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this is Bay radio International I'm Cal
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southernland with our new feature where
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we look a little bit more in depth into
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the property Market here in Spain along
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with our partners at Villa Lu myself and
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Ry take a look at the latest stories
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around selling buying and owning and
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renting property in Spain so whether
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you're thinking about moving here have
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just moved or lived here for longer our
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new regular program is for you uh Ry a
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little bit of a difference to our usual
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setup this week yeah we do have a little
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bit of difference actually very excited
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because um yeah we are joined by our
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guess it's Mara Mara from the staging
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lab and she's going to give us a lot of
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information today about home staging and
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the benefits of it um so yeah I'm very
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happy to to have her on here so Mara can
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you start with just telling a little bit
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about um yeah what what brought you into
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home staging um yeah after um a few
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years that uh trying to think about what
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I can I could do and not do then um my
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interest for the real estate was
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actually growing and growing um and I
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always moved in different places so I
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always was on the alista and I always
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found out that some of the properties
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could be a little bit better presented
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and marketed um so yeah um a few years
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ago I found out about
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homaging and well that was actually what
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brought me into do homestaging as a
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professional because um it allows me to
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explore my creativity and still work in
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the sector that I love the most which is
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the real estate so your background was
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in rentals and real estate that sort of
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thing yeah yeah yeah yeah I worked in a
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few uh agencies real estate agencies um
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and then I also worked in Hospitality
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hotels um rental so you're always paying
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attention to the presentation of the
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properties right so the staging lab is
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your company tell us specifically what
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is home staging for those who might not
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have heard about it well I'd like to
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explain it this way um home staging is
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actually not going to Ikea and buy two
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pillows placing placing them in the sofa
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and then just say that you home stage it
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uh let alone is also not placing these
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pillows and um marketing a property
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which is overpriced and also expecting
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that it will be sold with very little
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investment and effort okay um so uh yeah
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home staging was created 40 years ago by
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Barbara Swartz uh in the United States
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and um well yeah the main uh purpose of
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uh home staging is to polish the
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potential of the properties and um yeah
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to offer a good experience to the
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potential clients and buyers uh either
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if they're willing to buy or rent out
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for Airbnb I think the environment that
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uh they want to be uh needs to be
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positive and well taken care of and
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that's what home staging does yeah cuz
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sometimes I mean obviously like as an
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estate agent we get into to a lot of
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houses and especially with Buyers it's
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sometimes you got buyers that can
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actually see through these things and
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they can Envision themselves in that
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home anyway depending on how it's
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decorated but there's also a big big
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bunch of clients that are not really
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able to do that and once they walk into
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a house it's actually a very good house
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but just a decoration is not exactly how
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they like it or how they would do it
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they could get thrown off which is it's
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a shame yeah it's a shame yeah um so
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also with for example the empty
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properties um because yeah some people
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they cannot imagine the empty spaces
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what could they put in there right and
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uh I've also worked in other agencies
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and uh we've lost clients because uh the
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place was empty it it had a big
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potential but it could not show what
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actually could be done in there right so
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the clients chose to buy something
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different which they could imagine more
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or it was already furnished and
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decorated yeah quite often we've seen
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sort of like orange curtains and uh and
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different green sofas and all of that
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sort I'm getting an idea now of of of of
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what you're you're talking about but
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it's it's not just this it not just what
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you can see not from the just the colors
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but it's also about maybe removing some
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furniture and putting things in the
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right places yeah exactly um well uh it
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can go to either decluttering cleaning
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reorganizing strategically um well yeah
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there's a wide range of things and steps
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that need to be done in order to hom
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stage a property properly it's got to be
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about that getting people through the
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door in the first place because if they
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just see it on a website and they
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automatically think no you're not even
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getting the chance to try and sell or
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rent this property are you yeah yeah I
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mean how many times have you seen on
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either alista or photo or whatever um
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I'm not going there no way I'm going to
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that property right yeah yeah and it's
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even hard to capture it all in photos so
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like the photos that you are able to
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make and so they just have to look good
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because you need to have these people
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people you do a lot of videos Ry don't
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you so I guess this is something you
