Home : Blogs : Phyllis Pafumi-ReStyled to Sell Staging Homes NJ : Phyllis's Blog

STAGING TO SELL OR STAGING TO LIVE, WHICH ONE SELLS YOUR HOME??

Over the past 2 years I have had many contacts with sellers where upon entering their home you can see that you will immediately be met with some resistance. WHY?? Because the way a homeowner lives and the way a homeowner needs to STAGE their home to sell are two entirely different things.

This morning I had to drop car keys off at a clients mom's home and this woman lived in a Senior Housing Development. Upon entering the parking lot, something caught my eye almost instaneous. What was it you might ask? It was the look of LACE EVERYWHERE. Honestly, just about every window had lace curtains hanging in them. I said to myself, yep, this is a senior housing center alright, then I thought Hmmmm??

Now at one time I must admit, I too loved the Victorian lace curtain, doily look. No wonder my kids kept telling me it looked like Grandma's house. IT DID, although I enjoyed it, many young potential buyers WILL NOT. We need to keep that in mind when Staging a home to sell.

The way you live and the way you sell will be very different. I spoke with a client yesterday that began to describe her home to me on the phone. It has not sold for 9 months and yes I know it has paneling in every room and I know the rug in the upper bedroom is disgusting, but......on and on and on. So I asked this question...If you were a young buyer and entering this home would you say that this house looks like Grandma's house or fit and ready for a young couple to move in. She answered Grandma's house and started to laugh. I see now...

Some paint, some new curtains, some decluttering and furniture rearrangement can just be the things that take your home from SALE to SOLD!!

ReStyled to Sell NJ...changing the way buyers view homes.

Posted by Phyllis Pafumi-ReStyled to Sell Staging Homes NJ on 06/28/2007 11:13 AM

Comments (7)

grandmas house, lace curtains, stage to sell

Originally posted at: Phyllis's Blog: STAGING TO SELL OR STAGING TO LIVE, WHICH ONE SELLS YOUR HOME??

Post is included in group: Stage It Forward...
Post is included in group: CENTRAL JERSEY (NJ) REAL ESTATE STAGING

7 Comments on STAGING TO SELL OR STAGING TO LIVE, WHICH ONE SELLS YOUR HOME??

JUN

2007

Phyllis, when I sell this house I'm hiring you AND Val. I certainly need a lot of work (paneling everywhere---and plaster walls!) and it will take a good team to get it sold. I'll handle the Feng Shui :) Seriously, I know I will put money into it to sell it but then I know it will sell. I'm not sure if that's what people don't realize, with all the competition your home needs to stand out. Thank you for the post.

Hi Phyllis, great post, I think what makes stagers or any professional success is their people skills. How to relate to a client is huge! Loved your question-If you were a young buyer and entering this home would you say that this house looks like Grandma's house or fit and ready for a young couple to move in?

Another thing that has worked for me to is this: I show them my staging before and after pictures. I ask them what is wrong with this picture and then they can see it for themselves. If their house is presently on the MLS, I print off the pictures so they can see their home on print. This also helps you explain what you can do differently to make their MLS pictures look better by staging.

Kathy

Hey Phyllis - I am always going through this with homeowners. I always say to them NAR reports that the majority of homebuyers are under 35 years old. That is Gen X - that is who we are targeting. Lace curtains, paneling or overly formal is just not their style.

Hey Phyllis,

I can empathize with you completely about this. I actually am doing a consult tomorrow on a house that is going on the market and has been lived in by this older couple for many, many years. I've seen some pictures and know that I am going to be in for a lot of work!

Kathy, I like your idea of printing the client's pictures off the Internet if possible so they can see for themselves!

VAL

JUN

2007

I did a consultation recently for a home-owner. The agent was the one who called me on it. The house had LOTS of great potential. They had just added new carpet. I really needed only a little work- a good cleaning would have done alot. BUT THEY SMOKED LIKE CHIMNEYS IN THEIR HOUSE. I asked the agent if she had addressed the issue with them while I was there. She responded with a sheepish "no." I knew it was b/c there is an even finer line agents have to walk with thier clients on touchy issues like this one. I knew it HAD to be addressed and I was going to be the one to do it. At the very end of the meeting I said (with a big, warm smile) "Ok, who's the smoker." THe home-owner looked at me and grinned " we all do." I responded with "Now Ms. ___, you can smoke in your home all you want to, but right now we really need to make this home a house so someone else can imagine making it their home." It always helps me on touchy situations to try to really explain the difference between a house and a home. Most people "get" it, but some are just stuck in their ways. It is truly ALL about how you handle people...not stepping too far over boundaries..but being firm about your point.

We just have to be sure we honor their things and posessions, they love it or have many memories tied to it and it's important that when we "break the news" to be gentle and compassionate with our senior clients (any clients for that matter cause you could be 35 and have tastes of someone much older too).

I'm too tired tonight to write more but I have a situation now that I'm sure others have had, lifetime of collections and memories, elderly and one spouse is very ill - it's very delicate and my heart and soul are in it for them - makes me stop and think about how one day this too will be me and I hope the people I have to call on for help will treat me with the same respect and honor.

Thanks for this post Phyllis!

JUL

2007

Staging of homes on the resale market essentially takes its cues from the new home builder market where the builder hires an interior decorator with strong consumer marketing and new home merchandising skills to decorate the model homes in a particular way that is designed to evoke certain emotional responses in the prospect.

Obviously with a resale, you don't have a clean slate as you do with a model home, nor is the model home occupied which gives the decorator a lot of freedom to play visual tricks (like using this year's "in" colors or even next year's colors, specially constructed platform beds that are not as high off the floor and may actually be made to non-standard sizes to make bedrooms look larger, eliminating obvious and important pieces of furniture every owner will put in the room, fake tvs that are easy to move and can be placed with no regard to location of electrical and cable outlets, adding additional lighting, etc.) These sparsely furnished, marketing-engineered "works of art", though entirely unliveable actually cost more to decorate that a fully decorated, functional, comfortable home.

Staging, then, is just good marketing, and their is certainly nothing wrong with making what are essentially cosmetic, non-permanent changes to furnishings that will not be included with the purchase of the home anyway.

And while a smart seller is certainly well advised to dress the home for sale, I have to wonder how smart the buyers are who fall for these tricks - and how smart their advisers are. Where are the savvy buyers of the past who were capable of seeing past the current condition of the home, indeed, who can see the value in buying an ugly duckling that just needs a cosmetic upgrade? That was one of the best home buying strategies of the 70's and 80's and well employed by the parents of today's young buyers when those parents were buying their first homes. I wonder why they are not teaching their children the same strategies.

Leave a response…

Name:

Email:
(optional)

Comment:

What does the graphic say?