Happy Wife = Happy life
Except when stamps are involved Albums and locked cabinets never complain
I ended up renting a storage unit and gradually migrating the stamps back home, when it was clear that the rental monthly budget exceeded my stamp budget!
$100 a month (added to her budget) is possibly a good incentive for your partner!
rrr...
Last weekend, my wife and I had dinner with a bunch of friends. One was a long-time bank manager whose wife died a year ago. He had a great pension, so decided to retire early.
He had decided to sell their house and move to a condo, since their kids were all in University. Even though sale prices are crazy-high right now, he was convinced by his real estate agent to hire a "staging company". It is all the rage these days, based on the 300 TV shows (all of which my wife watches) taking advantage of this market situation.
For a fee of $4,000 upfront, and $2,000 per month afterwards (note that his house is appraised at $1.6M), he was instructed to put all the pictures of his wife and kids into storage - along with his numerous books of WW1/WW2 history. I only wish he also had a stamp collection he would be told looked like crap so I could buy them for cheap.
Unfortunately, we are in an environment where denying our own interests/passions/families/lives in order to appeal to others and maximize revenues is predominant.
The realtor wants to maximize the value of your house, because it means a larger commission for her. She doesn't care about your "junk".
Your wife wants to move, and she now has an excuse to try to force you to get rid of your "junk", because all of your things are junk as far as she is concerned. Of course, her stuff is not junk.
Bottom line, get rid of the wife, keep the house and all of your stuff while also throwing out her junk.
Could never understand this staging con, surely people look at the building, decide whether it is in the right location, has the space, aspect, room size, etc that you are seeking. You are not normally buying the previous owners belongings and doubtless will change the paint colours, wallpaper and layout to fit your tastes.
I appreciate that clutter can be off-putting but are folks so dim they cannot see beyond the limits of their eyesight.
I just bought a house and I think there is some validity to the concept of staging a property to sell. You may walk into a home and see books on a desk and a magazine, crkssword puzzle book and half cup of coffee on a side table and thinks "oh, that looks cozy and lived in" while someone else thinks "why is all this crap laying around?". The idea is to maximize the appeal for the maximum percentage of your audience to achieve the maximum selling price.
We were encouraged to sort all our books on colour when we were going to sell our house. By the time the pictures were taken all stamp books were in temporary storage....
"... Could never understand this staging con, surely people look at the building, decide whether it is in the right location, has the space, aspect, room size, etc that you are seeking ..."
Jan-Simon, that's a bright open area. I love all the natural light coming in.. and that cream colored furniture, very continental. But wait, you've got little kids right? My daughter would have dumped a juice box on that couch while watching Blues Clues in no time flat! Haha.
Until this week, I'd never heard of 'stagers'. I am still stunned that they felt license to just move our stuff around, especially to rip out my router. When the listing agent came out earlier I think I did not come across as very anxious or motivated to sell just now so these folks felt I was oppositional, or something, as I said they barely acknowledged or spoke to me it was all with my wife. Once they messed with our internet connection they heard from me. I think they got the idea that I was ticked off- big time.
Realtors all seem like this. Tell them you are just in the early stages and they try to push back.
I staged a house in Dallas 25 years ago - it's nothing new - and it really does help - BUT - you need temporary storage for some stuff, especially photos, books, albums, collections, etc. The idea is to make the buyer imagine moving right in, but that requires a blank slate. If YOUR books or albums are on the shelf or YOUR family pictures are on the wall, it's not as inviting. You want it to feel like home, but generically.
Either you are trying to sell your house or you are not. If you are just "thinking about it", the realtor will quit showing it as much. Sounds like you and your wife need to decide how serious you are about selling and agree on how much space you will require for your stuff in your new home. Hopefully you can get on the same page before strangers start coming to your house trying to imagine it as their home.
Good luck!
Back when I was doing a corporate relocation to Pennsylvania, the company sent a realtor in to access my current home. She was an uppity witch from a high end real estate firm and walked through my middle class home with disdain on her face, as if she might step in poo at any moment. This is who they hired to list my house.
