Increase Your Home Sales: Staging Tips and Tricks with Kerry Fezza

Say goodbye to drab, unappealing home decor and hello to strategic staging with our special guest, Kerry Fezza from Kerry F Decor. In this thrilling episode, we traverse the dynamic Las Vegas real estate market, which is currently a whirlwind of over 4,000 units available and a solid 347 solds per week. Drawing parallels between the real estate world and a beauty contest mingled with a price war, we reveal secrets on how to stay competitive amidst this challenging environment.

Ready to transform your home into a buyer's dream? We've got you covered. Together with Kerry, we delve into the realm of home staging, highlighting the pivotal role it plays in selling a home. We share little-known strategies to use furniture to your advantage, creating illusions of space and making a stunning first impression. And it doesn't end there. We also touch on the delicate balance of maintaining privacy in the digital age, emphasizing the need to keep family photos and personal items off the internet during the selling process.

But we're not just focused on the present - we also offer a glimpse into the future of home decor. From bold color choices to the latest trends like black front doors, we've got the scoop on how to make your house a standout. Want to renovate, but worried about the cost? We discuss cost-effective remodeling and why your kitchen and bathroom should take center stage when preparing your home for sale. Tune in to this riveting conversation packed with a wealth of insights into the Las Vegas real estate market, and watch your home transform from ordinary to extraordinary. Kerry Fezza awaits you. Don't miss out!

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:16

Hey Las Vegas. Thanks for joining us back here on Vegas Realty. Check your local Las Vegas real estate news show. I'm Trish Williams.

Speaker 2 0:24

And I'm Tiana Garrell. Welcome back to the show where we talk about everything real estate happening in Las Vegas. We hit some national headlines and we always cover inventory. We also have a special guest here today. We have our friend Carrie Fezza from Carrie F DeCore. Sorry, Carrie.

Speaker 2 0:42

I almost stumbled there, but Carrie F DeCore. She's going to talk to us all about home staging and interior design. Before we do that, though, we are going to do what we typically do and talk about this week's inventory. As we all know, real estate is supply and demand, so what is our supply, ma'am?

Speaker 1 0:58

Our supply is up.

Speaker 2 0:59

We have broached the 4,000, we surpassed it, surpassed the 4,000 threshold. Mark, yeah, mark.

Speaker 1 1:08

We are at 4,012 in single family residence, still half of where we were last year, because last year we were at 8,000. Over 8,000.

Speaker 2 1:17

Yeah, last year at this time we were saying bye, bye now, bye. Now. Now you're getting concessions. Prices have come down a little, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, yeah last year I was worried we were going to hit 10.

Speaker 1 1:27

But we went backwards, you know, as the season continued on, you know, and we hit spring, we went backwards, so we did drop inventory in that spring, but now we are up over 4,000.

Speaker 2 1:38

So that's good. And then for our solds, what do we have?

Speaker 1 1:43

347 sold for the week. So we're still hovering around those same numbers that we have been all year, all year. So our sold numbers have been holding pretty steady for the entire year. Nothing, they haven't really spiked or dropped.

Speaker 2 1:55

It's pretty big, consistent. Yeah, the amount of units being sold each month seems to be pretty consistent, even though the inventory fluctuates and the price decreases too. We see less less this week.

Speaker 1 2:07

I was in here last week, so I don't remember the price reduction numbers. But the week before we were almost at 9, I think. So were we that high. We were very high the week before.

Speaker 2 2:20

Very, very high. Well, apparently my brain is playing tricks on me, because I thought we were in the 5s and we're in the 5, 565, but Maybe I'm on, I'll trust you. Oh no, I don't know what else is. I think it's in the medium. That's okay, we're at 505 this week. Alright, let's talk about today.

Speaker 1 2:36

Yeah, so today we were at 505, and maybe I turned that 9 upside down. It was a 6. And sometimes my brain works that way.

Speaker 2 2:45

No, you're probably right. I mean obviously not great with numbers, yeah, but that puts us, if we've been staying consistently around the 500 mark, about 2,000 units closed each month, and that's what we've been doing. So that makes sense.

Speaker 1 2:58

Yeah, yeah. And when we get into the show today to talk to Carrie about what you do, we're going to talk about how to make those price decreases less likely.

Speaker 1 3:09

Disappear. Disappear, because your home is going to look amazing and the buyers are going to want it. So that's part of what we're going to be talking about today and we're so excited for that. Before we get into that, I do want to tell you guys hey, if you love us and you want to see us or meet us in person, we're going to be having a trunk or treat. We are.

Speaker 2 3:33

We love the kiddos and we love holidays, so we're going to celebrate trunk or treat tomorrow night.

Speaker 1 3:39

Yes, and just for the record, I'm okay with giving candy to adults too. You just have to be in costume. So that's true.

Speaker 2 3:45

Yeah, that's true, I dress up for the candy yeah.

Speaker 1 3:48

I dress up and you want to come say hi to us. I don't care at the age, we have no discrimination on age. There you come, I will give you candy. You may not recognize us, but just look for the Wizard of Oz theme. Yes, and we will be on Green Valley Parkway and corporate circle 2230. Oh, let me know, corporate circle suite 250. And it's going to be the Keller Williams building there, right?

