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