How I Staged My House to Sell in 3 Hours

As of May I officially owned and lived in my house for 9 years. I know I keep saying that but it is so hard to believe. I spent all of my college years here, lived with some great friends here, and started my career in this house. My sister and I lived here together for 3 years.

 This is where Brennan and I first lived together for over a year. It's remarkable.

Selling the house has made me very sentimental, leaving my home town makes me nostalgic, it's a strange process.

Many of you that have seen my blog know how wrecked the house was when I first bought it. Here is what it looks like the day it hit the market. It's strange to imagine that it has come so far and I have done so much.

We actually received multiple offers on our house that were over the asking price! The house went "Live" on the market at 11:48 am and by 3:50 pm we had the offer that we ultimately accepted. Our realtor says there are a few things that we did to make it stand out.

The biggest one? Cleanliness and staging.

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Let's do a final walk through, shall we? I'll tell you what I did in each room to make a big difference.

Master Bedroom: Normally in this room I have nightstands and small gallery walls over the dresser
and beside the bed. In order to maximize the space I took all of that down and replaced it with some mirrored stars. What's sort of interesting is that those were there the first year I moved in. I also usually have a big fluffy rug and a darker comforter.

Before Staging (minus the gallery walls by bed):

• Remove any floor coverings so buyers see whats there. Also if you have wood floors makes it seem fresher and larger.
• Remove gallery walls and personal photos or last name letters. I used to have a big M by the side of my bed.
• Use WHITE bedding. In between showings I had a throw blanket that I threw over the comforter to keep it clean from little doggy feet.
• Remove/store any furniture you can live without. Getting rid of the nightstands was a good move. Made it look even bigger and I figured out that I don't use them anyway so I gave them to a friend.
• Get everything off of your dressers and surfaces that you possibly can. We left the TV and clock. That's it.

After Staging:

Master Bathroom: My bathroom is one of my personal favorite spots in my house, probably the one I am going to miss the most because it is unnaturally large. I'm sure the square footage could have been used more effectively to have a bigger closet but hey, it worked for me!

• Clean! I took everything out of the cabinets that I wouldn't need before the move. Its pretty sad since I love all of my make up collection and I fear it hates me but the buyers being able to open and close the doors and see it empty allows them to see how they'd use the space. 
• With something specific like the built in I left a few of my CHEAP necklaces hanging to show the purpose of it. Cheap because if someone has sticky fingers I don't want to lose my precious items to their greediness. 
• Make sure paint on cabinets and trim on mirrors is fresh.
• Make sure all bulbs work.
• Clean the vent.
• Clear all surfaces. This one was hard to maintain but worth it.

Living Room: This is where the most change happened and it is where I really started to see the house as "For Sale" and no longer mine. That was a weird feeling, definitely. I love art and pillows and fluffy rugs. I also love fully packed bookcases. English teacher probs.

Before Staging:

• Take EVERYTHING but a couple items off the walls. All of my cool vintage images, maps, and decor came down. I only left the super neutral stuff above the TV to give it some character. I also left one mirror to reflect a bit more light.
• Get rid of excess furniture- this seems like a given but especially for me. I had the two large couches previously. I was planning to get rid of them this summer for a sectional anyway so it just expedited that. 
• Clear surfaces. 
• Remove rugs.
• Make sure the curtains are washed and fresh. 
• Polish wood floors.

After Staging:

 Dining Room & Kitchen:  The kitchen wasn't too hard to do, it was hard to determine what I did need to keep out to use for daily life. Most of this was just packing some stuff up and sending other stuff to the thrift store. I had forgotten how much I had put on top of the cabinets. ha.

Before staging (and new counters):

• Again, everything off the walls! I left one thing because it was a decal and I was worried I'd peel the paint. 
• Throughout the entire house I swapped the light switch covers for the plain white ones and kept my fancy expensive metal ones.
• Took every thing off the counters. 
• Cleaned each appliance until it sparkled and scrubbed the back splash.
• Dining room: I removed the rugs and the cat from the table.
• Get rid of excess furniture. I sold my coffee bar and took down all art work in the entire space.