Speaker 2 4:17

It's going to be in the parking lot and the parking lot. So you don't need to go to the suite, but definitely come check us out at 2230 corporate circle and for our trunk or treat, bring the kiddos coming costume. It's going to be fun. Last year didn't they have like a DJ and there was music and food trucks. There's a, it's a big, thing, it is a big thing.

Speaker 1 4:36

It'll be from 6pm to 8pm and we have quite the setup for it for you guys, we went all out this year.

Speaker 2 4:45

We took up two trunk spaces, since there's two of us, and we themed it out. And if you want to see it all, you'll just have to come check us out.

Speaker 1 4:53

So come on to the checker sheet or trunk, or treat, yep, yep, and come say hi, so Carrie.

Speaker 2 4:59

Carrie, you can come too. Yes, I think.

Speaker 3 5:01

I heard that on the radio today. They were advertising that Really.

Speaker 2 5:05

Yeah.

Speaker 3 5:05

Oh well maybe it wasn't our trunk or treat.

Speaker 1 5:07

We didn't pay for any.

Speaker 3 5:09

Oh, okay, another one. We're using our platform out there. I knew I'd put my foot in my mouth, maybe so.

Speaker 2 5:14

I think the biggest real-time check platform is where we advertise oh okay, yeah, that's the one I'm talking about, yeah exactly, we're going to cover up Carrie, I love that yeah. So you can come in costume.

Speaker 3 5:26

Okay, I'll keep it in mind Okay.

Speaker 1 5:29

So, Carrie, today, in today's market both of us repeat this over and over in the dragon is that our market today is a beauty contest and a price war. So you have to be price-stripe and you have to have your best foot forward. The house has to be beautiful, and that's where staging, I think, in today's market, is more important than it has been.

Speaker 2 5:57

Yeah, I mean the little edge you can give. I think is so beneficial right now because we are very, very competitive buyers. If they're going to buy a house, they want it to be the right house, especially with interest rates.

Speaker 3 6:08

Exactly.

Speaker 2 6:09

They're bringing in so much cash to close and stuff, they want the exact house that they're going to pay those bucks. They want it to be right.

Speaker 1 6:16

And a home shopping can be so emotional. You know like when you walk in, I haven't noticed that.

Speaker 2 6:23

I've never heard of any emotional clients.

Speaker 1 6:25

But when you walk into a home, there's something about a home that is staged and designed beautifully and with that extra touch, where you walk in and you just fall in love with the space, the smell, the way things are set up. There's so much thought put into it and that's what you do. So tell us a little bit about that.

Speaker 3 6:46

Well, it's not only to piggyback on what you said, it's not just important when you walk in the door. It's 90,. The latest statistics from NAR say 96% of people use the internet in the home buying process.

Speaker 3 7:01

Yeah, that's real 96% of buyers and, since COVID, most people will shop online first. You know, if you're going to go shoe shopping, you're going to just double check online first, right, yeah, you're going to go shoe shopping first. So it amazes me, because I follow listings, I follow real estate, I go to all the open houses, like some of the things, pictures people put up online I would be so embarrassed. So it's to your point. You only get one chance to make a first impression, absolutely, and you want to do that online, and I've Thank you for your time.

Speaker 3 7:31

I shop for houses and I'm not going to go to an ugly house, but once you see that one house online, especially with people coming in from California, they're going to call up, they're really going to go. I want to see this house, and me and my husband have done the exact same thing. We want to see this house. Right, you know I don't care where else you take us, but we want to see this house and it's that's one of the things is just the online visibility making your listing stand out from all the rest.

Speaker 2 7:54

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 7:55

Absolutely. Apealing Visually appealing. And there's something too, I I have no sense of design.

Speaker 2 8:03

Well, you dress yourself well. Yeah, exactly, that is not true, she loves fashion. Her house is fashionable and designed.

Speaker 3 8:11

But that's why I'm here to do your staging. You don't do your own escrow, right?

Speaker 1 8:15

Right.

Speaker 3 8:16

You know there's a different person for every job.

Speaker 1 8:18

Right, and what I've realized with staging and and interior designers is there's there. There's more to it than just the furniture. You know, it's the placement of it, it's where, how the room opens up, how your eyes travel through the space. There's so much that goes into that, which is why you hire a professional.

Speaker 2 8:37

Yeah, size and scale. How many times have you been in somebody's house and their furniture is just too big for the space or too small, and it changes the feeling of the room.

Speaker 3 8:46

Yeah, it's, it's that, and it's also you said it before. It's it's. I'm a professionally trained stature. By the way, we actually go to school for this stuff. I, I am a graduate of the home staging resource, in addition to being a graduate of the New York Institute of Art and Design. Okay, um, you want to connect people emotionally. Men shop with logic. That's why I don't think a lot of male realtors use stages. It's really hard to get them there. If their client wants it, they'll do it, but I've had it where the client wants it and the realtor still won't do it so interesting?

