The homestead down the road a spell went on the market a bit ago. We had heard rumors the family was fixin’ to move. There was also a hint of foreshadowing with the hardwood floor refinisher truck, a carpet cleaner van, and eight brand new flower pots on the front walkway, filled a tad later with young plants we recognized from the local Fred Meyer. What sets the staging apart, though; what made us actually slow down and gawk; what made one friend back in the Bay Area have to pause during an instant message conversation so he could recover from his laughter was this:
Yes, that spiffy wagon wheel is a very recent addition. It was brought in ‘specially for the sale. Gives the place a nice ranchy, homey, farmy feel, don’t it? Oh, and just out of view, to the right of the house, is now a brand new croquet set. Just sitting there on the grass, apparently to suggest that after a long day bumping along the Oregon Trail in your three-wheeled Conestoga, you can relax with a nice gentile game of wickets. Croquet and wagon wheels. Yup. They just might get askin’ price for this one.
2 comments:
It amazing to me how out of hand this staging thing has gotten. It's a keep up with the Jones' situation. If you're trying to sell and your competition has spruced things up and brought in nice furniture, you feel pretty compelled to do it too. I'm not sure what compels you to do it in a tight market, though.
A house down the street from me hasn't been lived in since an extensive remodel. The house was in the middle of the remodel last year when I was looking to buy. At $1.7m it was outside my price range. Didn't sell. A couple weeks ago it went back on the market, remodel complete, filled with furniture, for $2.3m. Pending sign went up a week after the first open house.
So, did the staging help?
It's hard to say. The market is a lot tighter this year in/around the Castro. Last year there were 5-10 new homes listed each week. This year there's maybe 2-3.
They must have had a wagon wheel in the back yard.
Staging is an entire industry in and of itself...although not so much here. When we were looking for houses 3 years ago, we found one that was beyond not staged. Dirty laundry all over, dirty dishes in the kitchen, and guns laying out on a table a kid apparently used for reloading ammo into shells (I had no clue what the purpose was but both Rob and our agent had it figured out.). And yet, we put an offer on the place. Guess all that chaos was a diversionary tactic to hide the fact the house wasn't bolted to the foundation. Dodged that bullet! If it had come with a wagon wheel, though, we might have reconsidered getting out of the deal.
Post a Comment