Another Entry for Realty U's "I Staged It" Photo contest.

This room has two before and after photos taken from both sides of the room. The BEFORE photos were the photos from the mls from when I bought the property. The AFTER photos are how they will appear in the mls now that I am going to sell it. I have lived here three years.

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

I painted the triangle at the ceiling to highlight the height of the room and I painted the furthest wall back to create depth. I always had the piano in the reverse position and it was actually Andy's idea for me to have it facing people as the entered the front door.

As I look at these, it's hard to believe it's the same house. I'm sure a few people will like it better in the BEFORE photos :)

My good friend Andy Capelluto asked me to enter Realty U's "I Staged It" Photo contest. So I have to submit lots of entries. I'm a real estate agent and not a stager, but I did attend Barb Schwarz ASP Class, which was a blast, and do help clients get their properties ready for sale. This happens to be my own house the way it was in the mls when I bought it (before) and the way it is now prepared for market (after)

This room is part of "the great room" at the rear of the house. The previous owner had a table in this huge room. We usually have two sofas in an L, but for showing and photos for selling, I've removed one of the sofas and rearranged it.

BEFORE

We painted the walls a very light turquoise blue so the millwork around the windows would pop better. We blocked the door to the deck with the big screen TV as there is a second door in the same position to the right of that big window. Two doors were unnecessary. We also removed the "granny" light fixture and replaced it with a more modern one. And we removed the vertical blinds and replaced them with mini blinds.

Here's the result AFTER

Recently on Rain City Guide, a local area resident asked why we don't first add an additional 2X the land value and then value the structure value, when coming up with a listing or offer price.

In the post itself, I explained the 10% rule for extras, including extra land. That rule being that when you pull the nearby comps and value the property based on it being a "normal" sized lot for the neighborhhood, you can only add 10% of that value to the total to account for extra lot size, a pool, a tennis court and any other extras that don't value out such as additional square footage of the home, an addtional garage, bedroom or bathroom, etc.

Earlier today I tested my theory using a local neighborhood with wide variances between the lot sizes that replicate the 3X land question and also addressing whether or not the land is taxed on a price per square foot basis, or deemed an "extra" of little to no value by the tax assessor.

Turned out that the assessor gave even less value to the extra lot square footage than the market. The market allows 10%. The tax assessor gave little or no value to the extra land. See data and details in comment #35 of the above linked post.

I see that the resident who raised the question has come back in comment #36. I'll head back and see how he liked the proofs to my theory.

Kirkland, Washington is a City known for many thngs, but two of its biggest claims to fame are that it is a City built on a Lake and it is known for its many Art Stores.

The stained glass "window of vases" on the stairway landing of my home are not part of the window, They are free standing separate pieces that can be re-arranged. The stairway window art was made by my sister Loretta, she was creating the effect of vases on a shelf. The Mondrian paintings to the right were done by me. To the left you see a hint of the colored glass pieces that decorate the home.

The original house, built in 1921 had no second floor and no stairway up and this feature was added, along with the 750 sf master suite, in 1994 by the previous owner.

As I continue to prepare the house for market, I will be sorting and collecting photos in posts here on Active Rain. I'm hoping to re-take that front shot in the next day or earlier in the day whenthe sun is on he front of the house.

The two posts below this have additional photos and I hope to have several more by end of day.

See the two posts below for additional interior photos. I have to do the kitchen, Dining Room, Music Room, Master Suite including excercise room with a view, the additional bedrooms and baths and the lower level living space.

...and my office. Forgot about my office. That's going to take some cleanup! Though I did repaint it a couple of months ago as the first step in getting the house ready. It will take a well to get all thepapers organized, here's a photo taken from my office one evening as the sun was setting. Gathering photos that you have taken over time is part of pulling everything together before uploading the listing in the mls.

Sometimes a photo taken in the past at an opportune moment is better than one you can take in the few days before putting your home on market.

I'm starting to get the photos ready for listing my property right after I get back from Inman Blogger's Connect in San Francisco.

I know you all know I'm a bit odd and eclectic. It's a big decision not to neutralize everything in my house, but since I've painted the furniture to match the house...well I'm sure it's a stager's nightmare, but it is what it is.

I have always loved ball and claw furniture and have had many traditional pieces in my younger years. Back in Philadelphia everyone knew what Queen Anne vs. Chippendale and Ball and Claw were. But on the West Coast no one noticed my balls and claws...well now they do. The claw looks like the Grinch and the ball looks like the Grinch has got the world in his grasp.

Here are a few of the photos I'm preparing for the mls below. Of course the one above is just for you :)

When I first moved in no one seemed to notice the high cathedral ceiling, so I painted it turquoise. When someone doesn't notice something that I want them to notice, I find a way to call it to their attention. Luckily Kim's a good sport and lets me do whatever I want. My ex-husband of 20 years would NEVER have let me do this. I'll have to send him a link to this post.

