Lori Howard of Hope Designs Featured in Toronto Life
October 28, 2016Home staging is all about creating a lifestyle to appeal to buyers. It’s about maximizing the appeal of a home to attract as many buyers as possible, inevitably allowing sellers to command more money for their home, and sell in a much shorter time frame.
Just ask Lori Howard of Hope Designs. For years, this award-winning professional Toronto home stager has been assisting homeowners all over the GTA to achieve these exact goals, and she’s been incredibly successful at that. So much so, that she has been recognized by the likes of Houzz and other online platforms, as well as television sources including CTV and HGTV.
Hope Designs – Sought After By Toronto Life
Lori has been heavily sought after as a result of her amazing abilities to transform homes to appeal to the masses of buyers, and her track record speaks for itself.
318 Montrose Avenue. Photos courtesy of Luisa Piccirilli, Re/Max West Realty Inc., Brokerage
The professional Toronto home stager, who has grown her interior decor and home staging Hope Designs business from the ground up, was recently interviewed for a spot in the highly coveted and respected magazine Toronto Life. In the featured article, Lori reveals some of her secrets about how she and her team at Hope Designs managed to transform a kid-centred home in Little Italy into an adult’s haven.
It was no simple feat. The home, which is located on 318 Montrose Avenue in Toronto, is in a neighbourhood with a majority of adult buyers looking for a home. Making huge changes was on the table to convert this child-friendly home into one that would effectively attract the majority of homebuyers that weren’t necessarily looking to move into a playroom.
The first task on Lori’s list was to immediately brighten the space up with a new coat of paint and a change in all the light fixtures. Certain rooms were reclaimed back into adult-centered rooms after being predominantly used for the sellers’ child.
318 Montrose Avenue. Photos courtesy of Luisa Piccirilli, Re/Max West Realty Inc., Brokerage
Furniture was rearranged and added, many large and unnecessary pieces were removed, and key accessories were included to maximize the function, flow, and look of every room in the home. Many pieces were kept but simply reused in more effective and attractive ways.
Luckily, the sellers were on board with all of these changes. They were able to understand that these cosmetic changes had nothing to do with their specific tastes, but rather it all had to do with creating a space that most buyers in the area would expect to see in a home.
The changes were so incredible that the sellers themselves didn’t even recognize their own interior after Lori worked her magic. The end result was as close to perfect as possible.
The home staging projects was a massive success. After originally being listed for $1,088,000, the home quickly sold for a whopping $1,308,000 – $220,000 more than it was listed for!
Professional Home Staging – Helping Sellers Get Top Dollar For Their Homes
Having the ability to take advantage of major media platforms like Toronto Life gives Lori the ability to have a voice in the community and share her expertise. The article featured in Toronto Life is just one example of many that show that home staging – when done right and by the right professionals – can certainly work wonders for the selling process. Being able to sell in a short amount of time and for a maximum dollar figure is precisely what sellers want.
With home staging experts like Lori Howard from Hope Designs on their side, sellers can expect nothing less.