sabrina huang's photo blog

Interior REdesign

I just came back from a 5-day Interior Redesign Course with Ruthanne and Charlie Hatfield of Interior Placement in Napa.  It was an intense but wonderful week because I made some good friends and learned a lot from first-hand experience.

Our base for the class is the Bel Abri Inn, a 15-room B & B style hotel.  It is a great place to stay the next time you are in Napa because it gives you personal services and attention.  They serve you breakfast in bed, and everyday’s breakfast will be different.  They also serve wine and cheese from 5 to 7pm everyday in the lobby.  I met different people in the lobby to share our Napa experience while enjoying some wine.  The room is very nice too - the room is clean and big, the bed is comfortable, the towels are white and soft, they have DVDs that you can borrow from the front desk to watch in your room, and they even have a fireplace in the room.   The hotel is centrally located in a safe area where you can go walking in the early morning.

We have four students and two instructors for this class – Ruthanne teaches the redesign part of the class and Charlie teaches the business part of the class; LoMae and Pam are from Washington, and Kelly is from D.C..  We have in classroom session on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday morning, and all day Wednesday; then we have hands-on redesign activities on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday afternoon.  We transformed three different houses’ living room and the results were amazing.

It wasn’t until I took this class that I realized the differences between Interior Design, Home Staging, and Interior Redesign (or Interior Decorating).  The Interior Design involves manipulating the architectural integrity of the interior space.  The Home Staging focuses on improving a property to make it appeal to the largest number of buyers by transforming it into a welcoming, appealing, and attractive product for sale.  The Interior Redesign focused on using what home owner already have in the house and by rearrange existing furniture, lighting and accessories within a space, create a fresh and inviting new look without buying anything new.

Interior Redesign is a labor-intensive work but within a half day you can transform a room from bad to good, and good to great.  We make a room homier, more inviting and functional by de-cluttering, defining the focal point, rearranging the furniture, and adding lighting and accessories.  The results are always breathtaking and unbelievable, especially when you realized that you didn’t need to buy anything.

We learned many things about Interior Redesign, both the design part and the business part.  Most artistic people have great talent on design but are not really good on how to actually run a business.  This class covers all aspects that you need to know to start an Interior Redesign and Staging business.  This is predominately a women driven business, and we as women should help and support each other to grow and be successful.  If you believe what I believe, which is that the biggest competition is within myself, then I feel free to share information about this business with others. 

This business is not like being a Realtor where you only get paid when the transaction is closed, which can take three months or longer.  Being an Interior Redesigner gets paid by the hour or by the project, and it doesn’t require a huge inventory of furniture or accessories to start a business.  I think it is a good idea to add it on my Real Estate Concierge Service since I think many people who own a house need some help to rearrange or decorate their house or they need help to shop for new furniture.  I also think this is a good career for people who have the talent and want to have their own business.  Everything is possible if you want it bad enough. 

Ps. If you are a home owner and interested in redesigning your home or you are a seller and interested to stage your house for sale, and your home is within 45 minutes of Napa Valley, please contact Ruthanne Hatfield of Interior Placement for the details about a complimentary redesign or staging.

Accredited Staging Professional (ASP) Designation

Home Staging has become very popular in the real estate industry in recent years.  Thanks to HGTV and other design/decorating TV shows, more and more homeowners recognize the importance of home staging.  In fact, home staging started around the 1970s but it was not until the 1990s when it really grew in popularity.  In today’s market, the homes that have been staged sell faster and for more money than those that have not been staged.  However, not every seller has the budget for Professional Staging but I still want to find a way to help them to get top-dollar for their home.

Home staging is not like the model home in a brand new house or condo community.  Home staging is a marketing tool and a necessary step taken prior to putting a house on the market for sale by de-cluttering, depersonalizing, rearrange furniture, re-accessorizing and making it smell better while homeowners are still living in the house (or by renting furniture for vacant homes).  Staging works, because it helps buyers to visualize what can actually be done with the place.

Therefore, I signed up for an Accredited Staging Professional (ASP) for Realtor class with the intent to serve my clients better.  The class was taught by Barb Schwarz, the creator of Staged Home.  Barb has been featured on 20/20, the Today Show, ABC, CBS, FOX 8, etc and she also written several books on Home Staging.  Many people think staging is about remodeling or re-decorating which is personalizing the home, but it is not.  The key to staging is to de-personalize by taking down family photos, personal collections, awards, certificates, etc, and redefine the purpose of each room by rearranging furniture.

Depending on your budget, sellers can hire a Realtor who has an ASP Designation to provide you with a DIY staging plan to save money or you can hire an ASP Stager to stage your house for you. 

Who doesn’t like to see a house that looks like a model home?  As a Realtor, I love to show staged homes to my clients because it feels good to walk in the house and it helps my clients to see how they can live in the house where each room has a clear function.  Since you don’t get a chance to have a first impression twice, how a house looks is a very important key to getting the house sold.  The National average shows that price reduction range from 5-10% when a house is not selling, so it would be better for a seller to invest that money in staging before the home comes on the market to see it is sold more quickly.   

Home is the biggest investment in most people’s life and a car is the second biggest investment.  Most of us would invest some time and money to detail our car before we put it on the market for sale.  So why wouldn’t we invest some time and money to detail our house before the sale??  Think about this for a second, most of buyers today are looking for houses through the Internet first.  They look at the photos online first to decide if they want to go to see that house.  If the house isn’t staged, and combine that with the fact that most Realtors don’t know much about proper photographic techniques, what do you think the chances are that you’re home is making a good first impression?

If you can’t get buyers in the door, you are not going to sell the house.

(Photo courtesy of StagedHome.com)