Sell with a designer’s eye.

Most of what a house sells for is decided in the weeks before it goes live. That is the part Artemis works on.

Most buyers decide
in the first room.

Paint, light, layout, the door you come through first. Small decisions that are inexpensive to make and expensive to skip.

Roula Bakis is a Massachusetts broker with a degree in environmental design. She reads the house the way a buyer will, before the buyer does.

An empty living room with a fireplace and a vaulted ceiling

How a house gets presented

Photographs are the first showing. Most buyers see a house here before they see it in person, and the ones who do not like what they see never come.

House
78 Fox Hill Street, Westwood
Listed
$1,465,000, July 2021
Under agreement
Twelve days later
Sold
$1,665,000, November 2021
MLS
#72872417
Artemis
Listed and sold, 2021. Renovation by the owners.

“She had my house under agreement after only three showings… at well over 12% above the asking price.”

Leo DiBenedetto, seller, Google review, November 2023

Four questions a sale answers

What is this house worth as it stands?

One visit, every room, in the order a buyer will see them, and a number for the house as it stands.

What is worth doing first, and what is not?

Paint, layout, light and the repairs that show up in photographs. Nothing that costs more than it returns.

How does it get priced and presented?

Photography, listing copy and a price that puts the house in front of the buyers who are already looking.

Who holds it together to closing?

Offers, inspection, appraisal and the punch list. Artemis stays on it until the keys change hands.

Not every house has to go on the market first.

Some sellers want to test the price, keep the move private, or go on their own schedule. Artemis keeps a private list of homes coming to market in Westwood and the towns around it.

Questions sellers ask

How is Artemis different from a larger brokerage?

A large brokerage brings a network. Artemis brings the person who walked your house to every conversation after it, and a design and construction side that can price a change instead of guessing at it.

How do you price a house?

Comparable sales set the range. The house sets its position inside that range. A kitchen that reads as new and a kitchen that reads as 2009 can share the same square footage and the same street and not the same number. You see the comparables, and where we think this house sits, before anything is signed.

What should I fix before listing, and what should I leave alone?

That is what the first walkthrough is for, and the answer is different in every house. Some rooms return more than they cost to fix and some do not, and a design and construction view is what tells them apart.

Do I have to pay the buyer agent?

Not automatically, and not by rule. Since August 2024 an offer of compensation to a buyer agent cannot be published on the MLS. A seller may still offer a concession toward the buyer costs, and whether that helps sell this particular house is a strategy question.

What if I am not sure I want to sell?

Then do not list yet. A walkthrough that ends in stay and change three things is a legitimate outcome, and it happens here.

Can my house be sold quietly, without a sign and an open house?

Sometimes. Some houses go to a private list before they reach the MLS. It is not the right move for every property, because exposure is what produces competing offers, and you will be told plainly which one your house is.

Seven questions worth asking any agent you interview, including us. The seven questions

Broker-owned and design-led. Westwood, Dover, Wellesley, Needham and the towns in between.

Direct

781.269.2230roula@artemisrealtygrp.com
Westwood, MA 02090