Mr. and Mrs. S called me. They were fed up and angry. One year of carrying two mortgages, their big, beautiful house in the North Hills of Pittsburgh sitting vacant on the market – not a single offer in all that time – and no one could tell them why.

I hear you work magic, Mr. S said to me.

So, two days later, I interview them in the home theyd down-sized to, a lovely patio home with beautiful furniture, and Im thinking, Wow. These people know how to create a home. And they tell me all about their house that hasnt sold.

It was a huge place4,100 square feet! And it was just to die for. Custom-built gourmet kitchen with granite counters and hardwood floors, oak throughout the house, vaulted cathedral ceilings, open floor plan, big rooms, huge master bedroom, tons of windows, big sliding glass doors opening onto the tiered decking and patiothere was even a pool!

And then there were the grounds: Almost an acre of land with hundred-year-old sycamores, beautiful landscaping, flowersMrs. S had tears in her eyes as they described their former home.

Im heading over to this house the next day, Im already in love with it, sight unseen. Then I get there. Bam. What happened. This isnt a home. This isnt what I heard them talk about the kids, the Christmases and Thanksgivings in their gorgeous dining room, the entertaining, the house that all their childrens friends loved to hang out at, the big, beautiful, warm home that helped them raise a family and live a happy lifethis was just a house! It was cold, dark and empty and had nothing left to show for what a gem of a house it was.

So I started making my list to bring back the magic of this home that everybody loved.

For a whole year, this place had been shown with two lights in the entire house. BRING IN LIGHTS!

For a whole year, this place had been shown without any furniture to show people that this is a HOME, not an empty box with vaulted ceilings and hardwood floors. BRING IN FURNITURE! (What we call STAGING.)

After a whole year, the grounds had lost their perfect grooming, making it look abandoned and depressing. WEED, MOW, MULCH, AND PLANT FLOWERS!

For a whole year, the elements had trashed the beautiful decking, making it look uninviting. POWER-WASH THE DECK!

And then there was the blue carpeting and the blue wallpaper. Without the furniture to complement and offset them, that blue just dominated the rooms! Ive seen over and over how strong colors jump up and shout, especially on the web, and I didnt want people checking out the house on the web only to get distracted by strong colors!

Well, my number one rule is Keep It Simple, Sellers, so for the carpeting, I knew that the furniture I was bringing in anyway was all that was needed to take the focus off the color. But wallpapers a different story: Its as personal to every homeowner as the art that hangs on their walls. Its always better to just remove it and paint the walls a neutral color.

So I start getting to work on my list: bringing in furniture, hanging pictures, polishing, planting flowers, power-washing the deckand theyre amazed. Im as religious as the next person, but I dont just put a house on the market, then pray that it sells. I work to make it sell.

See before and after photos at: http://homesalespittsburgh.com/?page_id=9

And then something happened that I see over and over: They started getting excited again. Not right away, not even after the first week of me going over there almost every day to work on the house. And certainly not at our second meeting when I brought them the list of what needed to be done!

Maybe they thought I was full of hot air, maybe they thought I was half nuts. They didnt say much, but they also didnt disagree, which is good. That says to me theyre listening, theyre willing to work with me, theyre willing to trust me and give me a chance to make good on my promise to definitely sell their house, and to hopefully do it within my average of 60 days to contract.

Sure enough, going into the second week, they started getting excited, not just the homeowners, but the whole family. They all started pitching in. The sons came over to mow the lawn and mulch under all the trees, they brought in a professional cleaner to scrub the home from top to bottom, they brought in painters to spiff up the garage and basement, they started bringing furniture and little knick-knacks back to the housethey even brought back the beautiful teak patio furniture.

After Id furnished the house and after Id brought in a ton of lamps, I asked them, May I ask you for a months electricity bill? May I leave a few lights on at night so people can peek in and see how beautiful this home is? Well, Mr. S said to me, A month?! What if its another year? How do I know youll sell this house at all? It didnt sell for the last twelve months!

Do you trust me? I asked him. Look, after one month, Ill pay the electric bill.

They trusted me to leave the lights on. But it didnt take a month; it just took a week.

Why? Because with staging, we made the house a home.

http://homesalespittsburgh.com/

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