While I am a real estate broker, and not a home stager by trade, I am a firm believer that staging a home can really make a difference--and knowing what people will not be able to accommodate right up front really is important.
Some time ago we listed the home of an elderly woman--a member of the church of one of our agents. Her home was originally a 780 sq.ft. cape with an unfinished upper level. The main level had a kitchen, living room, bath and 2 bedrooms and the "large" one wasn't very large at all. Years before, they had added on, right off the front entry, a 572 sq.ft. Family Room addition with an extra full bath. As you can see from the pictures below of the two ends of this room, the large family room was so large, it was hard to define the space, and the rest of the house was just a much smaller scale--and the woman just didn’t want to make any changes to get her house ready to sell.
Really, she didn’t have the energy for a lot of changes, and was looking to downsize into a small apartment. But after more than 20 showings and no offers, she seemed a bit more willing to listen to some ideas. We gave her a staging plan, but she was quick to tell us that she just didn't have the manpower to get the job done.
The plan: turn that Family room addition to a spacious master suite with a seating area, and the smaller bedroom into an office. It required moving lots of furniture, and many of the pieces were very heavy. Because she quickly told us what she couldn't get done, we marshalled a team of energetic helpers from her church family and flipped the rooms around. (I wish I could locate my AFTER pics for you--the change was quite dramatic!)
Very shortly after that we put together a sale at the high end of the price range we had originally given her.
Staging and problem-solving--and another happy seller!
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