More than four years ago, one of our staffers wrote a critique on a charming Tudor in Winnetka Heights that was brimming with potential, but the listing photos were a major missed opportunity.
After some back and forth with the listing agent, we decided to prove a very important point, said Karen Eubank, our luxury columnist and owner of Eubank Staging and Design.
“Because we love our agents, we offered to stage this home, free of charge,” she said. “And no, you cannot ask us to do this again … ever.”
We chronicled the process in a series that highlighted just how important staging can be, and how vital it is for Realtors to put a home’s best face forward.
You can read the entire series on how our team staged the property here. You can see the original post from 2016 here.
An Old Home Gets a New Life
Of course, the home found a buyer pretty quickly after we staged it, and the story was rendered to history and our site archives. That is, until Diane Boehm emailed us earlier this week.
You see, Diane and her husband, Paul, were the ones who purchased 307 N. Waverly back in 2016. At the time, the 1924-built home was listed for $249,000. Diane saw the potential in 307 N. Waverly after we highlighted it, and they couldn’t resist the temptation to restore the home.
“Your team at Daltxrealestate.com wrote an incredible article in the spring of 2016 about our house and the importance of properly staging a house to sell,” Diane wrote to us. “Because of your article, we were able to see the potential that this house had to offer and quickly became the new owners.”
So Diane and Paul put their talents together — Diane is the creative and Paul the labor — and they renovated this almost century-old beauty over the course of four-and-a-half years. It’s exactly what we’d hoped would happen — someone would see the potential in this lovely Tudor and take the time and energy to really make it shine.
“After multiple years of marriage, two dogs, and two sweet baby boys, we decided to put our home on the market in order to purchase our forever dream home only a few streets over on North Windomere,” Diane said. “Jason Saucedo, our Realtor from the Hewitt & Habgood Group, helped us navigate this overwhelming process in order to make our dreams come true!”
The best part? The home, which Saucedo listed for $368,000, is already pending according to Diane, with a young couple slated to move in next month.
“This house is a special home that just needed some extra love to make it what it is today,” Diane said.
We have to say that we are absolutely thrilled with the transformation that the Boehms managed — the kitchen is adorable and we love what they did with the hall bath! (SPOILER ALERT: There’s shiplap!)
A Step You Can’t Afford to Skip
Of course, as Karen reminds us, the moral of this story is that staging is critical no matter the condition of a home:
“We wanted to share this story that has come full circle and remind all of you — sellers and Realtors alike — that staging matters, it works, and anyone, regardless of the price point of their home, can afford a staging consultation.”
You can see the rest of the photos of 307 N. Waverly here.