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have to do before you even start to do
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that I mean yeah sometimes it does
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happen that we go to certain properties
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I mean obviously we're not home stagers
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um of course it's a service that we
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could could offer as well for example
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working together with Mara but um yeah
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it does happen that we go somewhere and
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we have to take things out of the way
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just make sure that this specific thing
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doesn't show up in the video but that's
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that's normal I feel like you know just
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it's just part of the job things you got
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to do yeah Mara how can hom stage help
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people interested in selling or renting
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out their property well um as uh this
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can be a very wide uh solution or a
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service let's say um home stagey can
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help either investors that just bought a
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property and they want to rent it out
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for Airbnb or also state agencies that
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yeah they want to Market better uh their
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their properties that they have listed
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um or even the owners which are willing
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to sell privately um it it can also help
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them there right because um well yeah
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you're basically just paying attention
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to all the good points that the property
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has and everything that you can do to in
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order to make it better and improve it
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so um yeah I think that can that can be
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helpful for almost everyone in the in
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this real estate sector actually you
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have a key phrase about home staging
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don't you uh yeah yeah I do I like to
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say this because um after a sale or
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after someone decides to to sell the
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place is always a reason behind it's
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either they want to sell and get some
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money to buy a smaller property because
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they got older or they are divorced this
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happens a lot and they want to get rid
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of it so then they can move on to the
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next stage of life um so I like to call
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it that home staging is actually the key
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to your next stage in your life right um
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because it will allow you quicker to
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from the next if you can get if you can
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get the everything set up and the decor
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and all of the everything right within
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the property more chance of being able
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to get it sorted out absolutely yeah and
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a lot of times of course like when when
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people are wanting to buy a property
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want to rent it out they think about
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return investment that's especially for
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invest of people that just want to so I
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mean that's just really important um how
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does home staging affect that um well
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for example um speaking about the
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investment ments and the rentals um well
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we have had projects where when we were
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finished and took a very nice photo
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shoot and everything was properly done
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in there uh we could increase the price
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20 or 30% per night wow wow that's quite
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a bit actually yeah um but some people
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they don't realize what they have and
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this is something that I like to educate
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my clients because uh as Romy was saying
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before um some people feel attacked when
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we are talking about the properties but
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we are not attacking we are just trying
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to help maximize the potential exactly
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so I like to to tell them that we are
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here to help you and your property uh in
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order to be more expensive so they can
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get more money I think that's very
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important as well because often exactly
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what you're saying when you give advice
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on whether to take something down or to
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put something else in it's not because
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we we personally think that you know we
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don't like that but it's because we know
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out of experience that it would just be
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better it would sell quicker if it's be
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done like this and that just just
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depersonalize it and yeah and that's I
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think a big part of it people to
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understand that and really think about
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what it it will give them back and yeah
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you you've had some examples haven't you
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where properties have been perhaps on
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the market for rent or sale for quite a
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while without anybody taking it up and
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you managed to turn that around within
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the space of a week yes exactly and this
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was actually uh a couple from Jaa and
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they were divorced so they wanted to
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move on uh with their lives and but yeah
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they had a property in common which was
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not sold for over a year uh it had very
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little um visits and no one was really
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showing interest because yeah the
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property was quite sad regarding
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pictures and the state of the property
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no um but yeah then I went there and it
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took me two weeks of a lot of work but
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we really succeeded because yeah after a
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week that putting it in the market it
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was sold that's amazing that's good yeah
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really good and of course while people
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still have these properties they are
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still paying aren't they for things like
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iby water all of these different if you
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count all of these costs even uh
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Insurance of the house and water eeve
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the trash tax and all of this uh if you
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mix it up all this together and then you
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add it up through the
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years of course they're worth it's the
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investment is worth so and certainly
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probably you could you could save a lot
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of that money by getting a company in
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like the staging lab to try and get that
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sale or rentals moved on sure yeah but
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we also always say and that that's
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something for in this case for sellers
