of Raffia.

Well, your worries are over...

I am happy to announce I have been sought out by the British Academy of Staging Training & Raffia Design (B.A.S.T.R.D.) to be trained, certified and then bring back to you their famed ARSE approach to home staging.

Last weekend, I am happy to say, the B.A.S.T.R.D.s flew me over to jolly old England for an intensive training program to learn MILLIONS of ways professional home stagers can use Raffia to beautifully and cheaply transform their client's properties. There was so much to learn in this grueling 3 day wonder workshop. Who would have thought you could create so much out of a shriveled smelly dead weed?

But even though I am sooooo pooped out, I was just too excited and wanted to share with you that I am now a Master BASTRD ARSE (MBA). That's right, I'm a real live educated ARSE. I can no longer say I stage naked. AND, more importantly, I am trained and authorized to teach you the B.A.S.T.R.D. method so that you too can create beautiful Raffia staging transformations. Just LOOK at all the stunning yet clever ways Raffia was used in the room pictured to the left.

You see, NOTHING SELLS a home faster than a home staged with RAFFIA! And while I know many of you might think you know why it works so well, because of how cute and utterly adorable it looks, but it is not the way it LOOKS that helps a house sell. Actually it is the way it SMELLS that SELLS!  But I have to admit I think it looks NEAT-O too. Oh, there is so much to teach you, like the ARSE tag line,"Don't be a stinker... swell smells sell!"

Our industry will soon be revolutionized as more and more stagers use this misunderstood and underutilized tool of home staging. Come learn the secrets! I am now taking reservations for next month's inaugural class. Space is limited... so sign up now. And know, I look forward to teaching you how to be a total ARSE just like me.

Pip Pip & Smile It Forward...

Me

Post Script: Before the long holiday weekend I thought it would be fun to do something a little bit funny. (Or what I THINK is funny.) I believe it is important that we can laugh at ourselves and not take ourselves too serious. Plus it has been a heck of a long time since I did anything goofy in the rain. Anyway, hope you enjoyed it... Happy 4th.

When I was a kid I used to watch the Popeye cartoon on TV. (To be honest I don't even know if it is on anymore or if the strip even runs in news papers.)

Anyway, one of the cartoon's secondary characters was named Wimpy. While Wimpy was a sweet harmless loveable oaf, he also had a problem... he had a "jones" for hamburgers.

Hamburgers! Hamburgers! Hamburgers!

Wimpy just could not get enough of them! He craved them and would do ANYTHING for one, even if he didn't have the money to buy one, he would often hit up other characters for cash. Wimpy became famous for the line, "I'd gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today."

Well in the 3+ years we have been home staging Chicago-land we sometimes get asked if we would accept payment for our staging services at time of closing. (Homesellers usually pay for our services, NOT Realtors, for the seller has the most to gain from using us.) I gotta admit EVERY time we are asked that I can't help but think of Wimpy.

So.. when should a home seller actually expect payment for staging services? Well, it might help if you look at it this way...

First, staging services are much like any other services provided by any other independent contractor. So would you ask or expect a painter who had painted a house, in order to get it ready for sale, to accept payment once the house is sold? Or would you ask a landscaper who trims back bushes, edges the lawn, and plants some flowers to accept payment for their services once the house is sold? No! So why would a stager be expected to be paid at closing?

Second and MORE importantly is the fact that while the whole purpose of staging is to prepare a property and IMPROVE its attraction...  staging does NOT guarantee the sale.

A stager's job is to ready a home for sale in the market... NOT SELL IT. A realtor's job is to sell the home. Once a stager has completed their work... the Realtor takes over to make the sale happen. Once we set a home and leave the premises, a Home Stager has NO control over things that can and WILL impact the home's saleability. Things like:

• PRICE - A property that is priced too high will never sell, no matter how much staging you do.
• MARKETING PLAN - A property can be staged all nice and pretty, but if a Realtor is not getting the word out on it, then staging will not help.
• INSPECTION CONCERNS - A home might look great on the surface... but lurking below a pretty surface may be problems that ONLY a home inspector will find. Concerns that come up in an inspection can easily kill a sale.
• SELLER MOTIVATION - If a seller has underlying "issues" that thwarts a sale... then a sale just might not happen.
• REALTOR SALES SKILLS - Some deals are just harder to close than others and require more sales acumen. Again while the home might look great, if the Realtor is can not close deals, staging will not help.
• BUYER'S FINANCING - Stagers have not control on a buyer's eligibility or ability to secure financing for a staged home they want to buy. (So did we NOT do the job?) 
• MAINTENANCE - If a home seller reverts to their untidy cluttered ways, the staging work will be compromised. Also if a home is not kept clean... that also will undermine the positive impact a staged home can have.

