Sometimes, a darling home comes on the market and its potential is marred by cosmetic problems, poor staging, and too much clutter.
Our Tuesday Two Hundred is just such a house. This North Oak Cliff Tudor is a three-bedroom, two-bath home with 1,410 square feet, built in 1924. From the outside, it’s cute as a button, and the interior has so much promise. But as you’ll see in the photos, there are numerous problems with the listing. It’s undoubtedly one of the reasons it was just reduced $10K (it is now listed for $249,000).
If you add up the cost of staging (generally 1 to 2 percent of list price) and the cosmetic fixes, it would likely ring in under that amount, in my opinion. Listing a house with these kind of issues is like throwing money out the window.
This home has a lot going for it: vintage Tudor charms, new roof in 2016, original fireplace, beautiful front door with a circular glass window, new hot water heater and AC compressor, two bathrooms, a one-car garage (rare in 1920’s homes), and a fabulous North Oak Cliff location close to Bishop Arts and Davis Street businesses.
But it has a lot working against it, too: worn hardwood floors; bare walls; empty curtain rods; dated furniture stuck randomly in rooms; large, empty spaces; bright wall colors in the kitchen, one bedroom, and a bathroom; a cluttered backyard; and cracked tile in the kitchen, where you’ll also find dated laminate counters and more clutter.
It’s hard for buyers to see past these things, even though they are all cosmetic problems that would not take all that much time to fix (and like I said before, probably cost less than the $10K markdown in list price). Staging is so important, too. This sweet cottage would benefit greatly from staging, too. Can’t you imagine a cozy seating area in that front room around the fireplace? And a charming dining set nearby? The master could look positively divine with the right bedroom set.
If you’d like to see the listing photos without my markups, click here. Otherwise, read on (look on?) to see my opinion about how not to sell a house. 
