F ROM A STAGECOACH TO... HOME STAGING COACH

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1 Kathy Burke your market, knowknowyour clients ~ both homeowners and realtors ~ and know how to run your business. ~ Kathy Creating Style & Sophistication F ROM A STAGECOACH TO... HOME STAGING COACH Finding herself in a new stage of life, Kathy Burke moved from a highly successful career with Wells Fargo Bank to running her own thriving business, Sensational Home Staging. After supporting the stagecoach for three decades and working her way up from clerk to Senior Vice President and Division Manager, Kathy decided to retire early from the financial world and use her business experience to become a real estate investor and entrepreneur. Although she s always been extremely interested in home design, using her eye for decorating to help friends and relatives, her fascination with staging started through the back door, as she partnered with a friend to buy and sell residential properties. Touring homes as a prospective buyer as well as updating properties to sell, she quickly learned the enormous difference that quality staging made. She also saw a chance to use her creative design skills that her previous career hadn t made use of, while bringing her strong business sense and customer service background to a new professional arena. A CALIFORNIA MISSION STATEMENT I still follow the Wells Fargo motto of We Deliver in my staging business. It s all about the client! Do what you say you re going to do when you say you re going to do it -- and do it right the first time! ~ Kathy Created in 2005, Sensational Home Staging turned a profit in its very first year, and has continued to thrive. So what are Kathy s secrets to running a successful business in both good times and lean ones? She believes that it s essential to keep adapting, something she learned while working through an era in which banking changed from a very regulated and staid operation into a highly competitive and consumer-driven business in which adapting to shifting market conditions was essential for survival, much less profitability. Accessorizing With Color I ve learned a lot since starting my business, and changed my approach. Initially I had acquired all of the staging inventory including furniture, but I realized that I did not want or need to be in the furniture business! I now rent all furniture, lamps, and area rugs and have it delivered and set up by professionals. I have found a wonderful, locally owned business that specializes in renting such items only to stagers. It is a perfect marriage, as it allows me to support local businesses and share the wealth of their wide variety of inventory with my staging clients.

2 Chic, Elegant & Contemporary Styling Many love the results so much that they say, why didn t I do this years ago, so I could have enjoyed, my home more? ~ Kathy A Kitchen Transformed... For Today C REATIVE DESIGN IS GOOD; CREATIVE FINANCES ARE NOT While she loves the creative side of home staging because she can use her eye for appealing design and presentation, she always keeps her other eye on the bottom line. Her experience in controlling expenses for a huge corporation has translated well to her smaller enterprise. I always track my bottom line results, which is why I ve been profitable from the start and stayed that way. I watch the ROI for all aspects of my business, such as acquiring inventory, renting storage space, advertising and charging for my expertise and time. I don t just feel my way through it, but take a hard look at what s working and what s not. D ELIVERING FOR THE CUSTOMER, EVERY TIME One thing her staging business gives her that her corporate career didn t is direct contact with customers. I love working with clients on their staging projects, for many reasons, Kathy says. Having done this for several years now, I know that I can help them sell their home in record time and for top dollar in the current market. From the first walk through of their home, I quickly have a vision of how to accomplish that goal. Then comes the challenge of pulling it all together choices of furniture, accessories and art and at times picking paint colors, flooring options, and other finishes to make that vision come into being. And I have to do it all within a budget and on time! My years managing to the corporate bottom line help me out with that, too. I love to shop, so picking out the elements I ve envisioned is a bit of guilt-free fun even if it s sometimes tricky. Finally, the best part is having satisfied clients who acknowledge the impact that I had on their home sale. Many love the results so much that they say, Why didn t I do this years ago, so I could have enjoyed my home more? P ARTNERING Kathy is such an intricate part of my marketing success plan! She is more than a stager she is a consultant that I depend on for evaluation of all listings. Kathy works well with my clients and turns out a fabulous product for me to market. Thanks Kathy, for always being a partner in success! ~ Mary Anne LaHaye, Empire Realty, Walnut Creek Another bonus of Kathy s background is her exposure to marketing consumer loan products, which she s been able to translate into marketing her own staging services. She knows that having something good to sell isn t enough if customers can t find you, and has developed a website and blog: Agents and their referrals are key to repeat business. Keeping agents happy with her services means partnering with them to create a triple-win situation in which homes sell quickly and for the best price, leading to satisfied sellers and referrals for both Kathy and the agent. I have a lot of great real estate agents who I work with over and over, and since I m a sole proprietor, I look on them almost as co-workers. Certainly they are the most valuable people in my business network, and I m happy to partner with them. I am more impressed with your work each time we work together. I love your ability to make every home show beautifully. Even my skeptical clients have valued your expertise and been amazed at the transformation. ~ Amy Psomas, Partner, Empire Realty, Danville

