How to Celebrate Canada’s 150th Birthday in Waterloo Region

This is a big year for Canada, as well as Waterloo Region! So how can you make this the most memorable birthday yet? Here are just a few ideas that the BTSH team has put together for you:

1. You know how great it is when your birthday lands on the weekend – it means no work, all play, and a leisurely start to the day! Nothing says “Canadian” like morning pancakes or waffles with some local Maple Syrup.

PHOTO CREDIT: HARVEY E. MARTIN MAPLE SYRUP

2. Hosting a party? Check out some of our favourite Canadian-themed pins!

3. Create your own fireworks display – here are the by-law guidelines for

• Kitchener – Canada day or the day prior or after 
• Waterloo – Canada day or on the 7 days prior or after 
• Cambridge – Canada day or 2 days prior or after 
• Guelph – Canada day or the day before 

4. Head to downtown Kitchener for a free concert and fireworks display. Festivities start at 5pm and feature the James Barker Band (19+)! Check out the Kitchener Market 10am-2pm for a family-friendly Canada Day event including live music, face painting, crafts and more!

5. Organize a neighbourhood bike rally – set up a table to supply Canada themed bike decorations, including ribbons, stickers, garland, etc. and invite your neighbours to bring Canadian themed snacks and treats.

6. Dress yourself in your favourite red and whites! Check out Old Navy for some great Canadian themed garbs for every age.

7. Host a Canada Day scavenger hunt - around your neighbourhood or your back yard!

• For around your neighbourhood, create a list of red, white, or Canadian flag items to be found, and have your players take photos as they uncover these items. 
• Around your yard, hide red, white, and Canadian themed treats and prizes 

8. Canada Day 2017 at the University of Waterloo celebrates not only Canada’s 150th, but also celebrates the University’s 60th anniversary, PLUS the 50th anniversary of the UW Federation of Students. Celebration includes performance by Tom Cochrane with Red Rider! Get all the details here.

Phone: 1-266-240-0766
Email: info@btshomes.com
www.beyondthestagehomes.com

10 Low Budget Home Staging Hacks to Use in Everyday Life

Our home staging clients often tell us how much they wish that they had brought us in sooner, before they decided to sell the house, so that they could have enjoyed some of the changes that we made! They especially love seeing some of our home staging tricks and hacks first hand, so we’ve decided to share some of our favourites with you! You can put these low-cost ideas to use in your home, regardless of whether or not you are selling.

1. Use baskets to hide cables
It’s not a fancy trick, but it can be incredibly effective. Hide routers, cables, and other messes using baskets. NOTE: some items (such as routers) need room to vent, so be sure to account for and allow for this.

Consider adding a shelf under your desk to get the cords and cables off of the floor.

2. Zip tie your lamp cords (and other electronics)
In staging, there is nothing worse than seeing a long dangling cord behind a table. By zip-tying these, they can be cleaned up and out of site. Wind up extra slack in the cable or cord not needed and tie. You can bundle the cord close to the table top and tie, or tie the cord to the table leg at the top and bottom, and bundle the cord at the base. It’s easy for cables and chargers to become a bit of a mess as well. Group your office or tv cables together and zip tie in a few spots to keep them from getting tangled. It’s also a great idea to label your cords (close to the plug) so that you can easily unplug one when you need to without needing to do serious detective work to find the right one to disconnect. There are a variety of cord labelling systems available for sale, but it doesn’t need to be fancy - you can these create with any labels or tape that you have in your household already.

3. Use painters tape or masking tape to hang art on plaster walls
This will prevent the wall from splitting when you puncture it with the nail. Simply place a small piece of tape (approximately ½”) where you want to hang the nail before hammering.

4. Disguise your everyday products
Hat boxes are an attractive way to hide your everyday toiletries, and come in sizes large enough to fit your lotions and sprays easily!

5. Freshen your furniture with touch-up markers
While it’s not the most glamorous fix, this is a trick that is often used in home staging, and works great for giving furniture a quick touch-up from nicks and scratches. When you’re selling your home, even though you are not likely selling your furnishings, showing care of these items will help to show pride of ownership in your home.

6. Get rid of your fireplace's brass trim
One of the biggest things that can show a fireplace’s age is a brass trim! Pick up some black barbeque paint and cover the brass for an instant update!

