SITES THAT MAY BE NEW TO YOU OR THOSE YOU MAY HAVE FORGOTTEN ABOUT

Well, most of us can’t forget HGTV because it is one, if the not THE station for home and garden topics. But don’t forget to also check out over stations, such as TCL, Discovery, Bravo, and even major network stations like ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX for shows on these topics. I mostly cover HGTV because it is one that most people get, even with basic cable, and it does appear to be the most popular among my readers. 

HGTV has recently come out with a few new resources and I’ve also discovered sister sites that I really didn’t utilize that much, but I find are extremely useful. I'm sure many of you know how that goes. When you need something, you just go to the place you’re used to visiting, just out of ease and habit. Therefore, I thought I’d just point out a few features that you may or may not have noticed before.

• HGTV I just thought I’d share some of the major partner sites that cover various home and garden topics. You’re sure to find lots of helpful information here when staging your home.
  • HGTV Remodels
    This site provides great information if you need to do upgrades or improvements when staging your home. Also, use it when you are looking for a home to determine if homes need major structural work or just some cosmetic updates.
  • HGTV Gardens
    You always want to make sure you stage the exterior of your home. You can find ideas here for creating an inviting yard, as well as ways to bring some of the outdoors inside by using plants indoors.
  • HGTV’s Front Door
    This is HGTV’s real estate site. You’ll find all the information you need about all aspects of real estate, from selling to buying, and even detailed information on topics like first-time buyers. When selling a home, first-time buyers may be your target buyers so you’ll want to learn all about their wants and needs and how they shop for a home. You can find information on FSBOs, hiring agents, questions to ask Realtors and other professionals, and much more.
  • DIY Network
    This channel has been around awhile but it is not part of most basic cable packages. In fact, I have the second level package with my cable company and it isn’t included. However, you can still get all the information you need at this site. Again, this is another one that’s great for helping you complete those routine maintenance tasks or upgrades you need to do when staging.
  • HGTV Products
    This is a great site if you struggle with pulling a room together. You can pick paints or products and get information about other products and paints that will work with your selection. It’s called HGTV KNOW HOW! You’ll find products created by the professional designers, as well as those from other popular, trusted brands like Bassett Furniture, Shaw Floors, and Sherwin-Williams.
  • HGTV Magazine since I did a review of this magazine in my prior blog, I’ll let you head there to read more about this resource.
• Zillow
  While many people have heard of Zillow, they seem to be expanding their range of offerings and are offering more and more features. I like Zillow for lots of reasons. However, be careful when looking at what they refer to as the Zestimate. It is often inaccurate. When you get to the final stage of pricing your home, either get a CMA from a real estate agent, or do one yourself. You can use Zillow, but use data of closed sales and possibly some from current listings. Do not just automatically use the Zestimate. The reasons are beyond the scope of this entry, but one I hope to cover in another blog entry in the future.
• Houzz
  This site is amazing for inspiration and ideas. You can search for rooms, browse, find local professionals, look at IdeaBooks (yes, that’s how they spell it), and engage in discussions. You can open an account and save photos and create your own IdeaBook.
• Pinterest
  While Pinterest isn’t new, it has really taken off in popularity over the last year. You can get tons of information, ideas, tips, tricks, and inspiration by browsing, searching, or following certain people or boards. Ideally, and what you are supposed to do when pinning, each picture, or pin, should link to the actual site where the information was obtained. If you are thinking of moving and getting ready to stage, you can start your own board for ideas that you might want to use. Users create all types of boards on a wide range of topics. I, of course, focus on those related to the home and garden, real estate, and some of my other personal interests. I do have boards that might be helpful to you when staging, including one for staging, along with others for DIY Projects, Home & Garden Products, Organization, Household (which includes info on cleaning your home), and Outdoor Design. If you are interested, please visit my boards for ideas, tips, tricks, and resources.
• Chip-It
  I’ve mentioned this site before, but I felt it was worth mentioning again. There are other sites that provide a similar feature too, but since they basically do the same thing, I’ll just stick with this site, or really a tool, by Sherwin-Williams. If you need help selecting colors, either upload a picture of your own or enter the URL of a picture you find online. Chip-It will pull the top 5 or so colors from the photo and give you the actual names of the paint colors it shows you. Some will also have the option of giving additional colors if the photo contains many different colors.
  HINT: if you see a picture on a webpage, but it’s enmeshed in the page itself, right-click on the photo and choose the option “Copy Image Location” and then on the Chip-It page, right click again in the box for URL and select “Paste”. If you don’t do this, and you just enter the page URL, you will get all the colors from that page. If you can click on a picture, and it’s the only object on the screen, then you can use the actual URL you see.
• About.com Okay, this one is a big promotional, but I still think it’s worth mentioning. If you have been following my blog, you know that while I own a staging and decorating company, I am also an avid reader and writer. I added this blog initially to go along with Style with Comfort.
  However, in September, I was hired by About.com to be the Topic Writer for home staging. They have had real estate, decorating, and buying and selling topics for awhile now. And writers in those areas do a great job covering the topic of staging. However, About.com now has this separate topic page for home staging. I am the Topic Writer for that site. I think it’s great that readers can now get more detailed information about staging, as well as all the other areas related to real estate, buying, and selling. And About.com also has information on just about any topic you can think of. If this information is news to you, make sure to read some of the articles there as well. In addition to the articles, I write several blog entries per month as well, on this blog site, that relate to my articles on About.com. So now you can use About.com to get information, resources, and answers to your questions about home staging, both in the form of articles, blog entries, and of course lots of photos and resources.

I hope some of you found some new resources after reading this, were reminded of old favorites you may have forgotten about, or learned about some of the new resources offered my some of these sites. If you have one you'd like to add, please send me a note in the comments section here, or contact me and I'll cover it in more detail in a future blog entry. Thank you again for all your great ideas and feedback.