When I went to the house I saw it needed a heavy duty cleaning, yard work, touch up paint, algaecide in the pool and an improvement in the smell and overall ambiance. If you get showings and no offers the house is priced right for the market but too high for the condition of the house. I told the seller either the condition had to go up or the price had to go down. The seller did not want to reduce the price. I warned him I am an aggressive realtor and he may not like what I was going to do. He agreed he had to do something different. He cancelled the listing with the current realtor and signed with me.
Unfortunately, the owner was not able to help much physically. I had to hire help. The next day my brother-in-law and one of his friends joined me and we went to work. The three of us worked over 70 hours cleaning, touching up paint, removing curtains, cleaning the back yard, windows, screens, cabinets and staging the house. Family members were able to help for a few hours while the seller concentrated on sorting and packing. I called in my yard guy for the front yard as it was overgrown from the heavy rains. My carpet cleaner performed a miracle as the family room carpet looked like new.
One week later we were done. I staged the house and listed it at the exact same price as the prior realtor’s last listing price. I beefed up the description, added the house was close to schools and the community had a lake. I took high quality pictures including pictures of the lake and walking paths. Though the house was not perfect it was a lot better than before. After only two days on the market we received a nearly full priced offer and closed escrow 35 days later. The seller and his family were very appreciative of my efforts.
What I did is far above and beyond staging or what a typical realtor would do to get a house to sell. Think of it as staging on steroids. Maybe I did too much but one cannot argue with the results.