7. Fix outdated backsplashes
Have an out-dated backsplash but can’t afford to replace it? Painting it will give it a fresh new look! This is intended as a temporary solution, but with the right paint, it can last for a few years. Not recommended for floor tiles.

8. Yes, you can paint brick!
Paint brick to give an instant update, whether on the interior or exterior of your house. Again, you’ll want to ensure that you are using a paint designed for this type of surface; you’ll be amazed by the finish.

9. Need a table runner? 
Create a “make-shift” table runner from an old drape with a few tucks and folds (if you don’t intend to use the drape again, you may wish to cut it and add some hem tape to create a proper seam).

10. Get a custom closet for less!
Hang all similar colours together with matching hangers and add baskets to your shelves. Use space saving hangers for best results – your closet will look and feel much more organized and spacious!

Contact Beyond The Stage Homes today to find out how to get your property sold!

Phone: +1 (226) 240-0766
Email: info@btshomes.com
www.beyondthestagehomes.com 

Why Your Empty House Won't Sell

While it is possible to sell an empty house, it is rare. If you have ever tried to sell a vacated house absent of its furnishings, you have likely experienced this first hand - numerous buyers passing on the home, and feedback that makes no sense to you. What do you mean the bedrooms look small? The living room isn't an awkward layout! Since you have lived in the house, you know how great it looks when it’s fully furnished and decorated, and you understand how each room should be set up. The trick is in helping your buyers to understand this.

Unfortunately, the ability to visualize a space is a skill that not everyone has. In fact, only about 10% of your prospective buyers have this ability to properly visualize a space beyond what they see in front of them. This means when you are selling a vacant home, you’re missing out on 90% of potential market! Vacant homes will often take much longer to sell than a properly staged home (72% longer in fact, according to RESA®’s 2014 survey). Not only does furnishing a home properly help buyers to understand the optimal placement for their furniture, but it will allow them to connect on an emotional level as well. It’s not just about having furniture in a house in order to help buyers to visualize it, but it’s about merchandising the home, and selling the experience of living there.

To do this, each room needs to first be clearly defined. This means showing buyers what the intended purpose and use of each room in the home is, whether it’s a bedroom, an office, a dining room, or a gathering room. Defining this intent, and showcasing this one use for the space, will allow buyers to flow more easily from room to room when viewing the home, without having to stop and think in each room about how they would use it.

What is home staging? Home staging is a complete process for preparing a home for sale. The goal of home staging is to clearly define the space, show proper scale, and create an emotional connection for buyers. This is achieved through updates and repairs, eliminating distractions from the home, proper furnishing, arranging, accessorizing, and essentially, merchandising of the space.

Have you ever ordered an item online, and when you received it you realized that it wasn’t quite the size that you thought that it was? The online site probably gave you the dimensions for the item, but you didn’t fully understand its size from the photo that they provided you with. Now, you’ve probably seen something like this, and perhaps have even done this yourself when taking a photo:

You take a commonly known object, and place it next to the item that you’re trying to show the size of. Now lets take this back to your empty house. Vacant rooms will often tend to look smaller than they actually are to your prospective buyers, especially since 92% of these buyers are first viewing your property online (National Association of REALTORS® 2014 REPORT), and these photographs can be deceptive in vacant rooms. By showing that a queen size bed with nightstands fits in a bedroom for example, or a full size sofa in the sitting room, you’re helping buyers to understand how they could furnish the rooms, and you are giving them an incentive to come and visit the home to see for themselves.

When viewing an empty home online, it is especially difficult for your buyers to connect to the home and feel invited in, and they are less likely to even visit it. Why do you think that homebuilders prepare a model home for their buyers? They understand that their buyers want the experience of being able to walk around the home, instead of just viewing a black and white floor plan. In fact, most homebuilders will tell you that most of their buyers purchase the finishes that they have shown in their model property.

As home stagers, it is not uncommon for the buyers of homes that we have staged to contact us to purchase the items that we used in staging it, or to help them to purchase items similar to those that we used. They loved it so much when they walked through, that they wanted to buy it all!

