I’m still behind on posting pictures of the staging jobs my wife has been undertaking the past couple months.
About a month ago, she finished her sixth job for an investor who is selling a small house in downtown Atlanta. The house is a 2 bedroom, 2 bath, with an open kitchen, dining room, and living room.
The investor didn’t hire her to take pictures or to create a marketing flyer, so the pics below aren’t great (we only took them for inventory/insurance purposes). In fact, my wife will probably kill me for posting these.
That said, the investors still “stole” them for use in his MLS listing, so I guess they aren’t that bad… 🙂
Oooh, I love that flower picture and the cute little chaise/chair underneath it!
Every time I look at your staging pics I feel the urge to start redecorating my condo. 🙂
Nice job!
Nice work as usual, Carol! Don’t kill J for posting these….they are beautiful!
Ladies, THANK YOU, you are far too kind :o) Staging looked fab but the photos are L-A-M-E!!! J you’re so in the doghouse.
If you guys didn’t have the staging business, would you still buy your own furniture for staging your flips? I want to stage my houses but we don’t have any stagers close to us. Wondering if it is worth it to buy the furniture. Storage is not really an issue. Approximately how much do you think you have spent in furniture. Thanks!
Hey Bill –
Actually, the original plan was to only do staging for ourselves, and not for other investors. We bought all of our own furniture, as after doing some investigation, we realized that long-term it was MUCH cheaper than renting. We’ve gotten to the point where we can fully stage a 3/2 for about $2500. It takes some work to get it that cheap (lots of negotiating, buying in bulk, shopping for deals on Craigslist, etc), but it can certainly be done.
Here are some other tips:
– Buy small and light furniture, which tends to be the most inexpensive, but is also the easiest to move.
– Instead of using a mattress and box spring for the bed, use two boxsprings (they’re cheaper and lighter).
– Don’t hesitate to buy display items (which are cheaper).
– Don’t hesitate to buy items that are damaged, as they will be cheaper (especially if you know you can hide the damage during staging).
– Buying sets of items (like a 3-set of end-tables) even when you only need part of the set, can be cheaper than buying individually.
– Stick with neutral and complimentary colors so that you can mix and match pieces in future staging jobs.
– Shop in discount stores like Walmart, Target, etc. While the quality may be lower (which means they won’t last as long), the items generally look just as good out-of-the-box as higher-quality items. And because you’ll never actually use them, they don’t get much wear and tear.
– Always be on the lookout for great deals on Craigslist. Many people sell valuable and great looking stuff very inexpensively when they are desperate to sell.
Btw, the reason my wife got into staging for other investors (other than the fact that she loves doing it), is that we just didn’t want to store furniture between flips. So, by doing a bit of marketing and finding other investors to stage for, we had a place to store the furniture, plus made some money.
Hi J. Scott,
Thanks so much for the detailed response! I was on the fence on buying my own furniture but now I know it’s the best course to take.
Thanks again,
Bill (FL)
Hey Carol,
Have you ever considered starting a staging/decorating blog?
I bet you would do really well with it, especially if it’s something you love doing.
Just a thought…
“- Stick with neutral and complimentary colors so that you can mix and match pieces in future staging jobs.”
Hard to find those complimentary colors:
Red says to green…”Gosh you look nice today.”
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
UJ
bed tip… you dont even have to buy box springs. They are bulky and take up alot of space for storage and moving. We’ve been stacking (2) $20 air mattresses. Looks good Carol!
Interesting idea, Steph! Carol…a staging blog…hmm? You’re just bursting with personality so I know that it would be really interesting and informative 🙂
Love the staging pics. I always get new ideas from these posts.
Right now we only stage the kitchens and bathrooms but one of these days I’m going to break down and buy some furniture to do some full staging!!
Hey J Scott
You have a very good website i found it looking for a question that i am still a little fuzzy on. I would appreciate your insight. I am looking on getting into flipping houses. I have limited funds so i was thinking of using an FHA renovation loan. Is it against the law to sell the house 90 out after purchasing the property?
Last question how do i know as a general rule of thumb when i have found a good property to flip??
Sean –
In order to qualify for an FHA loan, you need to be an owner occupant, meaning the house you purchase will need to be purchased as your primary residence. Therefore, it would be illegal to purchase with the intent to flip it after 90 days using an FHA loan of any sort.
As for your second, question, there’s a lot that goes into determining what’s a good property to flip and what is not. Keep reading, and hopefully it will start to get more clear. One suggestion would be to put The Flip Formula to work — if it looks like a good deal based on the formula, it may just be a good deal…
Folks – Thanks for the nice words…
Tom – Great suggestion! (as usual from you :))