Different Types of Staging

Helping sellers prepare their homes to be marketed is one of the most important things we do. Staging is key to helping sellers get top dollar. We have three different solutions available depending on the situation.

Levels of staging we offer sellers:

1. Use What You Have

When the owners are living at home, we want to make the most of their existing furniture. Living Room Real Estate pays for a staging consultation with an interior designer. The stager will always advise removing the clutter to clean up the space. They also make a plan to best use your existing furniture and artwork to show off your home. Small adjustments to your existing furniture can make a big difference. Our stager can also bring in furniture or accessories to pull a room together for less than $1000.

2. Stage a vacant home
If we are dealing with an empty home, we highly recommend staging the home with leased furniture. A stager will walk the home to understand what they need to showcase the home. At a warehouse, they pick furniture that fits the space and style of the home. They return to move in furniture and place it with accessories. It isn’t always a full house of furniture, but often the main living area, the master bedroom, dining room, and accessories throughout. Staging a full home typically costs $3000 to $5000.

Guest House is a unique company in Denver. They stage homes with furniture and items that are for sale. It is real estate + retail.

3. Digital Staging

When your space is empty it is very affordable to have your rooms digitally staged if you don’t have a big budget. High-quality professional photos are taken and then digitally rendered. You are given multiple styles of design to choose from including Scandinavian, Urban, Modern, Farm House, Contemporary, and Traditional. This is a good option for a home that you are renting. It gets people through the door for a showing, but they might have a hard time imagining the empty space once they are there in person.

SOLD in Slavens

 

2955 South Monroe Street, Denver CO 80210
Lisa Johnston, Listing Agent

This sought after home in Slavens school district in the Wellshire neighborhood had back to back showing the weekend it came on the market. The owners left for the weekend to relax. By Sunday we had received multiple cash offers and ended up $16K over asking after negotiations. In addition, the sellers got a free 90 day rent back and they were able to close in just three weeks. Learn more about this listing

Featured Business Partner of the Month


This hard-working family can help with all your landscaping needs. They have done an outstanding job planting sod, installing sprinkler systems, and fixing things around the house at fair prices. Their boys worked with them all summer and are excited to get back to school after a grueling summer of labor with mom and dad. Sandra will get your estimates in a timely manner and they make regular visits to ensure your sod gets through the first three weeks.

Ricardo and Sandra Contreras
720-231-9740
Contrerassandra36@yahoo.com

UPTOWN sale!

1760 N Franklin Street Unit 5 Denver CO 80218
Kassidy Benson, Listing’s Agent

On June 19th I had lunch with the seller and upon leaving, the plan was to sell her condo next year. Next year turned into listing this condo six days later after she found the perfect replacement property the next day. Here’s what it looks like to sell in Denver’s red hot market: ⠀

Monday: sellers meeting and decluttering⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Tuesday: photos ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Wednesday: create marketing – seller skips town for the weekend⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Thursday: showings start & we have two offers by Thursday night⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Weekend: additional showings and negotiation lead to $10K over asking offer and we are under contract by Sunday night. ⠀

Never, ever will I take for granted the speed in which the Denver market moves… sold in three days instead of three months. Never ever will I take for granted the power of buying your first home. For this gal purchasing in an equally hot market four years ago was overwhelming. Although there are a few regrets, owning the last four years was a powerful move that created a big wealth boost to get the seller into her next place.

ADU Update: Hiring an Architect

I purchased my home with an ADU zoned lot in March 2017. From day one, I started researching building an ADU. In August 2018 I engaged an architect to complete a feasibility study which was an important first step. By October 2019 after over two years of research, I finally had a deep enough understanding of the complicated Denver ADU regulations to hire an architect.

Aug 2018
Step #1: Feasibility Study
I engaged architect Will Martin, owner of StudiObvio, for a feasibility study to understand what I could build on my lot. This process was foundational for me to understand the basic size and layout of my ADU in the beginning. This gave me a concrete understanding of my end goal and always kept me motivated to push forward. A feasibility study costs $1500 and ideally is done during the buying process so you can make an educated decision when purchasing.

