Stager vs. Stager

Not everyone has the luxury of moving out before putting their home on the market. Especially in tough economy, we are seeing an increasing demand to stage occupied homes. We try to work with owners’ existing furnishing, thus saving them the money from renting furnishings from us. Occupied homes are tougher to stage than vacant homes, the design process is more involved since we’d have to consider the owner’s furnishing and make sure the is practical to live with.

Here is an example of a condo in we recently staged. The property was previous on the market, staged by another company, and after more than half year, it was still on the market. Then… the Realtor was changed, and we were asked to freshen up the place. We removed some of owner’s bulky, dated items, brought in few contemporary furnishings, injected brighter colors here and there, and voilà! The place was in a week with multiple offers at almost $30,000 over the listing price.

Does really work? ;-)

Our combined with our complimentary eye-popping photography/virtual tour service give you the winning edge!

Here is the comparison between the previous stager’s work (left) and ours (right):
(More info on this property, here is the virtual tour)

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SOLD! $23,580,954 Worth of Happiness!

Since last entry, we have staged and helped to sell $23,580,954 worth of real estate.

  • Blackwood, ( in 14 days!)
  • Kennewick Ave., ( in 5 days!)
    A $1.3M newly renovated home with large yard and a huge pool
  • Orchard Ave. ( in 7 days!)
  • 9th Ave, Menlo Park ( in 5 days!)
  • Ramona St, Palo Alto ( in 20 days!)
    Gorgeous home! white picket fence, paver stone drive way and court yard, large bright windows, spacious master suite…
  • Live Oak Ave., Menlo Park ( in 18 days!)
    Walking distance from downtown Menlo Park Ave. Large corner lot with garden, this place has 2 kitchens and a basement!
  • Pilgrim Loop, ( in 3 months)
    A Family Den within the large Family room!
  • Timber Creek, ( in 3 months)
    A single family like townhouse, up in the hills of
  • Hayfield Ct., Saratoga ( in 2 months)
    Gated , with grapevine in the front yard and a basketball/tennis court in the backyard! Bright and spacious main level and a huge basement ideal for the children to play uninterrupted
  • Weyburn Lane, San Jose ( in 7 days!)
  • LynnOaks Dr, San Jose ( in 6 days!)
  • Porpoise Bay Ter, ( in 29 days!)
    Tri-level townhouse in an upscale close to 237 Freeway,
  • Watson Cir., Santa Clara ( in 12 days!)
    Located in the heart of famous Rivermark
  • Pear Ave., ( in 9 days!)
  • Clausen Ct., Hills
  • Miramonte Ave.,
  • Venice Way, San Jose ( in 17 days!)
  • Ortega Ave., A404, ( in 1.5 month)
    A penthouse condo in a gated complex bordering Palo Alto
  • E. Floresta Way, Portola Valley ( in 40 days)
    Located south of 1-280, the gentle hills and serene surrounding make this a great place to call home
  • Grape Wagon Cir, San Jose ( in 5 days!)
    A single family in a gated retirement the size of the city of !! Remodeled throughout, great view of the golf courses and the valley
  • Morningside Dr. ( in 5 days!)

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SOLD! Heap of Good News!

We have been working very hard to keep up with the market lately, houses are moving very fast these days.  In little over two weeks since my last blog entry, we now have a heap of properties that needs to be announced.

  1. La Paloma, Hills: This is a $7,000,000, 6 bedroom, 5+ bath, three level estate situated in one of the most prestigious neighborhoods in the Bay Area. Salt water pool, waterfall, you name it, this place has it! ( in 7 days!!)
    La Paloma 1
  2. Cherrybrooke Common, San Leandro: Our investor friend has done it again! David fixed up this cozy 4 bedroom single family house, had us stage it, and it all within a month! ( in 2 weeks!)
  3. Tyrella Ave, : A charming townhouse conveniently located close to the thumping downtown, with easy access to Highway 85, 101 and 237 ( in 8 days!)
  4. Aruba Ln, : Only steps away from the water, within miles away from the happening San Mateo downtown ( in 1 month!)
  5. Williams St., Palo Alto: Freshly renovated, cozy home near Stanford ( less than 2 weeks!)
  6. Campbell Rd., : Very functional layout, this home sitting on a large lot walking distance from the Village ( in 6 days!)
  7. Firebird Way, : Move in ready, bright home with Cupertino School ( in 7 days!)
  8. Terra Bella Dr. Cupertino: A home in the Monta Vista area of Cupertino ( in 11 days!)
  9. Saranac Dr. : A spanish styled gated single family, with glistering pool and large backyard ( in 11 days!)
  10. Kensington Cir. : Long private driveway leading to this magnificent home hidden behind mature oaks, wrapped around floor plan puts focus on the HUGE backyard and its olympic size pool ( in 7 days!!)
  11. Sold!

