Well welcome to Brenda K and today we're talking staging we'll be right back
Hello and welcome back to Real Estate with Brenda K. This is our eighth
season believe it or not.
Wow.
This is like 78 videos. I'm really excited about it.
Today we're gonna talk about staging. Of course you know this is
a show where we talk about everything and anything to do with your real estate.
Lisa Beaupré . Welcome welcome.
Hi. How are you?
I'm good, I'm good.
So, Lisa, today I just want people to
understand what staging is. Start with that and then why you do what you do.
Sure well first of all I would what say what staging is not and staging is not
decorating. Really when we're talking about staging is really it's a visual
marketing tool, right, because people right now are shopping online that's
exactly the first thing that they do really and you know if you've priced
well and it shows well you know you're going to get traffic to that door.
So yeah that's definitely what staging is it's all about how to attract more
people more buyers online so they can come in.
Exactly. Well there's a big myth out
there that when I say to people, "look, you know, we have a stager on our team. She's
gonna come over."
"Oh no, I know to declutter."
Yeah. That's a myth.
Well it's part. You have to do that.
It's not just decluttering.
And you know what sometimes you
give me consultations and the clients are very well organized but I think
everybody can benefit from at that consultation which I call a walk and
talk where you know because a lot of times when you've been living in your
house for so many years you're so used to having your stuff in a certain way
and when I come in I'm thinking you know the way we place our couch on an
everyday basis might not be the right way for the camera to grab the space,
right, okay if you leave the couch there if cameras gonna grab it's going to show
that the room is too small. So those are things that people don't think
about on a daily basis.
They're like, "well I'm comfortable having my couch that way."
But then that those are all the little tips that helps have somebody
with a fresh eye that's not attached to that house that's in there trying to,
you know, maximize.
They become blind to things or not you know that-
I love that commercial noseblind.
I've never seen that.
Oh, you know, when you don't
smell the different smells you become nose blind.
Oh yeah.
I find you
in your own home you do too. Like, I don't see certain things.
Tell us the difference between staging someone that lives there and then vacant
properties. Because again, a lot of people think you only do that to vacant properties.
Yeah. So there's many great stagers in HRM
right now there's a lot of people out there. My bulk of my business is probably
85% is owner-occupied staging and there's different packages that people
are available to them. I'll never refuse a job. I think everybody is equal and
everybody is worthy of a staging consultation.
I do too and that's another thing like
anybody that knows and anyone that's worked with- I mean you and I have been
together now about 10 years. Like, I'll share that little story in a sec but to
me everybody's house is their biggest asset. So I'm not gonna say to somebody,
"Oh your house is 199 nine. No, we don't stage that.
"Oh, your house is five hundred.
Oh, absolutely we stage it."
Because it is, you know, it's important to do it.
And there's a lot of misconception to about even me coming into people's
home and I totally get it right.
They're like, "who is she to come in my house and say all these things." Right?
But I've grown to- like it's been ten years that
I'm doing this and I'm not apologizing anymore because I'm there with the right
intentions to try to help you sell your house for top dollar and if I'm the bad
guy was gonna say the things that you don't really want to hear well I'm just
there to help. I's not an insult. It's not there to to embarrass
anybody. It's really saying okay how can we strategically display or show
your house to the best.
People think they take it almost like an insult.
The Belfontaine story what that is and
the reason I want to share it with you is because this was a house where single
guy and his son lived. There was no personal pictures. There was nothing.
There was no clutter and I kept it was on I know how long was on the
market, this is how we met, and then literally you said, "Let me stage it and
see if it sells," and the comments I was getting is the house was cold it was it
didn't feel- anyways it's staged and it sold in
one week and all you did you changed around some furniture, you moved a TV and
you brought a few props in. Made a big difference. You know, when you're- you've
got to be able to and that's where I come in I try to work as much as
possible and what the clients owns.
First and foremost and it's it's just about
balance and about texture, it's about making sure every room
has a purpose without
confusing the buyer. That they're not saying, "what is that room," and the scale
people if it's vacant and if there's nothing in the room they just can't
visualize what fits in there.
