It had already been listed once

When the sellers of this Murray Hill bungalow first called me, their home had already been on the market. It didn’t sell. A past client of mine knew the sellers were stuck and sent them my way.

That happens more than people think. A home doesn’t sell and everyone assumes something is wrong with the house. Usually the house is fine. Something else needs to change.

What this house actually is

Built in 1924, this 2 bed, 2 bath bungalow sits on Polaris Street in Murray Hill. It’s small on paper (just over 1,000 square feet) but it doesn’t feel small when you’re in it. The kitchen, dining room, and living room flow into each other but still feel like their own spaces, which is a hard balance to get right in a 100 year old house.

The living room has a custom mantel with a Carrara marble surround around the fireplace. The primary bathroom has a barrel vault ceiling over the shower. The hall bath still has its original black and white tile. Original oak floors run through the whole house. These are the kind of details you can’t fake and can’t add later. They’re either original or they’re not, and this house has them.

Murray Hill is the kind of neighborhood where people know their neighbors. This place is walkable to Four Corners Park, and a few blocks further gets you to the Edgewood corridor with its breweries, restaurants, bakeries, and shops. If you’ve ever heard of Murray Hill O’ween, you already know this is a community that shows up for itself.

What changed the second time around

The house didn’t need a renovation. It needed a reset.

We restaged it so buyers could actually picture themselves living there instead of looking past someone else’s furniture. We got new professional photos that showed the house the way it actually looks in person, not how a phone camera makes it look. And we priced it based on what was actually happening in Murray Hill right now, not what a house like this might have sold for a year ago.

We also changed how we talked about the detached building out back. It had been marketed as a garage the first time around. But it’s a big space with several separate rooms already built into it, and calling it a garage undersold what it actually is. We dropped the garage label and started talking about it for what it really offers: room to build out a home office, a workout space, or even an ADU down the road. Same structure, better story.

None of that is flashy. It’s just paying attention to the things that actually move a house from “sitting” to “sold.”

Five days, full price

The house went back on the market at $290,000. It sold in five days at full asking price.

That’s not luck. When a home is priced right, staged right, and shown to the right buyers, it moves fast. The house didn’t change. The strategy did.

If your listing has stalled, that’s fixable

If you’ve got a house that’s been sitting and you’re starting to wonder what’s wrong with it, my first question is never “what’s wrong with the house.” It’s “what’s the current strategy.” Those are two very different problems, and only one of them means you have to spend money.

If you’re curious what a fresh set of eyes would say about your Murray Hill home, or you just want to know what it’s worth right now, send me a message. No pressure, just a real answer.