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| | Creative decorating
Spark Your Style
Find online tutorials to help clients transform a house into a home.
BY CHRIS LEPORINI
Helping buyers imagine themselves in a home is an important part of selling real estate. artSparx.com offers weekly, magazine-style features on design concepts that can transform a so-so home to a winner. The site also includes how-to guides on decorating projects that buyers can use to put their own touch on their new property. You can recommend the site to buyers who are having trouble visualizing how their French Country furniture can be adapted to your listing’s ranch-style interior. Or use the site yourself to learn suggestions you can give buyers on the way to make a oddly-shaped or tiny room more attractive. Users can view many of artSparx.com’s resources for free. However, the site provides several features exclusively for registered subscribers. Among other benefits, subscribers can access additional articles on home projects and animated demonstrations. The site offers a 2-day trial subscription ($4.99), as well as monthly ($9.99) annual ($39.99) subscription rates.
The site’s “Style” section provides weekly feature articles on various decorating, such as the Caribbean, New Orleans, and Victorian styles. It also includes historical overviews, such as a look at “Window Styles Through the Ages.” Illustrated with numerous photographs, the articles explain the hallmarks of more than a dozen individual styles and the decorative touches--on walls, ceilings, floors, accessories, and furniture--that define them. Buyers looking for further design hints can turn to artSparx’s “Color Theory Resource Center.” This feature contains an introduction to color theory, exploring colors’ emotional impact and explaining the mechanics behind how we see different hues. The section also includes a interactive color wheel that visitors can use to decide which colors go together.
The site also provides practical advice on interior decoration and home improvement projects. The “Step-by-Step Tutorial” section gives how-to instruction on projects from creating decorative finishes such as marbleizing, color finishes, and sponging to staining wood furniture. Other tutorials provide guidance for more common home improvement projects such as painting rooms and patching drywall. artSparx rates each project as easy, moderate, or hard, so that users don’t find themselves out of their depth in the middle of a project. The site also includes several resources that supplement the tutorials, including the “Understanding Your Materials,” and “Basic Techniques to Master” sections. The two sections give users the background information, including explanations of key terms and basic techniques. Users can seek additional information from the “Ask artSparks” message board section, which is divided into sections including color, home décor, home improvement, and decorative arts, among others. Most questions are answered by site experts in a few hours, according to the site, and other users can contribute their suggestions as well.
Do you know a customer who’s particularly artistically gifted? You might want to suggest that they click on artSparx.com’s “Special Features” area, which profiles artist and reveals their creative process on advanced decorating projects such as simulated fresco murals. The “Artist’s Homepage” will appeal to users with an appreciation for art. It provides links to art news sources, individual artists’ homepages, and museums. Users can purchase fine art prints, organized according to the design style they complement, at the site’s “Art Store.” (The store is a partnership between artSparx.com and Art.com.)
Helping buyers visualize how they can transform a house into a home is an important part of your job. One good idea from a site such as artSparx.com about how to imprint their sense of style on a property can make the difference between a “maybe” and a “yes” when you pull out the purchase contract.
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Suggest a Site For Review
Every week, REALTOR® Magazine Online's Web review editor surfs the Internet to find sites useful to your business and off-hours lives. Have a favorite real estate Web site that you would like to see reviewed? Send your suggestions to Chris Leporini at mediatech@realtors.org. All decisions on which sites will be reviewed are completely at the discretion of REALTOR® Magazine Online's editorial staff. Please note: this column does not review individual practitioner or brokerage sites.
The column's focus includes free sites, as well as sites that charge for goods and services, but which still offer a free component of practical, sustained value to real estate practitioners, such as a free newsletter or regular news information.
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REALTOR® Magazine Online's "Web Review" summarizes the content of Web sites that may be of interest to members. NAR and REALTOR® Magazine Online are not responsible for, and nothing in the Web site profile shall constitute NAR's or REALTOR® Magazine Online's endorsement of, the web site, its content, products and services, or its provider. NAR and REALTOR® Magazine Online believe the information contained in this profile was correct and accurate as of the time it was prepared, but do not warrant or guarantee the accuracy or completeness of that information and are not responsible for changes in the Web site. Members should conduct their own independent review of the Web site prior to any use of Web site, its content, products, or services to determine their suitability for the member's intended purpose. | |
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