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to take into consideration you got this
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momentum just when the property lands on
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the market for the first time and that's
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when everything shows up first page on
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idealista we're just talking about it
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you know when it's being pushed out as
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much as possible on on Instagram
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Facebook all the social media networks
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just just everything and it's so
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important to have the property ready to
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go at that moment because once it's on
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the market for a month month month is
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fine but like a few months and longer
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and longer it just it just goes still
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and and it's hard at that moment to then
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turn it around make the changes because
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you only realize it as at that moment
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and you almost got to remarket it again
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and it's really yet it's really
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important to just to just get an action
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quick at moment you want to start
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selling it the ideal thing would be to
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launch a property with h staging already
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do not wait a few months until oh it's
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not getting sold let let's do home
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staging now to save it no to save the
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property from from are are there cases
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where home staging doesn't work um well
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there are some of them um but yeah it's
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quite interesting question um the home
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staging would definitely not work if um
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you try to sell the property uh with an
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with overpriced right when it's
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overpriced um it will also not work when
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uh you as an owner um try to interfere a
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lot in what to do and what not in the
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property because yeah in the end we are
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a team we here to you're the experts
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yeah and we here to make the most of it
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so we are very happy that you have a
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nice children and everything but the the
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potential clients are not interested in
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that unfortunately but they are not so
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all the pictures and all of this uh oh I
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see what you mean like so maybe Romey
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was talking before we came on air about
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the fact that sometimes you know you get
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rentals where people have left their
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family photographs up and that's not
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quite what actually helps you rent your
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property it's a nice it's a nice photo
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sometimes but not everybody wants to see
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that once they walk into a rentor home
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yeah yeah and uh the last thing I would
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say that will make uh home staging not
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after the process after it's on the mar
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uh listed on any uh website um for
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example the agent also has a big job in
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welcoming the client connecting with the
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client giving proper information about
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the property of course you can have
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First Love First I they fall in love
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with it straight away that's what I
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meant yeah um it can happen but it's not
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usual it's it's a work of all of us to
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make a sale successful from homaging
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from until the real estate agent yeah
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it's it's a team effort isn't it Ry I
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guess yeah it is it's like what
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everything isn't it you kind of got the
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communicate and you need to know what to
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do when to do it but yeah oh sure yeah
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so Mara what would you recommend to
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anybody thinking about selling or
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renting I would recommend to find help
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um selling and rent renting a property
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is not just that it's way more and there
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is a lot more going on behind it um I
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also say listen to the person who is
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trying to help you and be open-minded
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because in the end we are here um yeah
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to offer help to give you the best
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experience as a buyer and to offer the
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best experience to the seller as well so
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they are comfortable working with a
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professional um so yeah I'm often
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telling my clients that we are a team
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and we we are going to work together in
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order to Stage the property the best way
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we can but also to Market later on the
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property we will also be there to assist
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if it's possible um so yeah that's what
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I would say just try to be open-minded
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and listen to the professionals I think
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that's some really yeah really good
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advice it's kind of what we were saying
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for of course people just have to be
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openminded because it's it is so
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valuable and it's something as you was
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saying like it's very big in the US
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already I think every agent there that
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goes to list the house they get a home
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Stager in and they will do that pre-work
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basically um and and it's something that
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you know will'll probably I think come
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up here more and more often as well
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because it just can add a lot of value
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and the way the market is here right now
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as well you know and things are the
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prices have increased the clientele are
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more wealthy even as well and and they
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will expect that sort of service now
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they would yeah yeah yeah it's all
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getting a bit more it's great I've
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learned a lot today actually an area
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that I wasn't really sure about but
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you've explained it brilliantly Mara and
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um and I wish you in the staging lab all
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the best how can people get in touch uh
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well they can find me on Instagram at uh
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at the. staging dolab or well they can
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also contact me and I have a chat no
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4723 they can either call me or send me
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a WhatsApp and I would be happy to have
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just a informal chat with them and get
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to know them a bit better it's been
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great to talk to you today thank you
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very much for enlightening us thank you