OK.. Give Me Your Best Shot... What Do You Want To Know About Home Staging??

Kathy, I walked into a house with some clients and couldn't understand why it had been on the market for so long. The home showed beautifully! In fact, my clients wanted to make an offer but were holding back for fear something was wrong with the property because of the days on the market. The listing agent said, "No", nothing is wrong with the property that we know of. The problem was the sellers had this massive furniture that made all of the rooms look so small and no one wanted to buy it. When they staged it with what you see now, all of a sudden we have serious interest. My clients bought it!!!

Good morning Kathy,

I'm not sure if this is something that will fit in with your class, however, Fung Shui is a topic that speaks to many.  It's a little off topic (maybe) but it has a mystery to it that may hold some interest.  I know it would perk my ears up, even if it was just basic; Your bed should face this direction and paint your front door red.  Some simple rules.  Good luck!

Actually, these days, most of them aren't sleeping at meetings--they are looking at their Ipads and tablets.

Kathy, I wish that staging had caught on here, but no one wants to hire a professional stager so far... at least, on the whole, my clients listen to me.

I think that we all often forget the most important places like the entry way, the bathrooms, let alone the obvious! I have 30 seconds online to wow them, I want them to remember why they came to the house as soon as they walk through the door too.

Not sure about specific topics but maybe a top five things that have the greatest impact on presentation. The thing about staging that stops people I think is the real proof of its impact on the bottom line - the return on investment.

Kathy - Perhaps you could share the best way in which to approach the homeowners about home staging. There's two scenarios that you could cover - one is "before the agent gets the listing" and the other is "they've had the listing but... the home hasn't sold." Other insight, such as "overcoming homeowners objections to staging" would be extremely valuable.

Kathy N

I'd also address some of the apprehensions about staging: it costs to much, I don't want someone picking my home apart, I can do it myself........

I agree with Kathy about addressing how to offer staging to a client. Some Realtors are nervous about suggesting it in case they offend the potential client. Shar is right about costs too. Like everyone else, Realtors are trying to keep their overhead down.

Kathy - I had to laugh when I read - "look out at a bunch of snoozing agents" - been there done that and it's not fun.....at all! I would incorporate the ROI and mention that a price reduction is thousands of dollars more than staging which give the home the necessaryedge when selling in this market. I also think your portfolio will no doubt get their attention. Blow up some of your best before/afters on poster board!  Something tells me you already know this, but I thought I say it anyway!

Kathy ~ When we listed we used a professional photographer and a stager ~ there is no other way to do it ~

Kathy - I agree with Michael that I can always tell a staged home and one's that not.  While I understand why all of the REO and short sale listing agents around here (Los Angeles & Ventura counties) don't stage their listings, I don't understand why so many of the equity sale listings agents, especially for the high end properties, don't stage their properties.  Perhaps the sellers don't think their homes need it.

As it turns out, those seem to be the ones that languish on the market the longest. 

Sorry I didn't see this yesterday, but it looks like you have gotten some really good advice.  One of the things that made me cringe was "20 or 30 minutes of your time."  I am a very creative person.  I love to show people the value of staging.  I have a keen eye and understand that how you market your home needs to be different.  I would love to hear about staging from you, but I can't even imagine that you could give me enough information, even with lots of pictures, to keep my interest longer than 10 minute in a group setting.  Realtors are often Type A personalities, they don't sit well, especially in this technological age.  So you will have a much better time of it, I think, if you make it shorter.  Let someone else take up the slack.  IMHO