A Return to Staging

September???!!! I can't believe how fast the summer months went - holidays were wonderful and now RSDR is in full swing again with stagings for upcoming fall listings. Staging a property in the fall is essential, as the number of buyers drops after the summer months. You want to make a great impression with the potential buyers that are looking, or the sale of your property may be delayed until the market picks up again...possibly in the next spring! The right staging will not only attract those buyers, but will increase the confidence those buyers have in their purchase. Most buyers that are out in the fall are either investors or they have been relocated and must purchase fairly quickly. When a property is staged with RSDR, the true potential of the property shines through, ensuring that these people see the nature of their investment (i.e. how much they could charge for rent after a new coat of paint is applied and some minor "fixes" have been completed) or feel overwhelmingly that "this is our home" when they walk inside. Staging helps buyers feel more comfortable with their purchases and mitigates the feelings of "settling for what is out there" or "buyer's remorse". When this happens, the property sells quicker and there is a happy buyer and a happy seller...and that is what we strive for!

Holiday Time

Summer holidays tend to happen rarely in my world, as the real estate market is usually buzzing from early spring to late fall! This year, however, I have stolen away 2 weeks from my otherwise busy schedule to visit family and friends that my husband and I haven't seen in ages. A bit of a road trip (with our Ruby, of course) to Alberta with 3 stops along the way. I always find that road trips, or any travelling for that matter, result in a renewed creative with inspiration flowing and energy abounding! Just the way I should be feeling with all the fall and winter re-design projects on the horizon... I want to wish everyone a fantastic holiday time with safe travels and good health! Will be back to writing in a while - talk to you all soon!

Productive Days!

Gotta love the days that you get everything...or even nearly everything off those "to do" lists! This past weekend was one of those times! The list wasn't completely looked after, but it felt like we got a good chunk done...including re-painting a portion of the house, which was not on the list until next month! I don't know about you, but I can get pretty bogged down with other things during the day and tend to "stray from the course" of the plan I make over coffee first thing in the morning. I always start out with the best intentions, but then the phone will ring and it will be someone I haven't spoken with for ages and really want to catch up with, or it will be a volunteer event that I am planning that needs a last minute detail to be dealt with, or my puppy is tossing her Kozie Kong toy on my lap while I am typing because she wants to play (and who can say no to that face...)! Yes, the time that is not dealing with staging or decor projects - the time that should be devoted to office management, household chores, and yard work can be taken up pretty quickly by other things. So when there is a day or weekend that is truly productive, it feels phenomenal - and this was the perfect weekend for it to happen... The in-laws will be here on Thursday for a few days - am really looking forward to having them! And because of this past weekend, the few remaining "chores" to get finished in preparation for the visit seem like nothing... I actually have a bit of time to plan some meals and sightseeing for them!

Is that the colour I chose???

A fresh coat of paint can do wonders for a space that has gotten a little tired looking, but choosing the right colour can be difficult... There are so many aspects to consider when choosing the right paint colour for a space - how different lighting transforms the hue; whether you want reflective colour to open up a space or absorbing colour to "cozy" up a room; if the colour will balance out the coolness or warmth of the room; how the colour may affect your mood or thought process; whether the colour "pulls together" all the items in the room or whether it creates the need for a whole new look... There are 3 things I would recommend if you are wanting a new paint colour for your walls: 1 - Hire a professional for a colour consultation - This is so much easier and less time consuming than agonizing over the endless "which one would be better?" questions that can plague the otherwise "fun" process of change. This professional should go through colour samples and photos with you, ask you questions pertaining to thoughts and feelings regarding colour palettes, and discuss with you items you are wanting to keep and change in the space the new colour is coming into, in order to determine which genre of colour you should be in and then guide you through the selection - not just choose randomly for you... 2 - Look at the potential colours at different times during the day - I will tape a sample, or paint a small sample, on the chosen walls and look at them in the day and evening - light can have a very different effect on colour - you want to make sure that the different shades will still work with the look you want in the room. 3 - Don't second guess - If you keep going back to the same colour or shade, there may be a very good reason that you're drawn to it. You don't have to go with the exact "trend of today" - you can make any colour work with today's styles, and remember - the trend will change tomorrow - if you don't feel like painting every year, then pick a colour that you love to look at!

Time is ticking by...

