Sheron Cardin's Input...: January 2007

Cyndi Ashworth of Elegant Interiors comes to us from Sparks, NV. She is going to add real value to our fast growing community of home stagers. Welcome Cyndi.

Diane Laube lives and works in Austin Texas. She is with JBGoodwin Realty. Please stop by and say hi to Diane.

We have a few new members to welcome today. They have started their profiles so I let me introduce to you:

Lorraine Hickling with Remax Quality One Ltd. Brokerage in A jax, Ontario Let's make her feel comfortable with a warm welcome

Lynn Millen with ERA Four Seasons Realty in Midland, NC. I love the name Four Seasons, also my favorite hotel chain...first class.

Barbara Armstrong Is a home stager from  Kihei, HI. her company is called Home Remedies, Home Staging and Design. We have connections in great locations!

Leeanne Norlin, a home stager from North Fort Meyers, FL. her company name is The House Whisperer (I watch the dog whisperer all the time...great reference!)

I am thrilled to introduce Joyce Emory to the rainers. She is a power house Realtor as well as a Ninja Selling trainer. Joyce is going to be a great asset around here and get us all pumped up the Ninja way. She is a very busy person so I hope she will find the time to dance in the rain and get all wet very soon.

Jeff Turner has such a way with words and now the refrigerator? As I am reading his delicious post and comments I thought I would go visit my refrigerator and see what wisdom my family holds dear. I won't go into my list here but what happened to me on the way to the kitchen I will share.

What is the very first thing a home stager or real estate agent has their clients do? "The first thing you have to do is take everything off your refrigerator!" Right? OMG - we are hitting below the belt when we call the memories and schedules and fingerpainted crumpled paper and grocery list's JUNK or CLUTTER or MESS.

Our lives run smoothly becuase of the refrigerator art, don't they. I would resist someone coming into my home and tell me to clear it off. What would I do with all my important stuff, and my cherished memories, and the homework schedule?

That is when it occured to me to do something thoughtful for our clients. Bring gifts! Bring a special offering on your consultation be it a box that you have made with your logo on it, or a decorative box you have purchased for a few dollars at the local Pier-1, you can give your clients a meaninful, thoughtful, caring box for their precious family posessions. THANK YOU AGAIN JEFF!

Active rain is like college. You can go sit in on your favorite instructor's class for a few minutes pick up some tips or ideas or a concept, apply it, then run to the next class for a minute or two, then if you loose your concentration you can just take a break for a day or a minute, you can pass notes to one another, talk in class, and no one gets mad at you or tells you to be quiet. If you are asked a question, your answer is listened to carefully. 

Our instructors are world class and if there is anything going on in the world we will find out about it. We don't have to use up the planet's resources to learn; we save on fuel, we need less clothing which saves the children from working in sweat shops, we spend more time with our families which saves on building more prisons, we save on paper which saves a tree,

After you take the quiz and total your points, scroll down to the bottom of the window and see how much style you really have.

When you shop for your home, do you say...

1. It's so cute - I'll find a place for it
   
2. I better buy it now while it is on sale and I will make it work
   
3. I finally found one that is comfortable and fits my legs
4. The kids can't hurt this
5. This goes with the other pieces in the room
6. This is the right size and shape for the space
7. Love it - can't live without it

When you look for a place for a new purchase, do you say...

1. I'll put it here for now
2. Everyone can see it from here
3. It matches
   
4. He or she will just love it here
   
5. This will work wherever I put it
   
6. This brings out my favorite color
7. This is just what the room needs

When you walk through you home, do you say...

1. I can't wait till we get to this room
   
2. I just love Aunt Millies taste
3. I can't wait to get out of the house
   
4. It doesn't look bad there
5. I think it looks good and that's all that matters
   
6. I just love living here
7. Yes, this is me

When people walk into your home, do they say...

1. Where do you want me to sit
2. Wow, you are really into antiques
3. This house really hides the dirt
4. Do you need any help
5. It is always so cozy here
6. Ah, I don't ever want to leave
7. Hmm, I think I'll go home and try that

Now total your score. The highest is 28 points and the lowest is 4. Now scroll down to see how you did.

Keep scrolling...

Keep scrolling...

No peaking!!!

Okay... 

