Primp My Home
Turn your house for sale into one hot property.
- Illustration by Nick Dewar.
For three years running, June has been the busiest month for real estate dealmaking. The good news this year for buyers is that interest rates remain low. But sellers aren’t exactly pouring the champagne: Sales numbers are down, as houses are still languishing on the market for months. For those folks, three local services promise to help rake in the offers by the time the next mortgage check is due.
Potential homebuyers should be able to imagine themselves living in your house; your extensive taxidermy collection, even if it’s immaculately organized, might not facilitate that. To help browsers feel more at ease, On Stage of Wayland will edit down your overstuffed rooms, rearrange accessories, and dress the dining room table. This home-staging firm can also bring in new furniture that pleasantly outfits a room—empty ones, counterintuitively, look smaller—but doesn’t distract from the space. 508-561-6882, onstagestaging@comcast.net.
The next step is to stash your junk. Starting at $59 per month, Fetch will spirit away any extraneous furniture, as well as your clutter—be it a guess-your-weight circus scale or 400 cubic feet of Christmas ornaments (true stories)—and store it in a secure, climate-controlled facility. What sets this Boston-based valet storage service apart, though, is that it can return any of your belongings within 24 hours, thanks to a bar code system that helps it keep tabs on items’ whereabouts at all times. So if you use Fetch to stow your closetful of kick-ass Halloween costumes, then get invited to a Pirates of the Caribbean party, you’ll have that swashbuckler suit out in no time. 888-610-1684, fetchstorage.com.
The final detail to attend to is the yard—don’t let a mangy one scare off buyers before they’ve had a chance to look inside. Brockton-based Go Curb Appeal specializes in a one-day, two-dude whirling dervish of an exterior cleanup. The company will power-wash your siding and sidewalks; edge, weed, and mulch your beds; cart away junk; plant new flowers and clip the hedges; and even paint your trim. The guys arrive with all the tools and materials they need (including their lunch) and have a GPS system in the truck to make sure not a minute of daylight is wasted searching for your address. 508-844-1146, gocurbappeal.com
Potential homebuyers should be able to imagine themselves living in your house; your extensive taxidermy collection, even if it’s immaculately organized, might not facilitate that. To help browsers feel more at ease, On Stage of Wayland will edit down your overstuffed rooms, rearrange accessories, and dress the dining room table. This home-staging firm can also bring in new furniture that pleasantly outfits a room—empty ones, counterintuitively, look smaller—but doesn’t distract from the space. 508-561-6882, onstagestaging@comcast.net.
The next step is to stash your junk. Starting at $59 per month, Fetch will spirit away any extraneous furniture, as well as your clutter—be it a guess-your-weight circus scale or 400 cubic feet of Christmas ornaments (true stories)—and store it in a secure, climate-controlled facility. What sets this Boston-based valet storage service apart, though, is that it can return any of your belongings within 24 hours, thanks to a bar code system that helps it keep tabs on items’ whereabouts at all times. So if you use Fetch to stow your closetful of kick-ass Halloween costumes, then get invited to a Pirates of the Caribbean party, you’ll have that swashbuckler suit out in no time. 888-610-1684, fetchstorage.com.
The final detail to attend to is the yard—don’t let a mangy one scare off buyers before they’ve had a chance to look inside. Brockton-based Go Curb Appeal specializes in a one-day, two-dude whirling dervish of an exterior cleanup. The company will power-wash your siding and sidewalks; edge, weed, and mulch your beds; cart away junk; plant new flowers and clip the hedges; and even paint your trim. The guys arrive with all the tools and materials they need (including their lunch) and have a GPS system in the truck to make sure not a minute of daylight is wasted searching for your address. 508-844-1146, gocurbappeal.com
Originally published in Boston magazine, June 2007
