Seller’s Goal
The home staging part of preparing this home for sale for this Cleveland Heights home seller was logistically made a little bit harder as the seller was living out of the country so communicating via different time zones meant leaving messages asynchronously sometimes. This Cleveland Heights home seller tried unsuccessfully to sell their home for over two years. After being unsuccessful trying to sell, the sellers decided to rent their home, which in the end, resulted in the tenant being evicted and the home was both abused and neglected. This Cleveland Heights home seller desired to sell without taking a huge financial hit due to the deteriorated condition and the declining state of the market.
Problem
At the time the sellers found us via our website, the home sat vacant, neglected with the sellers living outside the country. The sellers asked us to please take a look at their home and to let them know our thoughts regarding selling their home. We first visited the home on May 29, 2008. This home was a substantial, all-brick, colonial home with large rooms, four finished levels, three car attached garage, three fireplaces, and a large roof deck surrounded by mature trees. However, this once-fine home had fallen into significant disrepair due to the tenants disregard for the property. This home had an old, dated kitchen and bathrooms, a wet basement that was a complete mess with strong, leftover animal odors, and many deferred maintenance issues.
Homes in Cleveland Heights in this type of condition would only appeal to investors, and most sellers cannot sell at a low enough price to make it attractive to investors, so this segment of buyers was out. Most retail-types of buyers are not interested in tackling updating a home with this many issues, so there really wasn’t much demand in this buyer segment either. Renting was out of the question, so taking the same approach as last time for the two years it was on the market (stick a sign in the yard, put it in the MLS, and wait for buyers to come) was not an option for this seller. There are other options options…
Olsen Ziegler Solution
In order to achieve the sellers’ goals, home staging was needed after some general updating by remodeling (by removing a wall to enlarge the space) and renovating the kitchen, minor cosmetic bathroom updating, refinish hardwood floors, minor misc. items and home staging.