You will never guess what I did today. I staged a builder's model with out their permission. Yep, that's right. I did it and it was fabulous.
This morning I met one of my partner agents at a builder's model to pick up some accessories that I had left at one of her listings that recently sold. She was at the model covering for the listing agent who was out of town. She had five hours to kill, so we figured if I picked it up there I could keep her company for a while until a buyer stopped in. She told me the model was also being staged, so it might be interesting to see what others are doing, yada, yada, yada.
Anyway, I get to the house and am astonished at what I see. Furniture in the wrong place (the sofa was half blocking the patio door), no accessories except what was haphazardly placed on the kitchen counters, pillows thrown in a pile on one bed, the other bed had no bedding at all - just plastic wrapped mattresses - it was atrocious. My partner agent was not happy with the condition of the model and was planning to try to get the place in order herself, thinking I would not be willing to risk doing it for free.
The model itself is well built, nice layout and if had looked better I would say reasonably priced. It turns out that the builder owns all of the furniture and accessories but my partner agent did not know who he uses to stage them. The listing agent was planning to do what he could, but had not gotten it done before the model was open to the public. They had moved all of the large pieces in, thrown around a few other items and stopped there. Why, I do not know.
Well, the stager in me took over and I just couldn't keep my hands off the place. The agent and I moved some pieces around - and after discovering the garage was full of the missing accessories - got to work on dressing the place up. And hour and a half later, the place was completely transformed using just what was already on the premises. There was even a ton of stuff left over. And it looks FABULOUS!
I didn't hang any artwork (though I could have - I keep a hammer an nails in my car) because I didn't have permission to move a sofa, let along damage the dry wall. I could have taken pictures, but decided - again - I didn't have permission to do it let alone add it to my portfolio. Nevertheless, it shows much better this afternoon than it did this morning.
My partner agent was thrilled to be showing it in its new condition and fully intends to pass my card along to the listing agent and whoever else has any pull with the company. So, I figure I will either get an angry phone call from someone who has very bruised toes or I will get be going back to hang artwork. ;)
What do you think? Was it a risk worth taking?
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