While the world adjusted to home schooling and earning a paycheck from the dining room table, houses were flying off the shelf. As I was fond of saying, “I want buyers arm-wrestling for your home in the front yard!” And they did!
The homes I staged for my beloved and savvy agents (you know who you are, and thank you!) saw multiple offers, with final sale prices thousands over asking. It’s a team effort: the agent, the seller, the stager, all doing what’s necessary for that one shot to get top dollar.
It was during lockdown, while perfecting my remote staging service, that I tallied my 9,000th home. To celebrate this milestone, here are a few interesting things I learned along the way:
- A screened-in porch will buy a lot of forgiveness for dated wallpaper.
- I’ve identified Cynthia’s Law of Surfaces: If you have a surface, it WILL get covered.
- Any clothing at the bottom of a stack can probably be donated.
- Walk-in pantries create the most inefficient kitchens.
- The Goldfish Theory is alive and well. It states that “We grow to the size of our container.”
- Plastic bins and storage units allow us to keep more useless stuff for far too long.
- The older we become, the older our adopted pets should be, so that they don’t outlive us.
- Adult children living rent-free are not motivated to see a quick sale.
- There are people who favor blue and people who favor green, and strangely there are more Green People than Blue People.
- It’s easier to spend $50 ten times than $500 once on home décor, but it’s the $50 items you’ll find in garage sales.
- Some of the best deals in life are the ones we DON’T get.
- Fewer than 20% of kitchens and bathrooms are set up efficiently.
- We unpack and wherever something lands is often where it stays. Forever.
- We own generations of items that stay in storage and are never used.
- 95% of everything we own in our lifetime will end up in a landfill or with strangers.
- When tossers (people who get rid of stuff) pair up with keepers (people who keep everything), it can become a constant source of friction (not the good kind).
- Because we know where everything is located in our home, we’re managing it twice, both physically and mentally.
- “Maintenance-provided” simply means that we’re paying someone else to mow grass and shovel snow.
- Metal file cabinets are often just well-organized trash cans.
- Unless you want a lifetime gift supply of a collectible, don’t display it.
- Sometimes the best way to complete a project is to let it go.
- We regularly use only 30% of our stuff.
- Tile will date a home faster than anything; we know exactly what era it was installed.
- Hardwood floors will always be timeless.
- To save a marriage, some people have a child, others buy a new house.
- We leave our expensive vehicles out in the elements in order to store a few thousand dollars’ worth of junk in our garage.
- Buyers often assign a nickname to a home, and rarely buy one they make fun of.
- Our homes usually reflect what’s going on inside us.
- We all have more coffee mugs, flower vases and rags than we’ll ever use.
- Trends come back around, but there’s always a tweak. Brass may be back, but it’s not the bright version.
- Matching clothes hangers make me happy.
- Just two hours of my home staging expertise costs far less than a price reduction of a home.
Home Staging is the best return on investment you’ll ever find in preparing your home to sell. Check out my expanded list of services to see how I help, and give me a call to schedule an appointment! It has been, and will continue to be, my pleasure to serve you!
You might also like: Best Home Buying Tip You Ever Get
Copyright © 2022 by Cynthia Gentry Black, Home Staging by Cynthia, LLC in Kansas City.
All rights reserved. No portion may be shared, reused or republished in any format without express written consent of the author.