Speaker 2 9:17

I never thought about that, but I can see it.

Speaker 3 9:20

Men shop with logic. They're numbers, guys, yeah, the people. Not that women aren't, but men. That's typically their focus. Men shop with emotion. Men shop with logic. Women shop with emotion. At the end, of the day.

Speaker 2 9:34

A happy life is a happy life.

Speaker 3 9:37

And you know it's really hard. Once the emotional partner fixing something to you know, I'll walk into a place and really like so, oh, this is beautiful. Well, you have a look, there's water damage. He's looking up at the ceiling, he's looking at the floor, he's looking under the cabinets, you know so once you stage a space, it also there. Every house has their little tiny flaws. Staging will draw the focus away from that. It draws the pretty picture, like you said, and people focus on that more and then once they're emotionally connected to a space, it's much less likely to fall out of escrow.

Speaker 1 10:12

Yes, and it's much less likely to not. I've been in situations with buyers where there was a house. Recently we were out shopping and it was staged beautifully. The seller was a realtor, so obviously she knew what she was doing Exactly, you know, knew what to do, you know I could tell she had hired a staging company and it was. I mean, the house was literally the same. It was a brand new home and there were a couple homes in the area that were the same house. This house was not and I kept on telling my buyer because you know it had multiple offers. She wanted to keep on going up. It was just in this market. It wouldn't have gotten her the best deal, right, or the best outcome or scenario, but she was so committed and I kept on trying to reel her back, you know, as a good buyer's agent, right, right, and saying like, this house is the same, it's the same house as the others, it's just, it smelled really wonderful, the furniture was great.

Speaker 3 11:18

None of that will be there when we close, right, but that's the perfect point of staging is that you've got houses that look exactly the same or compatible and they want that one, and staging will do that. Staging will do that and it's so much cheaper than a price reduction at the end of the day.

Speaker 1 11:37

Wow, yes, yes, absolutely. And you think about it? The builders, they're the most professionals in selling real estate, right, right, nice days there. Have you ever walked in a model home that wasn't staged? I never have, because you, and there's so many times, so many times, that I've got into a point where, when I'm out shopping with buyers for builders, I ask the builder if they have a home that's already made, because there's so many times where buyers will be in love with this model home they walk into. Then, when the house is built or we get to that stage, they're super disappointed because of how tremendously different it looks. And it's the staging, it's the staging that made the difference. So, for sellers, wonderful, wonderful on getting your home sold and getting your price.

Home Sales Staging and Feng Shui

Speaker 3 12:26

Yeah for top dollar and having like again competing in a competitive market and getting multiple offers. Yes, and it'll do it.

Speaker 2 12:34

And that just goes to how people want to live, right. They want it to smell good, they want it to feel clean, they want it light and bright and they want the furniture to be so pretty. They fall in love instantly and then they're in. But you're right, when I go do model homes too, I'm like do you have something under construction that's the same model match so I can see what your builder grade finishes are?

Speaker 1 12:53

Yeah, yeah, and the buyers are like ready to sign a contract in the model home.

Speaker 3 12:58

Well, that's why they do that, you're selling the house to your point, you're selling the lifestyle that goes with it. Right so even occupied homes. It's good to bring in a stager for a consultation. We can give you tips and tricks to work with what they have and maybe bring in a few accessories to make it show as close as you can get to a model home.

Speaker 2 13:19

So can I ask you a question when you do go to an owner occupant and you're in there and you're saying, okay, we're going to have to eliminate this piece of furniture and these things, and not so much knickknacks they get, they're emotional to it right.

Speaker 3 13:31

Yeah, I'm always I'm. Tact is not always my strong suit, but we can play good cop, bad cop, because you want to look good. You're the realtor, you're on their side, you're representing them as a seller. I am your fictitious buyer. I'm representing the buyer's point of view. So I'm going to come in and go. You know, I would never. This kitchen's too small. You can't make a kitchen bigger, so I probably wouldn't comment on that, because there's some things you can't change.

Speaker 2 13:57

But I would be like you changed the illusion of it. My clearing counter tops would be exactly so easy, but very impactful, and I don't want to see your toothbrush.

Speaker 3 14:06

Exactly you know I don't really care what you read. You definitely don't want to profile yourself politically or religiously, even though those topics might be very important to you and you might be like I don't want to sell my house to a Trump supporter or I don't want to sell my house to some liberal from California. You, you don't. You want the many buyers as possible, so you want to put away anything that profiles you and any family photographs, because you want unless it's you on the ski slopes at Aspen or you're on your yacht in Greece things that are selling a wonderful lifestyle. You want to put those away because you don't want, because it still sort of shows that you're emotionally attached to the home, so you want the buyer to feel like it's their home.

Speaker 1 14:49

Yeah, yeah. And another thing when it comes to family photos, it's not Not just that point, but I tell people every seller that I tell I'm like you know, I market to 350 different websites. We are everywhere on the internet and we get good photos. We hire professional photographers, we do the Matterport, we have a great photo package. Do you really want everyone on the internet seeing your baby pictures Like that's? You know that's kind of weird and creepy and it's attached to an address, so let's take all those down, yeah Good point.

