Listing Before and Afters

I wanted to share the amazing work my team did on my latest listing. We took an already beautiful home and shined it up till it was a totally brilliant magical diamond. It was a Valentine’s Day dream. This darling home is in the Kenton neighborhood of Portland, OR. Full listing for anyone curious.

It was a team effort to transform this home. The process reinforced a few lessons for getting the best outcomes when selling your home. I mean, ok, lesson one: hire me to list your home. But I can’t put that on a list, it makes me blush.

Stage it, even if it’s occupied. This was huge for this home. We actually staged with the homeowner’s furniture! We put in the extra effort to move the furniture around, add pillows, add tchotchkes, rearrange, and get it CUTE with a capital C.
Be Detail Oriented. With the listing prep, with the staging, with everything, we stayed focused on the details. We repainted the rooms that needed a little help. We touched up the exterior windows, we hired a landscaper. We didn’t just let it go.
Hire a fabulous photographer. We did all the work to get this home ready, but without the great photos nobody would have known. We hired an extremely talented photographer to capture this gorgeous home.
Hire talented people and trust them. I hired a stager, a photographer, a painter, a landscaper, my husband, and I let them do their thing.

I took some photos of the home before we prepped it for the market. You will see a few colors change, some furniture in different spots, but overall the home was already ready when I arrived. I’m going to go into a little more detail room to room below.

Living Room

I think this is the room where the staging made the biggest impact. It’s also the first impression for buyers when they walk in the door. One of my top priorities was for the room to look spacious and not narrow in photos. Because IRL it’s not narrow at all! We accomplished this by leaving some nice open space by the window, and by shooting the straight on photo just a little less wide angle.

Nursery

We also had a lot of fun with this home. This home had a nursery, and while a bright orange is fun… I wasn’t feeling it for this room. We painted it white so it was a blank canvas, and then I set Mike free to decorate however he wanted, and it was total magic! This room became a Mike Bennett wonderland.

Primary Bedroom

Dream bedroom, right? All we did here was move the bed, center it under the window, and add some soft, light bedding. The room suddenly looked 10x bigger.

Kitchen

The kitchen was already most of the way there. But the homeowners have a 1 year old, and this is what kitchens look like when they are used! We took away the clutter, and we just made what was already wonderful about this kitchen shine through. The floor, the eating nook, the cute shelve above the stove - now they can make an impact.

Upstairs Landing

More examples of how small changes make big impacts. We removed some of the more personal items, and added some impactful pops of color. Now this landing is 10/10.

Office

Lastly, sometimes rooms need to be made a little less practical to work for photos. We love a desk in the center of the room. We love a giant calendar. We love books turned the other way… it’s ok that it’s not the most practical. This is all theater. It’s all about making the space look inviting, big, open, trendy, dreamy, etc.