Working with Cooperative Sellers

We recently listed a house in Essex and the owners wanted our help staging the home. The house is a wonderful saltbox style with four bedrooms and two and one half bathrooms. The floor plan flows well but it needed to be staged to show it in its best light.

The house has incredible curb appeal -- beautiful gardens with perennials, specialty trees, blueberries and raspberries. The lot is large enough for a woodland garden. The owners created a waterfall that runs down a back slope. Next to the waterfall is a meditaion bench. Just perfect!

Inside, the house needed some staging.



Living room

Woodland Garden

They started by decluttering. Half the books came off the bookcases and art objects were placed in staggered spots. Next we removed all the silk flowers and other artificial flowers. Eveything was cleaned off of kitchen counters except the most important cooking items. We moved a large bureau to a spare room to make the master bedroom look bigger. The mudroom was stripped of everything but  few necessary coats. Two rooms on the first floor felt as if they were lacking purpose -- are these living rooms or a living room and an office? We staged one room as a formal living room with an Iranian rug we had in our staging inventory, and the other as an office and sitting room for quiet reading.



Family Room over Garage

The feeling of size increased! The owners said they wished they had done this years ago. (I hear this all the time.)

With great photos and a virtual tour, the house shows beautifully on the Multiple Listing Service. Staging makes a huge difference but we can only stage if we have cooperative sellers. If sellers are not willing to declutter, to move furniture, and to set the home up differently for showing than they usually have it set up for living, we won't be able to present it in its best light.

Check out this listing and let me know what you think! http://www.nnerenmls.com/nne/maildoc/sd_oBosoJ20120707231107.html