Seems like the days are rolling into one another and I am scrambling to catch up...ever feel this way??? It is well into June - how did this happen? Yesterday it seems there was snow... I find that my best efforts to plan my days are falling by the wayside for more pressing items, and because of the lack of accomplishing my goals by sticking to my plans, the list keeps mounting and goals seem more daunting which is causing a slight case of procrastination - an old habit from my university days (I never did as much hand-washing or organizing as when I had a paper due or an exam coming up...) Am now adapting my plan to include time for unforeseen items that may pop up - that way I will always have some time blocked off for catch-up! Will let you know how it goes!!!

Cleansing

So working for yourself can have its pitfalls...getting sick. Getting sick is never any fun, but in a normal job you still get paid when having to take a "sick day". You don't have that option when you are self-employed - your business can just STOP or you don't stop and end up getting worse because you never took the time to rest and heal... I have been sick A LOT in the last couple of months (the start of the busiest staging season, I may point out) and need to take the time and make the effort to get well again. Our immune system is controlled 70-80% by our "gut", so if you don't eat right your body knows it because your defences are left damaged. When I get too busy, I tend to lapse on the proper eating, or I forget to eat - neither being good, especially for weight loss (which incidentally, is also one of the plates that are spinning right now). I have decided to "stop the madness" as an annoying health advocate used to say on TV... I am cleansing (nothing crazy - just cutting out a lot of stuff that bogs down the body functions) in hopes that my immune system can have something to work with again and I start to get back on track health-wise. After all, I am RSDR basically - if I am not able to work... well, you know. I'll let you know how it goes in the next couple of weeks. If successful, will let you know the plan details - hopefully it can help others that may be in a similar situation!

Praise!

Just finished a staging job of a really unique property... I met with the realtor and client to see their reactions of the finished product. "Amazing transformation", "Open and bright", "Beautiful", "Fantastic"...all things I was very pleased to hear! The property was built in a Spanish/Mexican style with an open design and archways throughout the interiors. A lot of the walls were done in white stucco. The original paint colours that the clients had were definitely truer to the architecture of the home as they were bright and bold, but may have limited the number of people that want to see and buy the property based on the very definite style of the home. I love jobs like this - unique properties REQUIRE your creative juices to flow! You have to find that balance between the style that the original architecture dictates and the modernity of today's styles of interiors that potential buyers look for. Basically in a property that may have a divide of potential buyers between "love it" and "hate it"...you want to mitigate the latter! You want to play up the strengths and beauty of the property and eliminate anything that may be distracting or jarring. This home had lots of natural light, a gorgeous open concept and tons of space. All definite pluses that needed to be showcased in a way that appealed to the target demographic as a whole - not just the buyers that wanted a home fashioned after a hacienda.

Balancing Act

Working for yourself is a blessing most days! You make your own schedule, right? So you should be able to avoid line-ups at Costco and the bank because you can go during "working hours"; you should be able to take a day trip or an extra long weekend whenever you like; you should be able to avoid using daycare for the most part; you should be able to sleep in when you really want to and work in your pj's some days. Reality is that since I have the job with all the flexibility, I tend to take on the appointments that have to happen during the weekdays. It just makes more sense and is one of the reasons I do work for myself to begin with. But when you have an open schedule like this, appointments can build up - the vet, the dentist, CT scans, puppy classes, staying home for deliveries or plumbers...scheduling in time to actually work can end up being the tricky part! I have learned that if you want a a successful business, you need to make the work a priority, otherwise you end up with a hobby that pays you every once in a while. The great thing about building a business though, is that you can build it to suit your personal needs as much as possible...eventually. In the beginning you are working long hours, networking, building a client base again, getting your name out there, figuring out marketing strategies, balancing your books, checking your bottom line constantly and starting fresh the next day... Discovering the optimal balance that allows you the personal time you need as well as the success that you deserve is the tough part. In the beginning, you tend to scramble a bit. Things that shouldn't be left on the back burner end up there and you can get very bogged down, very quickly! When I was in real estate full time, I worked countless hours to build a client base. I loved what I did, my clients saw this and I started to get more and more referrals. This is the greatest compliment I could have received so I said "yes" to every one of them! Before I knew it I was working 16-20 hour days, my diet was crap, I hadn't seen the inside of a gym in months (no...let's be honest...years) and I was still single with not a lot of prospects because I never made time to get to know them! Things needed to change and I made some hard decisions about my business in order to have all the other things I wanted in my life, such as a family, time to travel, etc. I came into RSDR with much knowledge that I didn't possess back then - I also came to it with a husband, a puppy, an acreage, health issues...basically a whole new set of items for the balancing act! Watch those plates spin!!!

Delays...

