Real Estate-related Holiday Gift Ideas

Well buying someone a home or commercial property is a dynamite gift but let’s be realistic. Maybe something a little more realistic?

Tamara Grierson of Staging Life shares her ideas for holiday gifts for the home. She discusses different types of decorations, including artificial and real Christmas trees, and offers tips for making them look festive. Tamara also suggests various gift ideas, such as closet organization systems, garage upgrades, and personalized artwork. 

Listen For
03:01 Gift Ideas for the Home
19:01 Accessories for the Home
25:35 Outdoor Gifts and Landscaping

Guest: Tamara Grierson
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Or call Tamara on her cell 647-545-4609

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Desmond can be reached at:
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Recorded in Sep 2023

Transcript

Desmond Brown (00:01):

When the real estate market was booming, houses were selling. Well, let me correct myself. A lot of houses were selling no matter what time of year it was. We had record sales in the winter and in the summer when it's traditionally our slower period. Well, it looks like we're back to our more traditional markets now, and one of the busiest markets was always the spring, and our spring market is just around the corner. So if you're thinking of selling the spring, there are a lot of things you should start doing now to get your house on the market. I'm Desmond Brown, and today on Sold in the 6ix, I welcome back my favourite stager to give you the tips you need to get started. Tamara Grierson is the principal of Staging Life and she joins me again today. Tamara, welcome back.

Tamara Grierson (00:59):

Hi, Desmond. Thanks so much for having me.

Desmond Brown (01:01):

Oh, I just love having you on the podcast and you look great. Good morning. Thank you.

Tamara Grierson (01:07):

So everyone looks awesome this morning.

Desmond Brown (01:12):

Yeah, and I didn't even put my makeup on today, so, oh, Tamara. In the markets we've had over the last couple of years staging was big. Staging was really, really big. And you would know firsthand how the market is going just based on how many properties you're staging and how fast you're asked to come back and remove the furniture. So give us a quick recap on what you've been feeling since the market's changed with staging before we get into getting ready for the spring market.

Tamara Grierson (01:47):

So when you consider where staging happens in the transactions sort of cycle we do see the early indications of what's happening in the market. And then because we worked with so many realtors, we're able to get a sense of sort of movement in the industry. And so yes, up until well up the interest rates, that whole pandemic, low interest rates, things were moving along quickly, it was a robust market, and then the interest rates hit, the market slowed down a bit. But what we're seeing now in the last little while, I'm going to say maybe in the last four to six weeks, and with each passing week, it becomes more and more obvious than that is that the market is returning.

(02:49):

The metrics that we look at are how many stages a week do we do, how long does the stage last? And we're definitely seeing more stages. The duration of the stage is shorter, and I think that's just indicative of the fact that the market understands that now is a great time to be buying. And so if you know that people are out now looking because interest rates have come to a standstill, prices have dropped. So if you know that people are out there buying, it's also a good time to list. And so it's kind of this nice little cycle, but we are definitely seeing a big change.

Desmond Brown (03:34):

And again, the same problem that we have here in Toronto is our lack of good inventory. That has not gone away. We still need more properties on the market, and we're seeing a lot more multiple offers over the last couple of weeks. Actually, I'm going to be on a couple of offers today, and I know I'm going to be competing on both of them. So it's always good to speak to somebody, you to figure out what's going on out there. And I know during the change you had to actually change your strategies as well as how you stage the property because we would, in most cases ask our clients to leave for a few days, check into an Airbnb or wherever they could leave. So the house could be vacant for showings of course would be staged, but vacant for showings and houses were taking a little bit longer to sell. So you had to change that strategy on how you staged the house while people were living there?

Tamara Grierson (04:30):

Yes. We really accommodated families. And families include pets, children, sometimes multi-generations. And so we made homes look beautiful. We would come in and stage, but we didn't get in their way. And the last thing that I would always say to everybody is, listen, if there's anything here that begins to get in your way, let us know. But we've tried to stage it so that you can continue living your life.

Desmond Brown (05:01):

Yeah. You mentioned pets and I, when one of the pets came up in one of the properties just listened for me, or actually he just staged for me that I had listed and that was Fiona with her tell tell us about Fiona and her cats.

