2. ON SITE VISIT & DRAFTING THE PROPOSAL
When a client calls, whether potential or repeat clients, I generally have a brief conversations with him/her to get a sense of the scope of the project. This is also a pre-screening process to see if we would be a good fit with their project.
Once the initial phone conversation has happened, Anita schedules / confirms an on site visit with the clients. On site visit is crucial because it gives us a great idea on what the neighborhood is like, who the target buyers may be and what finishes and color schemes we will use for staging.
This process can also get time-consuming on the back end, even though it may only look like the two of us had spent 15-30 minutes on site writing notes & taking photos for planning purposes. This is also why we had decided to start billing for on-site visits, because typically with bay area traffic, it takes about an hour or more to get to the site and back, not to mention we usually meet for another 15-30 minutes to discuss design plan for the property. So overall, drafting a proposal can take 2-3 hours.
3. IN STUDIO: DESIGN & PREP
Before we prep, me and Yi Hsuen sit down together again and go through our notes & photos we took during our site visit. We would go through the photos room by room and double checking the proposal to see what we would need to pull to work with the home's existing colors, finishes and architecture details. We print out our prep list and off we go.
Much like our actual staging process, we work from big to small. We normally pick the largest pieces first, like sofa, coffee table, rug, accent chairs, etc. and work our way down. Pulling and packing accessories take the most time.
Usually, our prep process takes 4-6 hours with both of us working. I'd pull accessories, decorative items, floral and Yi Hsuen pulls lighting, artwork and writing up the locations of the big pieces that are going to get packed first. (This is why we asked clients for at least a 3-day notice before scheduling the installation date, because we need to schedule time in for prep.)
4. STAGING DAY!
Our movers arrive at 8am, but me & Yi Hsuen generally shows up at 7am to make sure we have everything ready before the job. Typically, load out takes about 1-1.5 hours, depending on the size of the job. Plus bay area traffic, we generally arrive on site between 10-11am. Once we arrive at the house, it's a flurry of activities.
Our movers have been with us for a long time now and they know roughly where we want to drop furniture. They also know that they will need to assemble the beds, furniture and move all the bins to the kitchen. Once bins are out, I start unpacking everything, so we can visually shop decor pieces and accessories to style each room. Like the way we pull, we drop the big pieces first.
Once furniture plan is set, we start making beds, steaming linens. Generally when I style, Yi Hsuen starts placing and installing artwork. Depending whichever of us finishes earlier than the other, we start packing up for the day.
Before we leave, we do an once over, to make sure every corner is covered and we are happy with the overall staging. More importantly, the home looks ready to photograph.
5. MARKETING
I'll be the first to admit that we are usually not as diligent as we should be on this. :/ But I normally try to whip out some sort of blog posts or at least
instagram about it (at some point.). Social media is fairly important nowadays, since we actually see an increase in web traffic and sometimes even lead to other projects when we share our work.
6. WRAP & PACK
