Million Dollar Listings Have Bigger Expectations

Buyers’ expectations are different when the listing is over a million dollars.

This house had been on the market for a while without any offers, so the homeowners reached out to me for an objective eye.

Personally, I thought the house looked lovely but I needed to find out WHY there had NOT been any offers.  I am not a Realtor so I never discuss price.  I focus on the ’emotional’ side of why offers are made.  I want buyers to walk in and get a warm hug from the house and have buyers feel compelled to make an offer.  I put myself in the buyer’s shoes and see what I think is missing.

After hearing the previous feedback from past visitors, we went to work and rectified each item.  The homeowners were amazing and were prepared to do anything that needed to be done.

Make A Bold Statement

Adding the galvanized decorative mirror and funky gray accent cushion on the modern bench instantly updated the foyer.  Now, you can see how easy it is to add gray throughout the house if you wanted to.  The slate looks completely different since the focus is more on the gray than the gold tones.  The style of this house is fairly traditional so we have to keep the integrity of the house while still keeping it current.

All the oak wood was dating the house so we minimized it by painting the risers the same cream as the spindles.  They also replaced the runner leading upstairs.

Create The Rooms That Buyers Want

The homeowner loved having this front room as his office since the family didn’t need a formal living room.  There is a huge family room that they enjoyed.  However, since the basement is not finished, we felt that it would be better to convert this room into a living room for entertaining.  We were able to pull all these furniture pieces from other rooms so we only needed the sofa table and some decorative accessories.  They wanted to buy the new area rug for the new house anyway.

With such magnificent windows and views there was no need for drapes.  We wanted to bring the outdoors in.

Dine In Style

The mess on the table is mine 🙂

I was thrilled when they told me that they wanted to sell their pine dining suite to buy a new one.  The more contemporary furniture completely updated the room.  Notice the new chandelier and how they re-framed their stunning original artwork.  It looks brand new. Again, in order to minimize the oak flooring they chose to put another area rug under the table.  Just adding the area rug lightened the room without any new paint. It no longer had the yellow glow.

The gray chairs also pulled the gray from the flooring in the hallway.  I love their new bold candle centerpiece.

The Main Attraction

This was already a lovely room and it’s where the family spends all of their time.  However, buyers can be very choosy when they are buying a house in this price range.  Even though, buyers know they are not buying the furnishings, they are buying a ‘perceived’ lifestyle so their expectations are very high.

I wish you could smell and hear the sound of the crackling fire on a cold day.  This room is so inviting and cozy.  Now the fireplace is the focal point.  It’s the show stopper.  All it needed was some large decorative accessories. Good quality accessories was the key to dressing this house.

Luscious accent cushions added texture and warmth to leather furniture on a cold day.  The new lamp gave some nice atmospheric lighting and sparkle.

The colours throughout the whole main floor flowed from one room to the other.  The artwork was the inspiration.

The room can accommodate lots of seating for entertaining and it’s a wonderful room to cuddle up and watch some TV.

The Heart Of Home

The homeowners didn’t need a table in this area since they ate in either the dining room or at the island but this is a house for a large family so it’s nice to show buyers that they also have an eat-in kitchen.  If you notice, the two ivory leather chairs in the ‘before’ photo are now in the new living room.  We used everything that they had.  The ivory dining chairs lighten the space and they complement the ivory bar stools for a cohesive look.

I love the beautiful fresh flowers that the homeowner bought throughout the house.  They are so inviting for showings.  Again, people are buying a ‘perceived’ lifestyle.  These flowers really pop against against all the white background of snow.

The kitchen was perfect and there was nothing to change. The only thing that was added were some fresh flowers to get you inspired for Spring and give interest to the counters.

 I was touched when they said they bought these Scottish “Heather” flowers in my honour <3

Pick Your Priorities

Admittedly, I think the brown leather sofa looked better in this main floor office/TV den, but we moved it to the new formal living room and brought this sofa down from another room.  We felt it was more important to have a nice looking formal living room without buying more furniture.  There is enough of a ‘wow’ factor with all the built-in cabinets.

Impress Your Guests

Once again, replacing the oak storage unit with a larger white one kept the room looking fresh and updated.  The new large artwork tied all the colours together and it’s a lovely statement piece.

Showcase Every Inch

All we did to this mud room was add some decorative cushions to complement their photography.  Buyers will remember and take notice to the storage bench with the pops of colour on them.  This mud room off the garage might be just the selling feature for a family with a dog or kids with lots of sporting bags etc.  There is so much storage.

Make sure you follow the next blog post for the upper level of this house.  You won’t be disappointed!

I hope you have enjoyed these tips.  They just prove that you can make an already beautiful home, even better.