Home Staging Stories - II

This is the 2nd installment to my first Home Staging story.  I am not a professional home stager but in my 24 years in real estate and reading and watching shows on staging homes, I feel I can offer some free expertise on the subject.  Plus, I'm experienced on what buyers want and expect and how most buyers are visual and cannot see past what is in front of them.

Another story I remember is about a home for sale in Oak Lawn that was a unique floor plan that one builder incorporated into a particular subdivision in the area in the 1960's.  I have never seen this same home since.  It was a nice home that had a few full, wide steps up from the living room, giving it the appearance of it being a "sunken living room."  Not quite a 3-step ranch, not a raised ranch, not a bi-level, but something a little different.  I think there were a handful of these homes built but I haven't shown any others.  It was a really neat floor plan.

An older couple lived in the home and were retiring to Florida.  They already had their retirement home but were anxious to get their Oak Lawn property sold.  The house was neat and clean & everything had it's place and was well organized, but I had a couple suggestions.  First, the carpet in the living room was white with stains from the grandkids that the sellers tried cleaning without luck.  The stains were obvious and the carpet on the wide stairs up was different.  Neither carpets were new and I suggested buying new carpet.  They didn't "buy" my suggestion.  I realize it was a big investment and a pain but I thought it would make a huge difference.

Next, in the master bedroom there was a bad spot by one of the windows.  They told me it was when the window was left open during a bad rain storm.  The drywall showed obvious water damage and I explained how buyers would be scared of seeing this and might just pass the house by because of this one bad spot.  I suggested fixing it and painting the bedroom.  The husband came back with, "But buyers want to choose their own paint and do it themselves."  He just wouldn't accept the fact that this was more than just painting since there was a repair needed.

Two of the other bedrooms were painted very bright colors - a super bright yellow and a bright lime green.  I suggested neutralizing these rooms, especially since the trend was neutral decor at the time (this was in the late '80's, early '90's).  Again, they refused to make the changes.  I mentioned their outdated foil 1970's wallpaper in the kitchen that had loud orange, avocado green, brown and mustard yellow colors.  I knew they wouldn't do it but I had to let them know what possible problems might arise.  I'm surprised they gave me the listing with all the changes I told them should be done.

To make a long story short, the house had showings but no offers.  The feedback was everything I had told them to change.  Instead of making these changes, they kept reducing the price.  At the time, a $20,000 reduction was a lot (if I can remember, we had the home priced at $125,000 or $120,000).  After months on the market, it finally sold for $105,000. 

I told them that if I knew they'd go that low I would have bought it.  I wish I did!  Putting in around $2,500 (at the time) would have allowed them to sell at a much higher price and quicker.  After the fact, I wish I could have flipped the house (and flipping wasn't even a term used back then - and that kind of investing wasn't very popular). 

Of couse, although I don't remember them being angry, I'm sure they gave me some blame for the home not selling quickly and the fact they had to keep reducing.  I kept trying to get them to change those problems but it just wasn't going to happen.  This one made me angry since their stubbornness just ended up costing them more money than necessary.  This was nice house with good bones that just needed a slight facelift.  Sellers didn't listen - sellers lost money.

You might question why I took this listing.  Because it was a nice, unique home that was basically well taken care of.  I had no idea they would have to take such a huge drop to get it sold, even though I knew the items mentioned would be problematic.  I got it sold during the original listing period but I just wish they would have made one of my changes.  We can't force sellers to follow our suggestions and I have walked away from listings.

In today's market with such bloated inventory, sellers should listen to their agent's suggestions if they want to sell.  However, with the properties I'm showing, many sellers obviously are not listening.

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