Tamara Grierson (05:16):

First of all, let me just say I love all animals, but in the whole hierarchy, cats are the most problematic because, well, they're home cats, they, they've got claws, they like to cuddle in so they see something new they're going to get on it. And anyways, Fiona and her cats, we really accommodated. We brought in. So number one, when there's cats, I know it sounds funny, but we try and not bring in anything with and feathers because I mean, I've never been inside a cat's mind, but I have to think they sense there's feathers in this pillow. They might think that there's a bird in there too. I have no idea what their sensory sensitivity is. So we just do things like that. But yes, I don't grew up with cats. I don't have cats now, but there's the trees, the little five feet tall multi-tiered complexes for cast to climb up. Anyways, we did everything we did. So it is a different strategy and we do a try to accommodate. It's always best if you've got a loving family member who will adopt Kitty or Fido or whoever, but if not, we can accommodate.

Desmond Brown (06:42):

Yeah, and it worked out really well. We did sell her property and it looked great. But also, I'm talking about cats. It just reminds me of the old days when we had our listings were, we're using all kinds of acronyms and so on. And I remember the D L T C O was put on the listings. And what did that mean? Do not let the cat out.

Tamara Grierson (07:03):

Yes, yes. Do not let the cat out.

Desmond Brown (07:07):

And we put up signs too. Don't let the cat out. Anyway, so let's get into the spring market. Somebody's thinking of getting their property on the market. I mean, spring is in the air, it's time. What are the first things they should do before they get the property listed?

Tamara Grierson (07:21):

Well, I mean, it's certain things that you have to do that regardless of the season. And that's edit clear things out, get rid of the day-to-day junk that just accumulates in all of our lives, that sort of thing. But in particular now with the spring market coming and weather being so unpredictable, we don't know if there's going to be a melt and it's going to be long lasting or if there's going to be no snow, but really focus on curb appeal. So just be mindful of if you're going away and we're still in winter, I mean try and have someone try and arrange for someone to shovel sidewalks, et cetera. If we get a melt, take advantage of it. Make sure your gardens are cleared out. So those are the seasonal things. As spring comes, windows washed, all of those things. Again, it's sort of, it's almost like a foregone conclusion regardless of what season we're going into.

(08:28):

But in particular, because the spring market is typically the market, you really want to have everything working for you. We have a team of contractors, if you want to contact us directly at staging life, we have a team of contractors. We can come in, we can paint if you've got touchups that are needed and you don't need painting, but just touchups, we do that typically around the front doors. Trims needs to be touched up, baseboard, trim we've gone in ahead. We call it property prep. We've swapped out counters. It's amazing what we can do in a short period of time to a home to get it ready for the market. And what I will tell you is the dividends it pays is like multi, oh yeah. Just multiples and multiples. Staging is still the number one thing. It is an ROI exercise. It's not about making your house pretty, it's about putting more cash in your pocket. So

Desmond Brown (09:33):

It really is, and I can attest to what you do and the results that we do receive. And I remember Karen Karen's house out in the west end, and we had the exact same house as Karen's sold just a few months before we put hers on the market. And we ended up getting a hundred thousand dollars more as a result of the staging that you and your team did on Karen's property. And there you go. It

Tamara Grierson (10:03):

Works. It is. And if you'll remember, we showed up and all of her furniture was still there. Do you remember? We had hoped that some of the furniture would leave and all of that old antique furniture was still there. So we actually staged with existing furniture. We tried to edit, we moved things around the house. So that's an extra a hundred thousand with us coming in, working with existing furniture when we're able to come in and make some changes, it it's even, we've had instances where it's above that. And I want to say, because you see on almost every sign sold above asking. So we're not talking a hundred thousand sold above asking. We're talking about a hundred thousand over the

Desmond Brown (10:56):

Calm. The last Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Over the last sold property. And that was fantastic. They're very happy and they moved out to Guelph and they've got their dream property out in Guelph. My podcast continues to grow, and as a result, I have opportunities for you to advertise on my podcast. You'll get great results. I know I have been by just having this podcast coming out every single week. So if you're interested, please get in touch with me at des@desmondbrown.ca. That's my email address. Or give me a call 4 1 6 5 6 8 1 2 4 2. What I think we should talk about right now is your consultation. And I think everything's based around the consultation on the time that you come in, and then all the suggestions that come from that consultation. So why don't you walk us through that and what you do. I call you in and say, okay, this property, we want to get it on the market in three months or whatever. Talk about what you do and when you do go through the house.

