My husband has an almost Pavlovian response to the magic words "Honey, I have an idea!"
A sharp intake of breath, eyes rolling backward, and a desperate "oh no..." muttered just loudly enough for me to hear. Poor honey. He does suffer through one crazy scheme after another, I guess.
As a real estate agent, I would hope that my clients would have a completely different response to my magic words. (I promise not to call them "Honey" - maybe that's the problem. Maybe Honey will take me more seriously if I address him as Mr. Rice when announcing my latest scheme...)
I have come up with all sorts of cool ideas, many of them gleaned either from watching too much HGTV, or late night blog reading adventures.
I love the idea of staging. I also know that in some markets it is a difficult thing to get people to do - either they flat out refuse to change their home, or they are stubbornly unconvinced that it will work.
At any rate, we all know that there is hidden potential in many homes that are suffering from being dated, or cluttered. I grow frustrated when I see pictures in the MLS of cluttered bathroom counters or kitchens hidden behind dish drainers, canister sets, toaster ovens, and the like. Sure, sometimes you can blame the agent for not arranging for a "photo shoot", but I happen to know there are a lot of stubborn sellers out there too.
One day in the office I had some time on my hands and I "recreated" a cluttered kitchen in my graphics program. The change was dramatic; the kitchen looked twice the size! (All I did was use the clone brush on an empty spot of counter top and cover everything up. Then I did the same with sections of the wall.) The results though are hardly professional; I'd never show this picture to a client...they'd think some dork had too much time on her hands. (ahem).
Anyway, I got to thinking about those computer programs that kitchen remodeling centers have, that will spit out a new design of your kitchen, with new counters and cabinets.
Wouldn't it be cool, if you were viewing a house with a hideous kitchen, and were able to whip out a printout of what the kitchen would look like, and a rough estimate (emphasize rough and estimate) of what it may cost. Let the buyers know that it is in no way a guarantee of cost but a rough idea. Would something like this help encourage a buyer, sitting on the fence because of an ugly kitchen, to make an offer once the hidden potential has been unveiled?
For instance, take the two examples I have posted below. I used an online design program to create the two images below of a kitchen - fictitious, yes, but certainly based on actual kitchens I've seen in the Poconos:
Note: I added the harvest gold dishwasher, the flouncy curtains, the orange counter, avacado fridge, and 1970s accessories in Paint Shop Pro. We can assume that the floor is ugly linoleum tiles that have seen better days.
Next, I have a modernized version of this kitchen:
Wouldn't it be cool to whip this out and sell someone on the house?
Anyway, this is the sort of stuff my poor hubby is subject to, 24/7. I think he's relieved that I can air some of my ideas here, and give him a break.
Faux Staging, ©Copyright 2007 by Karen E. Rice. All rights reserved.
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