Melinda Calkins Bartling is an Overland Park Realtor, Home Stager, Downsizing Expert, and Entrepreneur. She’s a Kansas City native, growing up in Brookside on Morningside Drive. She also attended The Barstow School when it was all girls and the entire Upper School (grades 9-12) was less than 100 students.
She grew up in a family of entrepreneurs and learned valuable lessons from them all. Her dad owned apartment buildings, her mom had various businesses based around food and home, and her brother was a local musician and celebrity in the late 1950s and 1960s.
Designations and Awards
Melinda received her real estate license to sell houses in Kansas and Missouri in 1987. Since then, she has earned many designations (ASP, CRS, e-PRO, GRI, WHS). Her education and those designations helped Melinda build her knowledge. Furthermore, in 2006, she learned the art of Home Staging from the lady that created the concept in 1973. That built her brand.
Every year since 2007, Melinda Bartling has been awarded The Five Star Professional Real Estate Agent Award. Less than 1% of agents in the city have received the award for 15 consecutive years and less than 2% of the local 12,000 Realtors receive the award any given year. It’s based on closed transactions, customer service, communication, integrity, negotiation skills, marketing homes, market knowledge, and overall customer satisfaction.
Melinda’s Focus
Melinda loves helping home sellers get their homes ready for the market through the art of Home Staging and Styling. She works with sellers who want to sell their homes in 3 days or less and for thousands of dollars over the asking price.
She’s known for creating the Model Home Look that every buyer wants and every seller needs. By using your own things, she’s known to take your house from “Now to WOW!” in a very short period of time.
Her main service areas are Overland Park, Prairie Village, Mission, Roeland Park, Leawood, and Olathe. She’s also licensed in Missouri and works with sellers who live south of the river and with a close proximity to State Line.
She also works with home buyers and is experienced in creating the best strategy on how to write a winning offer in a multiple-offer situation.
Signature Style
Melinda Bartling grew up in a beautiful 3 story home on Morningside Drive in the Brookside area of Kansas City, MO. Her mother was a showstopper herself and their home reflected that. Melinda learned to love decor at an early age and was given the freedom to decorate her suite on the 3rd floor of their home.
From gold-flocked wallpaper to Hollywood Glamour, Melinda loved the changing trends. She still loves blending different decor styles. That talent makes her very good at working with “what you have” to create your home’s best “Model Home Look.” After all, Home Staging was created to use your own things by giving your home a fresh, new model home perspective.
Similarly, Melinda is the creator of “The Model Home Look” which every buyer wants and will pay more money to get. It’s her ability to take the average lived-in home from Now to WOW! and turn it into a Red Carpet winner. Having that eye for style is where her real talent shines through. Melinda’s Magical 7 Home Staging Secrets, as well as her attention to detail, help her stand out from her competition. It’s all part of her system and the reason buyers are attracted to her homes – like bees to honey.
What Others are Saying
“Melinda was confident she would have an offer the first weekend we listed our house. I honestly found it hard to believe.
She was very specific about what we should do to prepare for the sale. I followed her instructions even when I disagreed with some of her thoughts. After listing our house for $425,000, we had a full-price offer, the first day on the market and were pleasantly surprised.
I would strongly encourage anyone seriously considering selling their home to give Melinda an opportunity to get dynamic results.”
~David Pierce
Just for Fun!
Melinda’s brother, Roger Calkins (front row center), started the first garage band in Kansas City in the late ’50s. Roger Calkins and The Fabulous Silver Tones were inducted into The Kansas Hall of Fame in 2008.
Shed Chic
Melinda’s love of vintage decorating caused her to turn an everyday ordinary backyard shed into Shed Chic. The Shed Chic Social Club is slowly coming back to life after Covid-19. Everyone is looking forward to getting together again for the Happy Hours she hosts for Women Who Wine. It’s a great way to bring women in business together to make new connections, support local non-profits with donations, and give back to our very cool Kansas City community.
Meet Bella, Director of Positively Everything, and one very DOPE dog.
Call or text Melinda direct at (913) 515-3250 or contact her here and let her talent work for you, too!
See All Overland Park Homes for Sale!
Visit all of Melinda’s Businesses:
Melinda Bartling Real Estate and Home Staging