Dear Mr. and Mrs. Home Seller,
Thank you for inviting me into your home today to give you an estimate to help you prepare your home for sale. After reviewing your property I feel that we cannot assist you at this time. Instead I am making the following recommendations:
Foyer: Perhaps you misunderstood exactly the services a home staging professional offers? We cannot "fix" the peeling linoleum tile by covering it up with an inexpensive area rug. The same is true for your hollow core doors- you must replace the doors with holes punched in them. Adding a poster will not fool the home buyer either.
Dining Room: To make the most of this space I recommend that you make it into a dining room. Remove your son's cacti collection from the dining room table and put away the tequila collection on the window sill- although it did give the room a nice Mexican Restaurant feel. We want buyers to see the space this room offers and appreciate the architectural features such as the deep window sills and natural light. I strongly recommend that you donate the play pen (your son is leaving for college) and return the keg to the beer store. You can use the deposit to pay a painter to paint over the mural your daughter made of the Indigo Girls in 1993. Again, as home staging professionals these are services we do not offer however we can provide you with some accent pieces once this room is cleaned out.
Kitchen: You need to clean. You need elbow grease. Speaking of grease, you need to remove the 25 years of grease off the wall behind the stove and remove the trash can that is overflowing next to the fridge. You need to scrub the floors to remove the food stains that have not been wiped up in 15 years. You need to wipe down the counters- with bleach, with soft scrub, with anything except the diet soda that has made a sticky film. I actually thought your counters were beige granite until I realized it was stained. And no we do not clean houses and we do not know anyone that will do it for $35.00.
Living Room:Rustic is a design theme but a torn sofa, a carpet remnant and a folding card table is not rustic. I am happy to provide you with rental furniture, however I feel that your dollars would be better spent removing the silver floral wall paper on the walls AND the ceiling. I know that you adore it however I feel that it is not quite "on trend" with what younger buyers are looking for today. I can bring in rental furniture but this will not prevent buyers from seeing the wallpaper. They will be so concerned with the cost of removing it that that may make a lower offer than you would like or not make an offer at all.
Master Bedroom: This is a great room for sleeping. The dark blue paint and the black velvet curtains make this room feel as if you are in a cave or underground. I strongly recommend that you consider painting this room and removing the dark window coverings- yes you will have to repair the broken window- buyers do not like plywood. You will also have to remove the boxes you have stored in the corner, and the recliner, and the exercise bike and the cat carrier and the extra twin bed. We can recommend a moving company to assist you but home stagers do not move furniture.
I hope that you find these recommendations helpful. Once this work is complete I am happy to provide you with an estimate for our services. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns. Home Stagers may not clean, paint or remove furniture but we do specialize in hand holding.
Best wishes for a faster and more profitable sale,
Kate Hart
Hi Kate,
Great letter and very direct, sometimes we need to be direct with our sellers.
The sad thing is we have all probably seen homes like these! Maybe not as bad but close enough!
hhhmmm, HOLY COW ... what are these people thinking? They would need a whole home makeover. I bet if they fix up their home they might decide to stay in it.
Sean Allen
I also loved reading the post, especially as a home inspector. Why don't ALL listing agents tell their clients to clean up so that buyers, appraisers, home inspectors, THEIR OWN FAMILY... can see and move around their house. It seems like some reports consist more of writing limitations of what I CAN'T see, rather than what I can see. How do you like the picture below? It was actually a kitchen counter in an occupied home! I commented on this subject in my blog http://activerain.com/blogsview/237620/Clean-it-up-guys
Thanks for your comments- In case your were wondering the above was a compilation of shockers from recent homes. The scary part is I have seen worse. I do speak directly to my clients about marketing their homes however I would never be this direct! Although I can dream...
Being a home stager takes tact, professionalism and above all compassion. I do not judge my clients and how they live I just often wonder if they are serious when they bring me into a home and expect me to stage it the way they present it. I have found that keeping a stock of business cards for cleaning services, storage facilities, painters and therapists (just kidding) is the best way to approach my client's needs.
Joe, is that haircoloring in that box on the counter? That action figure could be valuable if sold on Ebay.... kh
Kate - great post! I really do see that paper on the ceilings - exactly who thought that would be a good idea?
Jackie
Wonderful post, the more I read the more I laughed. It is amazing how home owners don't make the distinction between stagers and house cleaners. I guess they have been watch those British cleaning ladies on the TV that take disgusting homes and make them spic and span in hours.
Wow, that was great!!! We face some scary stuff, don't we? I once moved a big overstuffed chair and there were a pair of legs underneath! After I came to, I realized that it was a pair of leather chaps!