Another New Way to Introduce Staging to Clients
I've been away from the Rain for a little while and am coming back with so much to blog about. But first, I have a question. Give me a minute, I'll get to it...
I often hear from my Realtor friends that they have a hard time selling the idea of Staging to their clients. I've also been reading a lot of Seth Godin's work (he's a brilliant marketer with a great blog).
One of the things that Seth talks about in his book "Small is the New Big" is that it's human nature to distrust + resist change when it could actually mean an improvement in our lives. He uses an example in his book about his local grocery store. The supermarket wanted to expand into an old, vacant parking lot overgrown with weeds. They wanted to add more free parking spaces for the village, add an organic produce section and a large prepared foods section.
The community was up in arms! Wait, what? Crazy, right?
Godin suggested the supermarket should have brought in bulldozers and announce that it was going to demolish the no longer profitable store. It would leave the rubble in place so that no one could use it to park or jog through to get to the wine store. The outrage would be so great that no one would protest the minor upgrade. Bottom line, the fear of loss is greater than the prospect of gain.
So, back to that question. What is our approach to clients when proposing Staging? We say that their home will sell faster and for more money. Of course, they need to pay to have Staging done and the fear of spending that money is greater than the prospect of a higher sales price. So, we don't get the Staging done. The listing photos are unimpressive. The property is hard to sell. The sellers get frustrated...
Maybe the conversation needs to be..."When you first called me + I looked at the comps in your neighborhood, I was thinking that your house would be listing for right around X, but, now that I've seen it, in its current condition, we will only be able to list it for Y. Would you consider making some changes that could get it closer to listing price X?" I'd love to know your thoughts...
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