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The Best Stage with Rock Realty · Ask The Experts

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Eight thirty seven thirteen ten WIBA and ask the experts hanging out in studio this
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morning with Matt Heidman. Of course, Matt comes from Rock Realty, the
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website Rock Wisconsin dot com. That's our O c K Rock Wisconsin dot com.
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Dolph number six O eight six seven three fifty four hundred. That's six
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seven three fifty four hundred. Matt, how are you doing this morning?
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Doing great? Good morning? See you. You tied your boat up outside
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and wow, took a raft here exactly exactly. One of the things I
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will say for folks looking at Holmes if you ever wonder how's the basement hold
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up? This week is a good week to look because you will know you,
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oh for sure. So good to see you. We've got We've got
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a great conversation I had. We're going to talk about staging this week,
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which is a huge part of real estate that a lot of us regular folks
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are not aware of consciously, and that's a good thing. It is something
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that is a huge benefit when done right to selling a home and kind of
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understanding how that works. We have the details for Matt in just a moment.
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But first, speaking of great homes and stage, this I was telling
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you before we came on the air our featured listening. The house itself seems
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to be staged perfectly. It is a very convenient location, but it's on
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a giant lot and the house is set back a bit, so it almost
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And I haven't been to this property, although my wife's looking to move to
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the east Side, I may look at this property. It almost has like
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a country feel in the city. Let's talk about this week's featured listing on
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Commercial Avenue here in Madison. Yeah, the address for it is forty six
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to ten Commercial Avenue. It's pretty much located kind of at the crossing between
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Commercial Avenue and Thompson And yeah, it's a very unique property. It sets
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back off off of the kind of the roundabout there, very convenient to get
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to the interstate, very convenient to get to town Madison, convenient to get
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to the east Side mall there. And it sits on one point zero three
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acres. That's a huge lot. Are you serious? Huge a lot right
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in the middle of East Madison there, so super unique. How does that
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come out? How do you know you think of a typical city lot,
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You're talking quarter acre and how does do you know any of the backstory as
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to how this because that's a nice par so that's a good yes. Yeah,
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Well, actually the current owner had purchased this older I think it was
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a nineteen fifty style ranch that was there, had it torn down just to
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the foundation and rebuild it in twenty fourteen and built a huge home. Right,
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So, like, the ideal buyer for this has either got to you
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know, a lot of people they need to house, or maybe they run
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a business where they'd like to build an outbuilding and do some work, maybe
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store cars there. I mean, there's just so many options. It's got
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four thousand and seven hundred and seventy four square feet approximately, so lots of
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space. Yeah, the house, the house square footage is about a standard
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lot square footage. Five bedrooms, three baths, two half baths. Am
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I reading that? Great? Yeah? Yeah, You've got three different shower
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heads in the place, and then you've got two extra half pass too,
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so more of the more than enough bathrooms, more than enough bedrooms. You
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know, the primary bedroom is super impressive. Upstairs, it's twenty four by
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fifteen huge space, its own you know, shower and tub combo, jacuzzi
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tub combo, and then It has a sunroom right off thirteen by eleven.
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Sunroom that's right off the master You can use that as a reading room and
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office. And it walks out to a deck. Oh, that is beautiful.
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It's really really neat, and folks can check this out. Of course,
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head on over to Rock Wisconsin dot com. That's Rock Wisconsin dot com.
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Again, finding a lot that size in the city is impossible. Then
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with a home with all those features, what an amazing house it is.
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And as you mentioned, you know, you're just you're just a hop,
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skip and a jump away from from Highway thirties. You can get you can
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get anywhere. And it's airport, the airport get out of town if you
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really want to get away exactly. Check that out again. It's right at
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forty six to ten Commercial Avenue. That's forty six ten Commercial Avenue. More
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details online of course, Rock Wisconsin dot com. That's Rock roc k Wisconsin
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dot com and Matt. I know, part of being a really good agent
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is connecting with people and really helping folks getting to know them and also getting
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to know if you're listing a home, getting to know their home. And
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one of the ways to really get to know a home and present a home
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is to is to kind of downplace some of the things that the people that
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currently live there have. Does that make exactly like you want to make it
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feel comfortable to everybody? And there's this art and it is truly an art
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when it comes to listing a home, something called staging. Let's talk about
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what staging is and why is it so important for for selling a home and
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getting good value for your home. Yeah, staging is really important to make
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the home as attractive as possible to potential buyers. When you're living in a
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home as a homeowner for a certain period of time, you start to not
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notice the different things around the house that others might write and so when you
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have a real estate agent through, they can identify those things for you.