Tamara Grierson (12:04):

So when we walk through the home, the first thing we do is we take pictures. Those are sort of our notes. So if coming through your home, this is what you can expect. I'm going to come in and probably spend 30, 40 minutes, maybe more, depending on how much conversation we have if you're in the home afterwards. And we take photos of every room, every angle inside cupboards, et cetera. And then the reason we do that is those are our notes that we go back to our studio, we sit down and we use those ultimately to put a design plan in place. But the very first thing we use those photos for is to put together a staging report. And typically it's maybe a two or three page report bullet point by room that tells you what, as a homeowner, what your tasks are. It's very specific.

(12:59):

So literally you can just check, check, check. And it's things like clear everything off your coffee table except this book that you had, or remove your throw cushions because we're going to bring in throw cushions. And then where there's recommendations for property prep, we will say and our recommendation is whatever, paint the room. Mm-hmm. Swap out the counters, et cetera. And so we give those to the homeowners. We have a conversation with them before we leave, and we just give them a high level view of what to expect and if there's anything we need to discuss, I noticed there's a piano in the living room, what's the appetite on moving that piano or is that something, or someone taking lessons? So there is a lot of conversation so that we make sure that we don't ask the homeowner to do something that's just not realistic but then we send out the report, we follow up with a conversation if they want us to review it. And what we say is these are just our recommendations. So we're not a team of divas that come in and say, oh, this has to leave. It's very conversational.

Desmond Brown (14:16):

Yeah, you're really good that way. It, it's you work with what we have in the houses. Yes. You really do a great job there. And then I find that my sellers don't feel like you said, as intimidated about getting the place ready and about actually losing the warmth of their own home,

Tamara Grierson (14:34):

Because we're always trying to create that emotional connection. We want people to come in and fall in love with your home. And then just personally, we like to have a little bit, I mean call it karma, goodwill, whatever. We like to have a little bit of the homeowner still seen in the home. So we try and embrace the homeowner, and I mean, ultimately at the end of the day, they are the customer. And so I'm all about serving the customer, and if there's something that I want to do that they don't want to do, and I've expressed my reasoning and they still don't want to do it, then I'm not going to do it.

Desmond Brown (15:17):

Yeah, no, and I love that about you too, because I remember in one case well, we've had a few cases like this where the homeowner, the homeowners will say, oh, you know what? You want me to move that couch out? I'm sorry. It's huge. It's up on their second floor. It's a big part of what we do when we're at home, we go and sit or whatever. Yes. And then you just work around that. I think can of Martin and Frank, actually, I think of Martin and Frank, the one that you yes to just, and you're just so accommodating. It makes everybody feel a lot better that way, or they're not feeling pressured of turning their house into this sterile existence.

Tamara Grierson (15:59):

I mean, really at the end of the day, what we're trying to do is we're trying to produce space and light. We're not trying to land on the cover of Architectural Digest. We're trying to sell a home. But

(16:12):

I'll tell you, we've gotten some pretty awesome designs going, and we invest an awful lot in what we bring in. We're buying our inventory is very high end, which is one of the reasons why, what if you want grandma's sati to stay in your living room? I can make Grandma Sati look good, because if you throw <laugh> the right high-end stuff at anything, it's going to lift it. But anyways, it's very much a team sport. I call staging a team sport. It's a little bit of what I do. It's a little bit of what the homeowner does, and it's a little bit of what the realtor does.

Desmond Brown (16:54):

It is. So we, yeah, we do, and we get the report back from you. And I always say to my clients, look at, these are suggestions, they're great suggestions, but if you feel uncomfortable with any of these suggestions, that's fine. We can work around that. And Tamara's really great. That's what you always say to me. She goes, we can make it work.

Tamara Grierson (17:15):

Yeah, we can always make it work, and we can be as turnkey as needed. So some homeowners are so busy, they say to us, listen, I can't do any of this and so can you arrange for movers? I don't have any storage. Can you arrange for storage? And so we can do all of that.

Desmond Brown (17:43):

I love live podcasts with this little stuff coming in the background

Tamara Grierson (17:51):

Anyway, so we can be as turnkey as need be because people are busy, and even if people need help packing things up, we can do it. There's some things that we obviously don't want to pack up valuables. We're not going to pack up your passports where there's some things that we're going to ask you to put away but we can do whatever the homeowner needs us to do. Yeah, I mean, there's always room for that conversation.

