Most sellers don’t know how to make their homes look their best. Even most agents don’t. When you are selling a home – staging and presenting it in the best light is a no brainer. For most of us it’s the largest investment of our lives. A little bit of effort goes a LONG way. And I am not talking about remodeling kitchens and baths, I’m talking about paint, light fixtures and rearranging your (or rented) furniture.
1.5 years ago my client purchased this beautiful modern farmhome for NET $920,000 (Sales price of $932,500 with $12,500 credit to buyer) and we just sold it for $1,072,300 – that’s $152,300 difference. We had 8 offers. Just 1.5 years ago this home was listed for $1,000,000 and had multiple price reductions. The market is definitely hot, but if you compare how this home was presented then and now – there’s a HUGE difference. This is an MLS link for BEFORE and AFTER if you are interested to see the photos, their sequence and the actual sales numbers.
I will walk you through every room to show you the changes that we made – so you can see how it happens! Here’s the team – myself and my stager Jan! My wonderful client Bennett is not in the photo, I should’ve snap the photo -of him – maybe it’s not too late – his photo “coming soon”.
Living room. It wasn’t a used room in the house, but it was the very 1st room that you saw when you came in the front door. The built-ins, the fireplace and the large windows were beautiful, but we knew we could take it up a notch by painting it a bold color, removing the old fan, installing a modern light fixture and placing some nice furniture.
Kitchen. This kitchen was nothing short of amazing already – gorgeous wood beams, beautiful angles, wide open space. In order to make all these angles pop – we added bold color and removed some of the distracting clutter.
Guest Bedroom. This bedroom was on the corner of the home with huge windows. So we opted for bold paint again to make those windows pop. We also removed the old-fashioned fan and replaced it with a $25 flush mount. And of course added some furniture to make it look complete.
Master Bedroom. We moved the furniture around in the master. It is important to figure out the placement of the furniture for the 1st impression. When buyers open the door to a room – it has to make sense. We only replaced the light fixture here – just to add a little drama.
Bedroom #2. This bedroom was right next to the master. Beautiful angles and window nooks. Wrong color. We fixed the color and re-arranged owner’s furniture.
Bedroom #3. Just brought a bed from the guest bedroom, removed the bike, added a rug and boom!
Family Room. It was beautiful already – we just added some props, a lamp and removed clutter.
Extra Room. This one was a little tough – it was an unused extra room, but it was crucially important, because every buyer had to go through it to get to the main living area and kitchen. We turned it into a bar with some rented furniture and owner’s glassware.
Dining room. I didn’t take any good dining room “Before” photos , but we did replace the chandelier – the existing one didn’t really work with the rustic theme and moved it to the master bedroom. We also moved the rustic table into the kitchen and rented a round table instead.
And that is the transformation. I can’t tell you how much I love being a part of creating something beautiful. As humans we are always interested in advancement, in creating something better. And for the sellers – it’s not just about the money (even though it is always our goal!), it’s about the process of creating something amazing, it’s learning about home design that you can take with you to your next home, it’s about the pride you feel when you are done. If you need help, if you want to be a part of this process – please let me guide you! Let’s create something amazing.
