We are proud to say, here in the Silicon Valley, you are never more than few blocks away from a house that had been staged by us.
Here is a graphical look at the homes we have staged in the past two years.
2010 Transactions
2009 Transactions
2009 Transactions
Real estate is an interesting animal, it has its own mood swings and can be affected by just about everything; economy, employment, weather, location, demographics, even local school schedules and so many more…
When it comes to timing or evaluating the real estate market, I will leave that to the Realtors and other experts to dissect and analyze, from my “Stager’s” point of view, we see the demand of staging goes up and down in respond to many factors; in the uneasy economy of today, the demand for our service actually picked up quite a bit, and as people get ready for the holidays like the Memorial Day we just had, the demand of staging falls sharply; and when K-12 schools goes on break, having kids hanging around at home definitely alter the parents’ plans on putting the house on the market.
Perhaps someone out there can help enlighten me, how come after a relatively flat May, we are seeing a huge spike for staging in June? We had 6 staging appoints yesterday, 3 today and 3 more tomorrow, all want to be staged in early June. What’s going on? Spring and summer have always been good month for the staging business, but such drastic difference between May/June is a bit unusual…
Curious about the market, and very happy to work on all those new projects.
We are very excited about our new photographer — Victor!!
Victor and us have collaborated for few months now, and he (www.victorlinphoto.com) impresses us every time! Don’t let Victor’s rather young age fool you, he has been playing with cameras before he even started Algebra! Victor’s passion has been with outdoor photography, he has set foot in countless national parks and who-knows-where deserted places around the country. According to him, his favorite thing to do is to take panoramic photo of beautiful landscapes… well, I am glad he is applying his years of experience to real estate photography. Don’t forget to checkout few virtual tours he created recently (near the bottom of the post).
We are not sure how he does it, his exterior photos capture the deep blue sky with whitest puffy clouds, and his interior shots are able to grabs all the details inside the room AND the sharp image of outside thru glasses, the range and dimension of his photos are amazing!
Photography service is always FREE with any staging with us, and for a limited time only, Victor is offering a $125 virtual tour package for One Two Six Design's clients!
Virtual Tours
What are the similarities between the follow set of photos?
Well, each of these 5 sets of photos are really showing the same stuff: burger, gown, celebrity, dining and family room, respectively; the difference is really how the subject was presented.
If the burger company can spend who-knows-how-many-$$$$ for Paris Hilton to sizzle up their burger, shouldn’t you do something to properly showcase your home? Remember, presentation is everything, you are not only selling a home, but a lifestyle!!
De-cluttering, cleaning, painting, staging and photographing, we are here to help!
Watching the FOX 10 o’clock news, and it is reporting a growing number of burglaries occurring at vacant staged homes. Apparently, criminals use online tools, virtual tours and even open houses to research and target staged homes, then break in to steal the expensive furnishings and accessories. 
Time is tough, thieves are also getting creative.
Hope we’ll be spared from such mishaps, and hope no home owners will have to go through such nightmare, selling a home is already stressful enough…
Preparing your home for sell?
De-cluttering your junk?
Packing & storing your things?
Let us help you save some money! Give us a call 650.967.2575 and see how we can help, beyond staging…
Discounts with our partners
Haven’t updated this blog in two weeks, if it wasn’t for the automatic Twitter digest, this page would have been static for the past half month! What a shame, as we have done a lot of exciting projects in March!!
2009 has been fast paced, and March has been especially exciting! We worked on brand new construction on a historical lot in Los Altos, new homes in Pacifica with great views of the ocean, fantastic condos in Palo Alto, and huge mansion in the hills of Saratoga… all these and many other memorable projects all throughout the Bay Area!
I spent few hours to pull out and organized some photos for these projects, and used them to updated our main site’s front page, the Before & After section, as well as the Portfolio section of this blog. I just love looking at the before & after photos, the transformation is always amusing to me! I need to put up more of them on our site…
Okay, that’s it for now, just wanted to write a quick update. It is going to be another busy week ahead, we just got the words over the weekend that few more properties (we staged) are sold! Love hearing these great news!!
Happy Monday everyone!
