Just a quick update

Life has been a whirlwind the past couple of months.  We have settled into our new place and it is awesome!  We are fully unpacked (that took a while).  We've had family visitors (my mom, Mike's parents).  We have purchased some new furniture (that was fun).  And we have started to organize things a bit.  Our to do list has a lot of painting on it, but we're happy just to be where we are!

 

How to build a bed for staging your house to sell

In my opinion, staging your home to sell should be all about using what you have.  That being said,  you still need to be smart about it. If nothing you have could be considered neutral or appeal to the masses, you may need to invest in a few essentials.  (Or hire me to come stage your house for you.)To stage our master bedroom, we used our headboard (queen size) and some extra bedding we had on hand.  Since we needed our box spring and mattress to sleep on at the new house, my initial plan was to use a queen size air mattress we had.  It didn't work!  It's a tall bed height air mattress and once filled with air was no longer bed shaped at all.  It bowed out at the sides and made the bedding look terrible!  I knew there had to be a better way.  Since we had just moved the week prior, I was surrounded by empty moving boxes and became determined to make a bed out of them.  I enlisted my mom to help and this is what we came up with.

What you need:
9 large boxes, I used these from the Home Depot
A roll of packing tape
An old/cheap bed skirt you don't mind cutting, or this is another good option (you could also use fabric you have on hand)
Neutral Bedding & Pillows

The boxes weren't exactly the right size so we opened the flaps, taped them down and they were perfect!

I just happened to have this old bed skirt that had shrunk in the wash and didn't fit correctly anymore, so I cut it and taped it to the boxes.

I did put a queen size blanket on top of the boxes prior to adding the fitted sheet, just to give it a little loft and less of a "boxy" look.

Just tape your flat sheet in place and there you have it; instant bed!
Don't forget to add a tent card for showings "Please do not sit on bed.  For display only"

 

Staging and Selling

With a brand new (larger) mortgage to pay, it became very important to get our old house listed and sold as fast as possible.  We decided to move out of our old house first before attempting to sell.  Trying to keep a place clean and show ready while working full-time, living with a three year old, a six month old and a dog was not going to happen.  I'm brave, but not crazy.  In hindsight, this was a very wise decision!

Having worked in the real estate industry in CA (2006), I knew how important staging would be for a quick sale.  Rather than pay somebody ($2000) to do it for us, we left some of our own furniture at the old place specifically for this purpose.  This is what the realtor's photographer/staging coordinator had to say: "The house looks super cute - nice work! Rachel, you should go into home staging."  Thank you.  I think so too!

The place did turn out really cute (if I do say so myself) and the photos for the multiple listing service looked great.  There was nothing left for us to do except sit back and wait for the offers to pour in.  And believe it or not, they did!  We had multiple offers (even an all cash offer) within the first 24 hours! The house sold in two days and for over our asking price!

View of our little yellow love shack from the street

Living Room (we installed those floors ourselves in 2012; I miss them)

Living Room

Office (this used to be our son's bedroom)

CLEAN kitchen with spotless appliances, fresh grout and minimal accessorizing

Dining Room (I removed all curtains/valances, very important for staging as they do NOT photograph well)

Kitchen & Dining (CLEAN is key! Minimal accessorizing. I didn't even put that plant on the table, the photographer did, I would have gone bare.)

Main bathroom; minimal accessorizing, brand new towels and fresh grout. Again, CLEAN is key!

Master Bedroom: That is not a real bed. I built it from cardboard boxes. I will show you how later.

Master Bathroom: Clean grout, fresh flowers and brand new towels

Secondary bedrooms are ok to leave vacant. This room used to be our nursery.

Photo credit to Krista Deutsch-Frey for Templeton Real Estate Group

Making a move

We did it.  We rented a U-Haul, called up some friends and said goodbye to our little yellow love shack.  Our new place closed on January 10th and we moved on the 11th.  We are still trying to get organized and settled, but we are loving our new home!  Next up: staging and selling a house.  Stay tuned!