 

October 2019
Step #2: Interview Architects

Who you choose to build your ADU project is extremely important. There are many different architects with different specializations. I narrowed my search for an architect to only those architects who are experienced in building accessory dwelling units. ADUs come with a whole lot of special architectural considerations including bulk plain requirements, 75% on the second level, and special considerations for the water and sewer. I interviewed three architects before making a final decision.

Will Martin – StudiObvio
I initially talked to Will because he did the awesome feasibility study for me. Unfortunately after many conversations with them, I simply could not afford their fees. They were charging around $25,000 for the design and supervision during construction of the ADU. I also didn’t choose to work with Will because of his work schedule did not accommodate my ADU design within my timeframe.

Carrie Baron Architect, LLC
I also spoke with an architect Carrie Baron Architect, LLC. She has built several ADUs in Denver and I’ve actually seen many of her designs in-person after construction. Carie is a very lovely person and I feel like she would be great to work with because she’s a great listener and has the right experience with this type of project. Her design fees were affordable.

John Schwarz, SimpleHomes
I eventually decided to use my friends at SimpleHomes to design the ADU. SimpleHomes is owned by David Schultz, the owner of L&D Construction who has led a public education campaign for Denver homeowners to understand this complex building form. They have built 30+ ADUs in Denver and are well-versed with ADU Construction and design. I decided to use Simple Homes to design the ADU because the technology they use during the design process is integrated into the programs necessary for the structure to be built in a factory efficiently. SimpleHomes architect John Schwarz designs the building plans in 3D for visualization of scale, material, and colors. Once finalized, the design can be plugged into their system to program the design in the factory to build it exactly to your plan in the factory just north of downtown Denver. A big factor in the decision to use SimpleHomes was their wonderful Sales Manager & Broker, Sarah Senderhauf who provided counsel for many years and helped me understand the ADU building process.
Paul Minor, Blackstone Architecture, Inc.
Hindsight is always 20/20 and it is worth mentioning here that I really regret not picking an architect based on their building style. I wanted a traditional look with elements of the very popular farmhouse style. My architect and I had very different styles and that became a problem during the design process. Make sure to read my next blog chronicling the design process with SimpleHomes that includes a review of my experience and the lessons I learned. I took a photo of a home Paul designed and I kept trying to get my architect to recreate that style. I ended up going back to the home many times and eventually ran into the owner and he told me the architects name. I highly recommend vetting your architect’s style first and foremost

 

Tips to find listings online

Looking for listings online? Every time a real estate agent adds a listing to the multiple listing service (MLS) it gets published to thousands of websites for consumers. The same information appears everywhere, it’s just a matter of choosing which app/website you prefer and pairing that technology with your favorite real estate agent to help you through the buying process. My philosophy is to work with each client on the platform they prefer most.

Every real estate website has the same basic listing information. They compete for users by trying to offer better features than other websites/apps. Almost all websites/apps are free to use for consumers. They typically make money when they connect you with an agent. Agents listed on Zillow are typically paying over $3000/m to be advertised in a zip code and connect with new buyers who request a showing through the service. Redfin also wants you to use their discount agents so they will give you a feature to schedule a showing with their agents. We believe hiring an agent should be based on their abilities and experience – not a random connection fueled by advertising dollars.

You should use the best agent and the best technology to find your next home. You can just as easily share the listing you like on Zillow with your preferred real estate agent and schedule a time with them to meet you at the property. They will be someone you trust and can help you beyond just showing a home to make sure you have an exceptional home buying experience.

There are thousands of real estate websites that advertise listings including www.LivingRoomDenver.com. However, because we are a small, locally owned company we have not been able to invest millions of dollars into our website to add features in the same way that Zillow.com has over the last 15 years. Below we’ve shared three of the most user-friendly websites/apps where consumers can find listings online.

Zillow 
Zillow holds the biggest market share of any real estate website capturing 29.2% of the market and also owns the second most visited website Trulia.com. They get approximately 59 million unique visitors per month! Zillow launched in 2006 was a game-changer for the industry. For the first time, consumers without an agent could sit at home and browse houses all around the city (and in other cities and states).

Pros:
1. Google maps/street view linked in the third and fourth images in the photo scroll. Street view can put you in front of a home in seconds to evaluate if you like the “feel” of an area.