I'm using this post to test some of my photos. The rugs won't be cleaned until I'm off at Inman, so the stain behind that sofa will be gone before it goes on market. I'm just testing the angle of the photos, etc...

This is the view of Lake Washington from my bedroom. I am going to miss waking up to that every morning. The tall buildings across the Lake are the Seattle City Skyline. From my kitchen window I can see the Space Needle out in the distance.

Below is the shot from the back of the house. I decided to retake the front shot earlier in the day as the sun had moved to the back by the time I took these photos today. And I have to move the recylce bins :)

It's a "Street to Alley" lot so the garage is in the rear.

My home is in Kirkland WA and I keep wavering between listing it at $949,950 and $975,000. Today Zillow says it is valued at $986,400 :) One day it was $1,080,000, but when I woke up I lost $160,000. It's heading back up so I better hurry up and list it before Zillow has another bad day.

Generally speaking, I have been a strong proponent for Do It Yourself Real Estate at times, more times than most agents. But I have to say I'm doing a complete about face in 2008. It's a really bad time to not have someone assist you in navigating through the process of buying or selling real estate, and having an agent vs. not having an agent can clearly make the difference between a soft and hard landing.

I love the visual of the guy in front being the person looking at property to buy, or a seller trying to figure out how to sell their home in this market.

NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU KNOW, and you clearly may know a whole lot, you can't possibly have enough volume of info in your everyday experience to match the knowledge of a professional in this market. Honestly, even the best of us are having trouble trying to stay on top of everything that is happening out there.

For buyers, choosing "the wrong" property or overpaying for a property is clearly more dangerous now than it was in 2003 or 2004. For sellers, being on market 60 days longer than you could have been, can clearly cost you money when the market is trending down on a weekly basis.

I have no idea why many agents want to pretend the market is better than it is. When the market is going up, people need an agent less. The market is NOT going up. We are NOT at bottom. And having someone to guide you through is more imporant now than ever.

This one is for Jo Soss, taken right off the stairway wall of a recently sold home in Seattle.

The color was really a Brown Sugar like the one below from Benjamin Moore

But the lighting from the bottom to the top of the staircase gave it that variated pattern and color tone.

A slightly lighter version of Seville Brown below would give you the mid-tone

Here's a trick I use all the time and recommend to my clients. Instead of playing with color swatches to do tone on tone, buy the darker color like Seville Brown. Do one wall, usually the short wall or an alcove or the angled wall with a high ceiling.

Then mix the same color into white to do the rest of the room. That way the tone is identical, but the room isn't too dark all over. No guessing "is this the right tone" if you make two or three paint colors using the darkest color mixed into white. Make sure you put some aside for touch up paint in a glass jar though...cause you'll never get the exact same color match if you mix it yourself.

Here in the Seattle area we have enjoyed a really great market until July or August of 2007, unlike the rest of the Country. The big story is in the fewer number of sold property, the higher and growing numbers of property for sale. But in reality what we are looking for is for the reduction in volume to slow down or stablilize. Unfortunately, no signs of that happening yet.

The rate at which sales are getting few is going higher. In the 4th quarter when the slowdown started due to the mortgage and credit crisis, volume dropped to about 29% lower than the same quarter in the previous year. In the 1st quarter of 2008 the condo market dropped to about 38% compared to the same quarter of the previous year and in the recently closed 2nd quarter that drop expanded to 47% compared to the same quarter in the previous year.

There are some stories floating around about the market getting better because more property sold in the second quarter than in the first quarter. That's called "grasping at straws". In reality, the 2nd quarter was by far worse than the first quarter, relatively speaking.

We continue to look for signs that the market will stabilize. When I see a sign I'll let you know...but in the meantime don't believe everything you read because it just ain't so.

Above is an actual swatch from a recently sold property. The huge living room was painted in this color. The furnishings were very neutral, the walls were not.

In fact I've seen quite a few shades of orange and brown-orange lately.

Here are a few ideas:

Benjamin Moore's Flamme Orange above

Robust Orange below:

And one of my favorites from Pottery Barn that mixes well with Robust Orange

Semolina:

These colors go especially well in properties with lots of natural light that were built in the eighties and have warm caramel colored wood trims.

But they go just as well in a newer townhome or condo that has dark cherry kitchen cabinets.

The color of SOLD is not always white and boring :)

Do what I just did. Go into the mls and look for property that sold very recently and in a short period of time. You may be surprised when you look at the walls inside. Not all white or beige!

The above color was taken from a recently sold home and it was used as an accent color in an alcove in a hallway. Just a splash of color.

In person it was actually much brighter and resembled Banjamin Moore's Malachy Green below:

A great color, especially for urban condos.