From 4 to 8 points: You must live in someone elses home or you are not involved with what goes on around there. If it is yours, you need to take control and make a space for yourself that you can call your own. If you don't know what you like...go to your closet. This will give you your first clue as to the colors that you like and the style that you like whether it is taylored and fitting or floral and fancy. If you cannot do much else but keep what you have then customize it by painting and recovering until you are comfortable. 

From 12 to 16 points You have an idea what your style is but you just can't get to it. You have the 'someday syndrome' going on. You have inherited most of your things or they are hand me downs or temporary fixes and you know what you want, you just don't have the time or the means to express your self.

20 points Your on your way and in the transitional period. You have ideas and you want to express them and they are unfolding little by little. Stick with it and you will get there.

24 to 28 points You have mastered your style and claimed your space. You can be trusted to help other people decorate their homes.  Obstacles thrown at you do not control you. You make choices from a secure place inside you and are free to create new beginnings.

Disclaimer: This quiz is just for fun and not to be taken too seriously. 

I have often wondered why banks and restaurants put their businesses right next to each other and I always ask "Why build your business right next to your competitor? Then someone answered my question with this; "If you want to do your banking you go where the banks are. If you don't like something your bank did, you go next door. If you go to your favorite restaurant all the time and want a change, you know where to go because you have been looking at their sign for months". Ah, that is it!

So what are we going to do when the competition comes to town? What we need to do is invite them in. People are not going to be looking for property merchandisers next to the dress shop or the grocery store; they are going to be looking for Home Stagers next to the other Stagers, Decorator's, Real Estate Agencies and even furniture stores.

Do we naturally feel like we are in direct competition with our peers? Of course! Until we realize that there is a huge, gigantic, enormous, delicious pie bigger that we can imagine waiting to smother us with its' delights. I recently commented on one of Craig Schiller's posts and Jessica Hughes suggested that I make a post out of it so here it is. Thank you Jessica because we need to embody the vastness of our opportunities.

"5% of the country can afford a decorator and 1% of that elite group hires them. That leaves 95% of the country pining for the good life. They scramble through magazines and showrooms hoping that someday they will be able to afford the nicer things in life. I don't know what percentage of the 95% that is so poor they are just hoping for their next meal and some shelter, but for the sake of getting to my point...

The home stager has 95% of the country to decorate for., not just home sellers. Opening up to this opportunity is the challenge. The fast track for the fast decorator is yet just a spark".

Active Rain is going to experience an influx of competators that have set up shop right next door to you. That is the time to step up your game, offer your very best, give more than you take, and get your piece of the unlimited pie.  

Stage It Forward! 

I have discovered a way to pedal in the rain!

Is your back end getting as wide as your new wide screen PC? I have had an Internet business for almost 2 years now and I am taking notice the shift my body is taking...eek! Then along came Active Rain and it is confirmed...I am spending way too much time at the computer including my exercise time.

I used to live in SF and everything was tight because when you live in the City, you walk everywhere. Even at the beach you have choices or in communities where there are walking paths. I happen to live currently in the Raisin Capitol of the World filled with vineyards and coyotes. Walking here is taking your life in your own hands and walking is my form of exercise. So I bought a treadmill. Anyone have a treadmill? Mine has been in the upright position now for the last couple of months and I am getting worried. Let me see...treadmill or computer...hmmm.

While visiting my mother the other day I notice that her exercise pedals have not moved in month's and a light bulb went off...I am so racked with guilt and fear of the ill effects of sitting so much, I realized that those little pedals will fit right under my desk. Will it work? YES! It does work and I feel so much better now that I am getting my cardio up while I am reading everyone's post's and the links in those post's and commenting on those posts. So here it is...the answer to my dilemma and may even yours. Pedal to your HEARTS CONTENT and blog away. 

