Archives >

Photos on MLS and Security 

Is your privacy secure when listing your vacant home?

Some rules of thumb include, keeping your address off the listing and the house number out of photos. You can also leave lighting on in the home in the evenings. Lamp timers are a great asset to add that security. Hardware stores carry them for around $12.00. If you are staging and listing with Jill, she provides them for all her vacant listings.

Avoid photographing empty closets also, because that way it’s not clear if the home is truly vacant. This is something you will need to direct the photographer to do, as they typically open closet doors to show them off.

It is also important, is to keep all sidewalks clear of snow. The yard should be maintained to make it appear occupied also. This includes collection of mail and yard garbage.

A occupied home should ensure that evidence of the owners occupation is concealed in photos and during showings. Things like removal of all diplomas, mail, awards and anything that would be a giveaway as to your home contents or financial status, are a good idea to remove.

Further to that, alarms need to be utilized if you have them. Agents will follow instructions to arm/disarm them.

If you have high end items make sure they are registered with a secure identification number, insurance and photos.  Things like appliances, television and sound systems, firearms, or jewelry. Keep all valuables out of sight in photos. Also, make sure that all firearms and jewelry are locked up for all viewings.

Photography for MLS

The best way to guarantee a good first impression is to stage the entire home. This is followed by a professional photography session.

I offer these services included in my Stage and Sell Real Estate plan and can answer any questions you may have.

A cell phone camera is a bad idea to take real estate photos with! This is your largest asset and the first impression depends on good pictures.

As well, a Professional Staging Consultation will help you to understand how to create more square footage in your visual presentation. This makes a huge difference in the small MLS photo that a buyer first views.

Jill includes this in all her listing processes.

Stage and Sell Real Estate Marketing

Jill Turgeon and her Husband Marc offer project planning and contractor management, painting, lighting and fixture updates, facelift renovations, professional photography and Staging.

To book a strategy call, with no obligation, click the calendar booking link below:

Jill Turgeon

REALTOR® @  One Percent Realty & RESA Award Winning Home Stager

& Owner of Simply Irresistible Interiors

780-218-7444

https://linktr.ee/thestagingagent

Offering her optional “Stage and Sell Real Estate” services to her listing clients, she can strategize with you on the best way to set your home apart for selling

*This website in whole, is not intended to solicit listings that are currently under contract to other brokerages.

#onepercentrealty #homestaging #stageandsell #jillturgeon #homestager #edmontonstaging #realestate #renovations #stageandselledmonton #furniturerental

Furniture Placement and Traffic Flow 

Property presentation has so many factors, from the exterior curb appeal to the deepest darkest cabinet in the basement. All areas matter when trying to sell your biggest equity holder.

When planning a room layout for furniture, professional designers go to great lengths to build a plan using drawings and they measure with multiple considerations taken into account.

Although you are not a professional designer, it is important that you follow some basic advice on furniture layout and traffic flow when selling your home.

TRAFFIC FLOW

Consider that when you are having a showing in your home, there may be a few people in attendance. The Realtor, Buyers, their children and perhaps the mother in law!  These people are creating traffic through your home and need to be able to move freely, without issues, in order to feel that the home is spacious and accommodating.

All small furniture pieces, miscellaneous ottomans, silk trees, toy boxes, extra chairs, table leaf’s, boxes, storage bins, dog beds…you name it, it needs to be out of the way.

Create a natural flow of walking traffic through your home starting at the door and working your way through to the rest of the home in the way that it naturally opens up.

Proper home staging directs the traffic through each room and also invites the buyer into each room using specific staging techniques.

FURNITURE PLACEMENT

When doing your de-clutter process prior to staging, take care to remove all extra items and then asses the room from the doorway, considering the traffic flow and the focal point first.

All the furniture should be planned according to the natural focal point and the where the buyer will be traveling. So if it’s a bedroom, start at the door and make sure that it’s easy to walk to the closet (they always look in the closets!)

Then make sure that the bedroom window is easy to get to, as buyers’ always want to look outside to get a birds eye view of their surroundings.