A house that is not properly furnished will distract buyers, thus disrupting this natural flow. Buyers want to easily flow from room to room in a house. In an empty house, each room requires additional time (and energy) to discuss the proper use, the size of the room, what will fit, what won’t fit, and where to position it. They’ll then need to attempt to visualize what all of that will look like, which is challenging to 90% of the population. Making your buyers do this much work usually leads to a longer time on market, price reductions, and a whole lot of avoidable stress on your part.

Help your buyers connect with the home by having it professionally staged. This will help to answer all of your buyer questions, so that the only question remaining is how soon can we write up an offer? At Beyond The Stage Homes, we specialize in staging your vacant home. We offer the largest independent inventory selection in the Region, with great rental terms (ask us how to get your second month of staging rentals for FREE)!

Did you know? The investment in home staging is always less than the first price reduction. In addition, an investment in home staging means less time on the market, and therefore lowers your carrying costs for the house.

Contact Beyond The Stage Homes today to find out how to get your property sold!

Phone: +1 (226) 240-0766
Email: info@btshomes.com
www.beyondthestagehomes.com 

Your BTSH Team: Jennifer Roth

Meet Jennifer Roth, BTSH’s Professional Home Stager! Jennifer and Shauna Lynn met through the local RESA chapter and found a connection right away. They often met outside of chapter meetings and quickly discovered they worked well together. So well, in fact, that Jennifer often helped out with BTSH vacant staging jobs. They ultimately decided that it made sense to combine their efforts, and Jennifer officially joined the BTSH team in May 2014.

Jennifer was one of the first certified Real Estate Staging Professionals (RESP). With a diploma in Interior Design from Sheridan College, she has been preparing homes for sale since 2011 and was named one of RESA’s Top 10 Rising Star Home Stagers in North America in 2013. Jennifer is also skilled in interior design and decorating, new home construction, real estate, and advertising and marketing. “I just love being able to take a room and transform it into something beautiful,” said Jennifer.

Prior to working at BTSH, Jennifer worked as a deal secretary with RE/MAX, where she processed offers on real estate transactions. She also worked at Peak Realty, where she acted as a personal assistant to a group of six realtors. “Everyone said I should be a realtor. I thought about it, and loved the industry, but wanted to use my creative side more,” said Jennifer. She credits a realtor with bringing home staging to her attention, and as a result, Jennifer started Home Selling Edge in 2011. She worked there until she merged with BTSH in 2014.

QUICK FACTS ABOUT JENNIFER
Favourite part of her job:
    Finding solutions to help sellers live in staged homes, and seeing the reactions of homeowners who see the transformation after a vacant stage.
Favourite TV show:
    House Hunters
    Love It or List It
Favourite stager:
    Karen Otto
    Red Barrinuevo
Favourite upcoming trend:
    Gold is coming back! Especially in fixtures. Furs are also becoming more popular again!

Jennifer loves contemporary designs like light fabrics, soft textures, clean lines, and metallics. She also appreciates all other design styles, and prides herself on being able to visualize different styles in all kinds of homes, whether it’s traditional, rustic, vintage, contemporary, or more!

Contact Beyond The Stage Homes today to find out how to get your property sold!

Phone: +1 (226) 240-0766
Email: info@btshomes.com
www.beyondthestagehomes.com 

Why savvy homeowners choose home staging

While home staging is not a new concept (in fact, the industry is actually about 40 years old), it has gained popularity in recent years, thanks to additional exposure through magazines and television shows. There are a number of reasons why home staging works the way that it does, and more and more homeowners are reaping the benefits. 

In this week's Vlog, we explain a number of popular reasons why home staging works, and why savvy homeowners are choosing to stage before they list.

Remember: The cost of home staging is always less than the first price reduction!

Have you staged your home before? Tell about your experience with home staging!

Contact Beyond The Stage Homes today to find out how to get your property sold!

Phone: +1 (226) 240-0766
Email: info@btshomes.com
www.beyondthestagehomes.com 

10 Things Your Home Stager Did NOT Learn From HGTV

We get it, you've watched all of the home renovation and home sale shows, read all of the online articles and tips regarding setting up your home to sell, and you have checked off everything on every home selling checklist you could find, so why would you need to hire a Professional Home Stager? We often hear homeowners say, “I don’t need a stager, I watch HGTV all the time, and I know that I need to remove the clutter and the personal items.”