So if your sellers feel compelled to ask that Wimpy question about payment... know that this Real Estaging Bluto will reply "NO...but we do take Master Card, Visa and American Express."

Spinach It Forward...

Me

Lately I have been spending a few extra hours playing in the Rain.

I've come to learn that it doesn't take much to see which posts will make a "splash" and which will be just "drips" in this big puddle.

The key to all GOOD writing, whether it is a novel, screen play or even a blog, is originality.

So I encourage you to be original, have a whale of a good time, and...

Splash It Forward.

Me

For more "Good Words" Click Here to see others that make up this series.

Revealing how I approach and how I actually study what I see working with my blogging here in the Rain is what this post is all about. (Its NOT about the goofy picture to the left... that is just to make you smile a bit.)

First I know that blogs that have fresh original industry related content reigns in the Rain. Yes, the fun and quirky personal posts add an interesting dimension and they do help to reveal your unique personality and differentiate you from your fellow bloggers. But all in all, industry related posts that inform are the posts Active Rain Moderators like and want to feature. Moderators KNOW this will keep others coming back here to learn. LEARNING is key to those that come to Active Rain.

But lets face it, after one has been blogging for any length of time it is inevitable that you will run a bit dry when it comes to new subjects to blog about. 

So where can you go to look to be informed about your own "voice" to know what worked and didn't work with what you wrote?  Well, one place to look is back at your own "voice" and see just what you best said.  By studing the simple statics Active Rain provides you, about your blog, you can gain some great insight about your own voice. (If you do not know where to find your own statistics, please read the post script note below for instructions.) 

So to help make my point LET ME SHOW YOU MINE: Below are the stats from 5 of my most popular posts. When I examine these stats I am most interested in my CLICKS. My "views" and my "comments" are something I look at, but they are really less than secondary to my CLICKS. Clicks tell me that people REALLY wanted (and still want) to read what I had to say in this particular post.

In my case I see that people were interested in what I had to say about Home Staging Training, Photography, the Home Staging Industry, and Marketing Home Staging. Knowing this, these general subject(s) definitely will (and have) informed me on what to blog about in subsequent future posts. These post STILL draw attention... months after they were initially written. So it is imperative that I look at the statistics for they help me understand my "audience". As will your stats help you with yours.

Oddly and interesting to note is the fact I have seen in my stats on post like this one, where the subject is "Blogging on Active Rain", might do great for a day.... but will NOT attract readers over time.  Even if this post ends up being Featured and it gets tons of comments, that is NO guarantee that it will have a long life and find readers ongoingly in the future. Personally, I would rather have a post that attract readers ongoingly. 

BUT WAIT! There is MORE to show YOU about YOU...

While your statistics will show you just what DID connect with your audience, your statistics will also show you what did not work. But as you are looking back at your statistics keep in mind that you are also looking at your body of blogging work. Some of your early work, where you were just beginning to find your "voice" might now be a subject worth revisiting. Don't get me wrong... I am NOT saying you should REGURGITATE the same-old same-old. But giving a topic a fresh more mature blogging once over might be a great way to to show us yours.

Blog It Forward...

Me

Post Script: WHERE TO FIND YOUR STATS? Once you are logged into your account, click on your "MY HOME" tab in the upper right hand corner of the screen. One you are on YOUR Home Page, look at the column to the far left side of the screen. There you should find a "STATISTICS" button... click on it. If you do not see it... you may need to scrool down lower on your personal Home Page. 

I swear EVERYONE, at this past weekend's Midwest West Celebration for Active Rain, wanted to know the answer to the GREAT mystery.... How does Active Rain make money? People even were grilling ME (as if I had an inside scoop).  But like I told them... ask Matt. So sorry, you won't find that JUICY and complelling revelation here in this post.

