Buying A Fixer-Upper And Making It Your Dream Home

Some buyers in the current St. Louis area real estate market are finding a lack of good homes for sale in the area and price range of their choice. But this doesn’t mean you can’t find great homes for sale in St. Louis or the St. Charles County area. There are always homes for sale that are awaiting that special buyer who can see their hidden potential.

If the time and money required for updating a fixer-upper is not for you, that’s OK, The Boehmer Team will help you find the perfectly updated home of your dreams. But if you know a diamond in the rough when you see one and are able to make the project a reality, you can make a fixer upper into your dream home.

In fact, one of our clients has done just that. After the Boehmer team helped Stephanie Pohlman and her husband sell their home, they helped them find a home for sale in the exact area and price range they wanted. The home needed some updating, but Pohlman was up for the task.

“When my husband, Matt, and I first found our new home, the gears in my mind started turning with the changes that could be done,” said Stephanie Pohlman. “Ultimately, I wanted to take this beautiful but out-of-date house and create a home for us that we could call our own.” 

 

Though Pohlman is an interior designer, anyone with a little money or elbow grease can make a fixer-upper into an amazing home. Her tips could also help home sellers desiring to make the their home look great to get the most money from their home sale. 

 

“We opened up the space to make an open floor plan to better entertain and let the light - and love - in. Adding stone to the fireplace, hardwood floors, updated lighting, new cabinetry, and paint are just a few things that helped us to accomplish the family feel we wanted to achieve.”

Pohlman found the most fun part of the project to be the kitchen. “Contrary to what you might think, you are not obligated to the current layout of your cabinets and appliances.” Your only limit is your budget, and maybe the placement of the plumbing hookup. While she did an amazing full-kitchen renovation, others have painted cabinets, walls and switched out door pulls to create an updated kitchen they love. 

“Other than the kitchen that had to be completely gutted, the house had some really nice elements, but were lacking in design,” Pohlman said. “The stone fireplace, new beam, different paint on the walls, and hardwood flooring were just a few easy updates that would help to finish off the final look. Now we have a house that we’ve made a home that we love and can call our own.”

See Pohlman’s full article Before and After: From Boring Bungalow to My Classic Cottage with many more before and after pictures from her project. Or visit her design blog, dotingabode.wordpress.com which includes a detailed shopping list of where to get the furniture and accessories shown in the pictures.

Before photos provided by Realtor.com
After photos by Lauren Muckler Photography

Storage Solutions When Preparing Your Home For Sale

Research shows that homeowners who stage their houses, sell those homes faster and usually for more money. Staging includes clearing out and organizing your home while keeping only the minimum amount of furniture in each room making the space appear larger and more enticing. But you can’t just shove those items into closets as your home’s available storage space is often at the top of the list for most buyers. So organizing and clearing your storage spaces should also be included in preparing your home for sale.

“We knew we'd have to clear out plenty of clutter. We didn't expect to have to take out almost everything,” said one homeowner. “Three bookshelves in my office, one apiece in three bedrooms, and one in the basement all had to go. We also had to remove sofas, chairs, dressers, cabinets, lamps, televisions, a desk, kitchenware, and one-third of the clothes in our closets.”

The difference in how a staged home looks after a clear out is often staggering. But many homeowners wanting to sell their home see the clear out as overwhelming. However it can be done quickly with the help of a few tricks and some help from your friends.  

Home Clearing Tricks

Create Piles With Purpose
Create six piles for all items you want to clear away to go into. Then pick up one item at a time and make a decision about it, before putting it down.

1. Keep in room
2. Put away (in another room)
3. Give away / donate
4. Sell
5. Trash
6. Recycle

Use a Systemic Approach

Set a timer for an hour and then clean one room at a time during that hour. Concentrate on the area you've decided to work on during the session. If you've chosen a larger area begin working on it systematically, from left to right, in a clockwise fashion throughout the room. (The order isn't actually that important, any systematic approach will work, as long as you stick with it.) 

Storing Possessions When Selling Your Home

The Garage 

If you have a large garage and putting your items in the garage will still leave space for a car to park in it, then you have a great storage option. Stack plastic storage bins and cardboard boxes as neatly as possible. Instead of buying bins you don’t need or cardboard boxes you’ll just throw away, STL Rent-A-Box is a good option. They have stackable plastic storage bins that can be dropped off to your home and kept for the duration of your project.

Rented Storage

Use your rented storage unit to store anything you do not need. After all, potential buyers will be looking through your closets, cabinetry, and basement. A self-storage facility allows you to store unnecessary appliances, out-of-season clothing, furniture, and anything else you will not need for a few months so that your home's best features can shine through.

Temporary Storage 
PODS revolutionized moving and storage by introducing the

concept of portable storage containers. With PODS, portable storage containers come to you, so you can pack at your leisure. When you're ready, your PODS container is moved to a secure storage center facility.

Moving Companies

Many moving companies do much more than move furnishings—they also offer storage solutions where possessions can be stored in climate-controlled environments for several days or months.  Costs are based on the amount of stuff you have. If you want to reduce cost, the best time to organize the home and discard possessions you no longer need or want is before the moving truck shows up.

When considering your storage options, decide whether you’ll need access to any of the items in storage. If you think you may need to get things out of storage on a temporary basis, it’s best to make sure those items are stored last, or consider self-storage for those items you’ll need regular access to during the interim period.  

The Boehmer Team Can Help
The Boehmer Team is experienced with helping homeowners with home staging that makes a home irresistible to buyers. If you are thinking of selling your home, contact the number one real estate team in St. Charles county, The Boehmer Team. They make the process of selling your home a smoother and more lucrative experience.