These reality shows have really put the home staging industry in the spotlight over the last few years, and have helped homeowners to better understand the importance of preparing their home prior to listing it for sale. But, while these shows provide the basics of what this preparation involves, they don’t provide the full picture of what it really takes to properly style and STAGE your home in order to evoke the emotional connection that your prospective buyers are looking for.

Your home is one of a kind, and it should be treated as such! You want to stand out from the competition, so why would you use the same checklists as everyone else? Would you clean your own teeth, or would you choose to hire a trained professional to do this for you? Your home deserves the right attention with specific recommendations, geared towards your home, from an expert that specializes in doing just that, in order to highlight your home’s greatest features. So what are these articles and lists NOT telling you? As a Home Stager, these are just a few of the things that we have learned, through our professional training and many years of experience: 

      1.      Where to place YOUR furniture so that the room remains open and inviting, while maintaining function and flow

This does not mean simply moving all of your furniture to the edges of the room. This means understanding proper traffic flow, as well as the latest furniture styling trends. We will evaluate what should stay, what should be removed, and where to properly position your furniture to optimize flow, eliminate awkward spaces, and highlight the best features of the room.

      2.      Shelf Styling

By far one of the trickiest decorating techniques to master, this is the art of filling the shelves to catch your eye, without diverting your attention from the room. This means selecting the right size and style of pieces to compliment the space and the shelving unit, and understanding the balance between too little and too much.

      3.     Paint Colour selection

Just because a colour is popular or trendy, does not mean that it’s the best one to use for your home. Colours are selected based on lighting, home style, and the colour of the finishes of the home. Sure, we have our favourites, but each colour is selected to best suit the home.

      4.     What local trades will provide you with the best services, at the best value prices

We have spent a great amount of our time forging valued relationships with highly skilled trades to ensure that you receive quality work, every time. We only work with professionals, and often these professionals will provide special discounts to our clients.

      5.     Where to shop for the final touches and accessories that your home needs

We spend more time than anyone shopping for home décor items and finding the best deals, and we can provide you with some direction on this to help you to avoid driving all around town looking for the perfect piece. Of course, you would save even more time if you hired us to provide you with the accessories and accent pieces that your home needs.

      6.     Which updates/upgrades will most benefit YOUR house in YOUR market, neighbourhood, and price range

We not only evaluate what upgrades and repairs would add to the value of your home, but we look at what will help to increase it’s overall sell-ability – upgrades are not worth much if they’re not the right ones to entice your specific buyers. We consulted on a home once that spent a great deal of money replacing their kitchen, but for their target market, their funds would have been better spent doing other repairs to the home and minor updates to the kitchen.

      7.     How to make a bed

Forget what your mother taught you – making your bed before work, and styling your bed to sell your home are completely different! I can’t tell you how often we see this common mistake in listing photos.

      8.     How to utilize a piece of furniture for an alternate purpose

This does not mean putting an end table in an office and calling it a desk. It’s about thinking outside of the box when it comes to finding the right piece, often within your home already, to fulfill a purpose for a room and help to clearly define the space.

      9.     How to enhance your curb appeal

Yes, cut the grass, trim the trees, and mulch the gardens, we know that you have that covered. But there’s likely more that you should be doing. If your buyers are not engaged with the home before they get to the front door, you could potentially lose out on that sale. We are property stylists, and we want to be sure to create an inviting space, inside and out.

      10.    How to maintain function and daily life, while living in a staged home

  

      We understand that it’s not easy to maintain a show-ready home, but we have seen it all and are prepared to provide you with easily implementable solutions to help you to get through the day-to-day. Of course the best part is, in a professionally staged home, you won’t have to maintain it for long before it’s SOLD!

The checklists and tips you find online are a great step towards preparing your home, but a Professional Home Stager can provide you with the specific recommendations that will help you to bring in the buyers and sell your home.

Contact Beyond The Stage Homes today to find out how to get your property sold!

Phone: +1 (226) 240-0766
Email: info@btshomes.com
www.beyondthestagehomes.com 

BTSH's 2014 Reflections and 2015 Plans

Once again, BTSH has had a spectacular year, and we certainly could not have done it alone! A heartfelt thank you to all of our clients for making this year a great success, and making us a part of your home selling or home renovation team.

