Staging Your Home For Sale? Make Sure You Price It To Sell Too
I thought it's interesting to re-blog Cindy's post about Staging and the effects of Staging from HGTV. It has made my statement easier when presenting the idea.
However, I'd want sellers to know.....
There's no amount of staging one can do if the house is priced incorrectly (in this case, higher than what it's worth). No buyer will pay more than market value even if it was a "model"/ staged home.
I consider staging as part of the home preparation. I dont want to over glorify that word letting sellers think by "staging", they can get the world. It's just incorrect.
Yesterday with 30 minutes to unwind I happened to turn on HGTV just as the show "Get It Sold" came on the air. Having stayed out of the debate on whether home staging makes the difference between a sale or not, I decided to pay close attention to the episode to see if it would change my mind.
If you haven't caught the show before the premise is to take a home that has been on the market for awhile, have a stager come in to declutter, paint, rearrange and a Realtor® come in and provide pricing advice. Okay note the second part of the equation...a Realtor® comes in to evaluate and provide pricing advice. Each time I've caught this show and yesterday was no exception, the price adjustment was DOWN not UP. Though the home now looked better the Realtors® suggested a price decrease to get the home sold.
It is also amazing what they can do for $1000. They glossed over the fact the home needed drywall repair where a huge mirror had been attached to the wall. Likely the cost to repair the drywall would have been 1/2 the budget. The owners can paint a room or two leaving the stager to make the home shine with the right furniture and decluttering. I'm sure there are homes that sell quickly after staging. Perhaps it takes a third party, other than a Realtor® to help convince sellers to understand the value of a clean and de-cluttered home but the idea that a home will sell for more money after staging just doesn't hold up. Especially when the Realtor® is dropping the price while the stager is doing their magic.
If a home is properly priced and properly "staged" when it first goes on the market then it will get offers. If a home is overpriced, no matter how great it looks it will sit. I'm a fan of staging for the right reasons. I'm not a fan of saying that it will generate more money for the seller, especially when a price reduction without staging might have had the same result. Oh and by the way when HGTV has showcased Northern Virginia homes I've often found them in the MLS. Not all of the final claims made by the owners or the show hosts hold up in the tax records...I'm just saying.
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If you are interested in learning more about the Northern Virginia Real Estate market including Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax and Prince William Counties give Cindy Jones a call at 703-346-2213. No hassle, no pressure just straight talk about the local real estate market from a no nonsense point of view.
Check out www.varealestatetalk.com and www.cjrealtygroup.com for more information.
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