I usually do "Walk & Talk" consultations, but these clients in Bridgewater, Somerset County in NJ, turned the phrase around! 

I "Talked" and they "Walked" away with more money then they expected after completing the suggestions on their list. For these sellers, who had a specific itemized list of directions, wound up reaping the financial rewards on the sale of their home to the tune of an EXTRA $26K over their listing price! 

Home staging for owners living in their properties while selling ("Walk & Talk" consultations), are essential to making sure the house is presented in its best light to appeal to highest amount of buyers.  Knowing what furniture, accessories, or "stuff" needs to stay or go, is one of the most important steps to selling your house. A little expert staging guidance from Stellar Stagings, some sweat equity and time, will always prove to be a winning combination to sell your house! 

You take the time to detail your leased car to make it look good before you turn it in to the dealer, why wouldn't you detail the biggest asset of your life to make more money?

To paint or not to paint...that is the question.

In the 1500 houses that I have done my "Walk and Talk" consultations, I have met many a giant, red or sooty brown fireplace. In older homes, they tend to be the focus of attention in a room. In many cases, that is not such a good thing. In this house in Edison, NJ you can see what I mean. The minute you walk into this small living room, all you see is this massive dark wall of brick that overpowers the room. 

Sellers need to remember that the average age of buyers is 32, and they want fresh and updated homes. Anything a seller can do to appeal to this buyer is worth every penny. Remember, first time home buyers are usually mortgage poor and after their down payment to buy the house, they have limited funds to do updates. So when they tour a house, they look at all the things they will need to do and will either lowball the offer or pass on the property.

This brick fireplace was transformed to a light, bright, and inviting space once the house was painted and staged. Paint is botox for a house and will yield a 300% return on your investment that will be reflected in an offer. Sometimes you need to spend money to make money!

Don't feel blue!

Sometimes when we stage vacant properties in central NJ, we need to incorporate finishing choices, colors, and design elements in our staging design. In this vacant in East Brunswick, with a Milltown address, we incorporated the blue wall into our solution. When the house was vacant, all you saw was this blue wall. Once staged, it becomes a beautiful detail in the room and makes complete sense. 

If your property is not selling in central NJ, I have a feeling that staging may be your answer! 

You shouldn't wait to stage your house until you are ready to move. What if you "staged to live" and really enjoyed it and then when you were ready to sell it was ready to go? Don't know where to start to make a room cohesive? What I have found from the hundreds of "Walk & Talk" consultations that I have done, is that people really struggle with art and scale. What I suggest is to find a large piece of art or rug that you really love and then use the colors in the art to accessories the room. Size of art is really important. When you have a large sofa, you need a large piece of art to anchor it. Then you can pull colors out of the painting for pillows and accessories for a coffee table. 

In this example in Edison, the abstract art made a statement above the sofa. Then when we pulled the orange and the blue from the art by using pillows of those colors, it really created a harmonious look. Then we added another layer of colors and textures on the coffee table art. When you see the furniture, art, pillows, and accessories combined it all makes sense.

Be a home stager and create the environment YOU want to live in; I am sure you are going to love the results!

When we are home staging, we come across all kinds of kitchen designs. For my investors that do 40-50 house flips a year, we tend to see the same (or close variation) of the kitchen in every house. For them, using the same materials that they can buy in bulk is a sound financial option.

Imagine our surprise when we entered this kitchen. The design was a couple of years old but instead of seeing the standard stove we saw this vintage beauty. Seeing this stove took me back to my Aunt Sophie's kitchen when I was a kid. She had one just like this and many memories of being in her kitchen growing up played in my mind. Would this bring back any memories for you if you saw this kitchen?

While not for everyone, I am hoping that this house in Milltown will find a buyer that just might appreciate this timeless beauty.

Had a Walk & Talk Consultation this week where the front door color became an issue. While the door was fine, the color wasn't. It was a brownish color and just blended in with the brown and beige brick. In the time of year when everything looks "droopy" because of the temperature and lack of green, it is important to show some pizzazz whenever possible. An easy fix is a can of paint and it can make all the difference. Remember, this is the first impression that buyers see when they drive up to your property! 

What color would you choose for this door? I will report back with an after photo when the door is done!

Last blog post I talked about how taking wallpaper down and painting yielded a $15.000 HIGHER offer on a property in Edison.  Well, I have even better news...just found out that the house received ANOTHER offer and was $35,000 ABOVE the original listing price! Wow, good for the homeowners to be able to get more equity out of their property!  Prepping your home and sometimes spending to make even more money is a smart decision. Staging your house will always be the best investment you can make to sell quicker, for more money, and use that equity in the next stage of your life. To think, it all started with a little ole' Walk & Talk Consultation and the rest is history!

Last post I talked about the Return on Your Investment when you take wallpaper down BEFORE you list your property. I want to follow up with the property in Metuchen that was listed first WITHOUT removing the wallpaper. While the house did get offers - they were not acceptable. Fast forward to the owners taking the paper down, staging, and relisting, and the results are in! The received offers $15,000 HIGHER than the original list price! They got a 500% return on their investment to remove paper and paint! What investment do you know that can give you a 500% return?  

Bottom line - home staging works at getting top dollar!

Inspiration can hit you anywhere - even in Central NJ.

My Christmas table was inspired when I was getting my Christmas tree and saw all the cutoff pieces of trunks that were sitting in a bin. Stage your table and be creative. Use unconventional materials in a new way. 

These trees represent 33 families gathering on Christmas.  Merry Christmas from our table to yours ❤