One of our favorite listings was a 5500 sq ft log mansion on a mountaintop in Colorado.
It had huge living area, gourmet kitchen, basement apartment, five bedrooms and five baths.
When we took the listing , it had been on the market for a long time. It was vacant and felt downright lonely.
We had all of the enormous rooms cleaned well and then we hired a staging artist to creatively stage the spaces.
The seller spent about four grand for the artist to use in purchasing furnishings and art work .
During the listing period we would go by periodically to check on the property, vacuum and water the plants.
Almost immediately after the staging we began to find small objects missing .
The puzzle continued for weeks. Research finally began to point to rodent activity.
We could not find any obvious points of entry , but we did finally hire a pest specialist.
Eventually the exterminator was successful in locating the source of the petty thefts.
We had been being visited and entertained by a pack rat.
I did not want to know what actually happened to the visitor but he was ultimately removed and the property did sell.
The staging paid off too as the buyers purchased the property complete with decor.
The other lesson we learned as a result of that listing was that rodents are creative and can get in where there does not appear to be a place.
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