This year I had the opportunity to tackle a new challenge—and I love a challenge! The owner of a very cool, large mid-century ranch house with a pool wanted to list it for sale. The problem? He had listed it for-sale-by-owner (FSBO) last year, and it didn’t sell.

My assessment was that there were two reasons it hadn’t sold, both issues that a good real estate agent could have addressed: price and presentation. The photos were dark, not professional, and the rooms were not furnished to emphasize selling features. It didn’t feel welcoming or move-in ready at all. The price, after several cuts, had landed at a very attractive number, but without attractive photos or videos, buyers were not coming to see it. Remember, almost all potential buyers see a listing online first. That is their first showing. If it doesn’t look good online, there will be no in-person showing.

My job? Present the home well and price it right. Our pricing strategy was affected by knowing the past price history was public and viewable by buyers. We could not be as ambitious with the price, but we could be aggressive with the presentation. Here’s a selection of what we did:

Remove worn or wrong-sized furniture and personal decor.
Bring in high-quality furniture that matched the quality of the house.
Paint the dark primary bedroom to show off its large size.
Arrange furniture and add art to create compelling photos that draw the eye to desirable features.
Write all the surrounding the neighbors to let them know the house would soon be listed and invite them to the open house.
Shoot high-quality professional video and still photos and create a 3D tour.

The result? The house that sat for 136 days as a for-sale-by-owner had a packed open house and an accepted offer in 13 days for over $40,000 more than the FSBO price.