Speaker 1 15:23

I mean it's not just that you know that you want the buyers to feel like it's their space but I wouldn't want people with my family and my address all on the internet and it will be all over the internet.

Speaker 3 15:37

And that's a really good point.

Speaker 1 15:39

But yeah it's.

Speaker 3 15:39

People don't want to see your family in the home, they want to see their family in the home. That's why when you do go to model homes and they are staged, they will. There's some homes that are just done beautifully and they will bring in different colors and some of them will cater to certain ethnic groups that are buying. But it all is sort of in a generic space, in a generic vein.

Speaker 2 16:02

Well, I think everything needs to be accessible to everybody Exactly and use of space.

Speaker 1 16:08

I mean, there's times of staging. Recently, on a home, there's a very large entryway which in my basic staging mind or my basic design mind, which I don't you know, I don't really have that gift of design, so I would walk in and just say it's a large hallway, but what they did is they put a oh gosh, like a credenza right in the entry space with a, you know, a setup very nice, and yes, that would be. You know, that would be a perfect use of that space and it made that space just open up and look so much better and it gives it a purpose. It gives it a purpose.

Speaker 2 16:48

That's not a blank slate. Here's this where you drop your keys and stuff when you walk in the front door. You need a place to land.

Speaker 3 16:54

Right. And then if you have that extra space, because from my mind I'm like this is wasted space. You know I like form and function, you know, but if it's a big and beautiful, some people like the opulence. You know I'm feng shui train too, and in feng shui your entryway is the most important part of the home. It represents your career and how the world sees you. So you always again you only have one chance to make a first impression.

Speaker 3 17:16

So if you can make that entryway wow, then they want to continue on. I've looked at houses where I've walked in the door and we've turned around and walked right back out. I was like, nope, we don't even want to see this house.

Speaker 1 17:25

So I need to redo my entryway home. It does not represent my career.

Speaker 3 17:29

Oh no, I just help you with that, it does because you have the bamboo in there, which is money.

Speaker 2 17:37

right, that's true, so that's good. And you don't have stairs by the front door. That's bad for feng shui, because you're letting all that good energy flow out. Well, yeah.

Speaker 3 17:45

And Asian buyers can be. You tell me I've heard this that Asian buyers can be very particular, especially, like she said, if the door opens and the staircase comes right down to the door, they won't look at that house because the chi just goes straight up.

Speaker 2 17:59

In a way, Chi is the energy Right, the energy of the house. Same thing like within the bedroom. They don't want your feet facing the door, because then the chi is going out, or having mirrors in your bedroom, because it bounces the chi around.

Speaker 3 18:11

There's a lot of feng shui rules for the bedroom.

Speaker 1 18:13

Opening a front door and you can see the back door at the direct angle.

Speaker 2 18:18

And the chi just goes straight up one to the other, right from one entrance to the other. There's gonna be a. There's a money corner.

Speaker 3 18:23

You can't change but there are remedies. Like you can't change a house, like they also don't like houses that face a T street, like on a street, because again, it's the same principle, but you can put this little. It's called the parkoir. I didn't read it at a house like that. I put it above Parkoir. Yeah, and you put it. It's a Chinese symbol, represents the eight bagoir, the little coin. Yeah, no, it's a, it represents, it's in it's hard to.

Speaker 2 18:49

Yeah, it's called bagoir. I want one and you put that above it.

Speaker 3 18:53

You don't even know what it does yet and it's meant to my husband thought I was crazy because we're doing this. I'm gonna put this up for me this weekend. Then we went around the block and the other house, like the other block, they had one too and I said, see, but we have a large Asian market here and I noticed a lot of the home buyers are catering to that market because they spend a lot of money.

Speaker 1 19:11

Yeah, and it's not. It's not just Asian market. These days, a lot of people are in tune with feng shui.

Speaker 2 19:16

There's a lot of very successful business owners that are very I mean even.

Speaker 1 19:22

I've heard that even Steve Wynn will buy his properties. They have to be hit to his feng shui standards.

Speaker 2 19:32

Yeah, there's lots of aspects to it.

Speaker 3 19:34

Yeah, it's energy lovers, but even if it doesn't conform to the proper feng shui standards because it has those things like backdoor and front door. You can remedy that.

Speaker 2 19:43

You can.

Speaker 3 19:44

Without hanging people. Like I don't want to hang a bunch of gold coins from my ceiling. That's going to look really weird.

Speaker 2 19:47

Oh, I do, I do, I want gold coins for my ceiling, I want dollar bills covering my floor. I want hundreds on my bed. I'm all about bring me that money.

Speaker 1 19:59

I remodeled my whole office. At the office I had remodeled it because of feng shui, because I took a feng shui class. I said I just hope they'd need me to do it again. So my cheese running away, my cheese a lot better now.

