Couple days ago I met with Raj, the listing agent of 2001 McAllister, which I staged earlier this month, to de-stage the listing. (congrats Raj!) I was pretty shocked when I first heard it sold in 7 days since it was fresh after the new year, there just were not that much activities on the market. Also, I found on Craig's List that there was a competing unit in the complex that asked for $40,000 more and it's a lot bigger (the one I staged was 1BR/1BA, the competing unit was 2BR/2BA). Well, but after seeing their photos, I was not too surprised.

Here is the competing unit's listing photos:

(How do you like the irregular shaped photo? And time stamp? Maybe I should write another Listing Photo No-No blog post: see the previous post Top 10 Ugly Listing Photo "Trends" that Need to Go with 2006)

And here are some of the listing photos after I staged it:

Hmm, I wonder which listing I would pick?

The listing actually sold for over-asking price in additions to selling after 7 days on market. I asked Raj flat out: "Did you think staging made a significance in selling this unit?" "Yes, of course. It slowed down the buyers. And the seller was complaining about paying for staging, painting, all that stuff, now it's all paid for with the overasking price with money left over." He also mentioned that the best thing was it was moved off the market faster because that makes the process all easier.

This is just a great & wonderful success story of why staging works. And I figure I should share

If you are curious to see the before & after photos of this property, go to: http://www.staged4more.com/2001mcallistersf.html

Cheers,

Cindy@staged4more