I just had a fantastic experience staging a home for sale!

Two weeks ago, I was called by a client who was in distress.  They needed to sell their home badly due to financial reverses, and were very anxious to have it on the market.  They had clutter galore, twenty years of detritis in the house, way too much furniture, and very dark heavy curtains on every window.  As well, there are many homes in their neighborhood for sale at the moment, as the market is very slow here.

The day of my initial consultation, their Realtor (a top producer who had been a part of their community for decades) was to meet with them as soon as I was done.  They were to sign their contract and put the house on the market IMMEDIATELY.   I advised them against this.  Although this family had a beautiful home and very nice things in it, it was in no way ready to be on the market. They were adamant that they wanted the house on the market the next day, and since they were the client, I had no choice....

Enter the Realtor.  A very successful businesswoman.  She had NEVER HEARD OF HOME STAGING.  Never.  So I began talking with her, explained what home stagers do.  We went on a tour of the house.  I explained to her what my plan was for making the house market-ready.  

We all sat down together to discuss how we would tackle this project.  The Realtor understood what I needed to do, and joined my cause, telling the homeowners to wait the two weeks until the home was staged before having the open house.  When the homeowners objected to waiting two weeks, the Realtor told them that they could list with someone else if they wanted the house on the market that quickly.  That two weeks was very little time, and that my actions as a home stager would make the property sell itself.

I worked with the clients for two weeks, de-cluttering (we filled two 30 cubic yard dumpsters), packing, painting, getting rid of the curtains, and finally staging.

I staged Saturday and Sunday morning.  The open house was held Sunday from 11 until 3.  After staging, I changed into professional clothes and kept the Realtor company for the duration of the open house.  We had six visitors.  Two of them made offers yesterday evening.  The sellers (my client) accepted one of them this morning, for just $1,000 below their asking price!

The moral of this story is that the Realtor who had never heard of home staging was willing to listen to me, immediately saw the benefit of home staging, and even went out on a limb to improve her own inventory.  Kudos to her!