Home Staging Multiple Choice Which of the following conclusions are highly likely based on the actual MLS photo (above) from this Richfield “For Sale” home: A. Per the purple sheet over the bed, there are no window treatments anywhere in the home (if they’re missing in the bedrooms, they’re likely missing everywhere); B. The home is a...Read More
Q: What Do You Call That? A: “A Good Investment” When it does it make sense to plunk down $1,000 on cleaning windows? When you own a large, upper bracket home — in the Twin Cities, generally above $1 million — and it’s been sitting for months on the market without showings, let alone an...Read More
Stagers Make Inroads on Interior Decorators Wait a second. Isn’t staging something that prospective home Sellers do, before they put their home on the market? That, too. But increasingly, home buyers are consulting with stagers after they close — and have to figure out where everything goes. “Staging,” Defined If you didn’t know, traditionally, staging...Read More
“Covering the [Real Estate] Spread” (i.e., Commission) Call it real estate brokerage’s dirty little secret: a good Realtor can add more value in some deals than others. While a Realtor’s “value-added” should always exceed their commission — if it were otherwise, there wouldn’t (and shouldn’t) be Realtors — some types of transactions simply offer more opportunity to...Read More
When it come to prepping a home for sale, things like new paint and carpet, refinishing hardwood floors, and new Kitchen cabinet hardware are deservedly popular — and cost-effective — updates. Here’s another, less-widely known one: replacing dated fluorescent lighting (photo, above) with new, recessed lighting. At a cost of perhaps $150 per recessed can light, it’s...Read More
Quirks of a Buyer’s Market One of the more surprising things Buyer’s agents are hearing in today’s market is clients who say, “it’s too nice for us” (or at least, I’m hearing it). Huh? What I think is happening is actually a couple things. One, prices of bigger homes, in very nice neighborhoods, have now...Read More
