SELLER SUCCESS STORY: How to make a funky house shine!

Ideally it is best to be able to get a house ready to sell when the owners/renters have moved out. However often sellers are not in the position to do that as was the case with Rob and Jen Vetter.

Rob and Jen contacted me as they had seen my signs in the neighborhood for years and ironically Rob had chastised me many years ago when I was a new agent for putting a flyer in his mail box, he was a postman and told me it was illegal, which of course I had no idea being a rookie agent!

They had met with an agent a year before to discuss selling but were put off by some of her suggestions, which included pressure washing all the moss covered concrete wall in the back yard, which I actually liked as it made the wall look old and rustic.

When we met their house was in chaos as they had two young boys, and both parents had full-time jobs. Need I say more?!

It was an interesting older house probably built in the 1920’s but had undergone some remodeling in the 1970’s, not the best era for a remodel! The house had an unusual layout, with a living room at the front of the house, adjacent to the kitchen, which is common. However, the dining room was at the back of the house and was separated from the kitchen by another living room and a narrow sunroom.

The house could not be staged so I had to get creative with the help of my fab staging stylist and use their furniture, luckily some was very cool. Rob is an artist and they had some great art also, however there was too much of it, so we had to diplomatically persuade him to remove some pieces.

My sense was that a more creative type of person would want this house, but we need to tone it down a bit and de-clutter.

In my mind the sunroom was the most unique and special feature of this home, and it was being used to store the kid’s toys, so that had to change. We cleared it out and staged a sweet reading area.

The house really needed some painting, a big yard clean-up and other cosmetic work. The front door was a horrible beige that did not go with the blue siding, so I chose a plum color with Rob’s approval and painted it myself as we were running out of time.

I suggested they go away for the weekend as I knew they would have a hard time keeping the place ship shape with their two boys, so they rented a house around the corner.

We had a great open house and ended up receiving five offers.

The winning offer had waived their inspection and it sold for $61,000, over the asking price.

Congrats to the Vetters!