Speaker 3 20:12

Well, you know it sounds kind of kooky, but that's my world. My background is in the psychic art, so I do astrology, and it's sort of based on the same principles juxtaposition of one thing to another. It's much like architecture Everything has a relationship and in feng shui the relationship of objects is important and it's all about getting the chi flowing in the right direction in the right spot. So the main thing an average person can do, an average seller, is just clear the clutter. Clutter is the. Get rid of the clutter, like things shouldn't be under the bed. Clean out your closets and you probably tell your sellers this when they're selling like put all the clothes that you're not wearing this season away. It'll make the closet look way bigger. Definitely do that. The one thing you can do that'll improve your function if you want to sell your house and get top dollar and make it look good is just get rid of the clutter. Yeah, and outside too, especially the entry. The entry is the most important part of the house.

Speaker 1 21:07

Oh, it is.

Speaker 2 21:08

Especially from a showing standpoint, because when I'm fumbling with the lock box or whatever, they're out there and they are picking apart like, oh, is the door dented or is there paint chipping or what have you?

Speaker 1 21:19

Are there any keys? And you have to pull up and pull back and pull forward. Okay, not this one.

Speaker 2 21:25

But you spend a lot more time in the entry during. I guess sellers may not realize it, but we explain it to them as realtors because that's what we do that we're outside in that front entry a little bit longer than you just coming home opening the door and coming in. So make sure that is the first thing, that curb appeal and that entry is the first thing that really greets us into this house.

Speaker 1 21:46

Most homeowners come in and out of their house through the garage.

Speaker 3 21:48

That's totally going to say, oh my husband uses the front door because he's teaparks in the driveway. I never do. I go in and out through the garage. A lot of people don't even know and ours clicks, leads Cobwebs.

Speaker 2 22:01

You're like, oh, the lightbulbs weren't out, I didn't even notice.

Speaker 1 22:05

Yeah, so those spaces are. Yeah, so those are definitely.

Home Staging and Renovating Tips

Speaker 2 22:09

That's a good tip for our listeners and potential sellers to declutter. I agree with that. I always tell them you know, take out half of everything from every closet, because if it looks jam packed the buyer's going to think there's no storage, and buyers love storage, so it's giving the illusion that you're not busting out of the seams. And then what else do you have? What's some more good little juicy?

Speaker 3 22:29

Well, this is a question for you, because I read this in my front door I like, um, I like a bold front door and, if your HOA allows it, I have mine painted black because it's just nice and stately. I've read somewhere I don't think this is an NAR statistic, so I don't want to quote anything but tell me, if this is true, that houses with black front doors sell for 6% over average list.

Speaker 2 22:50

Well, right, well, everybody, hey, your door black, let's go for it.

Speaker 1 22:53

I have no idea. I don't know if it's true or not. Black door.

Speaker 3 23:00

Fresh paint. Does a any color paints logs it's fresh, right.

Speaker 2 23:04

Fresh, clean door, but I think right now, um the blacks and the grays and the white trim with, maybe, say, like walnut, is very modern and looks so we're seeing a lot of flippers using that black doors Can we talk about flippers yeah.

Speaker 3 23:19

And remember I love to have a flipper as a regular client and work with them because I know some all the time.

Speaker 1 23:30

Please give them my card, because that would be, my ideal client.

Speaker 3 23:35

I had somebody call me who does high end luxury flips, but he wouldn't let me share my pictures. He said well, if we take pictures, I say I can't use them. And I was like it goes yeah, I see that won't work for you and I'm like not at all, I'll be promoting you while I'm promoting me. But that was a so that was a hard. No, but I would love flipper. We can promote each other. But that's the gray and you. Let me just talk about gray. Every since Gray's coming back and never went away. I was doing gray 10 years ago, um, so it's been around for a long time.

Speaker 2 24:02

People love it or hate it.

Speaker 3 24:03

They're still doing it.

Speaker 2 24:04

Yeah, but I don't do the warm. The people who don't want the warm browns they always tend to go to the gray interior design is about contrast, so gray is okay.

Speaker 3 24:14

If you want to do a gray wall, I would suggest a warm gray, but then do a warmer floor. If you're doing a warmer wall color like a soft white, and we want to stay away from Swiss coffee, okay, swiss coffee is a hard.

Speaker 1 24:27

No, that was a color.

Speaker 3 24:29

It's from 30 years ago. All my rehabs are painting over Swiss coffee. So, Swiss coffee, it's a go to.

Speaker 2 24:34

It's like no, we're now repose we repose gray.

Speaker 1 24:40

Now.

Speaker 3 24:41

But if you're using a cooler color, a warmer, and you're doing the floor. A warmer floor goes beautiful with it. If you're doing a warmer wall color, like a warmer white or a warmer gray, you can get away with a cooler floor color. But gray on gray on gray does not look good and it doesn't sell. If you've spent all the money on redoing the entire house I've seen these houses They've they've done the countertops, they've done the cabinets, they've done the lighting, they've done everything, but the house isn't selling. Cause number one they're not putting staging in it, which we could warm it right up with the staging, but color with the staging, yeah.

