Providing Services to Prepare the Home for Sale

It can be very expensive to have items that are only used for one thing.

Yes we do charge rent for our items when we stage but it takes a lot time to recuperate the expense and breakage.

Recently I purchased two mirrors to hang on a wall.  One was to hide an ugly circuit breaker box on the left side of a window.  The other was to balance the look and went on the other side of the window.    I took marker pens and wrote cute things i.e.   Call me when you get home, on one of them.  The other had a grocery list.

They were purcahsed at Target and we horrible to hang.  I think someone was drunk when they attached the hangers to the back.  I could not get them to hand straight without poster putty on the corners.

I thought I'd never be able to use them again.

This week, the dinamic duo, used one for a bed table.

Clever we are

The home owner loved it.

Bill Bouscher of Prudential Great Lakes Realty gets it.  He understands staging.   Company statistics for 2009 indicate that he was number one, in closings, for December and ninth in his company for the year.

What makes Bill so successful?  He is a professional.  He understands the power of getting the home ready for the market.   His team approach of using Stage-Show-Sell, LLC to prepare the homes and his pricing strategy have made him successful.

Every home that we teamed up on, when the seller used his pricing, had an offer within two weeks of hitting the market.  The sellers who didn't use his suggested listing price stayed on the market longer.

Their homes had offers within two weeks when the sellers agreed to reduce the price to his suggested lising price.

Price, condition and location are the keys to a successful closing.   Bill Bouscher and Stage-Show-Sell, LLC is the successful team.

Are Stage-Show-Sell,LLC and teamwork the key   to his success?

Tomorrow I get to de-stage this Royal Oak home.   I'm very proud to say that again it had a MULTIPLE offers within  two weeks after staging.   This time it will close.

The realtor is singing my praises.   The owner loves me She knows the reason is selling is the staging.   She asked me not to de-stage until the papers are signed.  That doesn't work here.  We must de-stage before closing or she will have to pay rent to the purchaser.   That gets real messy.

Please all of you keep your fingers crossed that this house closes Friday at 3.

Transaction closed with record breaking speek.  Everyone is so pleased.

Staging works

Tis the season to be de-cluttering.  Thought you all thought I was going to say Jolly.  :-)

Well I do wish for the Jolly but I want to stress the de-cluttering.

This time of the year we give gifts and we receive gifts.  Some of the gifts we really like and others well we could really do without.

Now before grabbing all those gifts and shoving them in the closet take a hard look at what you already have.

What you all ready have a dust buster?  and now you have another one !!    Decide if you want to return the new one (Good luck) without a receipt and get half the money the gifter (think I made up that word) paid for it.  Toss out or donate the old one and get a income tax credit for it   (my favorite is donating things that work)   Or a really fun thing is to thing of who really needs one and put it away for re-gifting during the year.  Put a tag on it so you know who its for AND MARK YOUR CALENDAR for that person birthday that you already have the gift.

Great time to be singing Whistle While You Work and enjoy.

Dump that closet that's always been too full.  Throw everything on the bed from your closet.   Put them in stacks of sizes.  Yes we all have severl sizes in our closet. Toss out the ones that are too big because none of us want to go back there.   Toss out the ones that are several sizes smaller than what we are wearing.   Let's face it, no matter how many New Years resolutions we make to exercise and loose weight, it's going to take time to get there.   Time means style changes.   The clothes are ugly by the time we get down to the weight we want to be AND when we get there we deserve new clothes.

Get your kids in on the action.   Have them dump their toys out and decide which one are complete.  Which ones they haven't played with in a long time and are still good for donating and which ones need to go out the door. This really makes the kids feel good when they know that their toys are going someone else for someone to play with.

Oh right, they are all collectibles.  Right.  They are only collectible when you are buying them.  Not when you are selling them. I know because of all the estate sales   The truly great toys like Lego ...keep for your grand kids.

Pretend you are moving and do you want to pay someone $$ for shipping things that you haven't used for years.

Now go out there and make this time your Boxing Day.  Box things up and get rid of them.  It will make you want to sing.   Tis the Season to be Jolly Fa La La La La La La

December 2009 this condo was prepared for sale by Stage-Show-Sell, LLC

Taking is from the 1960s to now should help the marketing of the condo

Cleaning is more than dusting a vacumning.  It's looking at the house with a buyers eye.   First impressions count that's why it's important from the front door be clean and shinny and that includes the doorknobs.  The windows need to sparkly and show the outdoors

These small and economical changes to the condo will bring the buyers in.