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Right when if you were to have a professional stager through, they could definitely
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identify those things for you and help you reorganize. So, you know,
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I brought eight different home staging tips here and some ideas that people can use
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to make their house a little more attractive on the inside. We'll break each
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of those down for you is kind of what they are and why they are
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so important. And you know, you think about your home too. Is
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before we kind of get to these is you think about your house has lived
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in you see it day in and day out. I think of you know
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of of just you know, life happens, kids happen. You also start
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to accumulate things and they're very you know, very personal, maybe have on
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display. I think of it at our house when you walk in the front
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door, there's this. It simply used to be just this, this metal,
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kind of artsy little letter P for Preble. I think a lot of
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people have the family name. And over the years, as my son has
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gotten more involved with sports and with academics and things, ribbons and medals and
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stuff, we start hanging them on there. To us, that's kind of
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cool, it's kind of neat. It's a you know, it's kind of
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like the refrigerator and the type thing. If you're looking at our house,
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though, you're probably looking at thing going. I think there's a whole lot
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of chaos going that And that's the type of thing we're kind of going to
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be talking about. Overall. The things that as a as a homeowner is
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it's your house. It's it's very personal, very important to you. To
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other people, it may just look like kind of a mess, right,
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well, clutter, cluttered, you know, maybe not personal to them,
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Yeah, to somebody else's home that I'm I'm intruding on, versus hey,
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this could be my home. Oh, it's gonna be exciting talking this morning
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with Matt Heytman with Rock Realty, the website Rock Wisconsin dot com. That's
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r O. C K Wisconsin dot Com. Telephone number six So eight six
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seven three fifty four hundred. That's six seven three fifty four hundred. So
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let's go through these. First tip is to clean. Yeah. Yeah,
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the first one is cleaning. Seems obvious, right, but some people's clean
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is different than others. Yeah. So the key is to you know,
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clean clean your home. I mean from the floors, of the ceilings and
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everything in between. Yeah. Right. So I was just at a Madison
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listing appointment yesterday discussing that and it they had a big project ahead of them,
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and you know, I actually suggest that they have they spend a couple
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hundred dollars to have some professional cleaners out there, you know, take that
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off their plate so they can work on some of the other items in the
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staging list. Yeah. And with that, with that cleaning too, and
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we're not just talking about kind of your your routine stuff here. We're really
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talking about you know, some of those I think of and I think of
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light switch areas, and I think of cupboards that that you just tend to
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overlook, but if you take the time to kind of wipe it down with
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a little bit of cleaner. Else in your real lize lego, it's got
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a big one. Everybody misses the garage service door. You know, it
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gets all dirty around the handle. It's one of the most used doors in
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the house, right and so people won't even notice that, but when you
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go through and you see favorite prints and handprints all over the door, it
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just needs to be wiped down. Is that something too You mentioned hiring a
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professional. Is that something an agent can kind of help you with making the
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terminations? Is something that you know, hand I think of if you're you
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know, a couple, maybe the kids have moved out, or maybe your
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kids are older, the house is probably much easier to to take care of
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them. If you've got they don't call them rug rats for nothing. Little
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rug rats bounce around the home. Is that something your agent might be able
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to help you kind of guide you to say Okay, this is something you
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guys are able to absolutely clean up. You're right, Like an empty nester
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homes a little easier to get clean. Yeah, but you know, over
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the years, we build up you know, different referral sources that we trust
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that do a good jobs. Fantastic talking this morning with Matt Heyman the road
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with Rock Realty, talking about what exactly it means when it comes to staging
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and some of the steps to staging. The second one is, and this
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is a biggie for me, is decluttering houses tend to I hate clutter,
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by the way, personally, but I see it all the time. My
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wife is one of these people that likes to have, like if you come
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into our house, likes to have things. And I'm always like, honey,
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there's there's there is nothing wrong with having wall space? Does She does?
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And she's streaming in the office right now, So I'm probably probably gonna
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have to run through Culver's or something on my way home bring her entreat to
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make. But clutter is, clutter can be a can be a big problem
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and something that that as homeowners, you don't really often identify, do you.
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Yeah, Yeah, for two main reasons, right, distracts buyers from
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the homeless features when you have too much there. You know, a dining
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room that's got a large oak china set. You know that the dining room
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is actually large, but you can't tell because you've got these large yeah for
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sure unit there. So that is that's interesting when you talk about kind of
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making the house feel less spacious. Is I think for a lot of folks
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think about when you first bought your home, or you know, if you're
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in a condo or an apartment, that first time you went in, before
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the furniture and stuff was in there, you probably thought, oh, look
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at all this space, and now you're going And that's the same thing for
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I would say that, you know, there's two things that I suggest that
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are pretty simple that when you're getting your home ready to sell, you move
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it to the garage first. Right, the garage is the last line of
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judgment of you know, buyers can sometimes look past a full garage, right,
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they're not going to look past the inside of the house. And if
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you have the ability to get a small storage unit and just it's going to
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ease your mind. You don't have to necessarily make the decisions of what you're
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throwing away and what you're keeping to throw it into the storage unit and temporarily
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so and things like those pods. Have those? Do those help? Like
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having ordering one and just you know for a couple of help. And then
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you have to make sure they're out of their driveway before the photographer crowns.
