Yesterday I went to see a townhouse that is listed for sale. The townhouse is in a great neighbourhood on 15th Ave. between Oak & Granville St. in Vancouver. The real estate agent called me because she was frustrated that the townhouse has been on the market for almost 2 months, and it just isn’t selling or even getting the offers that she felt it potentially could get.
The homeowners have purchased another home & will be moving out, so now it will we completely vacant, which is even more difficult to sell. When I looked at the property, I saw the huge potential to make it looks funky & very appealing. I also saw that is was in desperate need of a paint job. The colour was dated & it felt tired.
In putting together my proposal to stage & giving them an estimate for painting, the homeowners were overwhelmed. The financial stress they are feeling with the purchase of their new home, was weighing heavily. The question they put to the realtor was…………”if we were going to spend only $3000, where would the money be best spent, on painting or staging?”
The realtor asked me what I thought & my reply was this.
Although it is in desperate need of painting, and if that was the route they decided to take, then you are now trying to sell a freshened up empty space. Empty spaces lack warmth, coziness and any appeal whatsoever. The idea behind staging is to allow potential buyers to see how the rooms would look dressed with furniture & accessories, removing the guesswork. You also want to portray a lifestyle, so that potential buyers can envision themselves living there. My solution to the dated paint colour is to add contemporary art pieces that tie in the colour and detract from the colour standing on its own. The staging will draw the attention away from the paint & the potential home buyers will focus on the beautiful art & accessories & have a “feeling” of how nice it would be to live in the space.
The owners will probably make a decision today on how they would like to move forward, but in answer to there question “To Paint or to Stage?”, my answer is simply to definitely definitely stage.
