Before & After: spacious but dated lake-front home

A friend of a friend flew me out to North Carolina to help update her lake-front home:

Bedroom (office) #3 BEFORE: Full of clutter, dark and uninviting, many buyers asked "where is the 3rd bedroom in this house?" because they couldn't "see" it.

Bedroom #3 AFTER: A soft accent color on the headboard wall, an actual BED, soothing colors. Now it's REALLY a bedroom... with room for a home office (at right).

Great Room BEFORE: That futon is NOT helping! Neither is the dated light fixture and lack of overall lighting.

Great Room AFTER: Now, new sofa & chair, art and proper lighting, plus a new paint color to makes the fireplace pop! Now this great room works!


Above, another view of the Great Room: While not the height of fashion, the classic 1980's oak tables do work well with the new sofa and chair, but they were wasted in the Living Room. That's staging.... mixing old and new so your costs don't overrun, but you still have a pleasant home that will sell!

Even in this market, staging works...

Real Estate Staging Association® (RESA®) the member run trade association for professional stagers, has released statistics on the effectiveness of Real Estate Staging and the results are pretty darn cool. The study included 126 vacant and occupied homes previously on the market, on average 263 days unsold. Those same homes were staged and... they sold in 60 days on average. This is 78% less time on the market after staging.

Not only that, 284 vacant and occupied homes that were staged BEFORE they went on the market, sold in 40.5 days on average after staging.

www.RealEstateStagingAssociation.com

Stage your exterior? Absolutely!

BEFORE: Yes, people really DO live this way! Even this newer home looks old and dingy with clutter around.

AFTER: Clean and pleasant! You would think this is obvious, but I can't tell you how many times I've had to help clients de-clutter and stage their home's exterior.  If you'll give me a call, I can help you too.