How to stage for free when selling your home
April 22, 2010
“You need to stage your home!” Often the first words out of many people’s mouths when they find out you are selling your home. What is staging? Staging is simply arranging your home so that people looking to buy it can see it for what it is. When it comes to staging, you have 2 options: Staging your home yourself or hiring a Staging Company. Staging companies come in many shapes and sizes. The thing they all have in common is that they cost money. So, if you have extra money lying around the house, feel free to hire a staging company. If not, below are some easy ways to stage your home by yourself.
The first thing to do : Remove any and all family pictures from your walls, shelves, and everywhere else. There are two reasons for this. The first reason is it disrupts the flow of a showing. When someone is looking to buy your house, you want them focusing on where they would place their furniture, how nice the granite is in the kitchen, whether or not their mother-in-law can sleep in the shop in the back, etc. Pictures distract people. The last thing you want is a buyer with cash in hand, stopping to see why you like poodles instead of labs. The second reason to remove family pictures is because they make rooms and hallways feel smaller. I am not sure when hallways became the “art walks” for the family tree, but they did. Art galleries are open with high ceilings and very few walls. There is a reason for this. Make your hallways and rooms feel like empty “art walks” so the next owner knows where to hang their art.
The next thing to do is remove any animal trophies (even the pictures). I cannot express how important this is. Unless you are selling a hunting ranch in Wyoming or New Mexico, it can cost you a sale. Enough said.
As for the rest of the house, here is the secret to staging: Take 1/3 of the stuff out of every room, literally. There are very few times you should break this rule. If you have 3 pieces of furniture in your living room, take one of them out and put it in the garage. If you have 3 lamps in an office, take one (you guessed it) and put it in the garage. If you do not have a garage, use one of the rooms in your house for storage. If you have 6 chairs at your kitchen table, take 2 out. This will leave your house less cluttered, but not empty.
Bookshelves and closets. Same rules. If your closet is like mine, 1/3 is very difficult to estimate. For clothes that are hanging on hangers, just make sure the clothes are hanging freely and not bunching together. The easiest way to decide what to remove, is take all the clothes you aren’t going to wear in the next 6 months out of your closet and store them.
Staging your home yourself helps you sell your house, helps you pack, and is free. When in doubt, take more out.
March Market Stats
April 12, 2010
NorthWest Crossing’s Natural Neighborhood
April 12, 2010
Drawing from Spirit of the Past Proves Popular for Hip ‘New Urban’ Community
Apr 07, 2010
SIMON MATHER CBN Feature Writer
When freshly sawn, a Ponderosa Pine’s pleasant scent is reminiscent of the forest where it grew –offering an apt metaphor for Bend’s popular NorthWest Crossing mixed-use community, which is rooted in a sense of place evocative of the spirit of older neighborhoods.
In fact, a detailed survey of predominantly second-growth Ponderosas prevalent on the old tree farm site was integrated closely into the project’s original planning process, with blocks, roads and lot lines laid out to preserve as many large specimens as possible; helping reinforce the feel of an established streetscape.
Such attention to detail was just one of the ingredients that went in to cultivating a connected, sustainable and livable traditional neighborhood-style development — as part of a vision formulated over a decade ago – resulting in the diverse, walkable, compact and vibrant community that the evolving 486-acre NorthWest Crossing is today. Read the rest of the article at CBN here.
Portland, OR Housing Market
April 3, 2010
Just checking out the housing market in Portland. What’s happened to traditional supply/demand curve? Plummeting prices, plummeting inventory? Does this mean that Portland is actually heading for some appreciation. Wait..what’s that little swing in inventory I see?
Inventory, Median Price for Single Family Properties in PORTLAND, OR.
SOLD! 2737 NW 12th Ave., Redmond, OR 97756
April 3, 2010
Prime setting in NW Redmond. Three bedroom home with over 2,000 square feet of living space, plus a spacious three-car garage. Vaulted ceilings, separate living and family rooms, powder bath, a formal dining area, and large laundry room complete the lower story.
Upstairs includes all bedrooms, two full baths, and an office/craft area. Numerous builder upgrades include granite kitchen counters, stainless appliances, tile and hardwood floors, tile bathroom counters, and a poured concrete patio. Home is freshly painted, cleaned, and ready for move in. Backyard sod and irrigation system are newly installed and ready for Spring.
- Main Marker
Middle Schools near NW Redmond
3 Middle Schools found within 3 miles radius.
- Elton Gregory Middle School
Phone: (541) 526-6440
1220 NW Upas Ave, Redmond, OR97756 - Deschutes Edge Charter School
Phone: (541) 526-6440
1220 NW Upas Ave, Redmond, OR97756 - Edwin Brown High School
Phone: (541) 923-4868
850 SW Antler Ave, Redmond, OR97756
Elementary Schools near NW Redmond
4 Elementary Schools found within 3 miles radius.
- Tom McCall Elementary School
Phone: (541) 526-6400
1200 NW Upas Ave, Redmond, OR97756 - Evergreen Elementary School
Phone: (541) 923-4865
437 S 9th St, Redmond, OR97756 - John Tuck Elementary School
Phone: (541) 923-4884
209 NW 10TH St, Redmond, OR97756 - M A Lynch Elementary School
Phone: (541) 923-4876
1314 SW Kalama Ave, Redmond, OR97756
High Schools near NW Redmond
3 High Schools found within 3 miles radius.
- Edwin Brown High School
Phone: (541) 923-4868
850 SW Antler Ave, Redmond, OR97756 - International School of the Cascades
Phone: (541) 923-4840
2105 W Antler, Redmond, OR97756 - Redmond High School
Phone: (541) 923-4800
675 SW Rimrock Dr, Redmond, OR97756
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Kerry O'Neal has been a licensed broker for over 14 years. He has worked with residential, commercial, and industrial properties in the Central Oregon area for over 5 years. 
Josh grew up in a Portland real estate family. He was buying and selling rental homes and income properties, and managing large multi-family complexes, when most of his contemporaries were just beginning their careers. 
