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Hey Home Sellers! With Stats Like These Why Wouldn't You Stage Your Home Today?

By
Home Stager with Hart & Associates Staging and Design

OOPS I DID IT AGAIN! I just got a call from  a Realtor that a home we did a consult for just sold in 7 days for $12,00 over asking!! Take that stat to the bank!

 And today another one! Client's home was on the market for 7 months. After a staging consultation they relisted it and one week later had 2 offers!

 Does staging really work? In one word, YES!

This may be the most common question I am asked when I work with Realtors and home sellers. As stagers we are not selling a tangible product that the client can examine and decide to purchase. We have to encourage clients to use staging though looking at our portfolio and reading our client testimonials.  Over the past three years I have not been diligent about collecting statistics, however this Summer I am really making an effort to post them since the RE market in our area is slow and people are concerned about the sale of their home. I find that these staging statistics really show clients that staging does work.

 

 

My latest staging success was a surprise even to me- not because I did not think the home would sell but because the family I was helping had 2 children and they were pregnant with a third and putting the home on the market 2 weeks after the baby was born!

I met with this family in April as they were getting ready to put their home on the market. They had researched staging and wanted to meet with me to get some great idea on how to market their home. I gave them a consultation for $300. I met with them for an hour and walked through their home giving them ideas on how to enhance their home's selling features. This included advice about what to pack up or declutter, how to arrange the furniture, what colors to paint the walls, what minor repairs needed to be made and general advice about how to make the home look more inviting. I also addressed some curb appeal issues and made suggestions for some landscaping to be done in front of the house to make it more welcoming. I then completed a written report for them and checked in with them via email from time to time waiting for them to ask me to come back and fine tune their work.

 When I went back on Friday they had some exciting news for me- they had decided to put the home on the market the previous Sunday. It was the week of fourth of July and they did not expect much activity but did not want to miss any more time. When I got there they told me that the home had ALREADY SOLD while their Realtor was away on vacation! They had 4 showings, received 2 offers ABOVE ASKING and were waiting for a counter offer from one of the buyers.

I was so thrilled for them and so amazed at all they had accomplished. They did an outstanding job decluttering, rearranging the spaces, painting some heavy traffic areas and doing the minor landscaping. The only dilemma now was where to move!

I post these stories to encourage Realtors and home sellers to use staging as a means to market their properties. The only investment the client made was the $300 for my time, the cost of the paint and landscaping and the investment of their time and effort getting the home ready.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 So take a look at my updated stats. These homes were staged in Chester County, Delaware County, Philadelphia County and Montgomery County Pennsylvania.  All of these home sellers invested $300 on a consultation and got amazing results:

Devon Road, Paoli, PA  - sold in 1 day

Anthony Wayne Drive, Wayne, PA- sold in 1 day

Persimmon Drive, Collegeville, PA- sold in 1 day

Crosshill Rd., Royersford PA- sold in 1 week

Ardmore Ave, Haverford PA- sold in 2 days

Crestline Road, Wayne PA- sold in 1 day

Ravenscliff Road, Wayne PA- sold in 2 days

Painter Road, Media PA- sold in 2 weeks after 6 months on the market prestaging

Malvern Road, Plymouth Meeting PA- sold in 4 showings with 2 full price offers.

Second Avenue, Mayfair,Philadelphia County PA- sold in 7 days for $12,00 over asking.

Myrtle Lane, Havertown PA, before staging 7 months on the market, after staging 2 offers in one week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments(32)

Gary White~Grand Rapids Home Selling Pro Call: 616-821-9375
Flexit Realty "Flexible Home Selling Solutions" - Grand Rapids, MI
Real Estate Services You can Trust!
Kate these are amazing stats, what is the current DOM'S market averages for homes in this price range and neighborhoods?  That could make these stats even more amazing.  Nice post.
Jul 08, 2007 11:12 AM
Lorinda Ward
Keffer Realty - Norfolk, VA
Serving, Hampton Roads Virginia. Norfolk, Chesapeake, Va Beach
I am sold!  home stag will be a part of my presentation.
Jul 08, 2007 03:03 PM
Karen Radzinski
Keller Williams - Carlsbad, CA
Excellent, I recently listed a vacant home that I brought in a home stager and paid for the consultation for the sellers.  The stager made some suggestions, however, the sellers decided not to do any of the suggestions.  I fired my seller last week (long story) because he wanted to know why his home hadn't sold yet.  (Many other reasons, but I decided that if he wasn't interested in putting any work into his home then it was not going to sell in this market.
Jul 08, 2007 03:09 PM
Anonymous
Anonymous
I have really come to enjoy consultations.  Just spending an hour or two with a client helping them visualize the potential of their home is very rewarding. Many times I have found that those with the least amount of resources available are the ones who are most likely to jump in and work hard to bring out the best in their property.
Jul 08, 2007 04:24 PM
#16
Kathy Alexander
GreatStages Home Staging and Redesign - Vancouver, WA
Home Stager Camas WA, Home Staging Southwest WA
Sorry, I forgot I hadn't logged in before I responded with the comment above.
Jul 08, 2007 04:28 PM
Bob & Carolin Benjamin
Benjamin Realty LLC - Gold Canyon, AZ
East Phoenix Arizona Homes
Your "after" photos look great. Nice work. Keep it up :-)
Jul 08, 2007 05:23 PM
Tom Burris
NMLS# 335055 - Baton Rouge, LA
Texas/Louisiana Mortgage Pro - 13 YRS Experience

I've said it before.... I think the home I bought was staged. It looked great.

How can I not be a believer... I bought a staged home. LOL 

Jul 09, 2007 12:29 AM
Anonymous
Abby Reilly, ALR Home Staging and Showcasing

Great job, Kate!  Amazing statistics!