Staged:

Laundry Room: This one is nearly the same. Here are the things I did to prep the staging on this space:

• Repainted the cabinets where needed.
• Repainted counter top.
• Took down any extra art.
• Cleaned the microwave.
• Polished the front of the machines and cleaned the trashcan.

Guest Room/Office: My sister moved out about a year ago and I had sort of left the space the same since she left so it was our box storage area. We kept all of that to one zone. Buyers recognize that you are moving and don't really calculate that into it. That being said we did rent a large storage unit and house the rest of the boxes and gear. This was just stuff that didn't fit and I didn't want to pay for two units.  

• Remove all artwork again except for a couple pieces.
• Clear all surfaces.
• Make sure the floors shine. 
• If you have to have boxes, makes sure they are closed and stacked neatly.

Guest Room: This space was also pretty easy since I kept it pretty basic as a guest room.

Before staging- the last time I took pictures at Christmas. Ha.:

Staged:

• Remove all but 1 piece of artwork.
• Use white bedding.
• Clean and polish the floors and windows.
• Wash curtains.
• Clear surfaces of furniture.
• Remove rugs.

Guest Bathroom: Since I was already using this as a guest space, it wasn't too hard to get it staged which was nice because I was still suffering the trauma of the kitchen.

Before staging:

Staged:

• I removed the shower curtains and liner and just hung a sheer really high to make it look bigger. 
• Completely clear the counter.
• Make sure all the lights work.
• Clean the vents.
• Empty the cabinets.
• BLEACH the tub (or whatever product you use. Make it white!)
• Take down all but basic decor.

Making sure that I had a clean and crisp color scheme, the floors shown, and I took my personality out of it (and all my art featuring redhead goddesses, hehe)  it really looked like a show house. Our amazing realtor told us that part of the reason it sold so quickly was because of how light, bright, and clean it was.

Selling your house, one of the few times that elbow grease actually has a return! What other tips and tricks help get houses sold? What do you look for when you're shopping for a house?

Outdoor Happiness

When back in the day when I first bought my house the back "yard" was a very sad and terrible looking space. Since the dryer sat in front of the door just enough that you couldn't use it, I didn't give much attention to it. I would just cringe and pretend it wasn't there when I saw it. Here's an original angle:

A wondrous "before" shot of the door of doom:

The weird cheap light fixture that has never worked in my recollection:

Overall, I wouldn't describe it as a pleasant area. The cheap lighting, the scary door, the cheap tiny piece of gutter above the door, broken steps, and peeling paint. So this year I decided it was time to step up the game on the entire exterior. Last summer I replaced the light on the front of the house:

The lovely gentle that gave me the light for the front, also gave me another for the back! So after one year of having it around the house, I decided to finally install it:

The new stark white door looks so incredible and keeps the house so much cooler. I love it! But it did make the peeling paint look that much more terrible...

Here's a full range view, ignore the lumber and debris, that should be gone soon!

Every year I repaint the front porch, so it totally makes sense that I should repaint the back porch. Finally. After six years. I used the same paint from the front porch to keep costs down and make it look cohesive.

Ah fresh paint how much I love you! Here's another view from the same angle with the light and paint. The new steps also look fantastic! There are still a few things to do, for instance; clean up the rubbish, paint the new step runners, and fix the mulch and rock leading up to the steps. 

 

I feel like it looks a thousand times better! It makes the back of the house much more in line with the rest of the house. Plus it helps increase the resale potential, if I ever get to that point of course. Maybe next year I can build a wood fence along the chain link to create more separation and visual appeasement from the neighbor's yard. Hopefully before the summer is out I can get you a full updated image of the space with accessories and everything! I hope you like it as much as I!

Trailerhood Curb Appeal

****If you are seeing this content on http://manufacturedhomefacts.com/ please be advised it is there without permission! thismessybusiness.com is the OFFICIAL and only site I publish on!***

I'm still working hard on fixing up my trailer in order to get some serious "detrashing" done. We've really made some progress so far. If you're just joining our mission check out where we started by going here, here, and here. The overall mission is to embrace the trailer. Can I get some "whooosaaahhhs?" 