As we continue to grow, we are humbled by all of those that have helped us to make this happen.

To summarize this year’s milestones at BTSH:

January - Marina joined the BTSH team in the office, and has been an integral part of keeping us running from behind the scenes

March - Stephanie Kropf Gibson joined the team as a Professional Home Stager through the BTSH Home Stager training program

March - BTSH welcomed our Staging Assistant Craig to the team

May - BTSH was proud once again to sponsor the KW MS Walk 

August - BTSH announced our exciting merger with local home staging company Home Selling Edge, and with that, welcomed Jennifer Roth, CCSP to the BTSH team.

November - Shauna Lynn and Jennifer were invited as guest speakers to Sheridan College

December - RESA award nominations were announced, and BTSH was honoured with three distinguishing finalist awards:

Top 10 Home Staging Team of the Year 2015

Top 10 Vacant Home Stager of the Year Canada 2015

Top 10 Redesigner of the Year 2015 (2nd year in a row this honour was given to Shauna Lynn of BTSH)

A few notable accomplishments for the year overall:

- We continue to search for ways to better serve our clients, and with this we have introduced new and improved Client Care Packages for all of our services offered.

- We formed strong relationships with many local suppliers and skilled trades, in an effort to provide a more complete service package to our clients.

- We met with and worked with some of our most memorable clients yet!

- We completed our most notable renovation to date, check out the complete transformation here.

We are so grateful to be a part of such an incredible community, and made extra efforts in 2014 to increase our involvement in local causes in an effort to give back to a community that has given us so much. In addition to our continued involvement with the MS Society, we have worked with a variety of causes, including Smash 4 Cash in support of Strong Start, the local KW Humane Society, The Food Bank of Waterloo Region, and the local Family Relocation Program. 

So what is ahead for BTSH in 2015?

- Get ready to pin, because BTSH is putting down some roots on Pinterest, and we’re sharing our inspiration, interests, and expertise with you.

- In addition to expanding our Interior Design team, we have some exciting events planned, but unfortunately you’ll just have to wait for more news on these.

Want to see more from BTSH? We are showcasing many of our works on Houzz, please be sure to check us out and follow us!

You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and of course at www.beyondthestagehomes.com.

Contact Beyond The Stage Homes today to find out how to get your property sold!

Phone: +1 (226) 240-0766
Email: info@btshomes.com
www.beyondthestagehomes.com 

Beyond The Stage Homes Recognized for 3 Industry Awards, Including Top 10 Home Staging Team of the Year 2015

The Real Estate Staging Association (RESA) has recognized Shauna Lynn and Beyond The Stage Homes (BTSH) for their outstanding achievements in both home staging and redesign by honouring BTSH with RESA Top 10 Home Staging Team of the Year™ 2015, and Shauna Lynn with RESA Top 10 Home Stager of the Year Vacant Category Canada™ 2015 and RESA Top 10 Redesigner of the Year™ 2015. This is the second year in a row that Shauna Lynn has been nominated in the redesign category. RESA is the trade association for professional real estate stagers and redesigners, and these annual awards recognize outstanding work in our industry.

With the largest home staging inventory locally, we specialize in staging vacant properties, so this is truly an honour. 2014 has been an exciting year, and we have our incredible clients to thank for allowing us the opportunity to work with them (and for trusting our expert advice)!

These awards are voted on by RESA members across North America. The winners of all three awards will be announced January 15, 2015 in Las Vegas at the annual RESA® Home Staging Convention www.RESAConvention.com.

Beyond the Stage Homes (BTSH) provides home staging, decorating, and interior design services to Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, and surrounding areas in Southwestern Ontario. Offering a variety of creative services and a talented team of professionals, BTSH has become a leader in their industry. Through their unique ability to combine top quality style with the comfort of every day living, BTSH provides million dollar service to every home, for sale or for renovation and redesign.

For more information about the work and services of Beyond The Stage Homes, and to see the full team of professional, visit www.beyondthestagehomes.com

Read the full story here!

Contact Beyond The Stage Homes today to find out how to get your property sold!

Phone: +1 (226) 240-0766
Email: info@btshomes.com
www.beyondthestagehomes.com