I'm sure you've all heard it before - staging is so easy, it's just adding furniture... I can stage the home myself, I know real estate! etc etc etc.... there are many many excuses agents give for either not staging or not hiring a professional. This little blog is about an ex-client who decided that we made staging look so easy that they didn't need us anymore.
This of course was after we had successfully staged and sold several of her listings - the last one with multiple offers.....
I had not even realized that she was staging her own listings - we just knew she fell off the face of the earth for us... Then about 10 days ago I received a call from another agent who uses our services for every listing. He advised that the unit needed some work and had some 'leftover' furniture from the previous listing agent.
Coming out to the property I was shocked by what I saw.... the furniture was old, worn, dated and completely inappropriate for its $830,000 list price
First, painting needed to happen. Then once the colors were more neutral - appealing to more potential buyers, appropriate scale furniture was added. It's also important to note that the quality of furniture was vastly different as well. You cannot sell an $830K condo at over $300 sqft with a painted (peeling) $100 dining table and chairs set from Walmart. It's just not going to happen... The decor MUST appeal to the buyer who is likely to purchase the home!
Scale was all wrong here.... The two loveseats used are just too small for this room and positioned in this way it makes the room really feel small. What you cannot see in this before angle is that to the right of the loveseats is a round coffee table.... why it is located where it is we've yet to figure out - unless it it because the room was just too tight between the loveseats - because that's not the best layout for the room....
Can we just discuss paint again? Highlighter yellow & green are always personal choices! While yellow and green are often considered neutral in staging - bright flourescent colors are always personal.... In this case, we painted the entire living area of the unit in Ben Moore's Tapestry Beige (thanks for the recommendation FB friends!). The cabinets had a lot of grey in them and the wall colors needed to reflect this while still having enough pigment to show off the amazing molding throughout the property.
The mismatched cork flooring did not make this room feel spacious. Additionally, the built in desk was awkward and limited the options for this small 3rd bedroom. We did decide to stage it as an office because this was a logical location for it. This condo building typically caters to high income retirees. Most will need an office to work (or play) from. This is why it is also good to know your buyer!
I unfortunately had to call the previous listing agent to let her know that we needed the furniture removed. While she had lost the listing several weeks prior to our listing agent, the furniture never was removed and on this day we had arrived with the movers and a house of furniture. This is when I heard what just made me want to scream outloud.... "I'll need time to get it all out. I only moved it in there to 'do the client a favor'".... She proceeded to talk negatively about the situation and how she was certain the client would never agree to stage the entire unit so we should have someplace to store the furniture in the meantime.... This makes me wonder if she ever actually talked to the client about the importance of staging and gave him a realistic budget for the process?
In the end, the client spent nearly 1% of list price preparing the property for sale between improvements, paint and staging. This is a pretty common reality in today's market. Buyers should be made aware that if they don't want the property held on the market for an extended period of time or they dont' want price reduction after price reduction then they need to price correctly and prepare the property for market. Just like buying a home, selling a home often requires an initial investment!
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