Since creating the “to be continued” blog, I’ve been closing each post with the words “dwell in possibilities.” I must confess that I borrowed this phrase from the great poet, Emily Dickinson. I saw her quote and realized that it summed up what I am doing as a professional home stager and interior designer.

I am most grateful to Ms. Dickinson for her insightful and inspiring phrase.

Regardless of the size or price range of a house, my objective is to find the possibilities in that house. I am looking for those unique features of that house and finding possible ways to accentuate them for the potential buyer. I am analyzing those unusual spaces that buyers find difficult to understand upon first glance and finding possible functional uses for those spaces.

In the end, my mission is to help the potential buyer see how they could dwell in the possibilities of this house!


Friday, July 15, 2011

Friday Treat – It’s All Relative – Upper East Side NYC

Happy Friday!!  

Today’s blog treat is a simple story of a two bedroom, two bath co-op apartment located on the Upper East Side of New York City.  The Friday treat part for the “to be continued” Blog is that there is a home staging angle to this story. 

I must admit that it is hard to fathom how much money can be spent for a place to live especially in NYC.  It is a story right out of HGTV but in this case, we were there.  We heard this story from friends who live in this building (during our recent visit out East to meet our newest granddaughter).   

I had to keep reminding myself that it’s all relative but it does require some work to get your head around this story. 

Located on East 74th Street with fabulous, unobstructed south, west, and north views from the 15th floor, this is “a true two bedroom, two bath, corner apartment with a 27 foot living room plus a large dining alcove, windowed kitchen, windowed master bath and two large walk-in closets”.  The asking price for this approximately 1200 square foot co-op apartment was $1,150,000! 

The Realtors, who were lucky enough to have this fabulous listing, were also proactive and savvy enough to have it staged.  And this is the treat part for me and for every other professional home stager trying to make the point that home staging can make a huge difference.   

In this case, our East 74th apartment located on the 15th floor with fabulous unobstructed views sold for $100,000 over asking price in 3 weeks.  Yes, $1,250,000 – about $1000 per square foot!!  Not a bad return for the savvy Realtors who decided to have this apartment staged!!!  

In our part of the country, we are still working to make home staging a standard.  That is not the case in NYC where home staging (or fabulous co-op apartment staging) is becoming the standard, especially for high end listings. 

I am always pleased and proud whenever one of my staged houses sell whether it happens within the first few days or first month or two.  I am sure that my Realtor partners are waiting for the return of those days when their listings sold for more than the asking price.  But I know that those Realtor partners also understand and value the benefits and possibilities of professional home staging because we keep finding new opportunities to show our stuff.  And we will keep working to make the possibility of home staging as the standard our reality.


Always dwell in possibilities


Cindy
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