“Well, that’s a beautiful home! Whose home is that?” said Aaron Gettel when he was recently shown photos of his newly renovated and staged home in SaddleBrooke. Gone were a multitude of flooring types and boldly painted accent walls, as well as the golf-themed and floral and striped wallpaper, plaid valances and fussy drapes. In its place stands a home interior that shows like a catalog for Pottery Barn. Newly installed Paradigm LV wood-look plank flooring spans from the front to back of the home and walls are freshly painted in a neutral soft “greige” color that provides subtle contrast to the bright white of doors, baseboards, cabinetry, plantations shutters and built-in bookshelves. Windows and sliding doors denuded of distracting embellishment, now let in light and the backyard view of the property’s beautiful forty-foot PebbleTec lap pool and spectacular panoramic golf course and mountain views.
Aaron’s daughter, Susan Heins, purposefully withheld that the photos she was showing her dad were the listing photos for his SaddleBrooke home. “I wanted his unbiased opinion,” explained Susan, “Dad truly didn’t recognize it as the house he and my mom had shared for over twenty years. He was delighted with the result!” Susan feels that not only has the home’s renovation made it more appealing to the next generation of buyers, but that it has helped her widowed father move on emotionally from the property and settle comfortably in his new apartment in All Seasons Oro Valley.
The Gettel family leaned on the Make Your Move Matter Real Estate team for a plan to divest the property of unwanted furnishings and vet, hire, and schedule licensed contractors for flooring tear-out and new install, wallpaper removal, drywall re-texturing and painting. The team chose flooring, finishes, hardware and fixtures they felt would appeal to the widest array of potential buyers. Once the home was refreshed and renewed, the realtor estate team hired professional stager Jennifer Kmet, owner of Stage Tucson, to render the Galleria floor plan’s spacious, vaulted-ceiling rooms cozy and contemporary.
“Of the stagers we interviewed, Ms. Kmet expressed a vision that clearly aligned with what we saw in our mind’s eye; a layering of neutrals, a variety of textures and fabric, and light and dark woods, along with pops of contemporary greenery and lovely organic accessories,” explained the team’s Real Estate Concierge, Jo Parsons. A licensed Interior Designer, Jennifer Kmet has been staging homes since 2003. She was co-owner of a staging and design firm in Atlanta Georgia before relocating to Tucson in 2010. From her 4,000 square foot warehouse and design center, Ms. Kmet continually updates her inventory to keep current with today’s artistic trends.
With the Gettel home, Kmet focused on the home’s living, dining and family room, the kitchen, master bedroom, den and bathrooms. “I played off the beautiful new flooring to highlight the home’s flow and great entertainment potential, said Jennifer. It’s easy to envision the living room being either a comfortable corner for visiting with friends or as space for a billiards table or baby grand piano.” Concierge Jo Parsons praised Ms. Kmet’s unconventional ideas with furniture placement. “She has some great ideas for improving the flow of this floor plan.
Instead of running the dining room table parallel to the kitchen wall, she turned it to run parallel to the dining room’s bay window which not only improves flow to the kitchen, but also beautifully highlights that bay window. In the master bedroom, instead of positioning the bed between the windows as most Galleria owners are prone to do, she put the bed on the opposite wall.” Ms. Kmet thought is made more sense to center the bed in the room to not only keep it out of the line of sight from the hallway, but to let owners awake to the stunning mountain view from bed, and allow for two separate sitting areas near the window and the dual closet entrance to the master bath.
The result of Ms. Kmet’s staging is a home that shows like a model. “First impressions are so important,” explained stager Jennifer, “It typically takes a buyer all of 15 seconds to make a decision regarding your property whether their seeing it online or in person. During that crucial first impression, we want to the buyer to make an emotional connection and feel at home.” Kmet’s observation is backed by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) 2020 Profile of Home Staging, which found that 83 percent of buyers’ agents said staging a home made it easier for a buyer to visualize the property as a future home and 40 percent said that home staging had a positive effect on buyers’ view of the home. Ms. Kmet said that the Real Estate Staging Association’s study found that homes which are staged prior to going on the market sell 73 percent faster, on average, than their non-staged counterparts.
While it may be a seller’s market, the limited ability of potential buyers to travel during the pandemic makes it even more crucial for sellers to present their property in the best light possible. In recent years, buyers from across all demographics have been, more and more, seeking move-in ready properties. Currently, with many out-of-state buyers shopping virtually from online photos and virtual tours, the demand for move-in ready properties that don’t need much work is on the rise. “Staging can really help a buyer visualize living in your house and it makes your listing photos shine on the internet. During Covid-19, everyone has their eyes online so it’s so important to have beautiful listing photos that really stand out from other properties,” noted Kmet.
Although the Gettel home had been well-maintained and upgraded over the years and benefits from its location on a premium view lot, its previously dated interior flooring, finishes and furniture called out for a makeover. After having recently invested in a new main HVAC unit, water heater, exterior paint and a new roof, the prospects of “discounting for dated” did not appeal to the homeowner. Instead, Mr. Gettel handed his home over with a budget for a reboot to justify full market value for the home. He was able to let go and see that the home was no longer his home, but a product to be marketed as a welcoming and attractive to the next generation of SaddleBrooke buyers.
You may contact beth@makeyourmovematter.com to arrange a personal tour of the home’s upgrades and staging.