Speaker 3 25:10

All of the above and texture and color, texture, anything, but gray on gray on gray is not a good look. So if you like gray, like any color, use it in moderation, yeah, and if you're want to paint your house before you sell, do not paint it every color of the rainbow. I had the stage of house last year and I'm just curious why you, you know, you know, you some. I said some buyers like to freshly paint their house before they sell it. Oh, we did just freshly paint the house and I'm like, okay, why did you choose a different color for every room In a green room and a green room? And the wife liked the black kitchen. They had wallpaper, black wallpaper, in the kitchen. It was so. That was a staging challenge, but I rise to challenges. I can do those difficult stages. We made it look super cute, but that's not what you want to do. When in doubt, just go with white walls.

Speaker 2 26:00

Yeah, yeah, people know why you should be taboo but white walls are fresh.

Speaker 1 26:05

Yeah, it's like a new car? Yeah, no, it is, it's it's open, it's light yeah. So so you do some, some remodeling and you can help people when they need this done, when they need that update, freshen up to their kitchen or bathroom or main space. What do you do there? Well, whatever needs to be done and make it a four, it's what it comes down to budget.

Speaker 3 26:27

When you're selling your house, you're pro, you're not. We're trying to get you emotionally unattached from it and if you've already found another house, you just want to get out of this house and into your new house. So you really don't want to spend a lot of money. I've been there. But if you want to get the same price as your neighbor, you're going to need to do the upgrades. But they don't have to be expensive and I think a lot of people find this daunting because they don't know where to go. Well, I don't know a handyman, I don't know a painter, I don't, you know, I don't have a landscape guy you know, oh yeah, and you call me and I want my countertops and that's going to be really expensive, and you know.

Speaker 3 27:04

But there's inexpensive ways we can rehab it where you'd probably get your money back dollar for dollar. Kitchens and bathrooms, cell houses, so that's true, have nowhere to go. Start there, and usually I've done a couple of big remodels where the cabinets are in good shape, so we've just painted them and add a hardware. And you don't even have to add hardware, but just and if the cabinet some of the older cabinets do look nice and maybe all you have to add is some hardware and you can buy beautiful hardware on Amazon, yeah, you can. So that's it, switch out all your stuff.

Speaker 3 27:33

And lighting. Lighting is another big, huge impact item that you can do for pennies on the dollar, low sales, great lighting lamps. Plus, if you want to go a little bit higher, they have great light fixtures. I put a little inexpensive chandelier in the middle. You know the one that hangs above the stairs and it's really I did it when I was first starting out. It's not really in proportion to the space, but it's the first thing people comment when they come in the door. I love that chandelier. Yeah, it doesn't matter what else is going on in us, they love it so little, you don't have to spend a lot of money.

Speaker 3 28:04

Paint and lighting are your biggest impacts. For the less money and people like oh, painting, that's so much work Compared to construction. Painting will only be one or two days out of your life. You'll paint, you'll come in, you'll cover your furniture, or he'll cover your furniture you will. He'll have to probably spend a day prepping, yep, and then you'll spend a day painting per room, okay, maybe two. A whole house should be done in two days, so it's not that big of an intrusion. And if you don't have a lot of valuables in your house, if you're mostly moved out and you want to just go away for the weekend, which you should be by the time we're at the stage.

Speaker 3 28:39

And the realtor will be supervising. You know, get your house least freshly painted. Everybody wants to do the floor. There's a lot happening with flooring right now, so he wants to do all this LVP and put in all the flooring. But it's flooring is very personal, it's like paint colors, I agree. So I always say start from the top. Get that popcorn off the ceiling. Pay somebody to come over and wipe that popcorn off, if you can reach it.

Speaker 1 29:01

Yeah, there's some houses. No matter how beautiful they are, the buyers will walk in and look up and be like, oh, there's popcorn, I hate it. So you know. And then the popcorn with the glitter, that's the most popular.

Speaker 3 29:14

It doesn't make sense.

Speaker 2 29:15

to me it looks not good yes.

Speaker 1 29:18

It is not good, and you know that it has not been painted at least 30 to 40 years.

Speaker 3 29:23

So it's a beautiful new floor but you still have 80s brass light fixtures hanging. It's it's going to take away. So start from the top, work your way down. A coat of paint, some new light fixtures in the key areas like the dining and the entry, if you have. If you don't have a lot of money for floor and you want to put in carpet, fresh carpet looks better than old, broken tile. But if the tile is old and it's plain, I would leave it alone because we can switch the grout color out and also, if we come into stage, we're going to put throw rugs down. So believe me, people, the floor is the last thing and you can even add a floor credit, can you not?

Quick Fixes and Upgrades in Kitchens

Speaker 3 30:00

Yes, oh, absolutely so flooring is one of the last things I would touch, unless it's like pink porcelain or it's cracked or chipped. I wouldn't write.

Speaker 2 30:08

OK, so kitchens and mass sell. And what are some quick fixes, maybe light rehabs or fresh and ups that you suggest for kitchens and mass?

