Style for Sale: Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire
Before
After
Here’s what the homeowner had to say:
“When I tried to sell my house, joyfully filled (actually stuffed) with all the treasures (and impulse buys) accumulated over the years of collecting what spoke to me, I hit a major snag… people didn’t want to view my house with my things in it and my taste. They wanted to fantasize about how it would look as their house. Which meant my stuff got in the way (had they no taste?)
Reluctantly I bowed to the wise words of an estate agent who said: ‘You need to get your house staged’.
The first home stager embodied my worst nightmare. Without moving from the sofa, he proclaimed a figure of £10,000 to make my house half-way acceptable to viewers. He hadn’t even taken a look around the house!
Having taken a dislike to this home stager, I decided to look further afield and came across Gwendoline. Her approach was quite different.”
After
THE MAKEOVER:
After an initial ‘Style for Sale’ consultation and agreeing the budget, I determined what personal possessions would suit the makeover in terms of attracting buyers to the property and creating a suitable ambiance for them to enjoy.
I then scoured the high street for appropriate cost effective items to compliment the homeowners stuff, for example: there was a guest bedroom without a bed which is always a red flag for buyers, and in the master bedroom I recovered an old headboard with material to help create an elegant room.
I then styled the property using the old possessions and the new products to create a home that would appeal to the target buyer market.
WHAT THE OWNER HAD TO SAY:
“Gwendoline listened, and she asked what my budget was – and stuck to it – and she did a thorough recce of the house to see how she could show it, and my stuff, to the best advantage.
I got a 100% return on my investment in Gwendoline. To put it another way, Gwendoline’s input led to the house selling for an extra amount equal to 10 times her fee. (Well she did warn me that house staging can significantly increase the perceived value of a house).
I used to think Home Staging was weird, but maybe it’s weirder to think that you can do better than the specialists in their area of expertise.
Enlisting the services of a competent professional has saved us time, stress, energy – and, ironically, even money.”
Dr Annie Kaszina (Oxfordshire)
Author of Best Seller book:
“Do you choose your dog more carefully than your husband”