Desmond Brown (18:20):

You know, just touched on moving stuff out and storage. And that is huge because when you come into stage and you see a piece of furniture that doesn't necessarily fit into what your vision is for the stage, then you'll suggest that we move it out. And sometimes the homeowner's like, oh gosh, move it out. Where are we? First of all, how am I going to move it out and where am I going to move it to? And you have movers. I have movers, and we've done this often where we've moved the furniture out, but also you have a access to a storage company that gives us great deals. Our first 30 days is free in most cases, and then it goes from there. So talk about that relationship and how great that works.

Tamara Grierson (19:16):

I mean, just we've been in the business long enough that we've been able to build and nurture great relationships in the industry. So we've got relationships with storage facilities and they look after our clients very well. So many of them offer four weeks free. So we put things in, we take them out at the end of four weeks there so that the costs are minimal because there's going to be some cost at some point. There might be a cost to a homeowner, whether it's, well, we're going to, if the whole house needs to be painted and that's not often, but the idea is we try to keep the costs down so we can give four weeks storage for any furniture we can get things moved out. We're very selective again, in what we're requesting goes into storage. So it is easy because it might sound intimidating, it might sound overwhelming. We're in March right now. People might think, oh, I'd like to sell my house. But they're looking around their house and they're thinking, oh my gosh, how am I going to do this? How am I ever going to get the house ready? What I'd like to say to those people is like, you don't need to worry about it. There's some things you need to do, but the things we need to do are the things that you would do if you were having weekend guests stay over. It's just tidying up

Desmond Brown (20:43):

For sure

Tamara Grierson (20:44):

We can do everything else

Desmond Brown (20:45):

But you at the same time we've had circumstances or situations where it's taken six months from the time you've come in and done the consultation to the time we've actually got the property on the market. And people move at different speeds, obviously, right? But for things, it's just comfortable for them.

Tamara Grierson (21:07):

I mean, we've had instances where we're getting a house ready for the market, and then something happens, a big life event happens, and people just say, what change of plans? We need to put this on hold and that's fine. Then when they're ready, I can come back in just to make sure that things haven't changed over the three, six, however many months has passed. And we just pick up where we left off.

Desmond Brown (21:35):

And like I said, what you do is you give suggestions. Yes. And we all sit down, go over all of these suggestions, and if they work for the family, great. And if they don't, then you work around it, which is great. As we do start getting into the spring market here and people are thinking about putting their property on the market just let's go over some of the little things they can do before you even do anything.

Tamara Grierson (22:02):

Well, if you understand the science behind staging, which is when we're PR trying to produce space, I mean, obviously we're not producing space, we're not going in and making rooms bigger. But what you want is you want the eye to travel. And so the eye automatically goes to certain things in a room. If you have, for example, a buffet let's take a dining room, you've got a buffet, a hutch, a console table, something along a wall. Most people do. And what most people do over the course of living in a home is a lot of things end up on that console. And so what we say to people is just clear all the surfaces because we want the eye to sweep over all of these long things or over anything, a coffee table. We don't want the eye to stop at the coffee table to look at all the stuff you have on.

(23:04):

Now, we will put something on the coffee table, but we know how to put something on a coffee table so that it doesn't interrupt the flow. So what we want is we want the eye to go to the furthest reaches of a room, and we don't want it to stop to look at, oh, what is in this little pile? What's in this little pile? So we do say to people, clear off surfaces, clear off tables, clear off your kitchen counters toasters. Kettles obviously need to come out, but find a spot so that after you're done breakfast, you can tuck them away underneath clear off bedside tables. Obviously with the exception of any lamps it's clearing off. If you can clear off all of your hard surfaces all the product, try and figure out instead of, my daughters have, I don't know why, eight different shampoos in their bathtub. You know what, let's just, let's live on the land and maybe just choose two. Let's get rid of the other six. Let's live life dangerously hair wise for a while. And so the sort of things you can do is just clear off the little stuff. The other thing you can look at is, it's funny, the jewelry of a home are doorknobs, light fixtures.

Desmond Brown (24:25):

Those are key.