Before
After
Juan is our Mover/Installer, and he is One Two Six Design’s very first employee. We celebrated his birthday at the end of Jan, and on March 15th, we’ll be celebrating again — his 10 year anniversary with the company!!
Star Employee Juan (left) Celebrating His 31st Birthday
In his 10 year tenure, Juan has helped staged well over 3000 homes all around the Bay Area; He knows the every short cut and back road from Peninsula to East Bay and can point out homes he help staged at almost every intersection. Juan has an amazing memory and is the master of our warehouse, he knows exactly where to find anything, and can pull out any specific painting from our collection of ~1000 prints stored along the 120′ long wall!
Juan’s experience is a huge help to our business, he remembers which painting looks well with the furniture the designers picked and can literally stage a home all by himself! It is hard to find anyone who works harder than Juan. He is always punctual, always upbeat, and always pays attention to safety and details. Juan and the rest of our team of designers and installers are the soul of our company, they are One Two Six Design, they are the reason why we are still around after 10 years!
Thank you Juan for you hard work and dedications!
The evidence of our latest purchases
As mentioned in the previous post, we are constantly out shopping for arts, accessories, bedding, etc. No we are not shopaholics, we simply believe in investing in our inventories, keep our stuff updated and in-trend. We want our clients to get what they’ve paid for, and give the home buyers a fresh feeling when they walk in homes we staged.
Anyways, here are the packing boxes from our latest purchase pilling in our back parking lot…
)One of the coolest thing about what we do is that we get to unwrap “presents” all the time, year round! We are constantly looking and shopping for that perfect ornament, bedding and furnishings to add to our already vast inventory. It is always like Christmas here at our warehouse.
We got it for its simplicity, its clean lines and its neutral color. Can't wait to use it!
Here are some nice words from a client (Mountain View) who we recently helped to stage her home for the market. This was an occupied staging, we added our furnishing and accessories to compensate her existing stuff to make it practical / livable and yet presentable.
It is always to hear nice words…
Testimonial
Few years ago, it seems as long as the place has a front door, you can probably sell it. Well, the real estate market is not what it used to be. Nowadays, the house needs to be in top-shape in order to be competitive. Besides having to spend the money to fix-up/remodel the place, you should also remember to “dress it up”! Presentation is everything, a properly staged home is essential to help sell the property fast and at top dollar.
ROI of Home Remodeling & Staging
The Return on Investment (ROI) number in the chart above might surprise you, but think about this a bit… Brand new electrical wiring or copper plumbing might be highly welcomed upgrades, but they won’t “emotionally capture” the potential buyers. The potential buyers need to emotionally “move-in” as soon as they step in the front door, and be able to picture themselves sitting in front of the fireplace reading a book or hosting parties around the dinning room…
One Two Six Design wishing you every happiness this Holiday Season and prosperity in the New Year. Thank you for your support, we look forward to continuing our relationship in the coming year.
All the best to you and your family!
Being in the business for over 10 years, we have accumulated abundant resources in the real estate industry. From over 1000+ realtors we have worked with in the past to handyman and painters, we have the Power Team in place to help you prepare your home for the market and to sell at top dollars.
Back in September, Comcast expressed their interest to interview us for their next segment of In Good Company. This is a short 3 minutes program aired between the news segments on CNN Headline News. Of course we said yes to their request.
A film crew of three and the hostess came to our office with their gears, we set up a mini-set with shelves, trees and chairs to be the primary interviewing location. The crew followed Vivian around our 14,000 sq ft warehouse for a quick tour of our inventories and some close-up shots of our accessories.
It was a fun experience for us, the program was aired throughout the month of October. Thanks to Comcast, the short segment gave a lot of home owners an inside look at our home staging operation, and as a result, we were able to help numerous home owners who contacted us after watching the show.
Here is the short video, if you have trouble viewing it, please watch it on YouTube directly.
Filming crew setting up
Checking the video equipments
Getting ready for shooting
Interviewing
This is our very first blog post!
We’d like to use this space to communicate topics related to home staging. Presentation is everything, especially when it comes to selling your home that’s worth of hundreds of thousands of dollars! Hope you’ll find our contents helpful in preparing your home for the market!
Don’t forget to sign up for our mailing list, we periodically send out newsletters to inform you the latest trends, tips and how-tos!
Cheers!
