For about 18 years, Sue and Geoffrey Clarke have lived with their children in a beautiful villa in the Marlot; a peaceful, decent and child-friendly neighborhood in The Hague. Sue and Geoffrey decided to sell their house, wanting to go back to England. After a whole year of trying to make the sale, they decided to try a new real estate agent. The state of the house was fine, but the new real estate agent doubted the styling and presentation. She recommended them ByGigi.
Geoffrey: “It is frustrating when you know how nice it is to live here, yet nobody is buying it. It’s not easy to hear that you have to put the things you like away, but Gigi’s professionalism helped us to accept the situation; we had to make styleful adjustments to get the sale. The arguments she mentioned were very plausible. It was clear she understood our target market. She really changed our perspective.
Gigi made it clear why we had to adjust some things. What she proposed to restyle was for a good reason. We felt that it was without judgement to our own taste, and her approach was professional and constructive. We learnt from her to look through the eyes of a buyer a bit better. This can really accelerate the process. After the changes we’ve made - together with Gigi - many more buyers visited our place, and within 3 months we sold the house.
Buyers see their own ideas more easily when a house has less furniture and more space. Openness and lightness sells. Together with Gigi we walked through the house and she pointed out what furnishing we had to store away or sell. She gave us great styling suggestions to make it as neutral as possible. The biggest change was made in the living and dining area. They were valuable ideas we were able to use to sell the house.
She advised us to repaint walls. Our house, in English style, was quite colourful while buyers need neutral walls to see the potential of a space. I repainted them myself, by the RAL numbers she gave me, while Gigi was standby. When at a certain point I felt that the colour was a bit off, she came quickly and we discussed and changed it in good cooperation. Together with the new estate agent, ByGigi gave us new fresh energy and a successful sale.”
