When selling a home in today’s tough real estate market, it helps to have a competitive edge. The team of Cape Cod House Hunt, of Cape Cod Associates in Harwich, Mass., goes beyond the staples of selling a house – listings, showings, marketing – by providing home “staging” services as part of its package.
The team of Adrienne Morosini and Jackie Zartarian brings sellers both longtime knowledge of real estate sales (Adrienne has been selling homes in the Cape Cod area for more than 10 years) and the fine art of “staging” a home ( Jackie’s expertise for more than seven years) so it looks sensational to the potential buyer.
Anyone will tell you that marketing of any kind is about packaging that is appealing. Even if two boxes of crackers are the same in the supermarket, if one of the boxes is slightly ripped, the consumer will buy the other one because it looks better. We have watched the housing inventory on the Cape rise considerably in the last 3 years. If your house doesn’t stand out, it simply won’t sell.
“I look at us as a concierge service for home sellers,” says Morosini. “We take on a property that needs refreshing- like a ripped box of crackers- and we get it looking its best. We handle all aspects of the job so the homeowner doesn’t have to worry about the details – hiring trusted contractors, rearranging interiors and bringing in new furnishings from our own inventory to set the perfect Cape Cod scene.”
“Our goal is for the home to look like someone actually lives there, comfortable and inviting, but uncluttered,” says Zartarian. “We stage the home in an authentic beach home style.”
Cape Cod House Hunt is unique to local real estate agents in providing the staging service to all its listings at no initial cost to the homeowner, by making it part of the commission. We believe in ourselves, and we know we will earn more money for ourselves and the homeowners if they give us the go ahead to do what we do best.
Does it work? Yes, say the two. Their homes sell within an average of 30 days at their original price, much faster than the current 120-day average. “In this challenging market, our sales are actually up,” says Zartarian. “We have expanded our business to include rental staging and our rentals are booked to capacity.”
The pair came together four years ago. A friendship developed through their discovery that they are both “restaurant widows” – meaning their husbands own restaurants on the Cape and they work almost constantly during the summer months. Their first project was a seasonal cottage in Chatham, Mass. “We almost turned it town, it was such a mess, but then we decided to take it on. Thus, Cape Cod House Hunt was born,” says Zartarian.
Comments on this entry are closed.