Furniture layout in bedrooms should be spacious and designed to accommodate the largest bed the room can handle, with side tables and lamps, on both sides if possible.

In living rooms, create conversation areas, and also pull furniture away from the walls a bit, it will actually open the room up. Consider symmetry when working with fireplaces or built in’s so that the eye is not distracted by a off set furniture placement.

In addition to updates and proper pricing, Staging a home brings in better offers than not staging it. So clean, repair and stage your home, price it correctly and see results fast.

For more on this topic – get you own copy of my eBook, complete with detailed checklists to make the staging process go smoothly

https://stageandsell.samcart.com/products/stage-and-sell-your-property-faster

Jill Turgeon

REALTOR® @  One Percent Realty & RESA Award Winning Home Stager

& Owner of Simply Irresistible Interiors

780-218-7444

https://linktr.ee/thestagingagent

Offering her optional “Stage and Sell Real Estate” services to her listing clients, she can strategize with you on the best way to set your home apart for selling

*This website in whole, is not intended to solicit listings that are currently under contract to other brokerages.

#onepercentrealty #homestaging #stageandsell #jillturgeon #homestager #edmontonstaging #realestate #renovations #stageandselledmonton #furniturerental

During your MLS showings and your  “In Person” ones!

The strength or weakness of your showings depends largely on what the buyers see when they view your home for the first time.

Considering that all showings are now taking place ONLINE first, you need to make absolute sure that your small jpg MLS photo has an impact visually to the buyer, as well as when they walk through the door.

This is assuming that the pictures were attractive enough to bring them for that second showing “In Person”.

Buyers today surf the internet first before calling an Agent and they decide which homes they want to see. They go online, type in a price range and location and then go from there.

If your home lands in their category, it is IMPERATIVE that your small photos are fabulous enough to warrant a second showing in person.

HOW DO YOU DO THIS?

Creating a visually appealing photo largely depends on the rooms being clutter free, well laid out, as well as color coordinated.  Try to keep visual clutter to a minimum and once you have decluttered and rebuilt the layout of furniture. Take a few test photos to see what pops out at you and then edit accordingly.

Make sure that the furniture lines are working with the fixed elements such as fireplaces or railings, and use pops of color to accent, not dominate a room. Remove all items that fill up floor space unnecessarily.

You can direct the buyers eyes by placing furniture and art or greenery next to the area you want to highlight, such as in the photo above. We wanted to direct the eyes to the back of the large recreation room, so we added a papasan chair to pull the eye over.

Directing buyers eyes is all about marketing the assets of your home and showing them how great it would be to live there. Each home has some great asset and when a buyer is only in your home for 4-7 minutes, this can be easily missed unless you take care to point it out.

Remember when you were shopping for a new home?

They all started to blend together after a few and unless something really got your attention, it was hard to keep it all straight in your head. Work off this principal when preparing your home.

Stay on the top of the Buyer’s list by directing their  eyes to your property’s assets.

Stage and Sell Real Estate with Jill

When listing your home, Jill offers project planning and contractor management, painting, fixtures updates, facelift renovations, and of course professional staging.

In addition to updates and proper pricing, Staging a home brings in better offers than not staging it, So clean, repair and stage your home, price it correctly and see results fast.

If you are thinking of selling and may need a few things done before hand but don’t know where to start, let’s book a 15 minute strategy call to see if working together would be a good fit.

Jill Turgeon

REALTOR® @  One Percent Realty & RESA Award Winning Home Stager

& Owner of Simply Irresistible Interiors

780-218-7444

https://linktr.ee/thestagingagent

Offering her optional “Stage and Sell Real Estate” services to her listing clients, she can strategize with you on the best way to set your home apart for selling

*This website in whole, is not intended to solicit listings that are currently under contract to other brokerages.

#onepercentrealty #homestaging #stageandsell #jillturgeon #homestager #edmontonstaging #realestate #renovations #stageandselledmonton #furniturerental

Showing Woes or should we say “Woah!!”

