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Background

This home is in a very desirable neighborhood and was well maintained by the original owners. It was 26 years old and proudly raised a family from birth to graduation. More focused on family commitments, jobs and life in general, the owners didn't have much time for updates over the years. As a result, there were many areas of functional obsolescence. For example, all doors and moldings were original and immediately pegged the home as built in the 1980's. In addition, dark wood doors and trim made the long hallway look dim and dreary. The powder bath was way past its prime.

Homes were selling for $475 per sq foot and average market time was approximately 75 days.

Approach

Our team included a Castellana Realty Broker, Castellana Homes General Contractor, and our preferred stager. We met with the homeowner and reviewed each room and the exterior in detail, building a comprehensive list of repairs, updates and staging solutions.

Each item was evaluated critically to ensure that money put into preparing the home would be returned through increased price and/or decreased market time. We went after the highest valued-add items that would move the house from an also-ran to the top of the neighborhood.

The major areas of focus were:

  1. update the powder bath
  2. replace the dark wood interior doors and molding with new, white, modern doors and molding
  3. replace the damaged laundry room flooring
  4. repair anything in the home that was not working

All updates and repairs were performed by Castellana Homes over a two week period.


The work plan included:

  1. Demo old moldings and doors
  2. Install and paint doors and moldings in all rooms
  3. Paint existing louver door in master bedroom
  4. Paint three pocket doors (to remain)
  5. Replace carpet in powder bath with tile
  6. Replace fan in powder bath with Panasonic whisper quiet fan
  7. Remove box fluorescent light in powder, repair wall, re-texture, paint and install lighting sconce and mirror
  8. Remove wall paper from breakfast area, laundry, re-texture and paint
  9. Clean window sills and paint
  10. Replace damaged laundry room flooring
  11. Adjust pocket door in Laundry
  12. Clean return air grille
  13. Remove shelves, patch, and paint wall in family room
  14. Replace two broken landscape light fixtures
  15. Troubleshoot and repair pool backwash valve assembly
  16. Troubleshoot and repair junction box and pool fixture
  17. Repair nail holes throughout home and paint about 30% of wall surfaces
  18. Repair broken redwood joist on arbor
  19. Correct sag at front door
  20. Install mandated gas earthquake valves
  21. Repair scratches in hardwood flooring
  22. Replace faulty electrical receptacle
  23. Install required smoke detector
  24. Repair leaking toilet in master bath
  25. Haul and dispose of materials
  26. Stage home using a combination of owner's and stager's furnishings


Result

When the home sale preparation was completed, the home looked 20 years younger and was in turnkey condition. The staging accentuated the best features and demonstrated the generous proportions of the living areas. The home was promoted with a heavy mix of online and newspaper advertising, broker tours and open houses.

After several days of heavy showing traffic and positive feedback, the home sold with three offers at $524 per square foot, 10% higher and 15 times quicker than the neighborhood average