Speaker 3 30:18

Well, again painting cabinets, but if they still look good, you might just want to add some hardware. If it's a warm toned wood and it still shows well, you can clean it up with a little Murphy's oil soap. I would buy brass hardware, modern brass. A lot of people my husband freak out with brass. It's like it's not your mother's brass, it's a whole new generation. It looks really good. You can buy a bunch of knobs on Amazon for next to nothing. Make sure you put them in the right place. I've seen people paint their cabinets and then they've hung them up crooked.

Speaker 3 30:41

And you're looking at these new cabinets and cabinets on a window with a broken screen and I'm like, why would you not take that screen down and watch the window? I mean, you can't. This is my biggest pet pee. You can't do anything. Half-assed, can we say that?

Speaker 2 30:53

on camera? Yes, we can say whatever we like.

Speaker 3 30:56

OK, you can't go halfway, right? Ok, think of it like sex. You're not going halfway. No we're getting to the finish line, yeah eventually you've got to get to that finish line. Like I see, people do the floor but leave other things undone.

Speaker 1 31:09

It just what's the point? Yes, I was in an open house recently, within the last couple of weeks, and no joke, they put, you know, the rollout vinyl that looks like wood. Yeah, just fine, that can look good in some spaces. They put it over the carpet like over the carpet.

Speaker 2 31:25

No, tell me, that is not real.

Speaker 1 31:27

Like it's squishy you walked from the kitchen, where it was flat, and then it like went up and squished down and I was like, no, and why would you do?

Speaker 2 31:37

this oh, you're going to have to send me that MLS number.

Speaker 1 31:40

I'm going to have to share it. Still on the market? I'm sure it's still on the market we use.

Speaker 3 31:44

Realtor's responsibility. Like that's what you need to bring in a professional. Ok, let's go back to Realtor's responsibility.

Speaker 2 31:52

There's only so much we can do. Ok, yeah, there's only so much we can do, and if our advice falls on deaf ears, that is not our problem. We told them.

Speaker 3 32:01

But would you list a house like that, would you? I? Don't know Where's the power in walking away, because I will walk away from things that aren't going to serve me or my brand.

Speaker 2 32:11

Yeah, yeah, no, I get that and I know it's a tough question.

Speaker 3 32:14

I'm asking you to do that. I would do that one.

Speaker 2 32:16

I would take something like that but I would do it like as an investor, special below market and give it to one of my investors to rehab and do it right. Yeah, I would not sell it to like an owner occupant at regular market price where they are going to try and live in that.

Speaker 3 32:31

And what if they spent all this money on new floor and they want top dollar?

Speaker 1 32:35

No, yeah, that's what.

Speaker 2 32:36

They're bad choices and we can walk away.

Speaker 3 32:38

Yeah, that was that was my point. Like worst case scenario. There's some things I like. I went to one house with a realtor. She paid me for a consultation and it didn't end well because I thought the buyer was on board with the changes and the house was, first of all how do I say this? It was pretty much in squalor. She said, oh, this is clean. You should have seen it before, when they had roommates. It was, and he was trying to clean it up, but the investments he was making in the property were kind of all backwards. They had done the. They needed to rehab the walls, but they'd already put in the carpet, like the lower part of the walls where they and that should have been done, and then the carpet. If you're going to invest in something, you say you got to do it right, or don't waste the money off for a credit because the carpet was crunchy, like they didn't know.

Speaker 3 33:19

Patty and I wound up offending him. I didn't, it wasn't my intention. I thought he was on board with the whole process and he had like. He thought he was a stager and he thought he was a realtor.

Speaker 3 33:30

So I thought he was on board. But they all you know people want to put their money in places where they really don't have to. Like, his kitchen really had nice cabinets, was brown and they had black granite but it went up to the cabinets. But black and wood is really hot right now and it really it showed. Well, like you can't change the shape of the kitchen, you can't change the fact that your island's way off center. Those are things you can't change.

Speaker 3 33:52

But for all the money you're investing, I would do this a lot different or be a lot more organized. And for the realtor, I think she eventually sold the house and got a good referral. She put a lot into it that where I would have just chosen to walk away, the bathtub was black. Oh, he has a trick for cleaning it and I'm like, well, I would get on that beautiful strip views, but the windows, the house needed new windows. That's a huge investment. So you can't exit your strip views without accenting the fact that the house needs, you know, $30,000 worth of new windows. I would just you know what. What do you do at that point? So that was a real tough one and I'm in his. Like you know, I cleaned it in really because I couldn't tell he cleaned Like. I have very high standards and if I'm your worst buyer, that's the person you're going for is the pickiest buyer, because if you consult to them, you can sell to anybody yeah.

Speaker 1 34:39

And clean is so important.

Speaker 2 34:41

Every bit is much, every bit as important as staging. I don't want to see dust in your air ducts. I don't want things. Dust in the bathroom or corners of dust bunnies. And yeah, oh, what about a doors?

Speaker 1 34:57

light switches that are just grungy from touching, like our kitchen, like the grease caked up in the edges of the like. How?

Speaker 3 35:05

can you be walking with a mask on when you're touching a switch or a doorknob that's dirty Like I don't?

Speaker 2 35:13

Yeah.

Speaker 3 35:13

That's me. I never touch door handles or anything like that Cause that's where I think.