Many Homeowners ignore the advice of Staging and Real Estate Agents and simply do not prepare their homes for sale or viewings.

The MLS is filled with a sea of photos to prove this point. Laundry on beds, cats on kitchen counters, robes hanging on doors, tons of shampoo bottles and cleaning products filling up counter space, the list is endless.

It still amazes me that after Staging homes in Edmonton for the last two decades, we still see this in the majority of listing photos.

Surf the Multiple Listing Service

For entertainment, join me with a glass of wine and surf the MLS for the listing photos. Even social media has groups dedicated to ridiculous posts of the craziest MLS pictures.

Homeowners who want to sell and are NOT prepared to correctly market their home are then faced with many WOES when they try to list their home in these conditions.

What are the woes?

The WOES of no showings  “In Person” because the ONLINE SHOWING scared buyers away, yet no one knew it!
The WOES of becoming stale on the market
The WOES of having to reduce their prices over and over
The WOES of having NO IDEA why their home isn’t selling
The WOES of changing Realtors, thinking that they are the problem (they aren’t)
The WOES of dealing with showing after showing, cleaning up and leaving so strangers can stomp through your house and leave without buying it. Good times!
The WOES of being frustrated while you watch the house you wanted to buy, be sold out from under you to the Smith family.
The WOES of having to pay 2 house payments if you decided to buy it before the Smiths’ got there….

WOAH. WAIT.

Why do this to yourself? Why not take professional staging advice and move on with your plans faster?

I can assist you in having SUCCESS.

I offer consulting, project planning and contractor management, painting, fixtures updates, facelift renovations, furniture and décor installation for all my listings.

In addition to updates and proper pricing, Staging a home brings in better offers than not staging it, So clean, repair and stage your home, price it correctly  and see results fast.

Let’s book a 15 minute strategy call to see how my staging and listing process works

Text/call 780-218-7444

Or get your own copy of my eBook so you can have all the checklists and processes at your fingertips

https://stageandsell.samcart.com/products/stage-and-sell-your-property-faster

Jill Turgeon

REALTOR® @  One Percent Realty & RESA Award Winning Home Stager

& Owner of Simply Irresistible Interiors

780-218-7444

https://linktr.ee/thestagingagent

Offering her optional “Stage and Sell Real Estate” services to her listing clients, she can strategize with you on the best way to set your home apart for selling

*This website in whole, is not intended to solicit listings that are currently under contract to other brokerages.

#onepercentrealty #homestaging #stageandsell #jillturgeon #homestager #edmontonstaging #realestate #renovations #stageandselledmonton #furniturerental

Choosing staging rental furniture is a daunting task even for the most seasoned professional, so how can you do this on your own and be successful?

You will need a plan in place, with a list of what each room needs, as well  as photos on your phone or printed off for handy reference.

You can outline the room layout on paper as this will help the furniture rental company assist you easier. Make sure to include measurements of walls and doorways to ensure that the items will fit and be able to be delivered.

COLORS and STYLES 

When planning a staging project, consider first the type of home you are staging what the demographic of the buyer is.  For help with this, feel free to ask me, my number or call booking link is below. I also have a handy eBook that you will really help you to work through this entire process, including over 20 pages of checklists too

It can be downloaded here:

https://stageandsell.samcart.com/products/stage-and-sell-your-property-faster

When staging a home, the furniture color palette should be neutral and appeal to the widest audience, so stay away from a bright blue sofa or lime green chairs. Keeping larger scale furniture neutral will allow for the eye to flow well in photos and also during the  “In Person” viewing.

Then you can add a color pop or two, in your accessories and art. This way it still has appeal and yet doesn’t take over the photos.

The style of furniture is largely dependent on the type of property you have, so using traditional furniture in a modern loft condo won’t work as well.

Try sticking to transitional pieces that work well everywhere, that way you are sure to have a good final product. If you are stuck in making these choices, feel free to call me and I can talk you through it.

I also offer project planning and contractor management, painting, fixtures updates, facelift renovations, and Staging.

