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Tag Archives: staging

Some After Photos for Russet Valley

Here are some of the pictures Carol took after she finished staging the Russet Valley house. I can see now why it’s so popular with buyers! She did a great job, especially with the living room and kitchen.

Remember, you can still make an offer on this house: 512-807-8777!

 

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Getting the Most for Your Renovation Dollar

Bitmoji Lee writing formulae on a chalkboard

I wish there really were a secret formula to determine how much to spend on a renovation. We have systems that help, but each house is different. As you probably get tired of hearing me say, “It depends on what you want….”

The Secret Formula

We all want to get the most out of our renovation dollar.

A friend of Sue Ann’s recently sent us a couple of questions. Since these questions came from a real person, I’m going to answer in the second person. You know. Like I’m really talking to you or something. And I’m going to assume the backstory.

Is there any kind of equation for how much money one should put into fixing up a house before selling it? Like 10% of the price you hope to get for the house?

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Carol Saves the Day at Villa Park

You may remember our Villa Park casita, where Anita and I lived last year, and which had the most disaster-fraught renovation in history. We rebuilt this little house completely, saving only the shell of the outside (the city required we keep the dimensions and roofline). We even installed a new, real, foundation to replace the three slabs with no rebar and no plumbing it previously had.

We had a hard time renting it out last year, because we were unable to stage it once we moved to the Bobcat Lair, and people being unhappy that it shared the yard with the house in front. But, when we did get a fence and all that, we got some really great renters who were settling in nicely. One of them even got an award at the local elementary school.

Unfortunately, the other renter got a great job promotion that required moving to scenic Bentonville, Arkansas (there are other companies besides Wal-Mart there). We certainly didn’t want to force them to stay, so Carol jumped on getting it rented again.

Why it worked this time

We were motivated, because if we couldn’t get it rented, the renters would have to pay until we did, but if we rented it quickly, their initial deposit would cover that. Carol got to work and made this nice Facebook ad:

You get a screenshot, because I can’t make it play here.

Click the link to see it live, I hope.

https://www.facebook.com/BigAustinHome/videos/1800913923318570/

We all shared it everywhere we possibly could. People lined up to see the space (literally, four families went to see it in 15-minute intervals), and it was rented in just a few days to some other fine folks with no kids and no pets! Hooray!

It worked because the tenants had decorated the casita nicely, which showed how well it “lived.” The current tenants cleaned it up (they were motivated) to perfection, so people just loved the place.

That’s a real lesson to remember: staging truly helps sell or rent houses. I now really wish I’d done a better job the first time.

We sure appreciate Carol’s hard work to get the casita rented so fast! Lee and I won’t even notice a drop in our cash flow. Win!

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Who Needs Staging? Probably You

The perfect accessories make this bathroom in Oakridge inviting.

If you are a human being of a “certain age,” and if you have looked at houses for sale in the past few years, you may have noticed a change. Back in the olden days of yore (like the twentieth century), people did one of two things when they put their homes on the market:

  1. They cleaned them really well and got rid of random junk. Then they mowed the yard.
  2. They moved out, then cleaned the house up. If they had a room painted by a teenager, they painted it white.

After that, an agent showed people houses, or people called your agent to see the house, and it got sold. You then moved into a new house, which you fixed up to your own taste.

Not Today

Today, if you want to sell a house at retail (not the ones WE are looking for), people feel compelled to do so much more. They put most of their things in storage, especially anything that makes it look like an actual family lives there, they replace anything in the house that is over 5 years old, because it might bring the dreaded word “dated” to the lips of potential buyers, and of course they paint every surface a neutral color, and if possible, remove anything resembling carpet in the house. You then put strategically placed objects around the house to make it appealing. That’s called staging.

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Oakridge Progress Report

The new landscaping makes the house seem so clean and modern.

It’s flu season. And the flu hit the crew working on the Oakridge house, which slowed things down a bit. We’re glad Ray is doing better now!

We’ve been waiting for the flooring to be installed, after a couple of issues arose on that topic. Because this flooring was not in the original bid, which included carpeting in the bedrooms, the cost changed. We had to do a change order to get the kind of high-quality vinyl that Carol envisioned running throughout the house, including hallways and bedrooms. It’s important to document changes to your plans, because it’s lots easier to keep track of how the costs ended up at their final total that way, and the contractor team knows exactly what they are expected to do.

That’s all worked out, now, and we should have some flooring pictures for you soon. That’s the big final touch!

Outside

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