Interview : Refine Interiors

Interview with Robbie Shaw of Refine Property

For the uninitiated please explain the concept and advantages of appointing a home staging expert? Homestaging professionals will use their experience and knowledge to prepare your property in the strongest possibly way to get the best sale price achievable when going to market. The best price is achieved by attracting a lot of potential buyers to your home to either achieve the asking price quickly or exceed that asking price! A home stager will balance your spend vs potential return to ensure you get the most from your investment. Statistics show a well prepared and staged home sells faster and for more than its vacant or cluttered neighbours. How did you come to establish your company? Refine property was established during a time I was in property development. I found my unfunished property wasn’t attracting any buyers and decided to look at other options rather than drop the price. I found home staging as an option but couldn’t find a furniture rental service in Bristol so, I started one. We’ve been trading for 4 years now and on average stage 2 homes per week. At any one time we have over 20 homes staged and currently have a huge stock of furniture so we can move very quickly. Can you give us an example of one of your success stories? We had a vendor come to us through a potential agent switch. After a lovely 3 bed property on College Green hadn’t received any offers in 4 months and 2 price drops they were looking for a change. The new agent suggested they came to us and underwent a full stage along with painting in one room. A total spend of around £4K. The property then went back to market at the same asking price (of which the previous agent had suggested another £20k price drop). It sold in 1 week and went to sealed bids. Ending up £12k over the asking price of which the previous agent suggested to drop. The £4K investment had returned them well over £20k Do you offer traditional interior design services for buyers and renovators? We don’t offer traditional interior design but we offer furniture package for private owners, HMO’s, air b&b and for landlords. What’s your process from getting that initial phone enquiry from a new customer? If a vendor is interested and wants a ballpark figure this can be done via email or telephone call. If the ballpark is acceptable we would do a property visit (with or without client) produce a formal proposal with all figures and CGI’s of potential dressing of the property. If this is accepted we send out or terms which need signing returned with 10% deposit and then a date is booked in for staging.