Tamara Grierson (24:26):

Faucets, even faucets. So a lot of people are still have that shiny brass doorknobs. And it's best if those go, you can go and buy six packs, eight packs. You can probably even buy 12 packs, if not big box store on Amazon, have them shipped to you and switch them all out. Those are so easy and affordable to do. I hesitate in saying, switch out your light fixtures because I would like to tell you what light fixtures

Desmond Brown (24:59):

Do that. No, I know. Yeah, exactly. Because there's some light fixtures that just don't work. I mean, of course, yes, they give you light, but they just don't look great. And we have done that. We, yes. And you've given us suggestions for different light fixtures and so

Tamara Grierson (25:14):

Affordable, so you can get stylish, light fix, just so affordable. So I would say just kind of be prepared but obviously light fixtures that you could go ahead and swap out our hallway light fixtures. If you st have any of those domes any of those really old light fixtures, you can just get rid of those and get the disc flush mounted either rimmed in polished nickel or black, and those are things that you can do in advance. Yeah,

Desmond Brown (25:50):

We did that.

Tamara Grierson (25:50):

If you thought

Desmond Brown (25:51):

With the knobs out in the property we had out in Ajax, that condo in Ajax that you did, and it that really worked. Say getting rid of those brass knobs and just putting in some really knobs like the black ones and so on, they look

Tamara Grierson (26:08):

Fantastic. It's amazing the difference. And any one of these things may be on its own. You might think, well, really, how is that going to sell a house? But it's the accumulative effect of everything. The other thing is if you have wall-to-wall broad loom, it's worth getting it. Just come in and get it shampooed again, these are the things that are so affordable, make a big difference. Some carpets have the rippling, if you have them really, really old and a lot of carpet cleaners can stretch. And if not, you can find people who will stretch. And I don't even want to say relay because it's not an overly cumbersome and complicated process but those are the sorts of things.

Desmond Brown (26:53):

And I'm also going to mention something about the exterior. Yes. That you always do mention. Your best friend is Black Mulch

Tamara Grierson (27:02):

<laugh> Best Friends Black

Desmond Brown (27:03):

Mulch.

Tamara Grierson (27:05):

Yes. Black Mulch is your friend. So yes once the snow is behind us black mulch on garden baths look great. And speaking of sort of outside and curb appeal. Yeah, I

Desmond Brown (27:19):

Was going to talk about that too. The outside space. Outside space now. And to be able to show that for people so they can join it in the spring and summer months.

Tamara Grierson (27:29):

So like house numbers, again, if just really look at the house number that's on your house, there's a good chance it's probably dated because it's something we just don't think about. So those are things that make a big difference in terms of curb appeal and also what all of these things say silently. The silent message that it says is We current, keep our home updated. We are the homeowners that don't like things going too long before we change them. And so it's this silent message that sort of permeates about and gets absorbed by the buyer when they come in and it's like, oh, okay. Well, these are people that update and change things. I mean, I walked into a home once, it was an empty house before we staged it. It was an investment property. So the owner never lived there. He was an investor.

(28:31):

And because he was selling it, and he was like a contractor, he removed every light plate in the house. Every single switch when I walked in didn't have a light plate. It was just a switch. And then you saw the silver box that was built in. And so I said to the realtor, you need to tell this homeowner, this investor, he needs to go out and buy brand new light switches and put them on. Because what that says, the buyer doesn't care so much about, oh my gosh, this is going to cost me 50 bucks. But what it says is, if this person is so cheap, neglect that they've removed their light plates, what else have they not done? Yeah, exactly. And so those are the sort of silent messages that get sent out by these little things in a home.

Desmond Brown (29:23):

So there you go. Those are all the things that you can do before Tamara comes in. And I love your philosophy, you with your science and psychology of art, of staging art. Yeah. It's an art for you. And it works. It really does work. Oh, Tamara, thank you so much for joining me again on Soul. You're welcome. Six, and I think we're going to have a great spring market. And anybody out there thinking of selling, of course, call me, but do what Tamara says, or I'll bring Tamara in and she'll tell you what to do. <laugh>

Tamara Grierson (29:57):

Gently. Yes.

Desmond Brown (29:58):

Yes, gently.

Tamara Grierson (29:59):

Great. Thanks Desmond so much.

Desmond Brown (30:01):

Oh, it's always so great to have you on the podcast. Thank you, Tamara.

(30:08):

And that's our latest episode of Sold in The 6ix. So as Tamara says, there are a lot of things that you can do before we bring Tamara in. We'll tell you what to do. Anyway, I want to thank my producer, Doug Downs of Stories and Strategies for this podcast. And if you like the podcast, please subscribe, leave a rating and a review and send it on to a friend. I know they'll love it too. If you need to get in touch with me, you can email me at des@desdesmondbrown.ca and follow me on all of the social media platforms. My handle is Des in the 6ix, and it's six spelled number six ix. Until next time, I'm Desmond Brown.