2. See how many times the property has been viewed and how many people have saved it. This helps you evaluate the popularity of a listing.

3. Tag what they like about properties. For example “price” or “kitchen”. The app/website uses your votes to push you listings it thinks you will like based on past votes. It makes it simple to view list of homes you favorite during your search.
.
4. Reviews – Zillow is a good place to check reviews about your agent. See my reviews here.

5. Zillow walkthrough + 3D tours for tours from your couch.

6. See listing history,

7. Easy to send links to your agent and friends.

8. Most extensive rental listings for privately held homes

Cons:
1. Open Houses not accurate
2. Slow to update new listings and under contract,
3. Agents advertising
4. Always double check your Zestimate with a professional real estate agent. Zillow does not have the ability to analyze the finish level of your interior which can account for major price adjustments.

Redfin


Unlike Zillow and Realtor.com, Redfin is an actual brokerage who pays its agents a base salary and makes money when users buy or sell homes with its real estate agents. They offer a 1% listing fee if you also buy a home with them. At Living Room Real Estate, our listing commission is always negotiable and if you are listing and also buying a house we can be very competitive with Redfin plus offer personalized service with a dedicated agent on your side.

Features about Redfin we like:
1. It updates the quickest from the MLS. Way faster than Zillow!

2. Shows the exact bathroom count. MLS shows 2 baths when there are actually only 1.5 which is a huge difference.

3. Shows properties that are getting more traffic as a “hot home” which helps me know that those listings will get multiple offers.

4. Has an icon on the first pic in the listing to let me know if there is a 3D walkthrough available.

5. Allows you to X out listings you don’t like.

6. Has a feed that shows me new listings and price changes since the last time I opened the app.

7. Really good open house functionality, not as relevant right now.

8. It has a great mortgage calculator and a commute calculator feature.

What I don’t like:
1. Once a listing is sold the photos go away.
2. Redfin agents are discount service providers who do higher volume. They may not give you the dedicated one on one attention that we provide to buyers through the home buying process.

 

Agent’s Choice – HomeSnap

HomeSnap is likely your agent’s favorite app because they offer rich features for your agent to do business. You might have a better experience sharing listing from HomeSnap with your agent because from their phone they can access extremely valuable information that one other app offers professionals.

Pros for Buyers:
1. Stand in front of any home and snap a photo. The app will recognize your location and give you all the information about the home available even if it is not for sale.
2. Communicate directly with your agent in this app. Make sure your notifications are on so you can see messages.

Pros for Agents:
1. Each listing has private information that is only shared with other real estate professionals that do not show up on Zillow for example. Your agent can see private remarks which typically have information about when offers are due and showing instructions.

2. An agent can quickly research the listing agent with easy access to their contact info, office info, past deals analysis. Your buyer’s agent can evaluate their level of experience of the listing agent which will help you in negations.

3. From their phone, agents can quickly create a comparative market analysis report for any home with a simple workflow and email it to you as PDF documents.

4. We can schedule a showing with the seller directly through this app – not an option on any other platform.

5. Agents can use Homesnap Pro is see important data about an entire neighborhood including Likelihood to List, Distressed, Ownership Type, Home Equity, and Loan Balance.

Cons

1. This app is built for agents and caters to their needs. It is not widely used by consumers and is not super user friendly.

 

 

City Park Golf Course will be opening soon

 

Rumor has it the City Park Golf Course will reopen this September. The City has been closely monitoring the establishment of the turf on the course and believes it will be able to withstand limited play later this year, with fewer rounds than normal to be scheduled in 2020 to promote the further establishment of the turf and protect this new community asset, creating a lasting legacy for future generations.

Denver closed City Park Golf Course in November 2017 to construct new features to manage the stormwater that naturally flows through this location, improves water quality, and reduce flood risks in neighborhoods north of the course. With extensive community input, the course was modernized and redesigned to improve playability, while maintaining its historic Parkland-style look and feel. The new course offers:

  • 18 holes of golf and a new full-size driving range
  • New clubhouse and returning nines
  • Dedicated 4-hole course for the First Tee of Denver program

For more information – click here for construction updates



 

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We pair people with the right place for a prosperous life.

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4045 N Pecos St, Denver, CO 80211
303-720-8491