to stage or not when selling

[Lisak1]

Beautiful!

 

[sissy]

all it takes is one person to fall in love with it and it will sell .It is someones dream home

 

[addy1]

I have some from when I still lived there not the best, I was doing quick snaps. The gate at the front of the house is a old mission gate, from Mexico, huge and heavy

view from the master bedroom, second floor, full deck with a hot tub.

Master bedroom, we installed solid cherry floors, put in the french doors, both side panels open to. I used to love to sleep with them open.

the kitchen, we put in the 12 foot window so I could look out at the back yard. Black granite with the gold flexs

This picture refuses to be the right way. The cabinets where oak, late hubby wanted cherry. The blue tape means the cabinet was empty Two HUGE pantries, one a walk in, bigger than our bathroom here.

This was part of the garage, the previous people made it a room. That was my husbands walk in gun safe, i left it there.

Living room, formal dining room. I laid the limestone floor in the living room, the marble in the dining area.

pool

view from the master bedroom,that is the 3000 sq foot shop in the back yard.

shop and looking towards the house

l

gazebo we built (the stream and pond are gone now)

travertine I laid in the hallway

The patio, that is the kitchen window to the left. family room off the lower deck

 

[addy1]

After my hubby died I had the locking screen doors installed. The house was too big and too empty. Also slept with a pistol under my pillow

 

[Tula]

A very beautiful home , situated on a beautiful piece of property.!

When I remarried, we both sold our homes, moving into a new house together. Mine took longer to sell, so I'd moved most of my stuff. I had it freshly painted and new carpet. I did some LIGHT staging...like a mirror over the mantle with a plant on the hearth and I had a small table in the kitchen with a few accent pieces. I left bedrooms and bathrooms clean and empty.

 

[CometKeith]

Addy, i do a lot of work for banks that need to sell properties they have aquired. I would say the most important thing to do is to thorougly clean everything, put on a fresh coat of paint in a neutral color that is done by a professional painter, and make all necessary repairs so an inspector does not have a field day with your house. You may also want to make some minor updates such as changing faucets, lights, carpet, etc that show wear and tear. The only reason to stage a house is if similar priced houses are all staged. If you want to do it yourself it will be difficult for you to find furniture and accessories to give it a proper look to compete with a properly staged house. When i did building we used to stage our own houses but it was a lot of work finding the right furniture to make them look good.Often we would go to the chip and dent department of well known furnture stores to get good pieces. I still have a few pieces left I would love to get rid off! Also don't underestimate how important good accessories are. Sometimes they are more important than even the furniture.You may be surprised how many people actually know and recognize good furniture versus doing an "Ikea" or something similar. When upper bracket houses are staged on a low budget people can usually see right through that and it will decrese someones interest in your property rather than increase it. If you are seeing in the market that staged houses are selling quicker and for higher amounts then it is a cost/benefit proposition. If a house is a lemon then staging will not help much but if it is an attractive house sometimes staging will give you more in return than you paid to stage it.. What are you losing by having it sit empty for an extended period and what will be your net price after all costs are considered? Part of the cost of staging is the time and effort required to move everything in and out again and this can be a lot of work. Good luck with selling your house. We are selling our house next year and have already embarked on making the necessary repairs to make it show well.

 

[addy1]

Thanks Keith.
When I left the house, everything was "brand new" faucets, flooring, cabinets. I just hope the flooring has not been damaged. If the cherry has I am going to contact someone to sand and reseal. The stone floors would be more difficult to fix, i.e. match the coloring etc. I do have some spare stored, hopefully, still in the back building.

We are hiring someone to paint, with my arm and hands it would hurt me to paint and there are a lot of rooms.

My house is in a cluster of custom homes, some more modern, some more basic. Some selling in the millions, some in the 300k range. Mine is in the middle of them. We got really hit hard with the foreclosures in our neighborhood. 75% of the houses were foreclosed on of the ones that were turned over. If it sits, I will have pool maintenance, yard maintenance and mortgage to pay. We are already making plans for the financial hit. Since we are both not earning a salary now.................it will be in the 2500 per month range..........ouch!

Per the Realtor's I have spoken to, there are only 2.5 months of supply on the market, it was six months. So drifting into a sellers market.

 

[sissy]

I am amazed that people would not snap that up it is beautiful and the outside is to die for .Believe me people are nuts if the let this one go .If that house was in NJ it would sell for half a million or more .Even if id did not look like it belonged there .California contemporaries that were built in NJ by a builder where snapped up in days and the looked out of place for there, but people loved them .

 

[sissy]

What really helps is to have a home inspector come through before your house hits the market .That is what i did and had copies made with copies of the pics and info on schools and shopping and potential buyers each got a package at the open house and first open house i had 3 bids and by the next day it was 2 more and by the end of the week i had 12 offers one sight unseen with a cash deal (guess which one I took ).Paper makes it more real for the people

 

[addy1]

Good idea Sissy, we will be darn busy when we get there.

I am going to hire a tree grooming service to groom the yard up before we even get there. I like wild and over grown, most people like groomed neat etc.
So If I can get them to communicate with me via pictures and calls it will be done before we arrive. I have used them before and they did a great job on the trees. All acacia trees, thorny things that I have groomed more than once, big ouch when those thorns stab you.

We have arranged for our friends to move in and care for our house while we are gone. They love it here.
Poor us leaving winter in Maryland for winter in Arizona!

 

[Lisak1]

Poor us leaving winter in Maryland for winter in Arizona!

My heart's breakin' for ya!

 

[addy1]

I lived out there longer than I lived back here, even counting childhood here, so it is almost like going home again.

 

[MitchM]

I'm sure that you know this already, addy, but there were some hedge funds that bought up whole neighbourhoods during the real estate drop and are now starting to sell them off.
The bigger picture for you may be to consider that there might be a lot of inventory coming onto the market in the near future.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...rts-selling-land-to-reap-gains-in-u-s-housing

 

[addy1]

Thanks Mitch, it is a gamble, but since we pulled the plug on the renters we need to move forward. Can't afford to let it sit empty. The area my house is in, is a valley, north of phoenix proper, that was all developed with acre plus lots.
We may regret selling it may jump back up, it may fall back down, no clue.

 

[MitchM]

With China posting weaker numbers plus devaluing their currency, I would lean more towards selling.
More housing inventory available will also mean lower prices.
I'm staying in cash as much as possible these days.
Good luck!