 

Jul 09, 2007 02:08 AM
#20
Michelle Minch
Moving Mountains Design Home Staging, Pasadena, CA - Los Angeles, CA
Home Staging Los Angeles and Orange County, CA
Great post and great job!
Jul 09, 2007 04:23 AM
Lori Kim Polk
Premiere Home Staging : Home Staging Services - Roseville, CA
Home Stager - Roseville, Sacramento

Wow.. that's why you are my idol ;)))

Ok... now what is a sheepberry? Now they are mixing animals and fruit.... sound kinky to me!

Jul 09, 2007 04:36 AM
Yvonne Root
rooms b.y. root - Prescott, AZ
Home Stager - Northern Arizona
Kate, Your post came up on my goggle alert. How cool is that? Your stats are wonderful. Thanks for posting them. I like the way you make your case for staging also. Keep up the good work!
Jul 09, 2007 05:11 AM
Debra Passero
Weichert Realtors - Ruffino Real Estate - Milford, PA
Staging does work.  In the area I sell in it is hard to convince sellers to pay money to stage their home.  Many homes are vacation homes therefore have any piece of furniture that was left over from their primary home.  I try to encourage my sellers to take out the clutter - take down the photos and help present a home that is warm and inviting.  Thanks.
Jul 09, 2007 06:42 AM
Sharon Simms
Coastal Properties Group International - Christie's International - Saint Petersburg, FL
St. Petersburg FL - CRS CIPS CLHMS RSPS

The photos add a lot to the points you make. Thanks for including them.

Perhaps a great closing gift would be to give the buyers a staging consultation, so that they can enjoy their furnishings looking like the after instead of the before. 

Jul 09, 2007 08:31 AM
Diane Bell, Hilton Head Real Estate, Bluffton
Charter 1 Real Estate, Hilton Head, Bluffton, SC - Hilton Head Island, SC
I totally believe in the power of staging homes.  Thanks for the photos-they really help to see the possibilities.
Jul 09, 2007 10:20 AM
Adrian Alvarado
MGR Real Estate Inc. - Ontario, CA
Inland Empire Real Estate
I think the price of these homes had more to them selling in your statistics than the staging did. 10 results for statistics is not exactly a good reflection of home sales. Home staging will definetly help but it doesnt take someone else telling you to clean and put your junk away and charge you $300 dollars for it. I always tell my clients to put away their mess, clean the house, cut the yard and make sure it stays that way but i dont charge them extra maybe I should. I think it is great that you have created a business for yourself but an agent who knows how to sell will tell their clients what to do in order to sell the home. An overpriced staged home will now sell just because it looks nice.
Jul 09, 2007 11:52 AM
Kate Hart
Hart & Associates Staging and Design - Radnor, PA
OOPS I DID IT AGAIN! I just got a call that a home we did a consult for sold in 7 days for $12,00 over asking. Take that stat to the bank! kh
Jul 09, 2007 12:26 PM
Kate Hart
Hart & Associates Staging and Design - Radnor, PA

Thanks to all for their feedback. My hope by posting these stats is that Realtors and Home Stagers can use this as evidence that staging DOES work. Feel free to use these stories for your listing presentations.

Adrian: I agree that 10 examples is not a good reflection of home sales but tracking staging results is difficult so I am working to create local statistics over a three year period by going back and researching homes I have staged in the past. I encourage other stagers to do this in their areas as well.

I can assure you that staging did help these homes to sell. Price also played a part in it. When I work with sellers and Realtors I tell them that Staging, or how you present your home, is only part of a successful sale. The location, the market conditions and how you price the home are also integral parts. When a home is competitively priced, staging helps home sellers receive more money and multiple offers.

It seems like you have a lot of great ideas about what your clients need to do to prepare their homes for sale, however, decluttering, cleaning and putting junk away is not all that stagers do. We give clients advice about how to make their homes more marketable. We assess what the target demographic is for the home and how the home will attract that group. We also look at the condition of the home and recommend changes that need to be made to make that home more competitive with other homes. We also look at the selling features of the home and determine how to best showcase these selling features with proper furniture arrangement, lighting, and placement of artwork and accessories. We also act as a liaison between Realtor and client. We can openly and honestly discuss the pro and cons of how the home shows.

I believe that successful agents use stagers because they realize that staging is an essential part of their marketing plan and investing in staging allows them to focus on selling their client's home and growing their business. I encourage you to visit the staging group Stage it Forward and read more about staging and the many benefits staging offers both Realtors and home sellers.

 

Jul 09, 2007 01:24 PM
Yvonne Root
rooms b.y. root - Prescott, AZ
Home Stager - Northern Arizona
Mrs. Hart, You are a consummate pro and I applaud your work, your demeanor and your character. Keep compiling those stats. Your stats speak loudly enough to demand attention and you speak softly enough to keep that attention. Good work.
Jul 09, 2007 02:39 PM
Phyllis Pafumi
ReStyled to Sell Home Staging New Jersey - Old Bridge, NJ
ReStyled to Sell Staging Homes NJ

Kate it is sooo amazing what a consult report could help clients achieve. These pics are beautiful. I too have been wanting to keep stats but like you said it is hard tracking all. Great work as always!

Phyllis Pafumi

Jul 10, 2007 01:06 AM
Kate Hart
Hart & Associates Staging and Design - Radnor, PA

And today another one! Client's home was on the market for 7 months. After a staging consultation they relisted it and one week later had 2 offers!

Getting the idea now? Staging helps homeowners to sell their homes faster in todays competitive market.

Jul 16, 2007 12:07 PM