ISO: Off-Market Home — Local Family Happy to Chat If You're Thinking About Selling!

mwoodn00b said:

What I'm looking for: 3+ bed / 1+ bath with a backyard, somewhere not much farther west than Valley. My kid goes to Delia Bolden, so that's the general orbit.

Not looking to sell at this time, and wishing you good luck. But just for your post's clarity, did you mean to say: "...not much farther EAST than Valley", as Delia Bolden is West of Valley.

Not me now, but I sure hope there's someone like you looking if/when we decide to sell. Staging is kinda nuts! The last (only) time we ever sold a home, was when we were "upsizing" within Maplewood over 30 years ago. The only staging we did was to put a tiny breakfast table and two chairs in a space at the back of our kitchen, so we could call it an "eat in" kitchen and make our beds every day. Those were the days!

Best of luck to you in your search!

One of these days, perhaps the buyers will come around and realize that they don’t need to see a perfectly staged home. The first house we bought in Maplewood was kind of a mess but we looked past all that. 

It ends up being a big expense. Cost us thousands to semi-stage our house in 2013. We pushed back on a lot of things we were told to do that would have added more $$$ to the bill. 

I wish you luck mwoodN00b. It’s hard to potentially ask sellers to leave money on the table by not testing the market. But maybe there’s someone who doesn’t want to go through all of the stress. 

mrincredible said:

One of these days, perhaps the buyers will come around and realize that they don’t need to see a perfectly staged home. The first house we bought in Maplewood was kind of a mess but we looked past all that. 

I can see why people stage for those who don't look past a mess. The house we bought in town a couple decades ago was quite full of stuff and was not updated at all, so it led to the house being overlooked by other buyers, and we got it for below asking. My parents thought it was an ugly house. Then once we fixed it up a bit (cosmetic, so we were mostly able to DIY), my parents wondered how we saw the potential. 

If the previous owners had staged and done some cosmetic updates (e.g., it looked like a much newer kitchen once we swapped out the old dinged-up kitchen cabinet doors and hardware, and cleaned up the original high-quality cabinet boxes), it probably would have gone for quite a bit more.  

(ETA: But I guess it is unknown if the time and money spent on the staging and updates will be worth it in the end. It's probably always worth it to the realtor. And sometimes worth it to the seller.)

sprout said:

Not looking to sell at this time, and wishing you good luck. But just for your post's clarity, did you mean to say: "...not much farther EAST than Valley", as Delia Bolden is West of Valley.

Thanks for the good luck! And you're absolutely right, my wording was backward! 

mwoodn00b said:

sprout said:

Not looking to sell at this time, and wishing you good luck. But just for your post's clarity, did you mean to say: "...not much farther EAST than Valley", as Delia Bolden is West of Valley.

Thanks for the good luck! And you're absolutely right, my wording was backward! 

You'll get more for your money east of Valley, just saying. Once your kid is out of elementary school, it won't matter where you live.