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And that's that's been a problem. We've had people photoshop out the pods.
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Oh, we could have our photos of the house up. So very interesting
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talking this morning with Matt Hypmen. Of course, mad comes to us from
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Rock Realty the website Rock Wisconsin dot com. That's Rock Wisconsin dot com,
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r O c K Wisconsin dot com. Tell for number six So eight six
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seven three fifty four hundred, that's six seven three fifty four hundred. I
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started off talking about about this exact thing which is depersonalized. Let's talk about
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what that is and of course how you how you help folks kind of work
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through that. Yeah, you know, as you start collecting things in your
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home, you know, from your family that's personal to you, whether it's
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family pictures or you know, maybe even particular sayings on the wall that you
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they are personal to you, or awards like you mentioned trophies. You may
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not notice them, but you want to make sure that the buyer can relate
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to the home, can see themselves in it. And the more of those
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items you have in the house, less likely they're going to identify that this
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house can be theirs. And you've got aunt Ester's earn sitting on the mantel.
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We all love an astor listen. So it doesn't sell a house.
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No, that's that is important stuff. And to what about I think about
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going back to kids or maybe you've got grandkids visiting, kind of picking up
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some of those those toys and style. I mean, just a couple of
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toys can really make her room seem exactly exactly. Talking with Matt Heytman of
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Rock Realty the website rock Wisconsin dot com tell the number six so eight six
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seven three fifty four hundred, that's six seven three fifty four hundred. Talked
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about a feature listing a beautiful and a really really fantastic house. If you
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are looking for a little bit of land and a whole lot of house in
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the city of Madison, you're not going to beat this at forty six to
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ten commercial Avenue. Again, you can learn more online Rock Wisconsin dot com.
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That's rock Wisconsin dot com. Or and continue our conversation with Matt.
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We'll talk about the other four tips. Four of course, decluttering and staging
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your home. We will do that next as Ask the Experts with Rockreealty continues
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right here on thirteen ten WU I b A fifty two thirteen ten WU I
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B I and ask the Experts hanging out with Matt Hymn. Matt comes to
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us, of course from Rockreealty the website Rock Wisconsin dot com. That's r
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O c K Wisconsin dot com. Tell for number six O eight six seven
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three fifty four hundred. That's six seven three fifty four hundred. Talking about
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staging this week and some helpful tips not only to identify areas that may need
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staging, but also areas that and how you can actually take care of some
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of those issues. Number four is focus on fresh What are we talking about
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there, Matt? Yeah, I think one of the main uh things that
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a lot of people forget to do. Even if you're you're not good with
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plants, put some plan it's in the house, right, Having some fresh
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plants in the house makes a big difference, makes it feel updated. You
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can just keep them there just for the listing. If you're not good at
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keeping them alive. Right, if you have any dead ones around the house,
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you want to get rid of those, replace them. But put some
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plants in the house makes the house feel fresh. Just baking cookies. It's
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sad a thing too. Still, yeah, okay, I mean you can
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do that. There's obviously other options for helping with the odors and such in
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the house. Put your windows open right before any showings or open houses.
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Get some fresh air in there for a bit, and then close them.
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You can light some candles, be careful on that. You know. You
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don't want to put a lot too many air fresheners. It looks like you're
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trying to hide something. But just maybe a single candle per floor. That's
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a kind of a light odor to it, like not too aromic. That
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could work. Actually, I saw and it was. I spent a couple
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of years remember reading a story and they say, does your host does your
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house have a smell? And then the next line was trust us, it
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does, and it literally says everybody. Most people would notice. Yeah,
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because you've lived there so long. Yeah, you have no idea, but
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these and you mentioned too, not over you know, you don't want it
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to be overpowering and those kind of things, and that's important defining rooms.
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And I've got to assume that with the world we're in now with very popular
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like open concept and those kind of things, really kind of defining spaces and
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really kind of profiling how these areas are used is a biggie. Yeah,
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it's important to define what each section of the home is going to be used
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for. Sometimes you'll have odd shaped rooms and getting the right furniture in that
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room can really make someone visualize what you can use it for, especially in
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smaller rooms. Do you run into with kind of that defined room or define
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areas well. Basement it seems like, especially finished basements, there seems to
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be I know, I think the word is flex space a lot of times
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where where sometimes obviously if you were there for the design of it, you
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know exactly how this this is really meant to handle if you're just kind of
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walking into it, and especially if you've kind of removed a lot of stuff
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out of there, kind of helping people understand how the space is best utilized
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has got to be a great benefit to a potential buyer to say, okay,
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I can see, you know, maybe turning this into a home office
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or turning it into a guest bedroom more both. Yeah, especially the rect
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rooms in the lower level, like you mentioned, they can be long skinny.
