I work a lot with people who haven't been successful in selling their home with other agents. Last night I was at a house in NW Rochester that's been on the market for quite some time. Great location. Pretty good overall condition. Price not incredibly inflated. Previous marketing not necessarily a detriment. Why hasn't it sold?
"Congratulations, you are the highest bidder for your home presently!" No seller wants to hear an agent say that. However, that's exactly what's happening. What many of us don't realize when we go to sell our home is that we unintentionally cover up the very reasons we fell in love with the home in the first place. It's true, sometimes I've worked with buyers that fell in love with other people's furniture more than they did the house...and ended up buying the house (the furniture went in the moving truck). But more often than naught, there's been something extra that placed a house on a different plane than others.
I've showed homes to buyers who smelled the brownies in the oven, walked freely amongst the house with the lights already on, enjoying the light music in the background, and said to me almost immediately that it felt like home. Cobwebs in the corners of the windows weren't noticeable, because there weren't any. Dirty laundry wasn't strewn about the floor, but instead placed neatly in drawers for the potential buyer not to worry about. Pet "land mines" weren't an issue as we stolled through the back yard, and my shoulder didn't go out of joint as I opened the sliding door leading to the deck.
Staging really isn't that important...if you don't care about how much money you get for your house, and you don't mind staying for a while. And make no mistake--there are buyers purchasing homes right now, despite what you may hear. The question is, who will be the next to move--you or the neighbor down the street?
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