The report she sent to the company was scathing! She deducted points because my house didn't have an underground sprinkler system. You'd never find one in that price range. In fact my current home is worth three times that of the old house and I'm the only one on the block who has one!
She also made mention of my hobby room, basically saying to call a junk removal service to clean out the junk room. In our den I had a large display case with the model cars I've built. World class work that has won many awards and cars that had appeared in magazines... her take "remove cabinet of kids toys".
She also mentioned that we had a dog... little Ted, so suspect all carpeting is ruined with pet damage. Replace all.
As you can imagine, she didn't get the listing!
Right now I'm ready to list the house I have in NJ where my daughters lived until recently. When they lived there, it looked small and cramped. Now that it's completely empty, the rooms look huge! All the paint has been touched up and carpets cleaned. I'll go with that look! No staging required.
Well, I know one way I'm NOT selling my house!
When we moved, we did not put it on the market until after we moved out. I do not like to deal with all the showings, etc. We looked at a lot of houses and I liked empty ones since you felt like you could look more closely at things.
Lots of sympathy with anyone facing this scenario.
Ten years ago had to sell my whole collection to move house to another country.
Missed it ever since.
Just thinking of starting again.
CD
Has anyone else on here had to endure the trauma of contemplating a move and having your non collecting spouse hammering you to jettison much of your collection to facilitate things?
This came to a head yesterday. We aren't planning to look for another house or to list this one for some months. The realtor sent out a couple of 'stagers' - people who go through your home and tell you how to make it more attractive for eventual showing.
They took one look at my den and told me all my stuff needed to go. I have a large metal locked storage unit with my better stuff in it, these women told me to get rid of it. And all thsoe books 'whatever they are'. I never mentioned that it was a stamp collection, didn't think they'd get it.
My experience with these two was not helped by the fact that before they left they started moving around our furniture, in the process disconnecting my Wifi connection. The wife and I had a real blow out in front of them and they sort of left abruptly. It was like these two just ignored me all the time they were in our home, pitching everything to my wife. I wonder if it was some Feminist thing. After we spent hours restoring our connections I think she rethought the whole thing.
I hope the rethinking continues. Moving shouldn't involve the loss of things meaningful. Comments?
re: All Those Stamp Albums Have to Go!
Happy Wife = Happy life
Except when stamps are involved Albums and locked cabinets never complain
re: All Those Stamp Albums Have to Go!
I ended up renting a storage unit and gradually migrating the stamps back home, when it was clear that the rental monthly budget exceeded my stamp budget!
$100 a month (added to her budget) is possibly a good incentive for your partner!
rrr...
re: All Those Stamp Albums Have to Go!
Last weekend, my wife and I had dinner with a bunch of friends. One was a long-time bank manager whose wife died a year ago. He had a great pension, so decided to retire early.
He had decided to sell their house and move to a condo, since their kids were all in University. Even though sale prices are crazy-high right now, he was convinced by his real estate agent to hire a "staging company". It is all the rage these days, based on the 300 TV shows (all of which my wife watches) taking advantage of this market situation.
For a fee of $4,000 upfront, and $2,000 per month afterwards (note that his house is appraised at $1.6M), he was instructed to put all the pictures of his wife and kids into storage - along with his numerous books of WW1/WW2 history. I only wish he also had a stamp collection he would be told looked like crap so I could buy them for cheap.
Unfortunately, we are in an environment where denying our own interests/passions/families/lives in order to appeal to others and maximize revenues is predominant.
re: All Those Stamp Albums Have to Go!
The realtor wants to maximize the value of your house, because it means a larger commission for her. She doesn't care about your "junk".
Your wife wants to move, and she now has an excuse to try to force you to get rid of your "junk", because all of your things are junk as far as she is concerned. Of course, her stuff is not junk.
Bottom line, get rid of the wife, keep the house and all of your stuff while also throwing out her junk.
re: All Those Stamp Albums Have to Go!
Could never understand this staging con, surely people look at the building, decide whether it is in the right location, has the space, aspect, room size, etc that you are seeking. You are not normally buying the previous owners belongings and doubtless will change the paint colours, wallpaper and layout to fit your tastes.
