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SOLD FOR $400,000 MORE THAN SAME NEIGHBORING TOWN HOUSE, AT THE SAME TIME! This landmarked Queen Anne sister townhouse offered nearly 6,300 sqft of living space with original prewar detail throughout, a large bi-level garden and modern conveniences such as a renovated chef’s kitchen, central air, sauna, integrated sound. That said, it had not been updated in over 20 years and showed dated and unwelcoming. Traditionally, an empty townhouse can lose a buyer’s focus with its numerous rooms of similar size and constraints on the ability to reflect scale and use of space. Prior to selecting staging vendors and furnishings, I consulted with the owners to select an updated wall palette to counterbalance the dark interior (as this townhouse has only two exposures). Working with my staging team, we selected fresh furnishings which were warm and neutral toned to integrate appropriately with the original wood details and ornate interior plaster moldings.
Proposed Asking Price (unstaged): $9,000,000
SOLD PRICE: $9,395,000
Days on Market (DOM): 132 Days
$/PSF attained: $1,498
Staging & Contracting Services: Less than 1.5% of SOLD PRICE
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RECORD SALE PRICE AFTER
JUST ONE MONTH ON MARKET This ESTATE condition residence had not been used in 15 years nor updated in over 50 years. The residence featured desirable original details including herringbone oak flooring, moldings, gorgeous custom millwork and large casement windows highlighting grand river views. However, this mid-floor home on first appearance showed quite dark with mahogany stained wood and honey hued fabric wallpaper and deep stained floors. To showcase the tremendous views sheers were set, wallpaper was removed and most importantly, the rich wood stain was brought up to date with a clean white wash for a bright an inviting home. The estate furniture was placed in storage offering my staging team a clean empty canvas to install tasteful lighting fixtures, rugs (to cover any unsightly aging pattern on floors) and neutral colored contemporary furniture with plush accents to allow purchasers to appropriately re-envision this gracious space. This resulted in being the highest price achieved for a 6 ROOM prewar cooperative sale in the immediate area, selling for $100,000 above the asking price and $800,000 above its pre-staging value.
Proposed Asking Price (unstaged): $2,800,000
SOLD PRICE: $3,600,000
ASKING PRICE: $3,500,000
Days on Market (DOM): 37 Days
Staging & Contracting Services: Less than 2.5% of Sold Price
Traditionally, staging a home for a sale has involved clearing out clutter,
adjusting the mix and placement of furniture, and generally making an
apartment or house appear as clean, fresh and desirable as possible. With virtual
staging, photos of a home are digitally altered to show potential buyers what
could potentially be done in the space, without actually making the changes.
If there’s a choice between the two, “it’s always optimal to stage physically,” said
Daniella Schlisser, a senior vice president with Corcoran Group in Manhattan,
who has used both methods to help sell properties. “The reason it’s optimal is
that not only can you provide a buyer with a photograph of what the space
looks like, but when they come in, they can actually see the space.”
But traditional staging is expensive, she notes: the cost of staging an apartment
with rental furniture starts at about $2,500. A photo of a room can be digitally
staged for about $65 to $75.
Virtual staging can be useful when dealing with empty homes, if you can’t afford
to physically stage the space, she says. “In an empty space, people can’t really
understand how big a couch or bed is,” Ms. Schlisser said. “They’ll come in and
think they’ll never fit their furniture in there, because they really don’t have an
understanding of scale.”
But if they’ve seen touched-up photos beforehand, with a bed in the bedroom, and a sofa and table in the living room, buyers “bring with them that knowledge that everything they want would fit.” And she has never had a buyer react negatively to seeing a home empty, she says, after viewing photos with digital furniture.
Ilaria Barion, a former traditional home stager who now runs Virtual Staging by Ilaria Barion, said the computer opens up other possibilities (as the accompanying photos show). “You can have a much more luxurious look,” she said. “The average seller, for example, isn’t going to invest in moving a grand piano into a space” just to make it look better. But it’s easy to do digitally with a few clicks of the mouse.
Virtual staging can also give old furnished apartments a new sense of style, Ms. Barion notes. “We can wipe out everything and put new furniture in,” she said, adding that other services include “virtual decluttering” and “virtual landscaping.”
Whether staging physically or virtually, she recommends focusing primarily on the living room and the master bedroom, and using a few key pieces of furniture to make those rooms appear inviting, while leaving as much open space as possible. “The furniture shouldn’t take over,” she said.
Virtual staging is “like online dating,” she added. “If you have a good picture, you’ll get a date. And if you have a date, you just might find a good match.”
Her drive to master each transaction on her client’s behalf has garnered her a fiercely loyal, multi-generational client list and a well-earned reputation as one of the best in the business. You'll see why.
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