Getting there on selling our house - staging , part one

[DianaCox]

These are just pix that Charles took of the staging so far (not everything has been cleaned or staged yet) - not professional pix for the listing. But I'm fairly impressed. I hardly recognize the two basement rooms! Charles has more work to do today and tomorrow, and then we are done until it's sold and time to get the remaining things of ours that the stager kept (dining room set, bar stools, tables and a few other pieces, TVs and mirrors), into storage.

Living room

Dining room

Kitchen looking back from the front door

Kitchen looking forward to front door

Master bedroom head on

Master bedroom from back door

Office/middle bedroom

Stairs to basement

Downstairs bedroom (set up as a playroom?)

Downstairs bathroom

Downstairs bonus/media room (no window)

Still not cleaned/staged: upstairs bathrooms (3), upstairs second bedroom, poolhouse. Professional pix to be taken on Monday or Tuesday (and inspections ... ugh), on the market on Tuesday, broker tour Wednesday, open house next Saturday and Sunday.

I'll bet this is something that is hard for everyone, but it kind of pisses me off that some of the repairs and other fixing-ups weren't done while we were living there ...

 

[newanatomy]

Looks great!

 

[southernlady]

Oh wow!

I am surprised tho that the downstairs media room isn't required by law to have an egress window.

 

[hilary1617]

Lovely! Hope it sells swiftly and at a premium.

 

[DianaCox]

"I am surprised tho that the downstairs media room isn't required by law to have an egress window."

Only if it's a bedroom.

 

[southernlady]

"I am surprised tho that the downstairs media room isn't required by law to have an egress window."

Only if it's a bedroom.

Oh, Okay...I thought it was if it was habitable space. (Office, media room, etc)

 

[JuliaDS]

Looks great! Love your floors. Hope you get your price and close soon so that you can move with your next adventure!

 

[Bagaof4]

Wow! Looks beautiful! Hope you get the offer you want and quickly! Adventures are awaiting!

 

[DSRIGGS]

"I am surprised tho that the downstairs media room isn't required by law to have an egress window."

Only if it's a bedroom.

Yep and I was told you can list a bedroom in a basement as a bedroom if it has an egress window. Not sure if that is valid in all states or not but has been pretty much I have lived that had a basement. I didn't realize that there were basements in the Bay Area. Is your basement very rare or is it more common in the area than I thought? Basements are such excellent and cheap to finish living space.

Your home is lovely and I really like your kitchen.

 

[southernlady]

Yep and I was told you can list a bedroom in a basement as a bedroom if it has an egress window. Not sure if that is valid in all states or not but has been pretty much I have lived that had a basement. I didn't realize that there were basements in the Bay Area. Is your basement very rare or is it more common in the area than I thought? Basements are such excellent and cheap to finish living space.

Your home is lovely and I really like your kitchen.

Different states have different laws. I know in this area (NC/SC/TN), a basement can not be listed as habitable space unless it also has a walk out to it. So if we finished our walkout basement as habitable (even without a bedroom) the livable part can be added to the usable sq footage. Even a finished basement with no outside door is not listed as sq footage on the house.

But then a four season sun room can not be counted as livable space here in NC either. It's listed separately.

Each state has their own set of rules. And each county can add more to those rules.

 

[KathrynK]

I admire the energy and stamina you have. I don't think I have enough to do what you have done, so I can dig myself out from under a lifetime of possessions and sentimental junk. I am going to leave it all to the kids to throw out! I agree about finally doing repairs that you wish you had done for yourself and not the future owners. I am going to take that advice and upgrade my 20-year old kitchen countertops. I will let the kids pick it out!

 

[DSRIGGS]

Different states have different laws. I know in this area (NC/SC/TN), a basement can not be listed as habitable space unless it also has a walk out to it. So if we finished our walkout basement as habitable (even without a bedroom) the livable part can be added to the usable sq footage. Even a finished basement with no outside door is not listed as sq footage on the house.

But then a four season sun room can not be counted as livable space here in NC either. It's listed separately.

Each state has their own set of rules. And each county can add more to those rules.

I am pretty sure that in IL and SC (Lived in Simpsonville for 3 years) bedrooms with egress windows can be counted, but yeah finished basements here are not listed as livable space unless there is egress. That being said with today's internet listing outlets like Zillow.com and Realtor.com finished basements are prominently advertised and the value is definitely shown to prospective buyers whether the basement footage is counted or not. A nicely finished basement adds great value and always catches my if I am looking for a property.

 

[DSRIGGS]

I admire the energy and stamina you have. I don't think I have enough to do what you have done, so I can dig myself out from under a lifetime of possessions and sentimental junk. I am going to leave it all to the kids to throw out! I agree about finally doing repairs that you wish you had done for yourself and not the future owners. I am going to take that advice and upgrade my 20-year old kitchen countertops. I will let the kids pick it out!

As a person who still has a ton of my Mom's old junk I can tell you that I wish I didn't have all that stuff in my unfinished basement (we have a huge loft for additional space so we didn't need to finish our basement but it is very nice and the walls were spray foam insulated so they look nice).

 

[DianaCox]

Where we live, a bedroom has to be a certain square footage, have a closet, egress (window of a certain size and height off the floor counts) and direct access to a bathroom on the same level. Since the downstairs bathroom is inside the main bedroom, even if we had put in an egress window in the "media" room, it would not count as another bedroom.

Basements are fairly rare here. Our basement is only under the bedroom "wing" at the back of the house. The stairs down to the basement used to be outside in the courtyard - at some point I think in the early 90s, prior owners extended the side of the house to enclose the stairs and enlarge the master bedroom a little and make the alcove and a walk-in closet. The entrance to the basement was still all the way down a hall to the far corner of the house where the external door was. Charles reconfigured it by opening the basement wall at the bottom of the steps and making the entrance in the middle and dividing the basement into two rooms. The hall then became a utility closet on the side facing the stairs, and a deep closet on the side that used to be the entrance to the basement at the far end of the media room.

 

[Clematis]

Looks wonderful --and easy to sell! I just listed a little house last week that I had bought for my son while in college. Proper staging is worth the effort. It quickly went for more than asking price. Get it on the market before the feds raise the interest rates.

And I HEAR YOU on the "why couldn't we have enjoyed the fix-ups?" My current house needs work on the kitchen to sell in the next year or so and my husband is balking at doing it now so I can enjoy it.

Here, a NEW finished basement has to have egress, which counts as a window large enough to accommodate a fireman with full battle gear. Anything used for sleeping has to have a walk out door. Fortunately my house is grandfathered as the egress law was enacted just after it was built. The teeny windows are glass block. If a fire breaks out at the top of the basement stairs, anyone in the basement is toast.