Designed to Sell in West Orange, NJ

How one house that showed well and priced almost right garnered interest. I was talking to a West Orange homeowner who had sold her house recently. I told her how a couple of real estate agents I had spoken to were using her house as kind of a West Orange area market barometer when it was on the market. She was surprised and, I think, a little delighted.

Her house was in such immaculate condition with updates in all the right places. It was priced in the low 400s, so I'm not talking about an expensive house. I'm talking about a house that showed well from beginning to end. That means it wasn't just clean from the beginning of the walkway, it was also modernized wherever possible. This is not simply having stainless steel appliances in the kitchen. It's getting that Pottery Barn look and feel in every single room.

CLICK TO SEE BEFORE & AFTER STAGING PICTURES THAT WORKED.

Some homeowners don't feel like they should have to do this, others feel people just need to deal with the way they live. These are typically houses that will have many price drops and maybe not even sell. I was really amazed by this St. Cloud section house in West Orange, NJ though, because the owner has little kids under the age of 10 and the house still looked immaculate. Every item had its place.

Now, when she mentioned that they kind of live this way and she naturally has this type of style, I said 'aha!'. My family has this type of style but it would be hard for me to get my family to live really immaculate and put together this way for just a week; even if I paid them. She's has no problem -- well, it's not like she snaps her fingers -- but it's part of who she is. All West Orange home sellers may not be this lucky so it will be much harder to do and maintain, but the selling benefits are endless.

When a home seller does everything they are suppose to do:

• Turn a home into a house

• Make it show perfect inside and out

• Make it easily accessible, and

• Price it in the right range

..then what's left is for the buyer to agree on price. You are comforted in knowing you did all you can do and as long as your real estate agent has done all he/she should have done to market it, the offers coming to you reflect the price the market can bear.

If you don't have the automatic style or just need to polish it, make sure you hire a real estate agent with staging capabilities or a professional stager or your pickiest friends to get you set. Talk to a real estate agent like us even if you're just thinking about. Get ideas on what will work and won't. Taking the time to remove the 20 year old wallpaper and the bright pink in the bedroom is well worth it. I just previewed a West Orange house this week that just had a price reduction. It was huge for the price and on a really quiet and pretty side street. But you could tell the problem as you walked from one large room to the other: the custom, old wallpaper and individualized paint color in almost every room was mind-boggling. A buyer would probably walk through so distracted at how much effort and cost it would be to redo all the walls that the great space and layout probably just passes them right on by.

You will simply be amazed at what a new paint color can do, the mood it can set when a buyer walks in the door, the space it can communicate to someone new. This all works, though, at the right price. Don't make the mistake of saying, 'I just spent $2,000 to paint so I'm raising the price we were thinking by $2,000 - $3,000.' And, if you don't want to do all of this staging and changing, make sure your price reflects that, too.

Buyers are out now and they have begun putting in offers on that perfect home.

Now, look back at the pictures. What feeling did you have about the last one? This is the biggest space. See what can happen with a bad picture combined with an outdated room? You don't like this space as much as the other two. You may even hate it. And you haven't even been in the house. Hum...

Designing it to sell is the key in selling today.