I appreciate that clutter can be off-putting but are folks so dim they cannot see beyond the limits of their eyesight.
re: All Those Stamp Albums Have to Go!
I just bought a house and I think there is some validity to the concept of staging a property to sell. You may walk into a home and see books on a desk and a magazine, crkssword puzzle book and half cup of coffee on a side table and thinks "oh, that looks cozy and lived in" while someone else thinks "why is all this crap laying around?". The idea is to maximize the appeal for the maximum percentage of your audience to achieve the maximum selling price.
re: All Those Stamp Albums Have to Go!
We were encouraged to sort all our books on colour when we were going to sell our house. By the time the pictures were taken all stamp books were in temporary storage....
re: All Those Stamp Albums Have to Go!
"... Could never understand this staging con, surely people look at the building, decide whether it is in the right location, has the space, aspect, room size, etc that you are seeking ..."
re: All Those Stamp Albums Have to Go!
Jan-Simon, that's a bright open area. I love all the natural light coming in.. and that cream colored furniture, very continental. But wait, you've got little kids right? My daughter would have dumped a juice box on that couch while watching Blues Clues in no time flat! Haha.
re: All Those Stamp Albums Have to Go!
Until this week, I'd never heard of 'stagers'. I am still stunned that they felt license to just move our stuff around, especially to rip out my router. When the listing agent came out earlier I think I did not come across as very anxious or motivated to sell just now so these folks felt I was oppositional, or something, as I said they barely acknowledged or spoke to me it was all with my wife. Once they messed with our internet connection they heard from me. I think they got the idea that I was ticked off- big time.
Realtors all seem like this. Tell them you are just in the early stages and they try to push back.
re: All Those Stamp Albums Have to Go!
I staged a house in Dallas 25 years ago - it's nothing new - and it really does help - BUT - you need temporary storage for some stuff, especially photos, books, albums, collections, etc. The idea is to make the buyer imagine moving right in, but that requires a blank slate. If YOUR books or albums are on the shelf or YOUR family pictures are on the wall, it's not as inviting. You want it to feel like home, but generically.
Either you are trying to sell your house or you are not. If you are just "thinking about it", the realtor will quit showing it as much. Sounds like you and your wife need to decide how serious you are about selling and agree on how much space you will require for your stuff in your new home. Hopefully you can get on the same page before strangers start coming to your house trying to imagine it as their home.
Good luck!
re: All Those Stamp Albums Have to Go!
Back when I was doing a corporate relocation to Pennsylvania, the company sent a realtor in to access my current home. She was an uppity witch from a high end real estate firm and walked through my middle class home with disdain on her face, as if she might step in poo at any moment. This is who they hired to list my house.
The report she sent to the company was scathing! She deducted points because my house didn't have an underground sprinkler system. You'd never find one in that price range. In fact my current home is worth three times that of the old house and I'm the only one on the block who has one!
She also made mention of my hobby room, basically saying to call a junk removal service to clean out the junk room. In our den I had a large display case with the model cars I've built. World class work that has won many awards and cars that had appeared in magazines... her take "remove cabinet of kids toys".
She also mentioned that we had a dog... little Ted, so suspect all carpeting is ruined with pet damage. Replace all.
As you can imagine, she didn't get the listing!
Right now I'm ready to list the house I have in NJ where my daughters lived until recently. When they lived there, it looked small and cramped. Now that it's completely empty, the rooms look huge! All the paint has been touched up and carpets cleaned. I'll go with that look! No staging required.
re: All Those Stamp Albums Have to Go!
Well, I know one way I'm NOT selling my house!
re: All Those Stamp Albums Have to Go!
When we moved, we did not put it on the market until after we moved out. I do not like to deal with all the showings, etc. We looked at a lot of houses and I liked empty ones since you felt like you could look more closely at things.
re: All Those Stamp Albums Have to Go!
Lots of sympathy with anyone facing this scenario.
Ten years ago had to sell my whole collection to move house to another country.
Missed it ever since.
Just thinking of starting again.
CD