Snake Charmer

When the Relator called me to stage the client’s home, there was a sense of foreboding in her voice.

“He’s got these…hobbies.”

Now, as a professional Home Stager I have seen a lot of hobbies in my career, but I was not prepared for the menagerie of exotic snakes that were caged in the client’s 8’ x 10’ spare bedroom. There was every kind of slithering creature known to man represented in the space and they were molting. It was enough to make me want to keel over.

But that wasn’t the half of it. The client then told me that he had something to show me in the bathroom. I followed him down the hall praying that I wasn’t about to see anything bloody and when I walked in; there it was…strung up on a meat hook…over the bathtub drain…a dirt bike.

Yes, he was a bachelor, why do you ask?

In addition to collecting and breeding snakes, the man liked to restore old dirt bikes in his guest bath and refurbish bicycles in his living room. Talk about a challenge! The man knew he needed to move to a larger property where he could have an outbuilding to accommodate his…um…interests but in the meantime, we had to get this place ready to show. I left him an extensive list of things to accomplish (starting with getting the snakes out of the house), painting and cleaning and guess what? He did everything I asked and the house sold within three days.

“Do you remember the Snake Man?” The Realtor asked when she called me again.

“Of course,” I replied. Who could forget him?

“He did everything you suggested and his house sold. You wouldn’t believe what this place looked like when I returned!”

Actually I would and it just goes to show that even the biggest horror story can become a fairytale and that no matter what condition your house is in you can turn it into a showplace with a little help with the right action plan from a qualified home stager…

And a snake wrangler of course.

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