Convince My Clients to Stage Their Homes? What's In It for Me, the Agent?

As a real estate agent, you may be wondering why you should make the effort to convince the homeowner to stage their home. 

Here are ten reasons why you should do so:  

1. Gives You More Control - That's right.  Here's a common scenario for you -  the seller may desire a certain dollar amount for the home but you know that unless some changes are made, the seller won't get it.  By incorporating the home staging process, you are controlling more of the outcome of the sale. 
2. Gives You Credibility - When you bring in "experts" who do this for a living it adds to your own credibility.  Would you seem credible if you also appraised and inspected the homes that you sold?  No, it waters down your expertise because people know you can't be an expert in everything!  When you're focused on your own field of interest and outsource to professionals it gives you added credibility in what you're good at - selling homes!  
3. Listings That Show Well Reflect Well on You - Wouldn't you rather be the agent who's known to always have beautiful, attractive, updated, neat and clean homes to sell than the agent who always seems to get stuck with the unattractive homes to market?  
4. Differentiates You from the Competition - You believe in doing everything possible to sell your clients' listings and you are one of the few agents who have a full team of professionals, including a home stager, to help you do so.
5. Protects Your Relationship and Listing - You have to have a strong client relationship that gets you through the entire escrow process.  Home staging is a form of constructive criticism that sometimes addresses hard, personal issues like smell and cleanliness.  Your clients EXPECT a professional stager to instruct them on these issues but are not completely comfortable with you as their real estate agent doing this.
6. Greatly Improves Your Outside Marketing Campaign - The time, effort and money you spend on marketing the home on the outside will be twice as effective when you have photos of beautifully staged rooms (with updated accessories) vs. empty rooms, or worse, unattractive furnishings.  With over 84% (according to NAR) of home buyers searching the Internet FIRST, it's critical that your home marketing photos be outstanding and have impact. 
7.  Gives You More Money - Home staging is pure economics.  When you improve upon a product, you increase the demand thus raise the price.  Higher sales price = higher commission.  
8. Makes You Sell Listings Faster - Buyers have MANY home choices in today's market and they want a home that is turnkey ready.  Statistics show that staged homes sell faster than unstaged homes.  
9. Less Time on the Market Improves Your Reputation -  In a National Association of Realtor Profile of Sellers it was reported that over a quarter of seller's MOST IMPORTANT EXPECTATION is that their real estate agent will sell the home WITHIN a specific time frame.  In today's market, that's not an easy task among the many homes available UNLESS your listings stand out.  In a referral-based industry, happy clients mean more listings and the reward of a job well done.    
10. 10.Gives You MORE Listings - Happy clients talk and when over 40% of sellers find their agents through referrals, expect more listings!  Incorporating home staging into your selling process makes you more value-added to potential clients.

© Designed to Appeal, LLC 2009-2010.  All Rights Reserved.