Nobody likes them, but they happen... Delays are a normal part of most projects - the trick is to anticipate these delays and work it into the time frame of expected due dates. For example, if a project should take a week if all goes well, plan for 3 weeks as the completion date. That way, there rarely are "delays" as far as clients are concerned. You can almost always complete on the expected date, if not before! This is primarily advice for re-design projects, especially ones requiring any renovations. It almost always happens that something ordered will come wrong, they will only have 3 items in stock when 4 are needed so you have to wait on the last to be shipped, someone gets a flu bug and is unable to work, an item gets broken en route to the property and needs to be re-sourced and delivered. You name it, it can happen. I've even had tradespeople that are in the property to do an installation or construction work of some sort, try to convince my clients that the furniture is in the wrong place (not all rooms need to be centred around a 60" TV), the overall design is not worth the money ("I could've found a similar item at Walmart for you.") or complain about colours schemes (not every room needs a red feature wall)! Decorator or drywaller??? (Will be the topic of another blog soon, I am sure!) Anyhow, delays are normal due to the human element in this type of work. I have been caught once in a while where the tradespeople are not those I've worked with before, I don't know how they work or the number of extra tasks they may been asked to attend to while the original work is being completed (i.e. while this furniture was being moved out, the freshly painted banisters got smudged and need to be touched up, as well as the furniture needing to be cleaned up). Therefore my time frame of when I expect to be completed is based on their estimate of when the renovation work is done. Sometimes they are not one in the same... I am very hands-on with my projects, especially with the absence of much needed staff at the moment, so I like to be apprised of the goings-on as they happen, so I can adjust the completion date accordingly if needed, help with whatever I can in the meantime, and mitigate any negative situation to keep the project running smoothly and the client happy with the end results. Thinking "outside the box" has become more the norm than not...and personally, I have a bit more fun that way - it is healthy to keep the creative flowing... At the end of the day, though, rational thought needs to prevail over these little things if they occur. And thankfully most clients are very reasonable people. After all, we are decorating a room, not curing a rapid moving epidemic of plague...

Social Media Virgin

So far I have kept my blogs pretty neutral...staging based or decor based or about the weather (weather is always the topic that comes out when you have hit a wall) - I tried to tie those ones to decor somehow, comparing colour schemes to seasons, etc. but really...it is still the weather... It may have occurred to anyone reading my blog that I didn't really have a direction for it - this is true. I am a social media virgin. It's been a while since I was a virgin ;)...a little exhilarating, a little scary... So here I am, 35 years old and on the cusp of something new, yet again. I have a Twitter account, am on Facebook and LinkedIn. And since I have started these accounts I have blundered my way through it. After all, how much do you say? What type of stuff about you and your business is interesting and which is just stuff to have a presence on these forums because you're told you should? What is too personal? What topics will strike up responses and followers? ("Followers"...sounds like we're recruiting for a new religion...) Well, after much thought on this and debate about this, I have decided to go for broke... I have always kept my professional self and personal self separate. Yes, I said "self", not "career" and "personal life", because really when you are in real estate, and now staging, they tend to intertwine. Friends, former co-workers, family, guys I dated, co-workers of family, friends of friends - you end up working with the people that are part of or connected to your personal life. I say "self" because it was rare that I ever showed people that were clients when I was actually frustrated with a deal, tired from having worked 20 hour days, or in pain because my health was declining rapidly from not looking after myself. I smiled through it, stayed confident and calm as I dealt with any issues that may have arisen during the process, so my clients didn't have to. It became very easy for me to switch my voice to a calmer, sweeter version or hide tears when my phone rang, so as not to worry others. I didn't regale my clients with bad dating stories, or the fact that I was cramping so bad from IBS while I was showing them houses that I had to stop at some gas station nearby... So when I started on social media - I used my "game face", if you will... My blogs going forward are going to be more about me - after all the business is me, really - my ambition, my talents, my plans, my design. My life, my path, my experiences and education, my desires and dreams have all led me to this moment, this business, and anywhere I head in the future will be due to my current state of mind and life situation. So, I welcome you (if you dare) to travel my road with me. I'd like to introduce you to (as my new web designers put it ) "the mastermind behind RSDR"...mastermind - I love that...(BTW stay tuned for the unveiling of the new RSDR website)!!!

Welcome Sunshine!

