Southern Gold Coast Property News

A very dear friend of mine, let’s call her Alice, was put in a position where she needed to sell her home. She had lived there for many years with her family and had stopped really looking after it; it is something we all do when we get familiar and comfortable with the environment we live in. When it came time to sell a few friends and I decided we needed to step in and help if Alice was going to get the maximum price achievable in the area.

STEP ONE – Get An Appraisal

We invited 3 local agents to give Alice an appraisal as it was, warts and all. The valuations came in between $365k to $380k which is fine and what the area was achieving at that time, but we were still determined to improve that outcome.

STEP TWO – Gather Your Team and Plan Your Attack

Firstly we needed to have a straight talk with Alice about emotionally detaching from her home and allowing us, her friends, to do what needed to be done. Sitting down over a nice bottle of wine we started putting our plan together, including:

What talents everyone could bring to the table
What furniture of Alice’s we needed to get out of the way and into storage
Where we could source free furniture and other items to dress the house
What repairs, gardening and cleaning we could do ourselves and what needed to be outsourced
What our overall time-frame was and everyone’s availability

STEP THREE – Please Get A Building and Pest Inspection

Alice was very sensible and arranged a pest and building report to make sure there were no nasties lurking around the property that would scuttle the sale at the pointy end. We were all very happy with the report which came back with glowing results and only a few minor items which were dealt with easily. In my experience, this step is crucial in the selling process as it will ensure you have all your ducks in a row come contract time.

STEP FOUR – Don’t Hold Back

Alice then rallied the troops and away we went. Gus from GC Pro Removals was summoned and the house was de-cluttered with marked furniture moved to storage. The borrowed furniture was then collected and put in place. Gus was an absolute gem and nothing was too much trouble for him, I feel he sensed this was a life changing event he was a part of.

The staging team was then able move in. Kerry from Abode Collections worked her magic, and as you can see by the photos below, the results look amazing for what was really not a lot of effort. Having a fresh set of eyes look at your property is a must when going through the selling process; having someone who is able to look at what the property could be is absolutely crucial.

View the before and after photos BELOW

STEP FIVE – Get Another Appraisal

We then invited all 3 agents back and they were ‘wowed’ with our results which was reflected in the new valuations between $385 to $399k – a massive $5k - $19k more than the previous highest valuation.

Paul Charlton at Tweed City First National was charged with the task of getting a great result for Alice and that he did. 3 contracts were received from the very first inspection and shortly after the house sold for $395,000. Needles to say Alice was exceptionally happy.

It just goes to show you don’t need a TV Show, film Crew and a huge budget to achieve this result - just a little imagination, great friends and a good bottle of wine.