Staging My Pinball Home For Sale

[tkaye]

Well after nearly 12 years and two children later, my wife and I decided to move. The house was fine, but to be honest, it lacked a few "wants" for us. Mostly pinball space for me. I had five games in our basement recreation room and two more relegated to the garage which I in turn needed to add a heater to so the games wouldn't be subjected to extreme cold and be potentially damaged. This worked fine for the short term but now what? I'm maxed out! No where else to add games!! The horror!!

I tried to no avail to take over the kids play room/wife's work-out room...I was done. The only solution was a bigger basement or to rip out the TV and fireplace I'd installed down there along with the couch and love seat and make it all game room which was also vetoed by my wife...

We started casually looking at properties and found one we liked. One thing led to another and before you know it, the deal was done. Now all that was left was to sell our existing home...

We had a "Stager" come by and give us some suggestions. when it came to the basement she immediately confirmed it was too "busy" the way it was setup and made some very good suggestions to prepare the space for potential buyers to really appreciate the room. I had a couple of friends over to help me move my games and here are the before and after pictures of the basement. I will also update this thread with pictures of the new home in a few weeks when we've moved just for fun.

Enjoy!

Here's the Rec Room before...






Here is the Play room/ Work-out space (already had TaF in here as you can see)



Only Luci remains in the Rec Room now. Creating much needed space to Stage the home for resale...


...and the new Gameroom!


Anyone looking to buy in Ancaster? Let me know

 

[Beafraid]

Ya. I will come there to buy your TAF.

 

[FastEd]

I'll only buy the house if all the Pins come with it!

 

[spiroagnew]

Our real estate agent suggested the same: while they may look cool, the games are space hogs and make a room look much smaller than it actually is. Back when selling our first home, my then-five games turned into two by hiding some folded ones under the stairs and in the laundry room. (I'm now running out of room in the new space, too. The trails and tribulations of a pinball collector!)

As for the photos, you almost can't tell it is the same space when looking at the before pictures of the rec room compared to the after Luci pic. However, there looks to be a bit of realtor trick photography going on, too! GLWTS...of your house!

 

[FastEd]

I agree, the after shots are really good.

 

[BMHouze]

Might be best to just remove them all to show all the available space. I am sure there has to be someone in the area that could yake them in for the short term.
Any volunteers?

 

[Fifty]

I'm surprised your real estate agent didn't suggest putting Luci in the gameroom. The theme may put off some buyers. Some people can't look past anything, even paint colours.

 

[tkaye]

Yes...I must admit. The before pics are from my cell phone and the after pics are from the real estate photographer. I did take some myself but these were so much nicer! I think the Game Room looks spacious enough the way it is so that's what we decided to go with. I guess if the house is still on the market in a month I may have to rethink it but it's been up for 3 days and we've had 8 showings so far so we're hopeful it sells quickly!

 

[fantasygoat]

My realtor said the same thing, but everyone who came to the open house commented on the games. It's memorable.

It might be different here in Toronto because the market is so hot. I don't think staging makes much difference.

 

[FastEd]

I was looking at a cottage and the owner had a BBH. The agent was apologizing for it and I was saying, no, it's a selling feature and if he would include it as part of the sale!

 

[cdnpinballer]

When we listed our last home for sale I took all the pins out and moved them to storage - it was a huge job but it also made the process of moving that much easier as all the games were folded and wrapped already. Good luck with the sale, it shows well from the realtor using the wide angle lens. ;-)

 

[Chris Bardon]

I moved my MAME out when we sold the last place, but I left the 2 pins I had at the time. To much of a pain to move, and agreed that they make the place a little more memorable.