That's right and with resale let's take a-
everybody loves before and after pictures so let's do a couple and then I've
got a I've got a question for you so this here is a is a living room and this
is the before picture of the living room and it's very dark.
Well first thing is I
took that when I first went in for the consultation so it's not a professional
picture but it is definitely very dark. You've got the really dark brown walls
or clay colour, the dark curtains. Everything is dark. The furniture's all
bunched in one corner-
and a lot of furniture.
And a lot of furniture.
Personal pictures on the wall.
Just take this off. There we go you can flip it.
So this is just another angle of it and they've got the family pictures up there
and they've got them almost touching the ceiling.
(laughter)
My husband does that.
Yeah, you got to look way up to see a picture.
We can talk about that way what's the best way to -
Wow. What a difference, okay.
So these clients did- we worked- so my clients I
have different you can do jobs that are like these clients what I'm trying to
get at is we worked a year. So we started a year. They knew they wanted to sell.
They knew they had to put a little bit of money into it and we started with a
small consultation. I went in and they opened up the wall and we freshly
painted everything and we changed some accessories we took the ottoman that
went down in their basement and was still good to be used. They had a
different coffee table so it's still the same furniture.
It's all theirs just a
little bit of work. Wow.
Soften up the curtains
and all that good stuff and gave it a whole open-concept instead of having
it all closed in but I did not take the same angle picture so that's why it's
Yeah just but we can still see the light, so. Okay, so let's let's pop
back to just chatting here for a minute if because I really like what you said
about this house you said they knew for about a
year they were gonna be selling. So that's how early because
you've done that with me remember the one down on in West- by Lawrence town-
Crow Road.
Oh, yes.
You went in in November we weren't listening till April
I find now people are starting to to embark
a little bit more in the staging concept because I don't know how many times I've
gone in and they're like oh we're going on the market next month and they've put
five ten thousand dollars into the home and it's not even going to add value
to the home.
So if you can start ahead of time, right, and not- because if they
start ahead of time - sorry I'm repeating myself here - then they start
putting different colours and then they all of a sudden they realize once I come
in I'm like hmm.
Yeah, don't do anything til you come in. So we're gonna finish off
today, Lisa, I want to ask you a question. If you could do one thing, one thing what
what would you say is the most important?
For me is clean, right, I think
a lot of people don't understand the value of a clean home.
It's pride in ownership and it's beyond just surface cleaning, right, it's pulling
out the stove and behind every corner and stuff like that.
Because it's very disappointing that sometimes when I go
in and I think everybody can do that this doesn't cost any money,
it's elbow grease.
And again you don't notice like I know myself when I go in the
bathroom I'm not looking all around the corners of the shower. I'm not looking at
the caulking or the baseboards on a continual basis. But buyers are.
Oh yeah.
Yeah oh yeah and that's a reflection of the care of the house.
Well it's the same if you're gonna sell your car what are you gonna do.
You're gonna make it polish
and the more it shines the more you're going to get the value.
Exactly. Let's look at one more before we've got to go today.
I'm just gonna grab one here off the
pile and this one is a bathroom so tell us about this bathroom.
So we were almost
ready to go on the market and I kept telling the client I said, "it's dark in there."
and I was trying to convince him to paint the cabinet white and he's like,
"No, it's gonna look terrible," and so finally he bit the bullet we
painted, freshly painted
Oh, wow.
We painted that cabinet white and it just like it feels
like it's a whole different-
That is amazing.
Yeah and then from a different angle.
Yeah there's no comparison.
These guys sold within a day on the market.
And kitchens and bathrooms can make a breaker house.
Lisa, we're out of time for today's show will you come back
and do some more video or do some more staging videos with us?
Anytime.
All right. So Lisa Beaupré and if you'd like to get a hold of Lisa just reach out to me
BrendaK@BrendaK.ca and I want to thank you so much.
This is Real Estate with Brenda K.
The channel we talk about everything and anything to do with your real estate.
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I love that.
Okay, cheers.