Staging is a beautiful thing...
The purpose of home staging is to maximize a seller's sales price and to shorten the time a home is on the market by creating excitement and emotional appeal in the buying audience.
Understanding the importance of home staging is essential in planning the sale of your home in the Greater Cleveland marketplace. Both Chris and Julie are Accredited Staging Professional (ASP) REALTORs and are acutely aware of the importance of presenting an appealing home to buyers.
While some Realtors will talk about preparing your home for sale, and may even mention the word "staging," you should always evaluate the following: 1) actual homes staged and sold, 2) a before and after portfolio, 3) market statistics for their staged homes, 4) references from home sellers, and 5) ability and resources to bring in other high-powered staging professionals, as well as competent tradespeople, to stage your home in a short amount of time with exceptional and cost-effective results.
Our goal is to educate our clients about the entire process of home staging and, while staging is an optional service we provide, we have found it to be a critical element in selling a home. Staging can range from a little "sprucing up" to painting rooms, to rearranging furniture, to fully furnishing a vacant home. In addition, because we have the most competent and cost-effective resources at our fingertips, we offer redesign and renovation services to our sellers.
Because we have been so successful, we also provide staging, redesign, and renovation services to homeowners who are not currently selling or who are planning to sell in the future and want to benefit from our recommendations and our cost-effective solutions. Sometimes these homeowners are our own buyer clients!
It is important to know that home staging, oftentimes, does not cost much in terms of dollars. It is usually an investment in labor which many clients take on themselves under our guidance. If you decide you want to stage your home, we will conduct an extensive evalulation at no cost to you, and provide a FREE staging report. We will walk through your home with you, room by room, using the report, so you will know exactly what the recommendations are and how to implement them.
Every single aspect of Olsen Ziegler Realty is designed to maximize your financial bottom line, not ours! And by doing so, you will gladly refer us to your family friends and colleagues. We welcome the opportunity to work with you.
We invite you to view a sample of the homes we have staged, redesigned, and/or renovated!
Twinsburg, Ohio - Fall 2007
Sold in 23 days for 98.5% of agent recommended list price while the other homes in the neighborhood were sitting on the market!Clean, crisp & uncluttered. Focal points accented, exceptional digital photography and a showcase listing on Realtor.com made this home standout and pop from the exceptionally large inventory of homes for sale! This home also entered the market in the slow Fall 2007 season, after the sub-prime meltdown, with exceptionally high inventory levels in the strongest buyers' market in recorded history!
Staging is much more than just decluttering. It is creating a focal point, determining the right accessories, size and placement of furniture, artwork, sense of light, color and a host of other important aspects to put buyers at ease so they can "feel" and see themselves living in the home. An ASP can help create all of this--there is no subsitute for experience, education, training and success!
Cleveland Heights, Ohio - Spring 2007
Sold in 57 days on a major commuter road in the strongest buyer's market on record! This home was co-owned by an interior designer and was already in very good condition and tastefully appointed. However, it still needed staging to anchor the focal point of the home - the 34x18 living room. It also needed some finishing touches throughout. Note: This home was staged immediately upon listing and some rooms did not get photographed beforehand.
Westlake, Ohio - January 2007
Sold in 9 days for full price in an exceptionally strong buyer's market in January 2007 (the slowest month of the year)!
Shaker Heights, Ohio - May 2008
Extreme makeover in Shaker Heights! This stately home on one of Shaker's finest streets was on the market previously for six months with another top Realtor affiliated with a large real estate brokerage. The owner approached us and asked for a second opinion on why this home hadn't sold, nor had any offers in the previous six months. After touring the home, it quickly became apparent that there were many issues to address, typical issues such as outdated carpeting over hardwood floors, dated paint and wallpaper, and unappealing decor, all of which were easily changed. The main problem was an inherently bad kitchen design that suffered from a huge kitchen peninsula that impeded flow, and an extreme lack of natural light that made the kitchen seem dark and claustrophobic. We removed the peninsula, created a pass-through to the breakfast room which allowed for lots of light, and repainted the pumpkin-colored walls a light color to open up the room. In addition, the master bedroom had a shared entrance with another bedroom that was very awkward, and did not allow for a true master bath, which is expected in a home of this price range. We removed the second entrance to this bath and removed two closets which adjoined the two bedrooms, the second of which was too small to be a true bedroom. This created both a true master bath AND a guest-suite with it's own private bath. Many other updates made this home a showpiece, and, in addition to competitively pricing it in a very strong buyer's market, resulted in a sale in no time. Access to quality and extremely cost-efficient contractors made this project doable. This cost would easily have been doubled had a retail consumer attempted this scope of work, let alone take this project from the first meeting the the seller to project completion, on-time, on-budget in 9 weeks.
Richmond Heights, Ohio - April 2008
This home sold in 16 days for 98% of list price when only 11% of the competing homes were under contract! This was accomplished by thorough and creative home staging, competitive pricing and innovative Internet marketing! This home was in great shape to start with, and was 98% of the way there before we even walked through the door. This home was already decluttered and clean as a whistle. This home simply needed some minor rearranging of furniture and accessories, removal of some furniture to allow better flow, removal of some accessories, the addition of sheers in one room and a few maintenance suggestions and this home outshined it's competition!
