EDUCATE your sellers....PLEASE!

Educate Your Sellers....PLEASE!

All too often most of us see listings that look similar to this.

   

 Cluttered, messy and less than appealing to potential buyers.     

They look like this online and they look like this in person. Potential buyers move-on to the next listing and the sellers never know why. 

This house and others like it are sad houses,  

Sad houses rarely sell quickly and sometimes never sell at all.  Sad houses need attention and the seller's of those homes need help from all of us in the real estate industry to give them the information that they desperately need to turn For Sale into SOLD.

Sad houses usually have disgruntled, angry owners.

Often they are angry with their Real Estate agent, right or wrong.    

Agents, you can and should help.  PLEASE, please don't be afraid to be honest with your clients about the condition of their valuable property.  If you are afraid, you are doing a disservice to the sellers that have hired you as their Real Estate Expert.  Who else is going to tell them?

The result of not being forthright and honest with clients, from the beginning, is a house that lingers and a house that may never sell. The seller will undoubtedly question the listing agent with "WHY hasn't my house sold' and it's very difficult to go back and tell them what they should have heard from the beginning.  All too often a price reduction is an agent's answer but when the condition doesn't change, does that really help? Also, how does this type of listing reflect on a real estate agent's reputation?  

I know that many agents do tell what is needed and the seller's just don't listen.  That is a tough situation.  At least those agents are educating the sellers and have points for discussion when the "why hasn't my house sold" question arises from the disgruntled.   

As a Professional Home Stager sellers will frequently say to me..."but why didn't my agent tell me that I needed to do that."  My shrug or "I don't know" isn't very appeasing.  I DO NOT take sides or bad-mouth agents because I think that the sellers know the answers and frequently the result is a NEW agent when the listing expires.  Who benefits?   

If you cannot overcome the fear of being up-front with your listing clients, then hire a Professional Home Stager to help you get the message to the sellers.  A Professional Home Stager can gently, yet honestly tell the sellers what they need to hear to properly present a house For Sale.  Do it from the beginning, not in the midst of desperation. If you are afraid that the sellers will be angry let them be angry with the stager, not with their agent. A written staging consultation also gives the listing agent something to back them up when a sale doesn't happen as the sellers expected.  The agent can, with the sellers, look back at the consultation and discuss what still needs to be done.  It's a WIN-WIN for everyone. 

NO ONE benefits from a SAD house. 

           

 

       Make your listings HAPPY HOUSES (with happy sellers), EDUCATE them from the start, PLEASE! 

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Dream Interior Redesign & Staging by Ginger Foust is a full service Professional Staging and ReDesign company. Locally serving the California foothill and mountain communities of Oakhurst, North Fork, Coarsegold, Ahwahnee, Bass Lake, Wawona and Mariposa.  Click here to see a short slideshow with examples of our staging work.  Visit our website for more information or call 559-877-2442.