Testimonials
Below are a selection of written and video testimonials we’ve received over the years from our clients.
Troy Gray – Channel 9 Television Presenter, Documentaries, Public Speaking
I engaged the services of Houses to Impress to project manage a cosmetic renovation of my investment property. The house was in a very ordinary state after many years as a rental and it needed to be updated so I could achieve maximum price when I put it on the market. I had the property valued at $250,000 prior to work starting.
I virtually handed the keys over to the team at Houses to Impress and left them to get on with the job. In just three weeks the work was completed and I was so stunned by how the house now looked that I decided to keep the property and move in myself! The renovation cost $22,000 and I had it revalued at $320,000 which was an increase in equity of $70,000!
Thank you to Charyn and Kate for transforming my ugly duckling house into a beautiful swan that I am now proud to call my home.
Sally Curtis
I would like to commend you Charyn for the fantastic job you did with the property at Steven Avenue. Although an attractive property to begin with, the ideas you gave the vendors to add the “WOW” factor to their home before taking it to the market, made all the difference.
For a reasonable cost to my clients, their home now looks a million dollars. I will have no hesitation in confidently recommending your services to future vendors.Rebecca Foster, Walsh Real Estate
The difference was fantastic. Your ideas for different areas of the house created a warm and welcoming feeling for any future purchaser.
John Y, Property Investor, Golden Grove
The amazing transformation wouldn’t have been achieved without the input from Houses to Impress! We have just had our property revalued and have refinanced for an extra $100,000. We can now use the extra equity to purchase more investment properties. Thanks for your advice Charyn.
Denise D, Property Investor, Hindmarsh
We had our house on the market for a few weeks due to my husband being transferred with his work to Queensland. The house was originally marketed in the low to mid $300,000′s but then our agent changed the marketing to ” all offers considered” thinking that would lead to a quick sale. However, we started getting ridiculously low offers of $250,000! It was getting closer to when my husband had to leave but we didn’t want to give our house away! A colleague referred us to Charyn and her makeover services.
Charyn advised us on a few techniques to increase the street appeal and also some practical ideas to vamp up the inside areas. She also suggested some changes to the internet profile that made the house more appealing to our target market of families i.e. walking distance to schools and shops, 10 minutes to the beach etc Charyn also suggested changing the asking price to – offers over $300,000.
Graham and I spent one day and $200.00 implementing Charyn’s recommended changes. The house sold on the first open after we made the changes for $315,000 and Graham flew out later that day to start his new job in Queensland!
Charyn was so right – with a minimum budget you can transform your house and give it real market appeal. The lady who bought the house even thanked us for taking the trouble to present the house so well!!
Kylie and Graham, Sheidow Park
Can I just start by saying that everyone should have a Charyn and Kate in their lives. Whether you are selling your current home, buying/building a new one or have lived in the same one forever.
What these girls can do for you is nothing short of amazing. We tend to become ‘blind’ to our surroundings, especially if we have lived in them for some time. Charyn and Kate provide a fresh new look, that is not only practical, but aesthetically pleasing as well.
Before we met the girls from ‘houses to impress ‘we had done what most people selling a home do. We listed with an agent, were told a ‘good price’ that we could get for our home, stripped all the clutter (character) out of it on their advice and were convinced that auction was the way to go as time was against us. You see we wanted to move interstate and have it all finalised during end of year holidays so that the move would be less stressful for the children and that was only 3 months away.
Frustratingly, not only did our auction campaign fail ($$$ and time down the toilet) but then three different sales offers fell over too.
Selling a house is often cited as being one of the greatest stressors that we face and with 5 children, I can tell you, that trying to keep a house in showroom condition ‘just in case’ we got a call really wore us all down, even the children commented that they didn’t know selling a house could be so difficult.
What were we doing wrong? We had done everything the agent told us to do. We had repainted, repaired and replaced screens, removed all our personal effects, and cleaned it within an inch of its life, then baked cookies and perked caramel coffee before every inspection, which sometimes only lasted 5 minutes or worse still, all that effort and no one would show up at all! AARRGGHH!
