One Two Six Design Diary

While on the topic of great photography, let’s talk about what a home owner should do in preparation to the all so important photo shoot for the property.

You’d wash your face before applying makeup…
You’d floss your teeth before dentist appointment…
You’d vacuum your car before selling…
You’d spray breath-freshener before a date…
…
…

Okay, you get the point, there are many things should be done before the most expensive (in most people’s cases) piece of possession you own gets its photos taken.  Victor (Victor Lin Photography) put together a handy checklist of things the home owners should do, hope it is helpful…

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“Curb Appeal” is a very freely used term in real estate; HGTV, realtors, stagers, landscapers, colleagues, even your plumber might have given you a tip or two on how to improve your curb appeals, it is all about the first impression your house give out to its visitors.

However, keep in mind, doesn’t matter how great your curb appeal is, the first impression doesn’t really start at the curb! Shoooock!! instead, it started miles away, on the monitors of your potential buyers. Especially in a buyers’ market of today, your house need to literally “pop” out of the hundreds of MLS listings so the buyers can be intrigued enough to see and sense the real curb appeal…

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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!

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Doing what we do, we get to see a lot of properties, from cozy condos to mind-boggling mansions. We just want to share some of our observations, hopefully we can help some home owners set the priority in term of preparing their home for the market.

“Curb Appeal” is a very widely used term in real estate, yes it is important to do all you can do to fix up the property and make it look nice, first impression and presentation is very important. Preparing your house for the market doesn’t have to be stressful and doesn’t have to break your bank, there are a lot of DIY projects you can tackle over the weekend.

Here is our short list of DIYs:

• Painting: cheap and effective way to cover up the blemishes and re-fresh your home, if you are not sure what color to paint, stick with safe / neutral colors such as Navajo  White / Swiss Coffee combination (Kelley-Moore)
• Switch Plates: you know, those AC and light switch covers. Good chance that you might have multiple styles of switch plates going on in your home, pick up some new ones and replace them to create a uniformed look throughout the house
• Mulch: Spread some new mulch around the house not only will highlight your landscaping details, the new mulch smell also shouts “renovated home” to the potential buyers
• Planter Boxes / Window Shutters: Spring is here, real estate is picking up, install some planter boxes and window shutters ($15) to highlight those street facing windows and make them look BIGGER! It’s all about curb appeal right?
• Hardwares: door knobs, kitchen cabinet handles, bathroom fixtures… They are surprising easy to replace, in most cases, all you need is a screwdriver! ok, ok, the bathroom fixtures are a bit tougher to deal with… Don’t underestimate these small hardwares, they can do wonders to update the overall look!
• Light Fixtures: many people are uncomfortable around electricity, but changing light fixtures are really quite simple, it is all about twisting wires and securing the fixtures, just make sure you shut off the power before you do anything. Dated light fixtures / chandeliers are eye sores, we call them “pimples” of a home, and they can undermine the other home improvements you’ve already accomplished
• Cleaning: lastly, clean, then clean again, target your kitchen and bathrooms!!

Before the planter box & shutters

After the planter box & shutters treatment

Ok, that’s it for now… Good luck with your projects!

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I have been publishing various tips on Twitter from time to time, but the 140 character limitation on twitter is just not good enough…

Cleaning Tip: Brillianize

I was first introduced to Brillianize by the guys from Tap Plastics in downtown Mountain View; I was there to order a custom acrylic desk cover for my Pottery Barn Bedford desk in my office, and the sale agent strongly recommended Brillianize to help keep the not-so-cheap acrylic desk cover clean. I was definitely skeptical at first, but soon realized just how wonderful this stuff was!

Not only it does miracles on acrylics and plastics, you can use it on window, glass, chrom, stainless steel, granite, even LCD and TV monitors! Take the Brillianize to your car to help keeping your windshield, wood trims, head/tail light lenses spotless! Spray this stuff on once to clean the surface, and spray it on again to achieve the highly polished look and slippery smooth. The best part is, the treated surfaces are fingerprint resistant!!

This stuff is magic in a bottle!

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New Inventories

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…

Old Favorites

(I will post the before & after pics of the chairs tomorrow… )

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We have numerous gorgeous looking white sofa sets that we haven’t used in awhile, simply because it is a bit dirty on the arms and cushions due to the moving and handling. Like most of our furniture, these sofas were custom made by Calico Corners and costed us thousands of dollars each, it would be a shame to throw in the towel on them.

In the effort to give these sofas a new life, I called up numerous upholstery cleaners to see if there is anything they can do to revamp the fabric. I eventually picked Chuck from Ameripro Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning due to his great customer ratings on Yelp. Chuck flat out told us not to waste money on trying to clean the sofas, reason being the fabric were pure cotton, while it looks fabulous and great to the touch, they are very hard to clean. Chuck specifically pointed out the few water stains result of our workers attempts to clean the fabric with off-the-shelf upholstery cleaners, and said that cotton does a great job soaking up the stains, and it would be impossible for him to renew the fabric for our staging purposes.

Lesson learned here, although we love the look and feel of cotton, we have to keep in mind that it is a material that’s harder to maintain when compared to other fabrics with mixed cotton and synthetic materials or microfiber. For those of you shopping for that perfect family couch, hope what we learned can help you with your purchase decision.

What’s going to happen to these sofas we have? well, they won’t be used for staging anymore, but we’ll try to find new homes for them by either sell them  or donate them to families in need…

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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… 

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Another first! We published our very first newsletter!

One Two Six Design Newsletter

Our very publication includes:

• Did You Know?
• Featured Staged Home
• SOLD Under 30 Days!
• Numbers & Statistics
• Educate Your Sellers
• Sample Portfolio
• In the Spotlight
• ASP Explained

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