Sayde Mark Designs

Update, Steve contacted me this week to ask me to take down the negative review. I reviewed my emails on this and told him that it was pretty accurate, but had suggested it was his employee that was rude rather than him. He reacted by suggesting I was trying to defame him, so I adjusted the review above to reflect more accurately, but his approach really takes him down another star in my book. I’d suggest dealing with Heather if you end up with this firm due to your agent’s suggestion.

Overall I was pleased by the quality of work. I think Heather has great taste, did a tremendous job picking out colors that would make our home pop, and did everything in a very timely fashion. Heather is also a pleasure to talk to and has a point of view on your place immediately. Definitely appreciated all of those things. Overall i felt the process was easy, fast, and affordable.
I was disappointed by how things were handled with our furniture that they stored for us. During our consultation, I was not convinced we needed to move out our heavy furniture… it seemed to look ok to me. Heather convinced me that it would be very easy and they would be happy to do it. In the contract, I was surprised that it stated «Moving and storage of Client’s own furniture is available for a removal fee of $ 100 and a monthly storage fee of $ 100/​month.» I thought to myself that this is unexpected but I guess I can live with that. When the final invoice came, they charged us a total of $ 350 for «storage of bulky items». I spoke to my agent and he was disappointed as well, because he was there when Heather visited us initially and he had no idea she would charge us this much… since she was the one who suggested to us that we should! I certainly would never have chosen to do so if I knew it would cost $ 350.
— Originally 5-​stars for the quality of service
— Decreased to 3 stars because of the extra unexpected cost.
— Bumped it up to 4-​stars because when I spoke to Steve (her husband who manages billing), he did not charge me a Credit Card fee because of the issue we had. And Heather was great about arranging the return delivery of my furniture.
If it weren’t for the charge I would recommend them without reservation.

We were referred to Heather Forbes from Sayde Mark Designs by a friend and got a bid from her for the staging of our condo in San Francisco. Heather’s bid was about 60% of the price of the competition, which made us a bit nervous at first. Heather then sent us links to a number of the properties which she had staged and we immediately signed on. Heather worked together with our agent and different trades people to get our staging done at just the right time and created a look that everyone who saw the place loved. If you’ve looked at places in San Francisco you usually get a strange sense of déjà vu each time you enter a staged place, most likely because you saw the same exact setup a few weeks ago a block away. Heather created a fun, memorable and lively look for our place that made us a bit sorry that we were moving out. That is until we sold the place after the first weekend. ;)
We were a bit hesitant about the expense that staging entails, but after using Heather, I’d highly recommend that people stage their place, and specifically, that they use Heather to do so.
Thanks so much Heather for taking a project that threatened to be stress-​filled and making it a breeze (at least from our point of view) and a roaring success.

I am a Marin County Realtor. I hired Heather to stage a condo for me in Sausalito. This particular residence was being sold by an elderly couple who had lived in the condo for 29 years. Everything was still in it’s original condition, including, the original carpet in the bathrooms! I came in and updated with new tile, carpet, fixtures and lighting. After my portion of the job was completed, I called Heather with Sayde Mark Designs. The home had incredible views of the bay and Sausalito, but it was still dated. Heather walked in, meditated a few minutes, and then we simultaneously said the same thing: «this needs to be sexy’! I had faith in Heather and gave her carte blanch while I stayed out of her way while she staged.
The moment I walked in, I was taken aback by the transformation from dated to modern and yes, sexy. In a word, Heather is an artist. Besides being an artist, Heather is an astute business woman, and completely charming and engaging. One thing I will say, is Heather can book up early, even though she has quite a bit of furniture, during the crazy selling months of spring and summer, I highly recommend you book Sayde Mark Designs well in advance of your project. By the way, we garnered over 135K over a fair market list price!

I’m a San Francisco Realtor who has hired Heather to stage numerous properties. She just staged a property for a client last week and is removing staging for a property that is closing escrow today. She always does a great job, is timely, has outstanding vision, and has never been late with the installation. It’s also so nice to work with somebody who has a can-​do approach to her work and is almost always positive.
The point of Heather’s role in a sale is to transform a property from being just another property, to being something that potential buyers have emotional pull towards. She makes the difference between buyers liking properties and buyers writing offers on properties. If you hire Heather and you property sells in three days, it’s BECAUSE of Heather’s work, not despite it.

Be careful of getting into the trap of listening to your realtor. My realtor forcefully suggested that I have my one bedroom condo staged before putting it on the market. I didn’t agree with him, knowing that the location of my condo would be highly valued and would sell fast, but I was willing to take a look at the possibilities. My realtor forwarded an email from one of the designers stating what her plan was in furnishing my unit. It sounded really nice. But the Price was outrageous. $ 3000 for for 90 days of furniture rental. Before I even got a contract to look over and sign, they had already placed the furniture in my home. The furniture went in on friday and my unit was sold on Monday. So the reality is, I paid $ 3000 for one week of rental. I asked my realtor to get my money back, I’m still waiting… So the bottom line is, The furniture was absolutely pathetic, poorly thought out and dirty. My high end condo turned into a showroom for cheap IKEA furniture.
I am not a past employee or competitor.
I would be willing to retract my posting if the company were to refund a significant portion of their extortionate fee.

We worked with Heather, she was fantastic! I love her style, the furniture was top quality, and her choice of colors and design in my house were brilliant! She was professional, prompt, courteous and her staff as well. I never knew staging would provide such value, my house sold for 20% over asking price and Heather deserves most of the credit!!! I highly recommend Sayde Mark Designs!