  12. Blackwood Terr. : Large townhouse located near the center of ( in 2 weeks!)
  13. Kennewick Dr. : Cul-de-sac home on a 13,000 sq ft lot! Pool, BBQ, garden, new roof… new owners can move in and enjoy this gorgeous home right away! ( in 5 days!!)
  14. Orchard Ave. : Across the street from Castro st, downtown !! ( in 7 days!)
  15. Live Oak Ave. Menlo Park: Charming home with two kitchens! and large basement in the Allied Arts neighborhood, two blocks away from downtown Menlo Park ( in 18 days!!)
  16. Hayfield Ct. Saratoga: Over $4,000,000 worth of reasons, this resort-like home is located in a gated in Saratoga, with easy access to the highway-85. Huge windows throughout the house, stone outlined pool and a full size tennis court makes this a magazine front-cover worthy dream home! ( in 2 months!)
  17. 9th Ave. Menlo Park: A private-like drive leads up to this spacious two story home ( in 5 days!!)

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SOLD! Busy Busy June

June has been full of activities, we hit a record month both in terms of and de- properties. Homes are moving, many of them even received multiple strong offers. The home owners are happy, REALTORS are smiling and we are definitely excited about all the wonderful outcomes!

by One Two Six Design:

Sold!

  • Emerson St. Palo Alto: a spacious bi-level condo in the heart of Palo Alto, huge bedrooms, and a large den/office makes this condo feels like a luxury penthouse
  • El Camino Real, : a condo in a gated , next door to the prestigious Hillsborough, easy access to downtown and walking distance to many shops and amenities, the new owners will love their new home and the neighborhood!
  • Stelling Dr. Palo Alto: Midtown Palo Alto, quiet cul-de-sac location, nicely maintained yard and the simple, elegant Eichler architecture, the epitome of Palo Alto living. ( in 2 weeks!)
  • Bountiful Acres, Saratoga: This ~7,000 sq ft gated Saratoga mansion sits on huge corner lot with large pool and expansive lawn. Bi-level with 8 bedroom, billiard room, fitness room, media room… and additional 3 bedrooms and baths can be found in the lower level au pair quarter, that’s 11 bedrooms!! The wrapped around balcony provides a great entertaining area overlooking the entire property. This place took us the entire day and took up 3 full 17″ truck load of stuff to stage, it was a fun project!
  • Ross Rd. Palo Alto: A midtown Palo Alto newly constructed 5 bedroom single family. Very practical and functional floor plan, perfect home for a large family.
  • Madison Ave. : in 7 days! Need I say more?
  • S. Mary, : A spacious townhouse located close to downtown .
  • Samadra Ave. : Bordering Cupertino, close to many new shopping centers/plazas, a great starter home.
  • Palmita Ave. : 3 blocks away from the booming Castro St. downtown , this charming SFR looks and smells new inside and out. ( in 9 days!!)

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SOLD! Smile!

Sold!The latest properties staged by us:

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Spiritual Money

Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad Poor Dad) wrote in his book Before You Quit Your Job about the three kinds of money: Competitive money, Cooperative money and Spiritual money. For the detail in explaining their difference, please read his book, it is well worth your time.

One Two Six Design, we are a company, and obviously we make money by selling our and related services, and yes we have many competitions, so the money we earn, according to Rich Dad’s definition — Competitive money.

has gained a lot of popularity recently, mostly hyped up by the TV shows on HGTV and the likes, there are also countless number of web sites now selling “How to Start Your Own Business” courses. But if you stop and ask any seasoned stager, you will hear that is no way an easy business. The pay can be good, but our cost is also high, the result is beautiful, but the process is also very labor intensive. Fortunately, besides the physical monetary compensations, we are also awarded by the more important Spiritual Money.

Selling a home is probably one of the most important decision most of us make in our lifetime. Our home is our safe haven, generally it is also where majority of our hard earned money went to. In the rocky economy of today, selling one’s home is often a reluctant choice, a forced decision. Just two days ago, we de-staged a townhouse in after it was successful in a short time and at a reasonable price. The owners were a couple with two young children, the husband was laid off by his previous employer and was forced to move back to his home country in Asia looking for a new job, leaving his wife and their two school-aged kids here taking care of the house. The wife was so thankful to us, for helping their home get , the close of escrow means they no longer have any financial baggages and the family can finally reunite to start a new life.

