How a Realtor adds value to a home

Every once in a while you get an opportunity to make a market difference to the value of a property.  In March of this year, we received a call from a potential seller to make a presentation to him and his wife.  We were especially honored as we weren't the agents that helped them buyer the property about a year earlier. 

  

The challenge lies in the fact that current buyers would likely go back to track the house financial stats.  In so doing, they would have found that the house had been purchased as a 2 bedroom for $590,000 in April of 2020 (the same month I happen to have sold my most recent home in Maplewood) and that could have dragged down performance when we would launch the property in 2021.   As it turns out, we would end up selling this home for $750,000, 25% more than our $600,000 asking price and $160,000 more than our clients paid for the home just a year earlier. 

 

How did we do this?  We started with an in-depth consultation, where the sellers specifically which presented a bit of a financial hurdle when they bought it as the house didn't appraise.  I'm happy to go into that with you, if you are so inclined, but its not the focus of this blog post.

As listing agents, MaryCeu (my business partner) and I then conducted our walk through of the home and the property.  We knew that having the home professionally staged would help a great deal, but that wouldn't be enough in our opinions to help ensure that the sellers would make money after all of their selling costs were factored in.  So, we viewed our focus on steps to provide "distance" from how the home appeared in its previous marketing.  We also recommended work that would allow us to market the home as a legal 3 bedroom thereby making it much more desirable to prospective buyers.  

In the end, there were some small tweaks and two more significant changes we would recommend to our clients.  First, we suggested that the first floor bathroom be re-glazed, turning a blue and maroon full bath into a more desirable white and grey.  A new toilet was also installed.  This cost around $5,500 in total, but gave the bathroom a look more in line with a $15,000-$20,000 renovation.  

 Here is the bath as featured in the 2020 purchase:

 

 

This is the halfway mark of the transition from old to new:

Here is the bath fully refinished and featured in the 2021 listing:  

 

 

Our remaining focus was on the fact that the first floor offered a newer and large kitchen space that was open to a good size dining room.  There was also a very large living room at the front of the home.  What was odd, is that there was a very large room that appeared to have been used as a multi-person office by the previous owners and our clients were using it as multi-purpose room.  There was actually a large opening to this room, there were older kitchen cabinets on the walls and there was a counter that spanned an entire wall, as you can see in the below pictures. 

Here is how the room looked from the 2020 Listing:

Our recommendations:  remove the cabinets and the counter to start with.  Then, add a closet and figure out the best option to provide a door for the entry to this room, as that is a requirement for a bedroom in Maplewood.   Due to the size of the opening, we had to be creative and we recommended sliding barn door "hinges" and a double barn door to grace the entrance.

 Here is how it looked after our recommendations were executed:

The key to selling a home for the MOST MONEY is knowing what today's buyers are looking for and providing them with the most "HGTV-looking" interiors with a combination of paint colors, fixtures and staging. 

Nothing makes Mary and I happier than to see such wonderful results for our clients.  

If you have any questions, or are interested in any advice, or would even like a copy of my book, please let me know.

 

 

Mark Slade Keller Williams 917.797.5059 Good Homes Selling a Maplewood/South Orange/West Orange area home involves many steps and having an experienced Maplewood New Jersey Real Estate Agent and Realtor®, specializing in the Bedroom Communities of New York City in Essex/Union County— Millburn, Short Hills, Montclair, West Orange, South Orange, Livingston, Maplewood, Springfield, Summit, Madison, Chatham, Scotch Plains, Fanwood, Cranford and Westfield--by your side will make the transaction run a lot smoother. I would love to be your Maplewood/South Orange New Jersey Area Real Estate Professional! I assist both buyers and sellers in the Bedroom Communities of New York City, mostly served by NJ Transit’s Mid-Town Direct Train Lines, offering commutes of 45minute or less to NY Penn Station, with either the purchase and or sale of residential real estate. As an Accredited Buyer’s Agent (ABR), I have received special training to guide and educate you through the entire home buying process. From start to finish, I listen to your needs and desires in what you would like and take the information you give me to find you home. My GO-TO team can provide you the best in Real Estate advice with regard to attorney choices, Home Inspectors and Mortgage Loan Officers I am also a Luxury specialist (CLHMS), I have received special training to guide and educate you through the entire home buying and selling process. Not only does this extra training help me better understand this upper echelon in real estate, its benefit include a special luxury website: www.njluxhomes.com and a corresponding worldwide luxury network that helps to put luxury buyers and sellers together. As your Maplewood/South Orange/ West Orange New Jersey listing agent I am well versed on as your local expert in all things in the West Orange, Maplewood and South Orange area Real Estate Market. You can expect personalized service that includes a detailed consultation on how to best position your Mid-Town Direct home to be competitive in today’s market with training to provide my clients with an in-depth Advanced Comparative Market analysis, and advice on staging. As my office’s technology officer as well as both a Zillow Platinum Premier and Trulia Premier agent, I use the latest and most up-to-date marketing methods to get your home in front of as many buyers as possible. Being your New Jersey Real Estate Agent and Realtor ® not only involves just finding the home or selling the home, but being your guide, negotiator, advisor and advocate and making sure that your needs and goals are met. Being your New Jersey Essex/Union County area Realtor® (with a little bit of Morris County thrown in for good measure) is one of my truest passions, and “Helping You Find Your Dream Home” is my number one priority. Don’t forget These Helpful Sites: For Open Houses: www.maplewoodnjopenhouses.com www.southorangenjopenhouses.com and For Homes For Sale: www.latestmaplewoodhomes.com and www.latestsouthorangehomes.com

   

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A picturesque town in Essex County, Maplewood is located on the East Branch of the Rahway River. Originally consisting of farms, mills and orchards, Maplewood is now a great mix of residential and commercial areas, culminating in the jewel of a downtown village and coming together to create a charming, tight-knit and diversified community. Maplewood has predominantly Colonial and Tudor style homes with sprawling porches and ample greenery, but you can also find some Victorians and a range of more modern style construction on its beautiful tree lined streets. Maplewood is a diverse town with 6 elementary schools and prominent municipal building designed by famous architects, Guilbert and Betelle. In the center of town, famed landscape architects, the Olmstead Brothers, created the breathtaking Memorial Park; not to be overlooked is Ricalton Square, nestled between the train station and the downtown shopping; this area is frequently used for events including a Halloween Parade with hayrides and petting zoos, as well as featuring replica homes during the Winter Holiday Season. The town offers many activities to its residents from camps in the summer, arts and crafts classes, a public pool (with 4 pools ranging from a “baby” pool to toddler pool to large lap pool and a diving tank) and a farmers market when in season. There is even an annual musicalpalooza--Maplewoodstock—featuring a variety of bands and musical styles, showcasing local and national bands with booths for local businesses to set up. The Village, also known as Maplewood Center, is a quaint, downtown shopping district with everything from restaurants with foods from all over the world, bakeries, dance studios, gyms, bookstores, a movie theater and bookstores. With its large variety of cuisines to choose from, Maplewood recently started a yearly town-wide Restaurant Week with over 30 eateries participating. Easily accessible by its throughways and the New Jersey Transit, it's no surprise Maplewood has been ranked several times as one of the most desirable places to live in America by a number of surveys.