However I DO have some other secret tid-bits about Matt & Lydia you might not know.

First, Matt does NOT like eating seafood. So I guess taking them to Navy Pier to a seafood restaurant, probably wasn't one of my best ideas! Also Matt has never seen fire-flies..., so when he did, he was so totally intrigued and delighted by them we had to find a jar to catch one... which he ended up releasing soon thereafter.

Lydia, (Matt's own TLW) had her own insect encounter here in Chicago. However Lydia was freaked by Chicago's Cicada infestation. This, I fear, proved NOT a good first impression of Chicago for her. To help her cope, she drank her Crown & Coke and tormented my cats. (Although she claims to LOVE cats.)

All in all... the gathering was a WONDERFUL and actively fun time! It is odd to see how quickly "strangers" can come together and start laughing and sharing as if they were the best of old friends. Equally amazing was to see how far some people traveled to be there. Lucky Lang came from Iowa, Lola Audu came from Michigan, and Kimberly Wester traveled from Indiana. 

Not pictured are all the husbands and wives who accompanied their spouse to meet this quirky group of people. Let's face it... if you don't blog, and if you don't blog on Active Rain its hard to understand just what this place means to us. But I think they soon realized that whether you on-line or in person, Matt and company have created a wonderful way for people to connect and share ourselves and our lives. And that was why we came together to celebrate.

So, Matt and Lydia are next heading to Florida to celebrate and MAYBE finally provide an answer the Great mystery... How does Active Rain make money?

Celebrate It Forward...

Me

PS: Here are links to festive recaps of this weekend's Chicago Active Rain 1st Anniversary celebration posts.

• Lols's: Recipie for an Active Rain Celebration...Chicago Land Style!
• Lucky's: Active Rain Birthday Party Chicago Style!!! 
• Sara Bonert's: THANK YOU Active Rain For The Chicago Birthday Party

Buddha should have been a blogger on Active Rain. His "good words" from long ago are quite relivant to that which we write of and share in this community we call the "Rain".

Even publishing our words as "Members Only" does not release of of the responsibility of what we write and what we say.

It is fine to find and use words that convey passion, commitment, intelligence, authority, anger, sadness, dreams, doubts, upsets and ideas. But remember, the words we use and how we use them in what we write are mirrors reflecting back who we are, to those who read our words.

Reflect It Forward...

Me

For more "Good Words" Click Here to see others that make up this series.

I woke up this morning and that headline was in my head. I guess it was there because I went to bed thinking about all the controversy that has swirled around and in Stage It Forward... for the last couple days.

If you feel like an outsider that missed all the action... here is a link to all the post that had something to say or share. It was a HEARTY and HEART FELT discussion for sure.

WARNING TO THE KOOLAID DRINKERS-Now it is getting personal... does this seem like an injustice to you?

Dear "Anonymous" #2 on Kate Hart's "Kool-Aid" Blog:

Koolaid Drinkers reply - there is more than meets the eye - Put down your glass and move on 

And as for the rest of us, we have moved on...

Ongoing ASP Warfare -- Risking my Life Here....

My point of this post is if you can get beyond the "passion", there is much that is being discussed.

THIS IS WHAT STAGE IT FORWARD IS ABOUT FOLKS... Being a voice that "SINGS" to our industry is what Stage It Forwardis all about. And I know at times what our industry HEARS is not a harmonious song... but does not mean it should not be sung.

I agree, some of the delivery of the messages have been "heated"... to say the least. But look at all the topics that were discussed in those posts.

• Referral Fees
• Referral Networks
• Professional Designations
• Industry Leaders & Leadership
• Staging "Naked"
• The use the word "Stage"
• Trademarks
• Accreditations
• Codes of Ethics
• Peer Respect & Recognition
• Stage It Forward's purpose
• What makes for a good FEATURED story
• Positive Foundation Training experiences
• Negative Foundation Training experiences

THESE are the just some of the underlying issues being discussed that are and will continue to be a part of this WHOLE Home Staging Industry. It is ONLY by putting them out on the table FOR discussion will we grow... ALL GROW.