3 M AKING A VISION COME TO LIFE Kathy quickly learned that there is no one size fits all approach to staging. She offers services ranging from: Walk-through consultation Accessorizing and supplementing Complete home staging Redesign Pictures are worth a thousand words, so I use my large portfolio of before and after pictures of homes I ve staged and transformed. And after I ve staged their home, they re always amazed at how much larger it looks than when it was vacant! It s all about proper utilization of space, furniture and décor at the scale that each room requires. For both sellers and buyers, seeing is truly believing. Redesigning A Guest Room Getting a house ready to market can involve a lot of people - painters, carpenters, contractors, landscapers - to name a few. Kathy understands the process, works well with everyone and gets the job done! My clients are always amazed!! ~ Frank Salmen, Alain Pinel, Orinda From Vacant To Fabulous T WO DISTINCT APPROACHES... VACANT OR OCCUPIED Vacant homes are a blank canvas Kathy can easily transform to match her vision, though sellers often have to be persuaded to take advantage of that opportunity. I love talking with sellers who start out feeling that they may want to list their home vacant since they think it will look larger and will allow potential buyers to envision how to use the space. As all stagers know, vacant spaces actually appear smaller and buyers generally cannot envision furniture layouts or room utilization without the help that good staging provides. My first job in these cases is to sell the seller that vacant homes don t do well in the current market. Occupied home staging is a special challenge that Kathy finds rewarding. In today s real estate market, many sellers need to live in their house while it s on the market. I need to work around the day to day needs of the seller as well as accommodate much of their furniture. I always start by talking through how to best present their home and what potentially difficult adjustments that may entail for them. Kathy always stays true to her mission, which is to help sell the home for the best price possible, as quickly as possible. Knowing this may mean packing away some of the sellers beloved belongings. I need to see how to utilize their furniture and décor, what to take away and replace with rental items, and what can be left. I always add art and other accessories to showcase the home. And I have to do all this without offending the customer when it comes to their existing décor! arenothetwosame,stagings and that s what keeps it interesting. ~ Kathy Amazing Transformations... That SELL! I know this can be stressful and difficult for the seller. I always work with them to try to minimize that stress while still maximizing their sales price and minimizing time on market.

4 A DDING REDESIGN Kathy has recently branched out into after-sale work, as many sellers are so happy with her staging that they ask for her help in designing their new home. I love doing this! It s very rewarding to know that the client was so happy with the initial staging that they want that same look and feel in their new home. I have clients who have referred me on to friends and family to assist them with re-design projects. This is an aspect of my business that I look to grow and enhance! Due in large part to Kathy s expertise in staging, my home sold in just 4 days... with multiple offers! I was so impressed with her decorating abilities and style sense that I m working with her to decorate my new home! Kathy is right on the mark in determining the optimal furnishings and accessories to best showcase a home. She incorporates both style and function in her design while being conscious of my preferences and budget. ~Kim Tower, Danville G IVING BACK CLOSE TO HOME AND BEYOND While running Sensational Home Staging, Kathy has reached out to quality local service providers for goods and services that she needs, in order to help her community s economic wellbeing. I try to use local businesses as much as I can in order to help other entrepreneurs like myself, and to keep the money in our community. Staying close to home has other benefits -- she finds local providers are more service-oriented and reliable. It s important to have a team that you can rely on time and time again to provide quality service for your clients. In addition, since joining Active Rain in 2008, she s been able to reach out to home stagers across the United States and Canada to provide feedback, guidance and suggestions. As I ve created this new stage of my life, I ve gotten a lot of guidance and help from other stagers, real estate professionals and small business owners. I enjoy paying forward that help whenever I can by sharing my experience with anyone who s interested. I hope I can help the entire staging industry move forward to an even higher level of professional acknowledgement as well as financial success. E XCEEDING EXPECTATIONS While Kathy enjoys the financial success that her business has had, and relishes the opportunity it provides to be creative, in the end, it s the reactions of the homeowners she helps that is her greatest reward, summed by a statement she s heard many times: Maybe I don t want to move now that my home looks like this! Her approach to her profession is always centered on an awareness of how sensitive the work is. While some may see staging as being all about furniture and artwork, Kathy knows that it s about something much deeper and more important. Working in someone s home is a very personal process and therefore one that I value. My clients are letting me into their home and trusting me with a very important transition in their lives, one that can have great financial consequences for them. I want them to be very pleased with the results. My goal is to exceed their expectations each and every time!

5 P HOTO GALLERY Sensational Home Staging Creates Environments that are Chic, Contemporary & Appeal to Today s Buyer ~ Let s Make It Sensational! ~