Wanna Sell It??? Then Stage It!!! Part 3

Real Estate Friend Team recently staged a $700K home in LagoMar, Virginia Beach, Virginia.  This home had nice furnishing, but needed to be rearranged so that each room's purpose was obvious, and that flow from one room to the next was smooth because it had such an open floor plan.  It also needed to be decluttered and organized.

BEFORE: Entry looking into living room (left) and family room (right)

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AFTER:  Same furniture, just rearranged for better flow.  The entry table from the before picture was distracting and made the eye stop there with all the little picture frames and trinkets, instead of the eye being drawn to the large family room and nice built-ins.  We also pulled about 50% off the items off the built-ins to make them look less cluttered.  When closets and storage areas are too full of stuff, it makes prospective buyers think the home doesn't have enough storage.

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DON'T FORGET... WE STAGE ALL OUR LISTINGS FOR FREE!! :)

Wanna Sell It??? Then Stage It!!! Part 2

More Before and Afters:

Here's a home in Landstown Meadows that we staged this summer... it was quick and inexpensive (just a little paint and a few accessories, some borrowed, some bought). These Before and Afters show what a day or two of staging can do for a property... And don't forget we stage all our new listings for FREE! :)

Before: Foyer- Bad brown trim and boring.

After: Brightened up with white trim & a few accessories.

Before: Stairwell and living room- Dark trim, nothing warm or inviting.

After: White trim brightens and tasteful, minimal decor and accessories warms & cozies it up.

Before: Bathroom- Not the best paint color ever, and lacking interest

After: Same wall color, but with the right accessories it works.

Before: Eat-in-Kitchen- Bad dark trim again, and nothing to catch your eye.

After: White trim brightens the whole sapce, a table and chairs invites you to enjoy the view.

Before: Kitchen- very basic, and a lot of brown

After: A few pops of color from a few accessories and that white trim make a big difference.

*This house sold in half the average market time in Virginia Beach!*

Staging Sells:

Call us and get our staging services FREE!

You don't have to care about real estate (or trailers) to love this video, courtesy of Inman News. "Best real estate ad ever"

Buying a home is no laughing matter ;)

Wanna Sell It??? Then Stage It!!!

What exactly is staging?  It's not decorating or interior design as many would think.  Staging is about depersonalizing and  decluttering.  Its is about making the home appeal to the broadest range of buyers as possible... Here are a few of our "Before and Afters" to illustrate staging in action.


BEFORE: Family Room: over-stuffed and cluttered.

AFTER: Same furniture, paint, etc... just decluttered, depersonalized and suddenly inviting!

BEFORE: Kitchen: Yikes! Fridge is covered with papers, counters have way too many items on them.

AFTER: Clutter gone, fridge cleared off, floor picked up, a $15 bromeliad makes a statement...

BEFORE: Bedroom: Holy Purple!  Crazy piles of clothes and clutter.

AFTER: The purple is still there, but we decluttered, moved the furniture a bit, made a valance from a sheet, and voila, it still looks so much better (even with the Barney Purple!)

Last one for today...
BEFORE: Bathroom: As per S.O.P, more clutter and nothing interesting here.

AFTER: Clutter gone, and 2 little accessories make a big difference.

***All 4 of these rooms were from the same home. Before we went in to stage, this house had been on the market for OVER A YEAR!!! After we finished this quick, 2 day job, we had an offer in 21 DAYS!!! And we never had to change the price... same price + new staging = QUICK SALE!!!***

The REAL ESTATE FRIEND TEAM offers FREE STAGING for all our listings!!! We do this because it truly makes a difference in terms of how quickly the home sells, and how much it sells for...

According to StagedHomes.com,

"94% of professionally staged homes

sell in 37 days or less"

This may not sound that impressive, but right now in Hampton Roads, homes are on the market an average of 150+ days!   I'll take 37!  Please contact us if you'd like more info on our FREE STAGING SERVICES.

411: Home Buyer Tax Credit Extension

The extension and expansion of the homebuyer tax credit is the pending business in the Senate. After a long week of negotiation on the credit, an agreement on the scope of both expansion and extension has been reached. The extension is part of a larger bill that has not yet gone to a vote, however.

A Senate vote on the underlying bill will occur in the Senate during the week of November 1. The package will then go back to the House. The House is expected to accept the Senate amendments, vote on the package and send it to the President for signature. The underlying bill is an extension of unemployment benefits.

Other provisions in the bill include expansion of the net operating loss carryback rules, new requirements for some tax return preparers and noncontroversial provisions that "pay for" these changes.

The agreement on the extension and expansion of the credit is as follows:


• Credit will be available for purchases before May 1, 2010. Prospective purchasers with binding contracts in place as of April 30, 2010 will be allowed an additional 60 days to complete the transaction.


• Credit remains at $8,000 for first-time buyers. No change to definition of first-time purchaser.


• New $6,500 tax credit for repeat buyers who purchase between December 1, 2009 and May 1, 2010. Repeat buyers must have lived in their homes consecutively for five of the previous eight years.


• Income limits are expanded to $125,000 on a single return and $225,000 on a joint return. Current law $20,000 phase-out retained.

• New anti-fraud limitations are imposed.

The White House has indicated that President Obama will sign the legislation.

Source: National Association of Realtors®