The First House I Ever Staged
Want to see the first house I ever staged?
The owners were a young couple with a newborn.
According to public records, they had bought their house for $658,500 in 1999 and SOLD their house for $1,039,000 in June 2003 with a little help from yours truly! According to my records, it was on the market for 38 days.
I had just started my home staging business and this was a big win for me to work with one of the top realtors in the area.
We started with a home staging consultation (I charged $150 at the time) where I walked through the property room-by-room, inside and out and outlined everything I recommended they do to update and upgrade their house to prepare it to sell.
This was a 4 bedroom, 3 bath, 2686 sf home on two levels. It was worth $1M 19 years ago!!! That same house is currently worth about $3.2M!!
It was a new construction home built in 1999. So at just 3-4 years old at the time, the house was still considered new. It had all the builder basic features that a home built at that time would have - blonde maple cabinets, built-in niches for the TV and other components around the fireplace, berber carpeting and white walls.
What did it not have? It did not have any personality - no decor, barely any furniture and absolutely zero charm except for a finished yard. That was a plus, but also required by the HOA.
The homeowners were living in a million dollar house with folding tables and chairs, plastic drawers, hand-me-down looking furniture and bare minimum necessities. Dorm rooms are swankier than this place!
This may have worked for them while they lived in the home, but was it going to help them get TOP dollar when they put it on the market? Absolutely NOT!
So, I advised them to remove all their personal belongings, removed their nearly non-existent furniture and brought in my limited staging inventory at the time. When I look at the after, I’m not especially impressed with the decor, BUT it did the job! It helped them sell very quickly and for TOP dollar. That’s the goal.
Despite how I may feel about the aesthetic now that I’m looking at the results with a trained and much more mature eye, I remember the wife was so wow’d by the transformation, she didn’t want to move. She had never seen her house that way before.
Real Estate marketing has changed a lot in the last two decades. In 2003, I was doing a lot of educating to both Realtors and homeowners about what home staging was and why it was important. The practice is a lot more well known now, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t take educating just the same on the importance of the overall benefits of properly preparing your house to sell, even in an up market. In particular, today’s consumer is a lot more savvy and discerning. The home search begins online and as they’re scrolling through photos, it’s important to have a product that catches their attention and STOPS their scroll.
At this point, I’ve consulted on multiple millions of dollars worth of real estate and renovated thousands of properties at different levels for resale, from minor lipstick on a pig makeovers to full-blown gut renovations.
I have a proven framework that I use to ensure that every aspect of the property is taken into consideration. Remember, you’re not just selling certain rooms or parts of the house. You’re selling the entire property so the entire package should be as appealing as possible.
The Renovation Planner Home Selling Success edition includes all the tools I’ve used over the years working with private clients and guides you through the process at my 2003 prices!!! For the month of May, because this is the introductory month, you can use the code: MAY50 to get 50% off the planner system as well as the accompanying 2 part workshop where I will provide more guidance on how to build the scope of work, design the spaces for your specific project and answer questions that are bound to come up.
Don’t leave money on the table. Invest some time into properly preparing your house to sell. The Renovation Planner was designed to show you how.
Cheers to your soon-to-be new and improved home!
Alice
Subscribe to the Behind the Renovation Design Journal
Sign up to receive the latest home renovation tips, resources, and inspiration!
RELATED POSTS