What you get for the money:

• Residential Resale Staging Evaluation Checklist Forms - Leave your worries behind! This is a complete 18 page checklist that identifies every aspect of your home from the curb to the shower. Identify what can be left as is and what needs repair, replacement, or removal with ease as you go down the checklist. All the work has been done for you...all you do is circle the action to be taken and it becomes your to-do-list. The checklist also helps you establish a budget by selecting what needs to be done to your home to get it resale ready.
• Do-It-Yourself Home Staging Instructions - A complete step-by-step tutorial holds your hand through the detachment phase, detailing and updating phase, and the all important room identification and decorating phase. 
• Bonus - How To Sell Your Vacant House - You don't need to rent a truck load of furniture...that is boring. Staging vignettes throughout the house as well as hosting lively open house ideas from the kitchen puts life where there was only sadness and emptiness. Used as a companion to the Home Staging Instructions, any of the ideas in this ebook can be implemented into the staging of any home with unique ideas and attitude.
• All from a decorator's point of view! - 25 plus years of decorating model homes, resale homes, high end homes, and everything in between is put into these pages. The premise is "Learning is by doing". Follow in the footsteps of the professionals and achieve a professionally staged home maximized for resale.
• Tools, inspirational tips and ideas for room arrangements, outdoor groupings and themes, and everything you will need to do-it-yourself all on the how2homestage.com's web site. Includes oOnline help from the expert's.
  

Save your money for other things! Download your Complete Home Staging Package today!

Gina Dougherty from AR, her significant other, and me, sat down in the back row with our coffee in hand not knowing what to expect. The theme of the day was "The Inner Circle". The president of the Mark Victor Hansen organization introduced MVH and the show began.

Before we knew it, MVH was having us draw happy faces on each other's index fingers. Okay, I know MVH likes to have fun but were we ready to deal with our reluctant inner child so early in the morning? Reluctantly, we drew them. I was worried about getting ink on our clothing but then he had us touch our foreheads. Were we going to have happy faces imprinted on our foreheads? About 400 well dressed 30-40-50's something entrepreneurs drawing happy faces on our body is against all the rules and so it began, breaking down the steel walls we build so eloquently. That is what MVH does; he penetrates our safety shields in an instant. He begins the process of finding out who is in the game of change and who is not. 

MVH say's

• "Wealth is a full participation sport"
• "Marketing is story telling"
• "True giving is from the top...not with what is left"
• "Double it up"
• "Gain a skill a month"
• "If dreams were for sale, what would you buy?"

And so on. I am on overload already. Mark talks so fast and spews out words to live by before I can even pick up my pen. Then he introduces Robert Allen and they have their love fest for each other and how one has influenced the other since they met. Their key point was "As a group you can do more than by yourself". That is what he does; he super sizes every one and everything with his unique mega language.

Then MVH returns to the stage and talks about his new book with Art Linkletter and how blown away he is this 94 year young billionaire.  Everyone is filled with a renewed energy lapping up every word spoken. Then he introduces Roger Hamilton.

Roger had an unusual accent like a sing-song brogue and talked about his origin which is half Japanese and half Scottish. So that explained why I was having a difficult time understanding him but I did get one thing: Who we are today is completely different than who we were 7 years ago and who we will be will be completely new in 7 years from now. That's good to know! He sent us back 21 years and we could see all that we had become was very different from where we were. It was a good exercise for me.

So "Going Global" was taking shape. He spoke of the changes that are being made globally because of the members of the "Inner Circle". Just before the lunch break it became clear that the purpose of the meeting was to join the Inner Circle. I was not there to join the Inner Circle and neither were Gina and Patrick. We had our fabulous lunch and met some very interesting people but Gina and Patrick left after lunch. I stuck around for awhile then left early myself. It was a little disappointing knowing that if I did want to be in the Inner Circle then there was little reason to stay for the 2nd half.

What I came home to was my first global experience...it was happening already...a lady from Germany had purchased my Home Staging Package while I was in the meeting. There you have it! I am thinking global therefore global is in my experience. 

For now, what I have taken away from this experience is the movers and shakers of this world are big givers. When I set up my Internet business, part of the plan was to give 10% off the top to a charity. I let that slide not realizing how important it is to building wealth. Originally my choice was with homeless shelters and I do give to the local mission in Fresno, but in re-evaluating from my new global position, I am going to set up a monthly contribution to Oprah's Angel Network and post that on my web site today. I trust Oprah and she is global. 

I did take some really good notes that I will share in a later post. When I left the conference, I left behind my portfolio with everything in it. A gentleman from the MVH headquarters called me Sunday and said they had it and will send it to me. Now that is attention to detail. What was funny was I was reading this week's newsletter from MVH and there was an error in the upcoming Mega Conference in March. The info on the 1st page said Los Angeles and when I clicked on the details link it said Florida. So the timing was perfect, I let them know what I found and they let me know what they found. It all works out.