Archive for July, 2009
Home staging is sometimes known as home fluffing or home primping. The goal of home staging is to make a house look better so that it sells for the highest price in the shortest amount of time possible. Home staging has also become a very lucrative occupation for people with an eye for design and good organizational skills. If you are considering starting your own home staging career, or if you would simply like to stage your own home before putting it up for sale, here are five tips you should follow:
1. Consider first the curb appeal. 
This refers to how the front of your house appeals to the tastes of the potential buyer the minute he parks his car in front of your house and looks up at it. At the very least, your lawn should be mowed every now and then for as long as the house is still for sale. Rake out all the leaves and do some hard-core shovelling during the winter. Make sure that trash bins are put away, clean your porch and give the paint a touch-up if needed.
2. De-clutter, de-clutter, de-clutter.
Do this in a single area at a time. Start with the living room, moving on to the kitchen, the bedrooms, and the other rooms in the house. You don’t have to throw the stuff away; you can put it in storage until you move out or simply give it away to charity. Once you have gotten rid of all the clutter, you’ll find that it is easier to breathe and move around the house. Plus de-cluttering helps to de-personalize your house, which makes potential buyers able to imagine themselves better in the space.
3. Repair everything that needs it.
If you have not yet found the time to call the plumber to fix up the little leak in the kitchen sink, then now is the time for him to come over. Anything that does not work well, including door handles that fall off, cupboards that will not close properly, and the toilet that clogs occasionally, will surely bother any potential buyer who walks through your door. Find someone, a friend, a family member, or a partner, who can fix these things for you to reduce your costs of repair.
4. Allow for some light and air.
Opening the windows is the best and least expensive way to do this. A bright and airy room is certainly more appealing than one that smells like food odors or smoke. Consider also the color of the rooms. Rooms painted with darker shades are naturally dimmer than rooms with bright colors, such as yellow, white, and cream. You may want to consider re-painting and investing in some new lighting.
5. Clean everything.
Hire a professional cleaning service and have everything deep-cleaned to the core. Carpets and couches must be removed of all stains and must smell clean and fresh. Appliances must be sparkling and all counter tops, table tops, and sinks must clean and shiny.
We have several balance sheet accounts. We have assets, cash, receivables – rent that’s not been paid but is due – supplies, pre-paid rent, the value of your building less accumulated depreciation, and then you have equipment. There are some other accounts that in theory you could put in here, but it’s really not required.
Liability Accounts
Then we have what are called liability accounts. These are your accounts payable. These include salaries payable, taxes payable – real estate or even income taxes. If you have a mortgage on your property, mortgage payments, you would set it up as a liability.
Equity
The third compartment of all balance sheets is your equity. Your owner’s equity and the amount maybe you’ve taken out of your business.
These are a basic, fundamental set of chart of accounts that you can take and can incorporate into your balance sheet. Things like Quicken and most of these software packages will have these chart of accounts pre-populated. You don’t even have to worry about it.
A lot of times they have too much. You can start to delete some of them out, because it gets kind of confusing. In particular if you only have a few properties you want to keep it relatively simple.
Statement Accounts
The next are the income statement accounts. We talk about revenue accounts. These are obviously rent. There are late fees, application fees, and potentially interest. If you have a security deposit, then there might be some interest there, and then other. There are potentially other ways that you can earn. You might do some assignment fees and things like that. Those are our basic set of revenue accounts for most landlords to be sufficient.
On the expense side, this is the basic set that we use. There are administrative fees, bank fees, supply expenses, salary expenses, payroll taxes and fees, and things of that nature. Taxes – if you have unemployment or worker’s comp you have to file those taxes. There are rent expenses. Maintenance and repairs are going to be a big one for your buildings. If you have a property manager you would have a management fee.
Insurance
Insurance is definitely another big one. You would obviously have insurance or interest expense. You’re going to have marketing costs. You’re going to have an office, so there are office supplies, equipment, computers, a fax, and things like that. These are all expenses.