Speaker 2 35:17

Yeah, so that's my number one. Yeah, first and foremost, let's just make sure it's clean. Can you make sure it's clean? Clean, like real clean.

Speaker 3 35:23

Well, that's why fresh paint looks so good, Even if it's a coat of white paint. It'll make your house look clean and new.

Speaker 1 35:29

Yeah, and the baseboards and other.

Speaker 3 35:31

Yeah, I've actually done my own houses when I've gone to sell them, where I've said just paint everything white, paint the ceiling, the walls, the baseboards, all it goes well, we usually paint the ceiling this way you paint the baseboard just bringing a sprayer, paint it all the way.

Speaker 1 35:45

Yeah, yeah. And there's times, too, where people I've been in houses that didn't have horrible paint on the walls and didn't want you know, they didn't want to spend the money to have the whole home repainted. I've said, at least freshen up the baseboard. Yeah, and it can make it look like you have a fresh paint job. Painting the baseboards can work wonders in some cases if your paint's not real chipped.

Speaker 2 36:08

It's hard when you live in there to look at it from a discerning eye, but when you come in as a third party you're easily like oh, those baseboards are ginger than you think, or there's more scuff marks than need to be there. Yeah, windows should be cleaned. Let that bright light in, even if they're older they should definitely be cleaned. You don't want, like water spots or anything mucking up the views and the light.

Speaker 3 36:30

Or if you have rip screens and you've gone to the trouble to remodel your kitchen, take your rip screens down.

Speaker 1 36:34

Yeah, yeah, absolutely Well, carrie. How do people get ahold of you If they want to talk more, if they need a staging consultation? Is there a fee for staging consultations?

Speaker 3 36:46

Yeah, I'm sorry, did I?

Speaker 1 36:50

correct. No, go ahead, no I apologize.

Speaker 2 36:53

I'm telling us everything.

Speaker 3 36:54

No, for occupied houses. A staging consult is best money spent. I charge 250 for that and I focus on the west side of town. I don't do a lot out in Henderson. I'll be honest with you. I'm a west side stager.

Speaker 3 37:06

Okay, she's like I got none on my car, yeah, and I apologize to the people that live out that way, unless it's, you know, mcdonald Highlands or something, and then I might charge a little more. We start at 250 and you bring me in, I can bring sheets and the buyer can take notes and they'll all be. It's broken down into entryway lighting, all the things. They can have detailed notes. I have them do it because if I'm doing it they're not going to, they're like who cares? Right, if they're taking the notes, they're paying attention and then they can read their own handwriting and so they can. That'll be a takeaway, so they have something to take away, a to-do list, exactly.

Speaker 3 37:38

And if it's a vacant house or soon to be vacant and you're bringing us in to do the staging, then it's usually included in the staging price. That's a free consultation. We'll just go over there, take measurements, look around, see how we want to do it, okay, and if it needs more than that, if we need to talk about painting carpet, then it would be a 250 fee. But if they would go with the staging, we can always roll that in so they feel like they get a little discount. And if you're paying for the consultation I'm always work with real leaders I can work out special pricing. I feel like you guys deserve a break if you're putting money out of your own pocket and putting it towards it.

Speaker 2 38:12

Yeah, so how do they get a hold of you?

Speaker 3 38:14

Oh well, I always answer my phone too. I think I'm one of the few stages in towns that answers the phone myself.

Speaker 1 38:19

Okay, yes, I did. That's how I got a hold of you. You answered.

Speaker 3 38:22

Yeah, Unless I'm with a client, it I'll always answer. I'll always return your call within 24 hours.

Speaker 2 38:28

My number's on the screen we're going to get is seven zero two eight eight two four five one eight. For those of you listening to us on the podcast and aren't watching the screen Okay, now you got it, no worries.

Speaker 3 38:38

I'm Carrie F Decor and that's the Irish spelling. K E R R Y F is in Frank for my last name and then decor and that comes from an old another project I was branding, so I carry F Decor was born out of that and that's all my social media at Carrie F Decor. You can email me Carrie F Decor at gmailcom. Website. Carrie F Decor.

Speaker 2 38:59

Carrie F Decor. Very easy to find that in your search and you'll find Carrie you will Excellent. So before they stage their home, they're going to need a home to sell, which is your specialty list agent, trish Williams. How do they get a hold of you?

Speaker 1 39:13

So you can reach me on my phone number, which is seven zero two three zero eight two eight seven eight, call or text I'm pretty easy to reach as well. And Tiana, people are out there shopping and want to go look at some beautiful homes. Who do they call, even if they're not staged or just kidding?

Speaker 2 39:29

No, beautiful homes are staged and you can reach me at seven zero two, three, seven, nine, nine, nine, four, eight. Thank you guys, so much for joining us this week on Vegas Realty Check. We are here every Thursday at nine thirty eight or you can download us on any platform you get your podcast. Make sure you like, share and subscribe and we will see you next week. Thank you so much for the sport.

Speaker 3 39:50

Bye, vegas, bye and thank you for having me. Thank you.