I know that you all think that I'm making this stuff up.  No way.  This is an actual estate that I've been working on.

The family loved living with wallpaper and saw no need to change it.

The home is now neutral, warm and inviting

Yes the closet was wallpapered

♠

Wallpaper is gone and hardwood floors exposed

The closet paper matched the walls of the master bedroom

This is the same room.  The paper is done and the hardwood floors exposed.

I can't tell you what a pleasure it has been to work on this home and make this transformation.

♠

Two months of preparation including the estate sale.

Please vist my posts on the kitchen transformation

Changing the Family Room

The laundry room transformation

Bathroom♠

Old ceiling post 

I realize that I'm miking this project into several posts :-)

There is no way that I'm going to work my heart and soul out for two months and put up one set of before and after pictures.

This was one of the ugliest bathrooms that I've ever seen.  The wall paper itself was bad.  The shutters, yellow tiles and yellow sinks added to the eye strain.

I love the flower toilet seat

I was expecting mold under the paper since it was a damp room and the shutters allowed no light.  It was a surprise to find good walls underneath

The double sink was replaced with a sink sink and a marble looking counter top

Th medicine cabinet and and light fixture had to stay for economy purposes.

We used the same mirror and framed it.

I have a wonderful crew.  Wall paper strippers, painters, electricians.

My husband helped me with the mirror framing and Marianne Sweet helped with the staging.

My crew is wonderful.

There is one sink now instead of two.  This gives a little counter space.

The cabinet's 3rd drawer, next to the toilet, has two shelves for items and a built in waste basket.

Stage-Show-Sell, LLC does more than stage. We do everything that is necessary, within the budget, to prepare the home for sale.

We look forward to feedback from agents and buyers

A few weeks ago I wrote and asked for AR help

i-m-flummoxed-with-these-two-rooms-help-me

I read all of your advice and did what I could with the budget given me.  This home was a little different than the homes that I normally work with.  The family was 'very close' in watching the process.

Most of the estates I work with I'm given a little more free ride with the preparations for sale.

After

Given free reign I would have  replaced the sink with a bigger laundry tub.  The cabinet would have accomodated it.

The carpet was removed with the wallpaper and shelving

Given my way.....I would have removed the wall between the laundry and mud rooms, making it much larger.  My process would have been cheaper too.

To see more of the process and photos click on the last photo

This Royal Oak condo has been on the market for the last two years.   Other condos in the complex have been selling and they were all in the same basic price range.

The condo has a lot to offer.  It has garage parking, and elevator from the garage to the units floor.

Could it be that the presentation just wasn't there?

This Royal Oak condo is now ready to go on the market

Click on this knocker and watch the transformation of this condo.  There are two shows connected for your viewing

Only time will tell if this is the magic that it takes to sell it.

Stage-Show-Sell stages at affordable prices.

The process included paint, light fixtures, door knobs, staging and carpet.  Much less than the price reduction they were ready to take.

almost a year ago I wrote a blog about taking it all off and how the extra details mean a lot.

Right now I'm working on two estate and the same time.  This has really been a challenge.   One is a nice little condo in Royal Oak that has been on the market for 2 years.  Other units have been slowly selling around it and this one has stayed on the market.

The realtor brought me in thinking that I could do some magic.

The first thing that struck me was the front door knocker.   Being a condo we needed to stay in the same theme as everyone else so I made a great change with a little polish.

This is what it looked like the first day.

And then the next day.   Do you think this will make a difference?

The 2nd Estate is in Bloomfield Township.  It was built in 1963 and has had very few updates. See they wallpapered the ceiling.   This house has been a challenge because very very few of the electrical outlets and switches were grounded.

This is the old style electrical outlet

These were not grounded although the outlets had grounding wire in the wall.

They have been now replaced with three prong grounded plugs

We have also installed GFI where they are needed.

These things take a little bit longer when getting a house for the market.

Stage-Show-Sell, LLC feels that this investment will bring in an extra $10K.   The buyer won't beat us up for bad electrical.

The Bloomfield Twp. home will have it's pre-listing inspection today.

Both of these Estates will be market ready in the next couple of days.

Watch for the before and after shots.