The sun is out; the grass is green and lush; the air is starting to sweeten with blossoms...the real estate market is busy and staging is taking off once again! Listings in the $200,000 - $300,000 range are going crazy! Above $350,000 seems a little tougher to move. The time frames for selling them are a bit longer and the prices are not reflective of the space offered when compared to the lower price ranges... This means for just a few thousand more - you can get a lot more house!!! A lot of my clients lately are in these higher price ranges - have tried selling without staging, unsuccessfully. They have called for the services of RSDR to assist in attracting their target market and are seeing great results! The realtors I have worked with suggest it may be due to competition with the new home building market - people are opting to build brand new vs. purchasing something that may need a bit of updating. The option of new is definitely appealing - fresh carpet, fresh paint, new appliances, picking your own materials and colour palette, energy efficient options, warranties... I have a couple of friends that will only buy new - they hate the idea that other people lived on their carpet, put knicks in their walls, painted colours they would never have picked, etc. There is something to be said for an older home though! Living in an established neighbourhood with trees and larger yards; decks that have already been built; landscaping that has been completed and has matured; a settled home, with no new cracks and nail holes popping up during the first year you're in it; larger rooms in some cases; no extensive delays with move-in dates; pools and hot tubs already installed; not getting damaged tires from driving through a construction site each day... It may be worth it to look at what it would cost to update an older home to what you would want and compare that with the cost of buying a new lot, building a new home, storing your things while you wait for it to be completed (in some cases), finishing the landscaping, building the deck or patio, and so on. I have always opted for an older home, personally. I love already having the yard, deck, fence, fruit trees, established gardens... I always start the move-in process off much like I would if I was building - I choose a new colour palette, I decide if new appliances are warranted, I typically change the flooring, do a little tiling in the bathrooms to update the look, maybe pick some new lighting fixtures, window coverings, install some dimmers and PRESTO...the house is now my home!

Working with the puppy...

I have had the most fun ever, the last 2 months, getting used to having a puppy in our lives and then creating a work dynamic that doesn't require her being by herself for hours at a time! She just turned 5 months on October 5. She loves people and other dogs, is a very happy girl, and is incredibly smart!!! We had her 2 weeks when she jumped up at the door, put her paws on each side of the round doorknob and tried to turn it one way and then the next! My husband and I just looked at one another and thought "uh oh", imagining all the things she could get into...

She is a surprisingly great puppy! She has always slept through the night (wakes between 6-8am to go out); Every time I think she is up to no good because she has escaped the confines of the kitchen/family room area to sneak upstairs - I have found her laying at the top of the stairs WITH HER OWN TOY; and...We can count on 2 hands how many "mistakes" have been made in the house (and only "#1"s)... She starts to walk to the front door, or if she is in the office with me, she rings a bell I have tied on the doorknob (thanks to a client of mine for this suggestion and teaching me the process of training her to do this!). I then ask her if she has to go outside and if it is a "yes", she shakes a paw, if "no" she just walks by me, grabs her toy and brings it to me to play. (She has figured out she gets my attention this way as well...) Pretty impressive, right??? I mean I have grown up with dogs that ate library books, magnets off the fridge, my new leather boots, tore down all the wall paper in one room and then ate holes through the drywall...so I have been expecting the worst!!! This puppy though...

So, I decided to take her in the car with me if I have errands to run, really short appointments, etc. to see how she does. She did so well in the first couple of weeks that now I manage my time schedule so that on the short appointment/errand days I take her with me, and plan for longer appointments to be scheduled separately or in the evening, so she is not alone too long, or she has "Daddy" with her. I have found through our travels together that she is a fantastic companion and have learned that many places around the city are "pet friendly"! Places you would never expect...the post office, pharmacy, my web-designers' office (Verda Design), and several clients' places! I pack us lunches, we go for walks in between appointments, all is good...

A phenomenally socialized dog, better time management, planned (healthier) meals and daily exercise that I normally wouldn't get! Such a great idea!!!

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

It is January 2012! Hard to believe! Last year was rough in some ways (concussion, fertility issues, economic stress from investments going sour...), so I am happy to see it close and am excited about the year to come. Fresh starts - it's funny - we can make them any day of the year, but it seems right at the start of a year - easier to track progress dates, still on a bit of a holiday high, or maybe the holidays weren't what you wanted them to be so the changes are an attempt at better ones to come...it seems there is more hope at this time of the year.

RSDR has seen nothing but positive changes in the past year, I am thrilled to announce! Business increased considerably, social media presence was established, the bright and beautiful Johanna Wood joined the team as Marketing Coordinator in the fall and right at the end of the year, we welcomed an energetic and lovely intern named Rachael...all smiles in this company!

Now in 2012, we introduce a new member again - she may not be doing a lot of the staging work, but is a definite asset to our home and will no doubt become RSDR's new mascot!!! Welcome RUBY! Ruby is a 12 week old Airedale Terrier - she is an absolute joy to have and I am not sure how I lived without the sound of a squeaky toy being squeezed beside me while I work away in my office!