We love hearing stories like this, this is what Spiritual Money means to us. Selling a home is not just about the numbers, there are a lot of emotions to it. We are part of the team that helps people with their most difficult decision, and we work hard everyday for it.

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Sold! Happy Monday!

Sold!This is a hectic week, we are at least 10 houses this week, so I better get this entry posted before we are all up to our necks with candles, sofas, flowers and the countless number of things we play with doing

One Two Six Design staged, you :

  • Cox Ave., Saratoga
  • Radcliffe Dr., Santa Clara (21 days!)
  • Magdalena Ct., (1.5 month)
  • Hemlock Ct., Palo Alto (2 weeks!)
  • Ross Rd., Palo Alto

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SOLD! Happy Weekend!

Sold!We aren’t done for the week yet, not until we finish all the good news that happened this week!

More properties:

Ok… now I am done, happy weekend everyone!!

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SOLD! Catching Up

Sold!Haven’t had the chance to tally up the properties we staged in awhile. As the economy pitches and rolls, the news is motivating to say the least…

  • Tulane Dr., ( in one week!)
  • Stratford Ct. Los Gatos ( in 2 days!!)
  • Saint Michael Ct. Palo Alto ( in 51 days)
  • Doyle Rd., San Jose ( in 2 weeks!)
  • Navarro Rd.,
  • Newton Dr.,
  • Bryant St., ( in 2 weeks!)
  • Parkfield Dr., San Jose ( in 52 days)
  • Sierra Ventura, ( in 50 days)
  • Colton Ave., San Carlos ( in first week!!)
  • Park Villa Cir., Cupertino ( in the first weekend!!)
  • Runningwood Cir., ( in 60 days)
  • Maybell Ave., Palo Alto ( in the first month!)
  • Northampton Ave., Palo Alto ( in 6 days!!!)

We staged, you ! Congraz to everyone!!

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A Little Update

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 , new homes in 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 ! Love hearing these great news!!

Happy Monday everyone!

Before

Before

After

After

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Sold! Palo Alto

One more good news for the night…

  • Kipling, Palo Alto ( and closed in 3 weeks!)

Sold!

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Sold! Throughout the Bay Area!

Sold!We are very happy to hear the news of the houses we staged throughout the Bay Area are selling!

  • Camino Al Lago, Atherton (this was staged for rental, rented!)
  • Port Dr., San Mateo ( in <60 days)
  • Hope St., ( & closed in 60 days)
  • Hidden Hills, ( & closed in 30 days!)
  • Deauville Park, ( & closed in 30 days!)
  • Vaquero, ( in first weekend!)

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Sold! More & More…

Good news are pouring in!Sold!

We are very happy for our partners and clients! Yeaaa!!

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Sold! Another One!

Sold!

We staged 432 Ives Ter in back on 2/5, today we were told that the buyer has removed all contingencies, and the place is ready for us come and de-stage!

in 2 weeks!!! Yeeeaa!

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Sold!! More Sold!!

More good news from our realtor clients, actually, we prefer to call them “partners” since we are working toward the same goal — to help home owners sell. 

We recently staged a lovely 1300 sq ft condo a block away from downtown . In less than a week, our partner called us to de-stage, yup, the place is !! Granted, the condo is located at a prime location, great looking boutique complex, functional layout and nicely remodeled. It is still amazing to hear how fast it was able to sell!

 

Mountain View Condo (Sold in 1 Week!)

Condo ( in 1 Week!)

 

On the other hand, last Tues we did a partial for a townhouse in East Bay. This was a challenging project. The townhouse was covered in floral patterned wallpapers dated from the 70′s, the owner also had a lot of heavy, bulky, solid wood furniture and a set of bright red leather sofa. To make it more difficult, the owner run out of storage space, so besides the bright lipstick red leather sofas, everything else had to stay… Well, we re-arranged the existing furnishings, brought in a set of lighter neutral colored sofa, art works and accessories to tie everything together… Again, we were very pleased to hear from our Realtor partner over the weekend that the place is pending!!

 

Crane Partial Staging Before & After (Sold in 1 Week!)

Crane Partial Before & After ( in 1 Week!)

Crane Partial Staging Before & After (Sold in 1 Week!)

Crane Partial Before & After ( in 1 Week!)

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Sold!

Sold!We love it when agents call to tell us their listings we staged is pending! What’s even better is when they call us shortly after we stage the properties!! It is a great feeling knowing that we were part of a successful selling experience for the sellers!

Recent under 30 days:

What could be better if you ask? over listing price that is!! ;-)

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