Want to know the secret to avoiding the dreaded " yeabuts"?  First I need to explain a " yeabut" to those of you who are not familiar with the term.  " Yeabut " is the response you some times get when you are talking to someone about their need to repaint, repair or replace.  When meeting one on one with a home owner preparing to put their property on the market you can hear lots of " yeabuts".   A "yeabut" is when the seller hears what you are saying and may even agree with it, BUT they have an excuse for not wanting to do it.  No amount of persuasive commentary will reach their mindset. Why?  When someone is being told they have to do something that they don't want to do, they stop fully listening to you.  As you continue to talk, their mind races to work on the rebuttal they are going to give the moment your mouth stops moving.  It's simply psychology.  When a person feels as though they have to defend their actions ( wallpaper, loud color choices, clutter etc.) they automatically start planning their defensive rebuttal.  We all do it on a daily basis in numerous areas of our lives.  If you are a parent you are well versed in the theory of " yeabuts".  "Didn't I tell you to clean up that room before you played video games?"  "Yeah, but",....insert any one of the numerous excuses here. 

Now that you know what a " yeabut" is, here's a great way to avoid them.  I hold seller presentations on preparing your house for sale.  In a large group setting I can list off all the things that are usual problems in a property not showing to its best.  I can talk about the evils of dated wallpaper, crowded and cluttered rooms, landscape issues, dated fixtures etc.  Any one of the items I speak on can be found in one of those seller's homes, but I am speaking in general terms and not pointing a finger at that one particular person.  They can safely HEAR what I'm saying and focus on LISTENING to the reasons why these items need to be addressed.  They are so focused, that they are taking pages and pages of notes.  They are fully engrossed in LISTENING and UNDERSTANDING.  I even explain the theory of the " yeabuts" and while doing so I can guarantee there is not only a lot of head nods but laughter because we are all human and we all do it. 

There's another great benefit to holding these seller seminars and that speaks to the theory of motivation.  This theory revolves around group mentality.  I make it a priority to mention at the close of the seminar the fact that all those people sitting next to you are also home sellers.  Armed with their new knowledge they are going to go home and get to work on all those things we just talked about.  Don't you want your property to show as well as the neighbor who also is competing to sell their home?  Nothing like a little friendly competition to rally the troops. 

Realtors are always grateful for the seminars.  It makes their job a lot easier in that they know the seller HEARD the message and can hope that the seller will know better then to use "yeabut" as an excuse.  The seller understands the need to be pro-active in the sale of their own home and the Realtor can feel some relief in knowing that the property will show some improvements.   I encourage all Realtors to consider using these great seller seminars for all their clients.  Call a professional home stager in your area today to discuss how together you can make a difference in the way properties get SOLD.  That leads me to another blog on why a Realtor/Stager team is so beneficial, but since I need to get to the radio station, I will leave that for another time. 

Cheers!