my house for sale

Decided. Time to Sell!

Now that you’ve chosen to put your home on the market, it’s time to get into action.

So where do you start?
You start by getting rid of the dross. Here are a few rules.
If its broken, fix it (this weekend) or try recycling or re-purposing it.
If you can’t remove the stains, remove what the stains are staining.
If the CRA sent it to you, keep it for at least seven years.
If the best thing you can say about it is that it was cheap, donate it to value village or salvation army.
If it’s got “potential”, actualize it (this weekend) or donate it.

 
Here is what Crazy House Home Staging has to say:
As a further incentive – if you are still holding on to those ceramic egg cups with tiny dancing squirrels painted around the rim, I need not remind you that Dante says that people who hold on to too much stuff go to the fourth circle of Upper Hell.
Just sayin’.
Screen shot 2014-07-29 at 7.28.14 PMIt’s not the shelf’s fault if your books are messy, spilling out, or scattered about the home. Styling them is actually quite simple. See above picture. Just line up the books to the front of the shelf.
This also helps to get rid of the tchotchkes in front of books, as well as things such as the almost empty roll of stamps, cassette tapes from the ’80s, snapshots bearing your likeness between the ages of 13 and 17, and your throng of shot glasses from South America.
I also shudder when I see Golden Shelves of Glory (National Geographic magazines) that often rival collections in the Library of Congress. These ALL should to go on to a happier incarnation prior to listing. (I don’t even want to think about carrying them to your new home).
I have a theory that all volcanic activity on earth is caused by the pressure exerted on basement floors by these self-same stacks of National Geographic magazines.


 
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Just Add Water (Sort of)

The difference between the home you live in everyday and the one you put on the market may just be a well-placed vase of flowers. Look at interior design magazines. See the difference by placing your finger over the vase of flowers in the photos. Poof! The room suddenly feels less pulled-together. Flowers are also usually the source that adds that pop of color in a room – great for your MLS photos.
A foolproof arrangement that works anywhere is to use the same flower—like pink peonies or grocery-store yellow daisies— arranged loosely in a cylindrical vase, using a mix of open and closed buds for a natural look.
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So for the last two hours, you have been fruitlessly trying to hook up your new sound system so that beautiful music plays during the showings… repeatedly resetting and unplugging and turning the receiver off while standing on your hands, clicking your heels three times and reciting, “There’s no place like home.” And then, in sublime desperation, you phone the store and they immediately reply with, “You need to reset your receiver, unplug it, wait for ten seconds, plug it back in and turn it on again.” Sigh.
Maybe now’s the time to just download the Songza app on your iPad, and call it a day.

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And then go pick up Chinese food because that’s how you egg roll. (It also keeps the kitchen clean.)
Speaking of, “There’s no place like home.”, it should feel just like that the minute buyers set foot inside. There should be a balance of the deliberate and the accidental. Without that it looks TOO decorated, TOO much like a show home, TOO staged.
As one elevator said to the other, “I think I’m coming down with something.”  So should you. Put some character into things – like these quick ideas that will make your rooms pop.

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Screen shot 2014-07-29 at 7.37.38 PMMailing address:
Crazy House Home Staging
1608 36th Ave SW
Calgary, AB   T2T 6P7