A few weeks ago, I prepared a bid and short report for a relocation company. The house was a very nice two story, very well built, nice layout and in a good neighborhood. It did have some minor issues, but none that couldn't be easily remedied, hence the short report. So short, I didn't even charge them for it.
The house had just a few drawbacks - lack of any outdoor living space in the backyard (all other homes within eyesight of this house had stamped concrete patios), an open concept layout that confused buyers as far as furniture placement and it needed very little paint work. There were 2 rooms that were a little over the top as far as paint goes and 2 that just needed to be relieved of their builder white. The rest of the house needed touch up, but luckily there was leftover paint for all existing colors and that would have been a cinch to match.
That was the extent of my report, except that staging was recommended of course. To give you an idea of what we were working with here is a photo of a portion of the living room and kitchen areas:
As you can see, the paint is perfect for staging. The colors are warm and contemporary with a splash of spicy orange in the kitchen - an very populat colr right now, making it easy to use as an accent in the other areas of the house. It really was ideal for staging in this market. I could not have been happier with the prospect of staging this house.
For $50 I could have chosen 2 paint colors, for a few hundred they could have hired a painter to paint only what was recommended and the patio - well, I have no idea what that would have cost, but it would have added a lot of value to the house
The agent had informed me that the paint work would be done, but one of the employees of the relocation company would be choosing the colors. After the paint work was complete, they would repost the photos and see what kind of response it garnered. She was really pushing them to have the house staged and have a patio poured, but the patio was a no go. The staging was still up for consideration.
Fast forward to a month later. The post-paint photos are posted. They did the UNTHINKABLE. They painted the entire house (Top to Bottom) WHITE. They spent THOUSANDS of dollars in white paint and labor for the house to look like this:
(photo courtesy of gniarmls.com)
All of the personality and warmth has been removed and no value has been added. It is now cold and sterile - and most importantly still on the market. The agent has tried her best to remedy the situation by getting the house staged, but has made no headway.
It just baffles me to no end that a company that is in the business of selling homes would not pay attention to market trends and realize that it takes more than a for sale sign to market a house these days.
At their disposal is an excellent agent and a very good stager (sorry, had to toot my own horn) who are both giving them solid marketing advice that they have chosen to ignore. Instead of adding value and appeal, they have done the opposite.
What house would you rather stage, show, or even buy? In today's market relo companies cannot afford these types of mistakes. Marketing is trickier than it used to be and staging was just the trick they needed.
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