SPRUCE-UP TIME FOR SELLERS
When it comes to selling your home, most real estate experts will agree on one thing: Looks matter.
“What I always say is, you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression,” said Giancarlo Tiberi, president of Core Property Group and a broker and developer.
Fortunately for the homeowner, the work doesn’t always have to be costly, especially if the house has been kept up and needs no major repairs.
In fact, the task can be as simple as hiring a professional to stage and spruce up the place, said Lynette Glover, who’s been in the real estate business in the Boston area for 34 years.
Glover, who just this week listed a home at 49 White Place in Brookline Village for about $900,000, said hiring a consultant to stage the place was a major part of getting it show-ready.
Over two-and-a-half days, the “stager” suggested re-painting the kitchen, putting in new lamps, buying new pillows and removing some of the old furniture that was cluttering the house.
“It cost about $3,000, and, my opinion is you get that back many times over,” said Glover, who works with Hammond Residential.
Though staging a house or condo is typically viewed as a way to make new and empty places look lived in, it can also ensure homes with longtime owners are junk-free and aren’t cluttered by that old exercise bike in the bedroom or that dusty cassette deck in the corner of the living room.
“Once you make the decision to sell your home, you have to assume it’s not your own,” Glover said. “(Buyers) want to see their home, not their grandparents’ homes.”
Whenever possible, rooms should look bright, light and new, she said.
Frank Celeste, an agent with Gibson Sotheby’s, agreed.
“You want to get the feel that it’s as open, clean and bright as possible,” said Celeste, who has been in the business for more than three decades.
“The best bang for your buck is hiring a professional painter and having the windows professionally cleaned,” he said.
But going beyond painting, staging and sprucing is sometimes called for, and in that case, materials and designs matter, agents say.
“Super white granite and quartz are in,” said Celeste, who has a partially renovated home at 12 Cedar St. in Charlestown on the market for about $1.8 million. In that home, the kitchen was remodeled with refinished white cabinetry, new quartz countertops, and pricey Thermador stainless steel appliances. The main bathroom was gutted and fitted with a carrara marble double vanity and miniature herringbone carrara tile floor.
Tiberi said he’s also seen a trend toward fine stones and tiles, the color white, and stainless steel ranges and fridges.
“White cabinets — either antique or not — are timeless,” said Tiberi. “Glass tiles, subway tiles for the backsplash, even for the bathrooms … and marble and anything like marble are also timeless.”
Indeed, more and more condos and homes around Boston — even in areas known for cheaper, rundown housing — are now getting worked over with fine stones and expensive finishes, because, as one agent said, the housing prices “demand it.”
“I’m seeing a shift in that people are putting higher-quality materials in bathrooms and kitchens in all of Greater Boston,” Celeste said.
This is improving the look, quality and costs in places like Mission Hill, Jamaica Plain, Dorchester and other areas.
“It makes whole neighborhoods look different and feel different,” Glover said, “and it’s elevating the neighborhoods and increasing the prices all around.”