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Post by snugglebutter on Aug 26, 2022 12:49:14 GMT
Thanks for the information. Now, how to present this to my sister.....
Your sister has a big garage/shed on the property right? She wouldn't even have to rent a storage space. Assuming that she is moving somewhere smaller, she will thank herself for doing more of the decluttering/packing in advance.
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Post by Susie_Homemaker on Aug 26, 2022 13:27:43 GMT
The home definitely needs to be decluttered and staged. There is too much personal stuff everywhere and it doesn't let a buyer "see" living there.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Aug 26, 2022 13:54:13 GMT
From my experience (well, MIL’s), even minor staging can mean the difference between getting an offer or not. Having a decent, motivated realtor helps a lot too. The first realtor we had was an older guy who obviously wasn’t too interested in putting in much effort to sell the house. MIL had already moved out and into a condo. Due to her chain smoking, the whole place had been repainted, window treatments and carpeting were all replaced with new and in neutral colors. It was a blank shell with nothing in it. She also had a bunch of home repairs recently done so the place was essentially turn key. The house was on the market in the winter, and the realtor never even bothered to make sure the walk was shoveled when it snowed, which told us he didn’t really care if the house sold or not.
When our 6 month contract with him was up, we kicked him to the curb and got someone else. The new realtor told us we needed to have at least a small table and chairs in the kitchen dining area and something to sit on in the livingroom. MIL bought a little bistro set for the kitchen and a new couch and matching chair for the livingroom. Even those small changes must have made a difference because she had an offer on it in less than a week after the new realtor re-listed it.
I will also say from our most recent experience (2012), having really good photos makes a HUGE difference. When we were house hunting, our realtor had us walk through the house we eventually bought and we were really surprised that we hadn’t “seen” it come up on the realtor app we had been combing through daily for over six months.
Turned out we HAD seen it and the photos were so bad we didn’t realize the house was actually as nice inside as it was in real life. That worked out to our benefit because the housing market was just starting to heat up at the time and we had missed out on some nice houses because they were starting to get snapped up fast and over market value. The house had been on the market for 12 days when we walked through. We put in a cash offer for their full asking price, and offered the sellers the option of closing at their convenience and our offer was quickly accepted.
I’m 100% sure that if our house had been professionally staged and photographed we 1) wouldn’t have missed it when it was very first listed, 2) it probably would have been snapped up within a few days of being on the market, and 3) it likely would have gotten multiple offers and sold for more than what they were asking. It ended up being a steal for us even at full asking price because here we are ten years later and without doing any major upgrades other than maybe some interior painting and replacing some flooring, our house would easily list for close to double what we paid.
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Post by amp on Aug 26, 2022 14:45:26 GMT
If you have a good realtor, staging the home is usually part of their services. They advise you on what to remove and it gets packed up at stored somewhere. They advise you on small changes you can make to make the home more appealing to buyers. Then, they often bring in things that make a big difference in a room. Sometimes it’s furniture. Sometimes art, flowers, accessories. Sometimes it’s just for an open house, sometimes they leave the home that way the whole time it’s on the market. Frankly, your sister has a shitty realtor. There’s no way any good realtor would have used the photos in her listing. Look at the Facebook Page Lindsay Wilcox Howard Realtor. She posts lots of examples of no cost staging that she does for her clients. I completely agree...your sister may want to get a decent realtor. Also...as a part of the staging, the phrase decals (or are the phrases painted on the walls) need to go. I can see why someone would like them, but they are not my taste, and I would look at those and groan, thinking that in addition to everything else I've got to do, I'd have to deal with removing them, since it is not my taste. Not a big thing, when you think about it, but just one more thing that could bother potential buyers. I hope this helps. It is no fun to sell a house.
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Post by crimsoncat05 on Aug 26, 2022 15:38:01 GMT
the clutter makes it seem like there isn't enough storage space... if things are sitting out on the floor in the bedrooms, that *must* be because there's not enough room in the closets. (this is what a potential buyer might think.) I mean, *I* know my clothes are on the chair and not in the hamper because I'm lazy, not because there's no room in the closet, but I wouldn't have left them out for real estate listing photos, if you know what I mean.
And the personal decor of any seller might turn off some buyers. I know it's TX, but IMO, the crosses and the vinyl decal phrases on the wall, the huge clock, etc. all need to go-- they do look very dated. Also, there's a dog bed, and stairs that go up to the couch- some people might not look at a house if they know there were pets there. We moved stuff around as our realtors were taking pictures- we did not want ANY trace of our pets in the photos, because we knew the house would be cleaned and spotless before we left it.