Anyways! One of the biggest things that makes a trailerhood a trailer park is the fact that traditionally the exterior care of a home is lacking. Like severely. So that's what we've been working on here.

Every year I set aside about $50.00 to spend on flowers (no more than that because annuals die.) But check out the difference some well placed potted plants make when you're walking up the front steps. I bought all of my plants at a local nursery called Bookcliff Gardens. Those are sweet potato vines and spreading petunias. I think. I am not a flower expert. They were pretty. 

Last time I talked about taking the time to repaint your porch and anything else. Check it out. No peeling paint. Makes a difference. Want to see the before again? Look in the bottom left hand corner...

And now:

Totally better!

Another way to help keep your trailer (or any home really) looking sparkly is to maintain flower beds. Don't let the weeds take over and make things all nasty. Also, ignore all the hoses, I don't have a sprinkler system, too much concrete separating each of the sections of grass. Not worth it. Another thing to do is to change out the mulch once it starts looking nasty. Too expensive you say? Well at Lowe's we tend to have it on sale 4 bags for $10. That's like $3.00 a bag. It's cheap.

Keep your outdoor furniture maintained. For me that means making sure the furniture on my front porch are spray painted thoroughly every couple of years (didn't have to this year, thank all things happy) and my bench outside. This year it needed a lot of work because most of the paint was peeling. But now it looks fresh and pretty!

Maintain your hedges and keep weeds from growing up along the chain link fences that are notorious in trailer parks. Don't have a weed eater or lawn mower? Believe me there is probably a nice elderly couple who is upset about how your yard looks that would let you use theirs, or heck even do it for you. Make friends.

If you have to store stuff outside put it in cute and clever storage containers. Don't pile your garbage outside, interior furniture should stay in the interior, no one wants to see that ugly couch outside.

Feel free to add any other tips or comments about lawn maintenance. What tricks have you learned during your home-ownership adventures that may help us out?

De-Trash Your Trailerhood: Manage It.

****If you are seeing this content on http://manufacturedhomefacts.com/ please be advised it is there without permission! thismessybusiness.com is the OFFICIAL and only site I publish on!***

Here is the first phase of our mission to start de-trashing the trailerhood, or rather, my trailerhood but these are applicable anywhere I'd say. Keep in mind that as we do this some of our steps may get out of order depending on what we are working on.

When I first moved into my trailer it looked straight up trailerhood (for the duration I will be saying "hood" but I mean that in terms of a trailer park/manufactured home community).

Here's a little reminder:

I don't have very many original pictures since it was not my original plan to start a blog. I know. That was dumb. I'm kicking myself for it now. But you can sort of see that the wood is rotting in places, the stairs are weird, there was rotting lattice attached to the porch and some of the flashing was gone from the roof overhang.

Here's what it looks like presently:

You can see even in this picture that the grass is over grown, the rails are filthy, and my aspen tree is totally dead.

Even this big mulberry bush is trying to escape from the picture.

Porch is cluttered with planting materials and is very, very dirty.

This side wasn't so bad even though all the paint was peeling off my bench and it was looking a little wonky.

Loads of cobwebs all around the front entry is also not very inviting. It works out okay on Halloween though!

The main point of showing these somewhat embarrassing photos of my house is that maintaining your exterior is crucial! It not only adds value to your home but also increases the curb appeal, and allows you to identify potential issues early on rather than waiting for it to totally fall apart. 

So for a total investment of $0.00 dollars we are going to start our detrashing by cleaning up the outside of the house considering that is the first thing people see when they drive by, and often the only thing.

To-do list:

• Mow the lawn
• Pull weeds that are mega tall.
• Fill containers with pretty flowers
• Repaint the peeling paint on the deck.
• Clean off the cobwebs 
• Replace the icky light
• Repaint the bench and clean furniture.

Keep in mind that water is (nearly) free, you can get a decent broom at the dollar store, and if you have to buy paint you can get it for only $15 dollars at Lowe's or even WalMart.

Check back on Friday and I'll show you the steps I've taken so far!