How Our Team Helped
With an Aunts Passing
by Preparing and Staging a Home to Sell
Just last month a past client and attorney, Stacy DenHerder, introduced me to a family who was looking to sell their recently departed, loved one’s property. The family lived out of town and planned on traveling to San Diego to carefully go through their Aunt’s personal belongings and prepare the property for sale. Within a few days of being in San Diego, the family realized that, with the limited amount of time available, they were unable to complete all of the cleaning and minor repairs and remove unnecessary items from the home. While in San Diego, the family packed up what they could and then relied on my Horizon Real Estate team to finish the job for them.
The first step was to arrange for a few members of our team to remove the items that the family had packed up for disposal; we then scheduled the donation of any useable items. My team and I arrived at the property two hours before the pick-ups were scheduled and spent some time enhancing the look of the house. Because I’ve organized many properties for sale, I knew that we would need boxes and wrapping paper, as well as tape for the boxes. One of my Horizon Real Estate team members started packing up all remaining items that would not be used during the staging process while the rest of my team staged the property.
We began in the living room, repositioning the couch to emphasize the spaciousness of the area; we added some accent pillows and a few decorations on two end tables that we moved to either end of the couch. We rotated the position of the dining room table so that it complemented the arrangement of the living room and added a table runner and a centerpiece to brighten up the space.
In the bedrooms we stuck with the bare minimum for furniture by limiting it to a bed and two side tables. This gave the illusion of a larger space, making it more visually appealing to potential buyers. Fresh linens were placed on the beds, as well as a few decorative throw pillows. One lamp was placed on each end table in all the rooms of the house for optimum lighting. We removed some of the pictures from the rooms in the house and rearranged others to draw the eye of potential buyers to the center of the rooms. We added elegant towels and matching shower curtains to the bathrooms so that the look was complete. To finish up the staging process, a few decorative items were placed in key areas, such as the kitchen counter, the fireplace, and the bathroom counters. Finally the china cabinet in the living room was staged with ornamental glass wear and crystal.
My Horizon Real Estate team and I had spent more then three hours staging the house and packing up the remaining items for donation and disposal. Although we had scheduled a pickup with the donation company and verified the appointment the prior day, they did not arrive. We contacted them and discovered that they would not be able to make it for at least two more hours due to another donation which had exceeded the expected quantity of items. Rather then rescheduling, which would delay putting the property on the market within the timeframe promised to the seller, we arranged for two of my Horizon Real Estate team members to stay at the location. One of the many things that I love about my team is their willingness to do whatever it takes, in this case to stay for as long as necessary for the donation company to arrive so that the property would be fully prepared to list as expected.
Though it took more time then projected, my Horizon Real Estate team members and I were willing to dedicate that time to get the job done as promised. The property was scheduled for cleaning and then professional photos were taken. Once the photos were received, the property was listed on the San Diego Multiple Listing Service. In less than two weeks, we had a negotiated offer at the listed price.
You can feel comfortable knowing that the Horizon Real Estate team and I always do whatever is necessary to go above and beyond our client’s expectations. This property is now scheduled to close escrow at the beginning of the year and it is all because of the hard work and dedication of the Horizon Real Estate team. Who do you know that needs professional and reliable help selling their San Diego property? Give me, Kim Ward, a call at (619) 741-0111 to find out more about how the Horizon Real Estate team can help you with your exact real estate needs.