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Post by librarylady on Aug 26, 2022 20:30:18 GMT
I do wonder what happened on the day the photos were made. Even when I was selling my home (years ago) I knew not to have personal photos out and things to look as roomy as possible.
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Post by imkat on Aug 27, 2022 8:04:57 GMT
I'll also add that you don't need to photograph every room in the house. For example, you don't need a photo of the closet or laundry room unless it is stellar.
While a stager could do an amazing job, even a few simple fixes could make a big impact: remove horse shower curtain and knickknacks, remove pet stairs/bed, remove big clock and word art, remove monitor from table, remove cleaning supplies from laundry room floor, get neutral comforters, etc.
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maryannscraps
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,791
Aug 28, 2017 12:51:28 GMT
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Post by maryannscraps on Aug 27, 2022 10:01:51 GMT
It's also things like having 9 chairs in the kitchen. Take at least 3 of them out. Take out some of the seating in the living room. Clean out the laundry room. Don't have ANY boxes on the floor. Basically sorting through her belongings ahead of time -- she's going to have to do it eventually. Especially if she's planning on moving into a smaller home.
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muggins
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,861
Jul 30, 2017 3:38:57 GMT
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Post by muggins on Aug 27, 2022 10:27:18 GMT
I sold my house in MI in 2020. My realtor has a storage until full of extra furniture, pictures, accent pillows, etc. she had me remove some of my more ‘eclectic’ decor and replaced it with her more Homegoods style. It worked and the house sold pretty quickly.
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Post by kellapea on Aug 27, 2022 12:20:46 GMT
My realtor had her professional stager stage my house using my own funriture and accessories. The only thing she added were some fake pears in a big wooden bowl I had on my kitchen table and a straw hat for my coat hook. She did have me take down some lace curtains and remove all of my area rugs (so the wood flooing would photograph better).
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Post by femalebusiness on Aug 27, 2022 16:24:42 GMT
One other thing to think about is that the market has cooled and is heading down. Whatever they do, do it quickly.
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Post by librarylady on Aug 28, 2022 20:19:52 GMT
I just talked with her. I suggested staging and sister says that in the beginning my sister asked about getting it staged and the realtor told her there was no need in her house since the rooms were so big. !
I think she has a sh-**y agent who is worthless. I've said my part and now will gently walk away.
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Post by leannec on Aug 28, 2022 22:59:35 GMT
I just talked with her. I suggested staging and sister says that in the beginning my sister asked about getting it staged and the realtor told her there was no need in her house since the rooms were so big. ! I think she has a sh-**y agent who is worthless. I've said my part and now will gently walk away. Fire his ass and get a better realtor! Someone who knows what they are doing!
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Post by amp on Aug 29, 2022 1:20:38 GMT
I just talked with her. I suggested staging and sister says that in the beginning my sister asked about getting it staged and the realtor told her there was no need in her house since the rooms were so big. ! I think she has a sh-**y agent who is worthless. I've said my part and now will gently walk away. Holy crud. Yes. I completely agree with you. I hope she listens to you... it could save her a lot of time and hassle and thousands of dollars. Even just removing the words on the walls and the clutter would help a lot...but still, this agent is really bad. I wonder what else he will mess up?
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artbabe
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,352
Jun 26, 2014 1:59:10 GMT
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Post by artbabe on Aug 29, 2022 11:23:03 GMT
I didn't stage my home at all. My house was decorated pretty unusual, too- definitely artbabe style. I didn't even do a big cleaning. It sold in 2 weeks for the asking price. The market was that good.
I think it is still pretty good. The condo next to me sold in a weekend. They didn't even put a sign up.
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Post by auntkelly on Aug 29, 2022 13:58:57 GMT
I think stagers are great. We've used them in the last two houses we sold.
However, in my opinion it's not really a stager's job to get rid of excessive clutter. That's the homeowner's job. In my experience w/ stagers, they come in at the end of the decluttering process and further edit what I have already edited. My realtor paid for six hours of staging. With the prices stagers charge, I would not have wanted to pay her to put away my refrigerator magnets or to throw away the ten nearly empty shampoo bottles in my daughter's shower.
OP, can you gently suggest to your sister that since she is going to be moving soon anyway, she should start packing up her decorative stuff and other items she doesn't use everyday? Maybe you could offer to help get her started. Each time we have moved, as I started packing our things in boxes it became easier and easier to start donating things and throwing away things as I became more and more aware of how much stuff we were going to have to move if we didn't get rid of it.
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