Staging
Staging Projects | How Staging Made $200K More
Written by: Dena Landon
Photography by: Visual Grip
When Abhipsite Singh and her husband were looking for a realtor to list their Hoboken apartment, she started with the numbers. After researching past sales records and the ability to sell above the list price, she narrowed it down to 12 well-known realtors, including Kaja Bolton. Kaja was the only broker offering the combination of great sale records and a unique artist’s eye when it came to staging to sell.
“She’s not really about making a sale at any point of time – she sees in a place what you would see as an owner. It’s not a commodity, and that differentiates her.”
Calculations mattered to Kaja, but only after she’d developed a customized plan to sell it for top dollar – and she did. Kaja’s vision realized a $200,000 premium over what the other 11 realtors told Abhi she could expect to get for her place!
“Everybody else I asked about selling the place, all they would look at was their spreadsheet,” Abhi explains. “Their approach felt safe and generic. But Kaja only brought up comparables after developing a strategy.”
“She had a very solid idea of what she would do – almost like an artist,” Abhi says. “She sees the best in your place and brings it out.” Even better was that the cost for the staging work Kaja suggested only marginally affected the profit on the sale. Abhi’s trust was invaluable; it allowed me to make the necessary changes that were needed to sell for higher, explained Kaja.
“She had a very solid idea of what she would do – almost like an artist.”
“Kaja was also extremely flexible and worked with our timelines,” Abhi says. Other agents insisted that they had to commit to a moving timeline that worked for the agent, but Kaja met with them and then waited a few months until they were ready to list. This really stood out to Abhi.
The family’s new home was under renovation so they couldn’t commit to a drop-dead move out date. When it was finally time, they called Kaja, handed over the keys, and the apartment went on the market quickly. Abhi comments that, “Once I handed over the keys I had full faith I knew it wouldn’t be a suboptimal outcome, it was one less thing to worry about.”
Another thing that impressed Abhi was Kaja’s unique marketing strategy. Kaja brought a few off-market clients through the apartment while the family was still living there to get feedback on its pros and cons and how a buyer would view it.
The combination of a well-researched feedback loop before the final listing was live, a customized selling strategy, and Kaja’s staging, yielding fantastic results for the Singh’s. Their apartment sold for $200,000 more than what the 12 other realtors stated the Singh’s would get for it!
“Abhi’s trust was invaluable; it allowed me to make the necessary changes that were needed to sell for higher.”
Why does Abhi think Kaja got such amazing results? “She’s not really about making a sale at any point of time – she sees in a place what you would see as an owner. It’s not a commodity, and that differentiates her,” Abhi says.
Contact Kaja Bolton to learn more, or click here to see how her staging can transform your listing.