In addition to updates and proper pricing, Staging a home brings in better offers than not staging it, So clean, repair and stage your home, price it correctly and see results fast.

Jill Turgeon

REALTOR® @  One Percent Realty & RESA Award Winning Home Stager

& Owner of Simply Irresistible Interiors

780-218-7444

https://linktr.ee/thestagingagent

Offering her optional “Stage and Sell Real Estate” services to her listing clients, she can strategize with you on the best way to set your home apart for selling

*This website in whole, is not intended to solicit listings that are currently under contract to other brokerages.

#onepercentrealty #homestaging #stageandsell #jillturgeon #homestager #edmontonstaging #realestate #renovations #stageandselledmonton #furniturerental

What can I expect to pay?  

For over 20 years Jill Turgeon, One Percent Realty REALTOR®,  has owned Simply Irresistible Interiors and has staged thousands of properties.

Her professional training has been for Occupied and Vacant home staging, with a strong focus on staging vacant homes. She offers a variety of room packages that are designed to work with your budget.

Flat Rate packages include:

*Staging
*De-staging
*Planning
*Picking and packing your project
*Delivery / pick up
*28 day rental

3-10 rooms can be staged

I offer project planning and contractor management, painting, fixtures updates, facelift renovations, and Staging.

In addition to updates and proper pricing, Staging a home brings in better offers than not staging it, so clean, repair and stage your home, price it correctly and see results fast.

If you are curious what my process is for staging and listing your home, let’s book a 15 min strategy call to chat

Jill Turgeon

REALTOR® @  One Percent Realty & RESA Award Winning Home Stager

& Owner of Simply Irresistible Interiors

780-218-7444

https://linktr.ee/thestagingagent

Offering her optional “Stage and Sell Real Estate” services to her listing clients, she can strategize with you on the best way to set your home apart for selling

*This website in whole, is not intended to solicit listings that are currently under contract to other brokerages.

#onepercentrealty #homestaging #stageandsell #jillturgeon #homestager #edmontonstaging #realestate #renovations #stageandselledmonton #furniturerental

What fixtures should we update?  

When selling your home it’s often a dilemma to decide what updates you should do, especially if there is a budget to consider.

Certain areas get a higher Return on Investment (ROI) than others, so if you have a bigger budget and outdated baths and kitchens, this is the BEST place to start.

A brand new bathroom or kitchen screams BUY ME, and this entices the buyer to seriously consider your home over others because they will not have to do the renovation.

Fixtures such as tubs, sinks and cabinets are hard to install and do require time and money, but it will be worth it in the end when you sell faster for a better price.

Hiring a professional contractor is key, unless you can truly renovate really well. Trying to renovate yourself, to save money, will be a huge mistake if you never have done it before and will almost always costs you significantly more money in the end to fix errors, not to mention lost time to get on the market.

Planning a project like this requires correct scheduling and know how to order product, oversee install and make allowances for mistakes. I recommend hiring a professional.

I project plan when it comes to my listings that ask for my help. I can provide contractor management, painting, fixtures updates, facelift renovations and of course, Staging.

In addition to updates and proper pricing, Staging a home brings in better offers than not staging it.

So clean, repair and stage your home, price it correctly and let’s get your home SOLD!

Let’s book a 15 minute strategy call

Jill Turgeon

REALTOR® @  One Percent Realty & RESA Award Winning Home Stager

& Owner of Simply Irresistible Interiors

780-218-7444

https://linktr.ee/thestagingagent

Offering her optional “Stage and Sell Real Estate” services to her listing clients, she can strategize with you on the best way to set your home apart for selling

*This website in whole, is not intended to solicit listings that are currently under contract to other brokerages.

#onepercentrealty #homestaging #stageandsell #jillturgeon #homestager #edmontonstaging #realestate #renovations #stageandselledmonton #furniturerental

A natural focal point is one that is pre-existing. So in the photo you can see the natural focal point is the fireplace and built ins. However, this property has another fabulous focal point and that was it’s view.