Despite being told that the agency would be proactive in finding us a buyer, we felt that the buyers coming through were not all that well qualified. One couple rejected it based on the colour of the render. Were they not directed to the website photos of the home?
We found that the offers we were getting were way under what we had been assured was a good price and then found our agent trying to talk us around to accepting a low offer, as that was what ‘market dictated’. Hang on a minute; I thought they were working for us! May I just add at this point that it is worth qualifying you agent before signing with them!!!
Months down the track, with pressure mounting from the agents to take a poor offer and our deadline looming we just felt like we had hit a wall. The rollercoaster ride had taken its toll and we were all exhausted from it.
Just when it seemed that all was lost and we would have to give up the idea of selling our home and change our plans for the future, it was then that Charyn appeared in our lives like a fairy Godmother (via Facebook actually).What a breath of fresh air. During our very 1st phone call, I could feel the hope returning.
Charyn simply asked me a series of questions outlining our objectives and the hurdles we had been facing to date. She then looked at our photos, floor plan and advertising campaign online and instantly could see minor changes we could make, especially in the wording of the advertising.Now, at this stage we were using our home as a 7 bedroom, 1 dining room, and 1 lounge room home as everyone had their own rooms and then my husband and I shared an office. The most common complaint prospective buyers had, was that the house didn’t have a second living area.
Within 24 hours the girls had been back in touch to clarify any questions they had and had put together a Home Staging and Makeover report for us. So we printed out their suggestions and then got stuck into it. This was going to be fun!!!
From the room by room breakdown, suggestions for finishing touches, photo’s from previous projects for those of us that are visual, to the advertising reports included to give us some more ideas of how to proactively market our home ourselves. I was amazed at how thorough, yet simple it all was!It took my husband and me a weekend, that’s it! 48hrs to totally change the look and function of our home. It was unbelievable; I was so thrilled that I called family and friends over just to show it off. In fact they were so impressed that many of them expressed interest in getting the girls in to help with their homes too!
We had been living there 12 years and NEVER had I been so happy with the layout and colour scheming! It just worked! Items that we live with everyday that we just don’t see, the girls had pulled together from different rooms to create a complete look. Amazing!
The only frustration was that we had created this harmonious, beautiful looking home and were leaving it…that is why I recommend their services to all and will definitely be using them in our next home from the very beginning, so that we can enjoy the benefits of living in a beautiful environment ourselves!
So what exactly did our mini reno require – the major moves were to put our two youngest girls together in one of their bedrooms, move another into the vacated room, put our office in her room and turn our previous “office” into a “media room”. It’s all perception, same room, different use. Sometimes all that was need was a bed to be moved to a different wall or a different angel. Simple! Add some soft furnishings and Voila!
Then it was just a simple matter of putting some of ourselves back into it, giving it some warmth again. Charyn suggested that we stick with our red theme through the living areas and as it was Christmas time she recommended that instead of buying anything, we just pull out our red decorations and utilise them instead. It looked superb and cost nothing!
All in all it was cost effective, fast and fun!!! I estimate that it cost us less than $150 altogether. You would be surprised at how much you can do with so little.
So we loved it, our family and friends thought it was amazing and Charyn and Kate were happy with the results, but what about the prospective buyers?
On the first open inspection after we implemented the chanegs from our Home Staging and Makeover Report we were really keen to see the the reactions of our potential buyers. And guess what . . . they LOVED it and we got an offer straight away! One of the comments was that they loved the media room! The thing is the potential was always there, it just needed to be realised.
End result, we accepted an offer on New Year’s Eve for $15,000 more than originally offered!
We are now happily relocated to the area of our dreams and looking forward to the time when we can once again use the services of ‘Houses to Impress’, but this time, to create the scene for us to live in and enjoy!
Words simply cannot express how truly grateful we are to the girls from ‘Houses to Impress’ but thank you Charyn and Kate we owe you a debt of gratitude.
Teonie & David – Queensland
