I love helping home owners sell their homes. Here’s an example I see often – a home owner that has struggled for a long time to sell their property with no luck. In this case the home owners were relocated and living in another province, stuck paying a second mortgage on a home they couldn’t sell. This home in the Spryfield area had been on and off the market for over a year, with two different real estate agents. Marco Di’Qunizio of Press Realty took this listing over and enlisted Staged for Upsell to stage the main rooms, living room, dining room, kitchen, master bedroom and bathrooms.
You enter the home in the living room area and it’s a small space, leaving you questioning what furniture you can fit in the room, and wondering if your sofa will even fit. You see, that’s one of the problems with a vacant property – they seem smaller without furniture in them! Too much furniture and they seem small as well, it’s having just enough furniture and the right size furniture that will make the room feel the most spacious.
This property had dark red walls in the living room, and a slightly retro kitchen. The home owners actually asked the realtor, Marco if I could stage the property slightly retro in the spirit of the home when they lived there. The reality was, that’s exactly how I saw the property even in it’s vacant state. Contemporary is the best way to go when selling your home, however, you really have to go with the feeling of the home. Bringing contemporary furniture into a home that feels retro only serves to make the home feel even more out of date. You have to embrace the feeling of the home, or things just feel out of place when it’s staged in a different style…good luck selling it then! Seeing that this home was under $200,000 I also knew we were targeting first time home buyers.
I brought in a small sectional that fit the space perfectly, and set up a seating area in the adjacent corner. For a coffee table and end table I used pieces that were glass to keep the space open, but slightly retro or mid century modern feeling. Creating interest in the room also took the buyers eyes away from the slightly rough condition of the room, and allowed the buyer to see how much furniture the space could accommodate and how potentially to decorate it without having to paint it right away.
The other room that was a concern during the staging consult was the dinning room. We even contemplated which room we would use for the dining room. One was very small and lead out to the deck, the other one a room further back off the kitchen. We chose the smaller one, and I used a small glass table that fit the space to make the room feel larger.
After approximately a year on the market, staged and sold in less than 24 hours
The good news is, it went on the market and that night they received an offer! I really do love it when this happens, it’s a great feeling to help sell a property that has become such a burden, financially and emotionally for someone.
I have people ask me is house staging actually works. I have great stories like this all the time!
