Re:Fresh Re:Design, I have an eye for your style!

All photos and/or written content produced by Cheryl Marantino. All rights reserved and may not be reproduced or reprinted without express written permission of Cheryl Marantino, Re:Fresh Re:Design, Serving Colorado Springs, Colorado and surrounding areas in El Paso and Teller Counties.

All photos and/or written content produced by Cheryl Marantino. All rights reserved and may not be reproduced or reprinted without express written permission of Cheryl Marantino, Re:Fresh Re:Design, Serving Colorado Springs, Colorado and surrounding areas in El Paso and Teller Counties.

When we saw our house for the first time, a little less than two years ago, it was billed as "move-in ready". To the casual observer, it was. Not normally, "casual observers", we were truly bleary-eyed and exhausted from looking at houses on the internet, and driving over on weekends to see them. We wanted to buy, and move quickly, so when we found a house that neither of us had an objection to, we bought it.

No pressure from our Realtor, we pressured ourselves into the purchase. Having moved 20+ times, living in houses from 750 sq. ft to almost 3000 sq. ft., and everything in between, we have a little experience with choosing something that works for us. We've lived in basement apts, second-story apts, garage apts, one, two and three story houses, ranchers, bungalows, Victorians, brand new, and 115 yrs. old. We have lived in town and out, on acreage and in a duplex.

About two houses ago, the hubs said, "NO MORE fixer-uppers!" His skills as a former woodworking teacher, and my skills as a stager have always combined to make our homes marketable fairly quickly. Admittedly his skills get put to the test much more intensely than mine! So once we were moved in, and it became evident, that we had in fact purchased a fixer-upper, he got busy.

While I was out of town, over the Valentine's Day/Presidents Day weekend, the hubs worked hard on our home office. The room used to be the master bedroom in another life, before the previous owner did some "remodeling". It became a smaller room, making way for a hallway to a new master which was added on. To put it politely, behind the artwork hanging on the wall, was a horrid mess. He is now down to one last room, to bring the house up to "move-in ready".

In the past we have always been methodical in our search. We draw a radius from the hubs new place of employment, and determine how far we are (he is) willing to drive to get to and from work each day. Then we look at what is available in our price range, and buy a house. The problem is, we have lived in the mountains for the past 17 years. A reasonable drive in the mountains and a reasonable drive in the city are different. The selection of properties in towns averaging 5000 people, compared to a metro area of oveer 1/2 million is quite different as well. We had forgotten, from our former city lives, that it is feasible to live on the other side of town from your workplace, and still have it be a reasonable commute.

So what happened? In my mind, two things. One, coming from a small town, we were overwhelmed with our choices. Because we only narrowed our choice by radius to work, sq. footage and price, the choices were endless. We did not narrow by neighborhood, style, part of town or proximity to schools or services. Second, because there is not as much difference in neighborhoods in small towns, we did not understand the subtleties of different neighborhoods in the city. Comparing "up and coming" with old and established.

This house has taken longer than previous projects, but it will soon be a home. The hubs handiwork is pulling everything together nicely. This won't be the last purchase, so I am glad we have learned a few lessons for "city buying", mainly that proximity to work, and traffic, sometimes are the least worrisome....

Main Street, Westcliffe, CO Powers Blvd., Co. Springs, CO

All photos and/or written content produced by Cheryl Marantino. All rights reserved and may not be reproduced or reprinted without express written permission of Cheryl Marantino, Re:Fresh Re:Design, Serving Colorado Springs, Colorado and surrounding areas in El Paso and Teller Counties.

All photos and/or written content produced by Cheryl Marantino. All rights reserved and may not be reproduced or reprinted without express written permission of Cheryl Marantino, Re:Fresh Re:Design, Serving Colorado Springs, Colorado and surrounding areas in El Paso and Teller Counties.

Everyone has an opinion about what it actually takes to sell a home. I would never say "location, location, location" anymore than I would say "Staging sells houses!". I believe each of those elements play a role, but it takes everything working together to get the job done right! Having moved over 20 times as an adult, I believe gives me a position of authority on this topic. So I was thinking about how to simplify this often written about subject. I came up with 6 P's.

The first P is Position. Also known as location. I like the word position better because it may be the perfect house, but for buyers the position of the house on the property may be wrong; too clsoe to the road, too far off the road, a flag lot, or any number of specific things, undesireable to specific buyers.

Preparation is the second P. Each time we were ready to sell, we set about repairing all of the little things we had put off, painting, cleaning and clearing clutter . No corner is left untouched. Many times my husband would say, "lets go ahead and put it on the market, we can finish up after the sign is in the yard". I never, ever, not once let him get away with that! We were show ready with everything we intended to get done, before listing.

When all of the prep work is done, Presentation is the key word. As a stager, I re-arrange my furniture, and re-hang artwork. I choose specific accessories, and pack away the rest. With all of the repairs done, clutter gone, and staging done, it's time for some professional help.

Setting a Price, is always difficult for a homeowner to do. We know what we want, and what we need, but we need a professional to assist us with setting a reasonable price that has room to negotiate, and is an amount likely to attract buyers.

Next, Personality! You may think I am referring to the personality of your home, but I am referring to the personality of the professional you choose to assist you with selling your home. Your Realtor! Of course you want a Realtor who is sincerely engaged in the selling of your property, someone who is genuine with you, but also with prospective buyers. You are not likely the only listing your Realtor is dealing with, but knowing that they are reasonably accessible to you and will answer your questions in a timely fashion will go a long way in knowing that you have found a good match! If you have done all that you can of the previous steps, your Realtor will have no trouble showing your home with confidence. My Realtor who sold my last home worked smart, (and hard!) for the commission she earned. We know, because we worked alongside her. We did all of the prep, presentation and agreed on the price, more importantly, we maintained the presentation, ready to show at a 15 minute notice!

Lastly, Promotion. How will your Realtor promote your property? Why have they chosen those methods? Is there anything you can do to supplement the promotion? When selling our last property, it was beyond city limits, and on acreage. Not a typical "drive-by". We supplemented the advertising our agent did, with our own promotion online, in print and with flyers. It was not expensive, and reinforced what our agent was doing, increasing our viibility. In addition to the brokers open house our Realtor hosted, we hosted several open houses for ourselves. Guess what? It paid off! In a very difficult market, we sold!

All photos and/or written content produced by Cheryl Marantino. All rights reserved and may not be reproduced or reprinted without express written permission of Cheryl Marantino, Re:Fresh Re:Design, Serving Colorado Springs, Colorado and surrounding areas in El Paso and Teller Counties.