Update: This lovely home received multiple offers after staging. Sadly, after we de-staged the house the deal fell through and this home is now back on the market.
Multiple Offers After Home Staging in Boulder, CO
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Category Archives: Sellers
Staging Sells Mountain Home in Nederland
This beautiful home in Nederland, Colorado sat on the market for over a year before the sellers called us to stage it. 
Two of the bathrooms and the kitchen had been updated and it had gorgeous views, floor to ceiling windows, a private master suite in the treetops and gleaming hardwood floors. The seller had been renting the home for some of the time it was on the market and it was showing less than it’s best.
A few updates in the master bedroom such as carpeting and paint as well as new paint in a second bedroom, enhance curb appeal and re-finishing the deck helped this home entrance buyers. After staging the home received two offers in a matter of weeks. See the photos of the transformation.
Walk-out Family Room Before
Walk Out Family Room After
Things I Hate Telling Home Sellers
Today, I decided to make my post a lot more like a “Dear Diary” entry.
Dear Diary,
I’m going to confide some of the deepest darkest truths that I hate telling home sellers. So here goes. In no particular order:
1. Your house stinks. This is a tough one. I always look around and try to spot the source of the smell. Sometimes it literally knocks you over from the front door and when you live there, you can’t smell it. It can be delicate, and it can be tricky but I can’t be a chicken and let my clients be one of those “Smelly cat” properties that sends good buyers running for the hills and gets the investors all excited because they know they will be buying for pennies on the dollar.
2. The paint colors you have lovingly and painstakingly selected are not great for selling. In fact, they are terrible. Continue reading
On-line Photos Are the New Curb Appeal
Did you know that buyers review hundreds of homes on-line but will statistically only tour a dozen before making an offer?
This is why having fabulous on-line photos is critical.
If you want to get more interested and qualified buyers through the door of your home, you need to intrigue buyers with your internet marketing. Now I know you are thinking “That’s what my agent is for.” And yes, your agent is the one who will put your photos on the MLS and arrange for the home to be photographed. But you are the one who determines how good those photos are:
Here are a few simple tips that will make your shots look better: Continue reading
Tips on Choosing Your Boulder Area Real Estate Agent
Choosing a fabulous real estate agent is critical if you want to successfully sell your home, especially if you want to do it quickly and get top dollar.
It’s always good to get referrals and to interview more than one agent. Here are seven tips to consider when it comes to selecting a listing agent:
1. Choose someone who 
practices real estate full-time in your area.
They should specialize in selling homes like yours and be very familiar with your city and neighborhood. You need full-time effort when it comes to selling too. This isn’t the time to choose the neighbor lady who sells 3 houses per year because she is just so nice. Selling your home is a business transaction, a big one. Choose an expert who will give your listing full time effort.
2. Review their other listings on-line.
Is Fido Chasing Away Buyers?
Your cat or dog is part of the family. As an avid animal lover and lifetime pet companion myself, I have to guard against the slight feelings of mistrust I feel towards people who don’t love my animals. Many sellers have cats and dogs. Some even have more exotic pets. The cold, hard truth though is that many buyers don’t like them. Some people have allergies, some don’t like the smells, or the hair, some are worried about past carpet damage, some are afraid of specific breeds.
Further, all of the trappings of pet ownership detract from the selling features of our home. I’ve walked into many a living room and the very first thing I see is a huge dog bed, covered in half chewed raw hides (yuck) or worse, Continue reading
Be Aggressive! Be, Be Aggressive!
I was never a cheerleader. I was a pom-pom girl and while I didn’t cheer, I still remember this chant from my high school glory days.
For home owners who are serious about selling and need to do it fast – being aggressive is a necessity. How can you be aggressive you may ask? After all, I’m obviously not talking about yelling, doing high kicks or shaking your pom-poms. I am talking about shaking your money-maker though, and in this case, your money-maker is the preparation and packaging of your home..
There are 3 aggressive steps that are absolutely critical: Continue reading
Don’t Paint it White!
Somehow word has gotten out that white is a good color to paint when selling your home. Unless you live in a light filled contemporary home, full of windows and on a beach or in an uber modern abode, this could not be further from the truth. Simply put, when it comes to selling, white walls are not your friend.
True, a neutral color is a must when it comes to staging – the key word is color. The house should feel light and bright, yet warm and comfortable. White is cold. White spaces feel stark and they don’t complement most furniture and accessories. White walls will not generate the desired response in your buyers, but many colors will. Choosing a color when selling is completely different from choosing a color when you decorate your home to live. You want to remove your personality from the home so that the new buyers can imagine themselves living there. But you don’t want the house to have NO personality, i.e. white walls, you want it to have a neutral personality – one that could work with all different styles, tastes and colors of furniture. Think Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware or Crate & Barrel when choosing a paint color. Notice how the strong colors are typically in the amazing accessories?
Soft tans and beiges work well as can Continue reading
We Don’t Need No Staging
Your taste is superb. Your home is decorated perfectly. You are proud of your design, the wall colors you have chosen and your cool accessories. There is no way that you need a home stager. After all, your place is kickin’.
Here’s the thing about selling though. Home staging has nothing to do with how good of a decorator you are. It doesn’t mean that your taste isn’t good or that you are bad at decorating. Home staging is about marketing your home to a specific target buyer. It’s about using principles of design and purchase psychology to get you a specific result; a financial result. It is about packaging your home to appeal to the people who will be laying down their hard-earned cash to buy it – odds are their taste is different from yours.
- Staging can show you the money.
Selling your home is a business and you are now the VP of Marketing.
Sure your real estate agent will make sure Continue reading
What Home Staging Isn’t…
We’ve talked before about what home staging is – properly preparing your house to meet your home selling goals. Home staging makes your home appealing to your target buyer and packages your product a step above your competition to bring in the offers.
But let’s talk for a moment about what home staging isn’t. For your consideration, my top ten:
- Home staging is not decorating – home staging is about packaging your home for the target buyer.
- Home staging is not plastic food on the counter, wine glasses next to the bathtub or cookies in the oven– these old staging tricks are tired and ineffective.