On Friday, I took another "Friday Fieldtrip" with one of the agents, to see if there was anything we could do to change the look of a property for sale, to give it a fresh face. 

BEFORE

Besides lowering the price from $705,000 to $699,900, so that people looking up to and not more than $700,000 could see it, we did a little rearranging.

AFTER

Taking photos from a bit more distance, gives potential buyers looking at homes on the internet a better feel for how the rooms flow from one to another. 

AFTER

While the large painting which we found in the garage and had been painted years ago by the owner's mother, is not the focal point of a single room.  By placing it where it is, it became a focal point of the main living space, tying together the rooms from which it could be seen. 

AFTER

By seeing this same painting from the long shot across the entryway and the long shot from the kitchen back, a potential buyer can see more than just "rooms" separately.  You get a better feel for how the rooms flow one to another. 

BEFORE - The dining room below is a free flowing open space, but when you take the photo head on, you don't get the feeling of open flow from living room to dining room.

Also, the home has a traditional floorplan, but with a contemporary flair, so we need to bring a bit of contemporary into the traditional Queen Anne furnishings.

AFTER

The photo is a bit squigley here, but you can see that by adding contemporary place settings and a well placed picture, and standing back and up a bit, you can take the dining room flow through into the kitchen.  The table set introduces the functionality of the room vs simple the bare bones of the room as a separate entity.

We staged, we shopped, we staged again.  We bought the picture over the fireplace, the bamboo placemats, the cinnamon/gold napkins and very little else.  Everything else we found inside the home.

The owner came home and said it felt like "A Model Home!"  The changes we made weren't dramatic and didn't take a lot of effort in the grand scheme of a listing on market for almost 60 days.  But I think when you ask a seller for a price reduction, you get in there and roll your sleeves up and show that you are both in this effort together.

It's not all and always about what the seller can do to help sell the house, and it is not all and always simply about "marketing".  Sometimes it takes a little repackaging of product.

Another Broker takes a Field Trip with one of the agents.  This is Kate Pedersen's listing in Lakemont in Bellevue Washington.