University Heights - September 2006
This home was vacant, the owners had already moved. The outside was well-maintained, but on the inside, the hardwood floors were well worn, the paint was dated and tired, and some fixtures needed replacing. Vacant houses are cold and uninviting and don't allow most buyers to emotionally connect with them. I partnered with a staging professional who owns an inventory of furniture. She came in and furnished the home to add visual interest, create warmth, and allow a buyer to envision how the home could look. I also brought in the most cost-effective painter and hardwood floor refinisher. The owners had to borrow the staging/renovation money in order to make the changes, which added to the stress of already having double payments. Moreover, this home was competing with 78 other homes in a narrow 20K price band and only 3 were under contract; one of the three was a foreclosure. We were also up against the Fall season, which is a slower time of the year, in a very, very strong buyer's market. However, it sold for 97% of list price in 101 days. Without renovations, staging and competitive pricing from Day 1, this home would have sold for at least three times less than the investment in preparing it for sale, plus it would have been on the market for an indeterminate amount of time, and the owners would have continued with double payments.
Cleveland Heights - November 2008
EXTREME MAKEOVER, EXTREME SUCCESS
THE HISTORY--PAST and PRESENT: This homeowner tried to sell, unsuccessfully, for two years in 2005-2006. He then rented it until the tenant was evicted in May 2008. At the time he found Olsen Ziegler Realty, he was living in New Zealand. He found our website on the Internet and called to ask us to please take a look at his home and to let him know what we thought. We first visited the home on May 29, 2008. While this all-brick, colonial home had lovely qualities such as large rooms, a 3-car attached garage, four finished levels, 3 fireplaces, and a lovely, large roof deck, it had fallen into serious disrepair due to the tenants disregard for the property, and had an old, tired kitchen, outdated bathrooms, a wet basement with a distinct animal odor, and numerous deferred maintenance issues.
With the inventory levels approximately 300% higher than several years ago, most homes on the market were not (and are still not) selling coupled with the fact that the majority of the homes were in need of serious updating, we presented the owner with four options:
1) No investment. Initial Asking Price: $175,000. Projected Sales Price: $150,000. The pros are the home can be put on the market immediately and no investment.The cons are an uncertain amount of time on the market and a hard to forecast sales price.
2) 5-8K investment. Initial Asking Price: $200,000. Projected Sales Price: $180,000. The pros are 2-3 weeks to prepare for market (fairly quick) and and a relatively small investment. The cons are an uncertain amount of time on the market, a hard to forecast sales price and still an upfront investment.
3) 15-20K investment. Initial Asking Price: $225,000. Projected Sales Price: $200,000. The pros are an larger potential buyer pool and perhaps an easier sale. The cons are 4-6 weeks to prepare for market, a larger upfront investment and while an easier sale might occur, the kitchen still could not be renovated, and this is the #1 feature buyers evaluate.
4) 30-40K investment. Initial Asking Price: $250,000-$260,000. Projected Sales Price: $240,000-$250,000. The renovation work would be managed by us using our resources and would cost much less than for him to attempt to do it on his own—especially from New Zealand! The pros are an extremely competitive home on the market as the condition will be stellar and there won't be many, if any comparable homes, condition wise. This usually shortens the time on the market and well as increases the sales price and ultimately, the seller's financial bottom line. The cons are 8 weeks to prepare for market and and a significant upfront investment.
We evaluated the work required, utilizing our extensive contracting resources to obtain estimates, and estimated a projected cost of $30-40K to renovate and restore the home from top to bottom. After looking at the dismal prospect of selling at a $75-100K loss or not selling at all, the owner decided to trust us (after calling previous sellers whom we have done similar work for and acheived remarkable success) and invest the $30-40K to renovate this fine home. After owner approval, we immediately got to work with a timeline of 8 weeks from start to finish—we wanted the house on the market before summer ended.
BLOOD, SWEAT, and MINIMAL TEARS: We managed all the various contractors, including painters, general contractor, hardwood floor refinishers, landscapers, drain cleaners, plumbers, etc. Julie worked on the design of the kitchen with the general contractor and selected the cabinetry, appliances, granite countertops, hardware, lighting, and paint color. She selected all the materials for the bathrooms including vanities, mirrors, light fixtures, and plumbing fixtures as well as interior paint colors and basement carpet. Chris supervised the deferred maintenance items, many of which were discovered along the way, and ensured that all contractors provided quality work including basement waterproofing, masonry work, outdoor drain cleaning and snaking, window cleaners, gutter cleaners, and the City of Cleveland Heights point of sale inspection. In addition, furniture was rented and accessories were brought in for staging key rooms to create emotional and visual appeal.
THE RESULT: The home went on the market on August 8, 2008, just before the economy started to seriously melt down. Everything was completed on time and only $75 over budget (we added one minor painting item towards the end of the project). The home had a total of 7 showings, 2 second showings and 2 offers on the same day! It went under contract on October 25, 2008, exactly 78 days from the day it went on the market. At the time this home sold, no other homes were under contract in Cleveland Hts. within a $75K price band, ie, $200-275K.
THE ANALYSIS: Olsen Ziegler Realty, together with the homeowner and all of the contractors, brought this home to market in 2 months and sold it, with multiple offers, in 78 days, in the worst housing market in generations. This speaks volumes about this very smart homeowner who seriously understood the challenges of the housing market. He evaluated his options, made the hard choices, had the work performed in a cost-effective manner, and successfully sold his home $20 per square foot higher than the average asking price per square foot of all competing properties.
The sales price of $245K minus the $34,618 renovation/deferred maintenance investment resulted in a net sales price of $210,382.Had nothing been done to the property and, perchance, someone had purchased it at approximately $150K, the homeowner’s net would have been at least $60,000 less and the length of time on the market would have been much longer, thereby increasing carrying costs as well.
While we understand that not all sellers can invest dollars or take out loans in order to make their home appeal to buyers in this market, this seller realized the difference between protecting his financial bottom line and simply rolling the dice. Every home is unique, some need almost no work, some require moderate work, and some need a lot of attention. Olsen Ziegler Realty works with home sellers to come up with solid and creative solutions for maximizing a home's sales price and minimizing a home's time on the market!