Selling a Home in Coquitlam

Work from the outside in, and start earlier than feels necessary — most of what adds value takes weeks, not days. Declutter and depersonalise first, because it costs nothing and it changes how large the rooms read. Then handle the small deferred repairs: the sticking door, the cracked switch plate, the tap that drips. Buyers price those as a proxy for how the rest of the house was maintained.

After that comes presentation. Kristy’s background is in staging, so the usual sequence is a staging consultation, then preparation and any furniture or paint changes, and only then photography — professional photos, video and a floor plan, once the house is actually ready to be photographed. Doing it in the other order is the most common and most expensive mistake, because the listing photos are what most buyers decide on before they ever book a showing.

The honest answer is that it takes a comparable-sale analysis, not an online estimate. Automated valuations work from public data and cannot see your renovations, your outlook, your floor plan, or the condition of the roof and the drains. In Coquitlam they are particularly unreliable, because a short distance between Burke Mountain, Central Coquitlam and Coquitlam West can mean very different housing stock and very different buyers.

A real pricing analysis looks at what has actually sold nearby and recently, what is currently competing with you, how long those listings took, and what condition they were in compared with yours. Kristy will also tell you where preparation or staging would change the number, and where it would not be worth the spend.

Often, but not always in the full sense of the word. Kristy spent nearly ten years as an internationally award-winning home stager and was the owner of Private Property Staging, so the honest answer is that staging is a range rather than a yes or no. An occupied family home in good condition may only need a consultation, a declutter and some furniture moved. A vacant property usually benefits from more, because empty rooms photograph smaller and buyers struggle to judge scale.

The question worth asking is what the property needs in order to photograph and show well, and what that costs against the price difference it is likely to make. That is a conversation about your specific house, not a package.

Ask three things, and ask them of everyone you interview. First, how long they have actually been licensed and what they have closed recently — Kristy has been licensed since 2004. Second, what training they hold beyond the basic licence: hers is ABR® (Accredited Buyer’s Representative), SRES® (Seniors Real Estate Specialist), RENE® (Real Estate Negotiation Expert) and negotiation training through BCIT. Third, ask to see the actual marketing plan for your property in writing, not a description of one.

Then check whether the claims are verifiable. Kristy was a 2017 Medallion Club Qualifier, which represents the top 10 per cent of REALTORS® in Greater Vancouver, and she spent nearly ten years as an internationally award-winning home stager before that. Anything a Realtor tells you should be checkable somewhere other than their own website.