08-12-2006, 03:54 AM
We put our Northern California house on the market in March.
We did a number of the things that Noel and Les did. Paint is a great (and cheap) way to brighten up the house. Our living room walls were all white and at the suggestion of our realtor we painted an accent wall. It provided a nice look to the room.
We did hire a stager. The $1,000 was worth it. She brought in an elegant chair that blended with our stuff, lots of pillows, plants for each room and classy little knick knacks. We removed some of our larger furniture (gave it away) and removed all pictures (to let potential buyers imagine them in the house, not us).
Also...towels. The stager recommended buying new towels. At first I thought it was a waste of money, but its amazing what a bunch of new, fluffy white towels does for a bathroom. Of course, you can't actually use them or you lose the yummy smell.
We had remodeled the kitchen and bathrooms a few years ago. These upgrades really helped to sell the house.
We had it on the market for 2 weeks and closed by mid-April.
One thing that no one has mentioned is the emotional aspect of selling a house. Ours was our first and it was hard for me to part with it. The staging and getting rid of our stuff made it seem less like the house we had lived in for 8 years. For me, this helped.
Good luck to everyone.
Robin
We did a number of the things that Noel and Les did. Paint is a great (and cheap) way to brighten up the house. Our living room walls were all white and at the suggestion of our realtor we painted an accent wall. It provided a nice look to the room.
We did hire a stager. The $1,000 was worth it. She brought in an elegant chair that blended with our stuff, lots of pillows, plants for each room and classy little knick knacks. We removed some of our larger furniture (gave it away) and removed all pictures (to let potential buyers imagine them in the house, not us).
Also...towels. The stager recommended buying new towels. At first I thought it was a waste of money, but its amazing what a bunch of new, fluffy white towels does for a bathroom. Of course, you can't actually use them or you lose the yummy smell.
We had remodeled the kitchen and bathrooms a few years ago. These upgrades really helped to sell the house.
We had it on the market for 2 weeks and closed by mid-April.
One thing that no one has mentioned is the emotional aspect of selling a house. Ours was our first and it was hard for me to part with it. The staging and getting rid of our stuff made it seem less like the house we had lived in for 8 years. For me, this helped.
Good luck to everyone.
Robin