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If it's undefined, it's really hard to visualize using you know, sofas
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furniture rugs to define. Hey, this is the living area and this area
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over here is for the kids. That does help talk about the furniture and
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where that what roll that place when it comes to when it comes to staging
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a home. Yeah, there's a happy medium you need to find right between
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too larger furniture and too small a furniture. If the furniture is too large
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makes the room look small obviously, if it's too small, it just doesn't
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give that warm feeling to it. So getting getting something the right size,
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even if it means putting your furniture in storage for a bit, it's important.
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We first got arouse, we bought this is literally the first piece of
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furniture was a new couch for the living room. And of course you go
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to that, you go to the stores and you're like, sitting down these
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you find a big I think we all are guilty of this spetch that first
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time you buy a brand new, brand new couch and furniture set, like
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you want the biggest comfy of stuff, and then this was like enough to
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walk exactly, but you can fit a lot of family in there, Yes,
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exactly. Walls and ceiling, where do those fit in the world of
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staging man, Yeah, I would say make sure you're checking on cobwebs up
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there. Maybe you don't look up, but definitely clean out the cobwebs.
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I know that goes back to our cleaning section, but uh, you know,
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red flags or buyers are going to be different. Cracks, right,
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settling cracks are normal. These are you know, things that you see just
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kind of in the dry wall that maybe just makes a crack in the paint.
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You know, touch those up. You know it's a lot more alarming
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looking than it actually is, but it can be indication of foundation issues.
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So you know, if it's if it's a larger crack, you want to
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have someone out and then make take a look at your basement just to see
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what's there before you get that thing listed. I know, things like we
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mentioned the term before the show popcorn ceiling is a little out of out of
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style. But one thing that They did a nice job of hiding which was
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any type of blendimissure defect in a ceiling. They were nice. So as
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we kind of work through some of these some of these things when it comes
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to staging, I will get to the final touches in just a moment,
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But Matt, I want to ask you too about this kind of highlights the
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importance of working with a good agent is you think of this stuff and having
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that and I think more than once I had asked you about like can your
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agent help you with this stuff? These are areas that having that right agent
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that's really engaged in working with you can really be a huge benefit having those
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resources. Yeah. Absolutely to get you know, the top dollar, you
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want to make it as attractive as possible to buyers. And you have to
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remember that these these real estate agents are out there with buyers on a weekly
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daily basis, and they're hearing the comments as they're going through houses, and
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they know what's most turning off the buyers or what most is attracting the buyers,
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and it's important to have someone through like that to kind of point those
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things out to you. I know there's been a number of studies about kind
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of the value of this, and it is this these type of things really
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do as you mentioned about getting getting the you know, the most amount for
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your home is these type of things to do. Actually some of them,
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you know, they cost small amounts of money. You're talking about you know,
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renting a storage unit for a month or you know, free things like
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cleaning and those type of things. The return on that is huge. And
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now let's kind of wrap up and kind of talk speaking of wrapping things up,
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kind of those final touches when it comes to staging. What are those
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areas mat Yeah, I mean just taking a you know, one last look
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around seeing if there's any sort of plants or fresh flowers you can put out
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there to really brighten up and lighten up the place. Make sure all your
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your windows are the drapes are open, that's a big deal, the lines
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aren't closed. You want it as bright as possible. Maybe put some new
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plush towels in the bathrooms. That always looks nice versus kind of the matted
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down I've used a few days towels, maybe a few candles that that's probably
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the best final touches. You mentioned opening the windows too, when it comes
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to staging, and the featured listing this week one of the things, and
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I'm actually going to spend some time after the show kind of looking at all
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the different photos and different angles we've talked about that that that featured listing this
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week on Commercial Avenue looks like with all the trees and stuff around, that's
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got to have some really cool And you mentioned too the master bedroom and having
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that that room just kind of looking out under the tree. Yea a very
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private lot, but still brings in a lot of late It is pretty pretty
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cool. Check that out again. The website Rock Wisconsin dot com. That's
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Rock r O c K Wisconsin dot com. Is the website telephon number six
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so eight six seven three fifty four hundred. That's six seven three fifty four
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hundred, Matt. It's always great chatting with you. You enjoy this beautiful
20:37
day well, sir. And again the website Rock Wisconsin dot com. Dan
20:41
O'donnald not only does he have a chance for you to win one thousand dollars,
20:44
he is at live from Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. He comes your
20:48
way next right here on thirteen ten wib A