FOR EXAMPLE: Let me take ONE issue and move it to the NEXT level. What happens if I (a naked stager) would refer out to a stager in a "closed" referral network? Or Visa Versa? Do I get a referral fee or pay the fee? Now I am not looking for answers here... just to make my point you have to put it out there FIRST for discussion. 

THIS is what the Stage It Forward is about and for. (Yes, I agree we need to move on an drop some of the "heat" but hey... while I never had a baby, I understand there is some "screaming" at the point of delivery there too.)

Fran Gatti - Crescent City, CA who is a Realtor just checking in on us (and a TOTALLY NEUTRAL 3rd party) said it best in a comment she made about all this.

• "There's disagreement in every group that exists.  It's a good thing yours has it or it would mean you were dead."

THANKS Fran. I think we needed to hear that... and if we did not hear it here, then where?

Stage It Forward...

Me

So, I just finished being the guest judge for this week's Carnival of Real Estate. Some really great and informative winning posts for this week's contest  can be found here on my "pretty" blog: Judging for Real Estate Blogging Award Ain't Just Easy as Black & White.

But that is not what I want to talk about. While judging it was fun and informative, I have to admit I was a bit shocked and surprised as I was reading through the variety of colorful and varied Real Estate industry posts that were submitted this week... it hit me that NOT MANY Active Rain Bloggers submitted their work for this week's carnival. And I wondered why.

I wondered why especially since I know that a common "compliant" here in the Rain is the fact that at times it seems difficult to be SELECTED AS A FEATURED POST. It only makes it more frustrating when you KNOW what you wrote was a well articulated and an informative blog.

What you might NOT know that the Carnival Of Real Estate is another great place to submit these types and any other well written posts. Weekly, on Monday mornings, the Carnival highlights the best of the best of the past week's Real Estate industry blogs (regardless of where they originated) and gives those who submit a post the possibility of even more exposure of it and its author to even a larger audience... outside of Active Rain.

Each week the "Carnival" moves to a different blogger's site... who in turn not only act as Host for the week's event but also the sole Judge for the week's submissions. The Host reads all the submitted posts, judges the best of the best, and writes a post on their site featuring the winners. It is great marketing exposure for any featured winner and the Host Judge's site.

Exposing your words to as MANY people as possible can only give more "life" to them. Many of the Carnival Hosts in the past are member's here on Active Rain. So having more people know you, and see that you have a message to share, can only help your chances at being featured back here in the Rain. Not to mention the fact that the GENERAL PUBLIC have yet another opportunity to see that you and what you had to say was acknowledged by your Real Estate industry peers. For Home Stager's this is especially important... as we work on building credibilty with our partners in the Real Estate Industry. Our staging VOICES should  and need to be heard.

Submitting posts to the Carnival of Real Estate is super easy. You can find instructions for submission on the bottom of the page in the Post Script here on my post today announcing the winners on my "pretty" blog. If you want to be a HOST of a Carnival... be prepared to wait. I was assigned this week, to be the host, 8 months ago back in November 2006. If you want to read about that whole experience go here: This Clown gets a Carnival and I owe it to being Active in the Rain.

Anyway, I guess what I am saying is WRITING your blog is one thing... MARKETING it is another. The Carnival of Real Estate gives you another avenue to get your own colorful message out to yet another audience... and the more they know of you out there, can ONLY help you here in the Rain.

Blog It Forward...

Me

PS to HOME STAGERS: It is even MORE imperative and important that we as a group make sure our Staging words are heard in the Carinval of Real Estate. This week there were NO articles about staging submitted to the Carnival. With all the GREAT information being written on and blogged about here in the Rain on Staging...  don't forget that this is yet another avenue for recognition of who we are and what we provide and is just another small way we all can Stage It Forward...

I have been in the Rain long enough to see NEW voices rise up from nowhere and be heard.

When I read of the frustration others have when it comes to being "heard" in the Rain, I just want to encourage them all to... Work on your "voice"! With practice it will come and you will be heard.

So when I found this quote of Strauss, a man who WROTE music not words, I knew the were perfectly good words.

Practice It Forward...

Me

For more "Good Words" Click Here to see others that make up this series.