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Home Stager |
RAINER 3,602 |
| Susan Wilkins | ||
| location_on Halifax, NS — Atlantica Home Staging | ||
| insert_link http://atlanticahomestaging.com | ||
| web Atlantica Home Staging - Halifax Nova Scotia | ||
Atlantica started unexpectedly, and accidentally, when two separate situations arose for me last year. The first was in early spring when a friend called me in an absolute panic when she learned she had to put her home on the market for sale. She worked full time and has small children, pets, and an unorganized home. What started out as what I call a "hen session" - where we women get on the phone, kvetch to one another, and then hang up... turned into "the master plan" to help my friend prepare her home for sale. At the time, I had no thoughts of starting a staging business. That weekend I went over to her home, sent the kids out with Dad for the day, and we went through that house with a vengeance. I was thankful that she had a housecleaner in a few days prior. After six hours of decluttering, storing, rearranging, sprucing, pruning furniture, toys, and "stuff", we had the house show-ready. My friend listed her home the next day. When the realtor arrived, she changed her asking price to fifteen-thousand above her original suggested asking price due to the six-hours of improvements we made. My friend ended up with ten thousand dollars more than she expected when she closed the sale. Success! The following fall, my partner and I decided to buy a larger home. We have five children ages eight to nineteen, and we were pretty cramped in our current quarters. So we started to watch the market, and we were both very surprised at how so many homes were presented, especially considering their price points. The more I looked, the more I thought about how much more these sellers could ask had they just considered staging their homes. There were many listings that offered photos with dirty towels on the floor, dishes on the counter, curtain rods bent and drooping. I was truly surprised that homes were being showcased this way. The home we ended up purchasing, was showcased a little better than I have just described, but certainly had the potential to have been marketed so much better. We purchased our home for twenty-five thousand dollars less than the original asking price after six months on the market with no offers. A real deal for us but a definite loss for the seller.
Once we purchased and closed, we went to work with cosmetics and repairs. We spent approximately seven thousand dollars in materials and did the work ourselves. I had a realtor-friend over a few months later and she could not believe the difference in the home's overall look and feel. She felt we could easily make ten to fifteen thousand more than the original asking price - which would be at least thirty five thousand dollars profit. My eyes lit up! I started to twitch... my partner looked at me and shook his head "no". *sigh* I haven't convinced him to sell - yet, as he is so very content with our new home, but should that day come, I am very confident we will do very well.Soon after I had the conversation with my agent-friend, I started to investigate home staging as a career. The more I learned, the more I was convinced I could do it, and here I am today enjoying every single minute!If you'd like to discuss how your home could be staged either by me, our on your own, I invite you to contact me for a consultation. I'd love to help you get the most out of your home selling endeavor.Cheers!Susan Wilkins
Home Staging in Nova Scotia. The best time to stage your home is before you put it on the market! Staging prior to listing enables you to present a well put together home to your listing agent.