We opted to feature this stunning view by not adding any window coverings at all, that way in photos and when inside the property a buyer can take in the views.

Consider your properties natural focal points and highlight them as best as you can. A professional staging consultation can also address this if you are unsure how to approach this. If Jill Turgeon is your Listing Agent, she can walk you through all the right things to do to not only prepare your home for staging, with focal points considered, but also will stage your home too.

In addition to updates and proper pricing, Staging a home brings in better offers than not staging it, so plan accordingly for a quick sale!

Let’s book a time for a 15 min strategy call with Jill Turgeon to see if her services align with your needs when getting ready to sell.

Jill Turgeon

REALTOR® @  One Percent Realty & RESA Award Winning Home Stager

& Owner of Simply Irresistible Interiors

780-218-7444

https://linktr.ee/thestagingagent

Offering her optional “Stage and Sell Real Estate” services to her listing clients, she can strategize with you on the best way to set your home apart for selling

*This website in whole, is not intended to solicit listings that are currently under contract to other brokerages.

#onepercentrealty #homestaging #stageandsell #jillturgeon #homestager #edmontonstaging #realestate #renovations #stageandselledmonton #furniturerental

Should you paint?

What is your first thought on this room?

When a buyers walks into your home, it’s all about the first impression. A darker color on the walls, not only closes the room in but it says “this is a lot of work to change and it’s someone else’s decorative taste, not mine”.

Color can still be used when selling, however it is best to keep it minimal. Consider only painting a feature wall, like the dining room in the photo, or adding in décor.  Keep walls to a neutral and appealing shade of taupe, gray or tan and make sure that all walls were prepped correctly prior to painting, as this is 95% of a good paint job.

As a professional Home Stager for over 20 years, my experience in this field of painting and staging, is extensive. I offer color consultations included in my real estate services also.

Freshly painting a home always gives an amazing return on investment and is worth every penny. Specifically it’s a 107% ROI and 94% of Agents recommend it.

In addition to updates and proper pricing, Staging a home brings in better offers than not staging it. So, if you are willing to take on the full project yourself, you may be interested in my eBook “Stage and Sell with Confidence”

Click the link below for your download – use the Promo code SAVE25 for a discount

https://stageandsell.samcart.com/products/stage-and-sell-your-property-faster

Or book a 15 min Meet & Greet Strategy Call with Jill Turgeon to see if her Stage and Sell Services fit what you are looking for

Jill Turgeon

REALTOR® @  One Percent Realty & RESA Award Winning Home Stager

& Owner of Simply Irresistible Interiors

780-218-7444

https://linktr.ee/thestagingagent

*This website in whole, is not intended to solicit listings that are currently under contract to other brokerages.

#onepercentrealty #homestaging #stageandsell #jillturgeon #homestager #edmontonstaging #realestate #renovations #stageandselledmonton #furniturerental

How to Create Them

Artificial focal points offer a place to ground the eyes when first entering a room. They are very important also in creating wow factor and making your MLS pictures stand out.

The photo above shows an example of this, we used an art and symmetrical branches to create a focal point in the living room.

This can also be done with art, buffet table with art and décor on it, a tree and art, a bench…. many things can direct the eye and ground the room.

Every room should have a focal point so if it’s not built in like a fireplace, then create your own!

In addition to updates and proper pricing, Staging a home brings in better offers than not staging it, so make sure you plan accordingly and get your home prepared well BEFORE it is listed.

Jill Turgeon

REALTOR® @  One Percent Realty & RESA Award Winning Home Stager

& Owner of Simply Irresistible Interiors

780-218-7444

https://linktr.ee/thestagingagent

Offering her optional “Stage and Sell Real Estate” services to her listing clients, she can strategize with you on the best way to set your home apart for selling

*This website in whole, is not intended to solicit listings that are currently under contract to other brokerages.

#onepercentrealty #homestaging #stageandsell #jillturgeon #homestager #edmontonstaging #realestate #renovations #stageandselledmonton #furniturerental