I agree with many points that you said.

First of all, agents shouldn’t stage. Designers should.

Secondly, yes, black granite is what my stager always yells about. She hates them. She calls it “builder grade, ubba tuba.” So she never puts in black.

As for colors, agreed, sometimes they can be too flat.

A good stager needs to make a place POP with design.

I am a lurker, both on this website and on real estate sites, and I have to tell you: stagers are a kind of home killer. I can respect that there are more than one kind, but every “staged” home I look at just makes me gag. The colors are usually neutral tones to earth tones, there are ALWAYS new black granite countertops and stainless steel appliances, and bland old, bland old wood floors. It doesn’t matter if the house is from 1902 or 2002, the interiors look startlingly similar. And you know what? As soon as I see that stuff I just think (as a lurker, mind you – I’m so on the “can’t afford to buy” side it hurts) what a waste. This blog is fun to read, and I appreciate your insights, but when you back this kind of crazy up as smart… you lose a lot your credibility with me. I should share that this belief also comes with two other ideas: 1)I believe in preservation and something other than Wal-Mart redecoration and 2)My taste 100% clashes with this brand spanking new crap – and I feel guilty about landfilling brand new stuff, so I’d have to keep it, so I’d (presuming I ever have the money) never ever ever buy it.

See where I’m going with this? It all just looks so very very very bland – do real estate agents ever flip through mags like MSL or Domino? There are other ways of decorating. Just my two cents – I’ll happily keep reading – and hope that the other stuff I learn here I get to apply someday to buying a house of my own!

That said only about $6,000 of that was the incremental cost of the improvements that Patricia recommended — the new appliances and countertops in the kitchen. The rest of it was work that we knew we were going to need to have done from the start — painting the whole house, replacing the really grotty carpeting, refinishing the wood floors, having the wood siding fixed up and painted.

I guess we all want to be kids again, so anything is possible, but I’m still confident that if you talk to my past clients, Redfin won’t net you more than we can. Maybe more than the average agent, but we aren’t average.

But I think it is a great thing, but rebating and discounting aren’t new.

The more business models, the better.

Did you hear of the company that actually gives you 120% of their commission back? Yep, they actually GIVE you all of it PLUS an extra 20%! Kind of like how internet start ups started by acquiring customers regardless of cost.*

Thanks for the post,

Frank

* not really

RedFin is coming to DC in June and they’re hiring RE ops folks…

http://www.redfin.com/stingray/do/jobs_re

are you going to give them the cold shoulder or grow & adapt your business? :)

http://www.mypublicnotices.com/WashingtonPost/PublicNotice.asp

search “Garfield 1021″

you’ll see two current ones for the bldg:

unit 1003 on the courthouse steps May 25, 2007 at 2:00 o’clock pm

unit 604 on the courthouse steps May 11, 2007 at 2:00 o’clock pm

Another foreclosure at Clarendon 1021, that’s 3 now…

1bd/bt, default on $381.5k.

what are you guys doing over there?

We went into the selling process knowing that we were going to have to have the whole place painted, the floors refinished, etc, and that we’d have to have it hyper-neat to show. (And it wasn’t usually quite as chaotic as the “before” pictures — we were in the throes of packing.)

The real leap of faith was when Patricia suggested new appliances and new kitchen countertops. Oh, and Frank didn’t mention that we were anxious to list as soon as possible because we were already under contract to buy a new home.

We selected the appliances and had them delivered and installed by the stores. Patricia selected the granite and all the colors, and managed the painters, handymen, plumber, countertop guys, etc. And got it all done in about 2 weeks from when she first set foot in the house.