Here at Showhomes, we have the wonderful opportunity to stage and help sell homes all over the country. As America's largest home staging company, we have a unique perspective in the real estate industry.

We've been busy cruching numbers and looking at 2008 in the rear-view mirror and decided to share some of our home sales data. Take a look at this chart:

We sell hundreds of staged homes in over 40 markets in the US. This chart represents just 2008 home sales (homes that we staged and that successfully received offers.)

You can clearly see that there are 5 peak months where buyers moved at higher numbers last year:

February, March, June, July and Oct.

We talk to homeowners throughout the year and one of the common responses we get is 'I'm unsure what to do at the moment but I want to take advantage of the peak selling season in the late Spring.' Most Realtors and homeowners we talk to (and we've helped sell over 25,000 homes) focus on April and May as peak months.

Looking at our sales data, Realtors and homeowners need to move far earlier; possibly starting in December and waiting NO LONGER than January to get moving. I should point out that Showhomes is a niche staging business and we focus on only vacant and higher end properties. The avererage home in our inventory is $1 million and the median is around $700k. As we all know, vacant homes take some time to turn around because they have often become stagnant.

Take Away: If an owner wants to get sales results with a vacant home, start the staging process far earlier than conventional wisdom allows; 2009 should be very similar to 2008 in traffic and sales and your listing will need all the help it can get!

Thomas Scott

www.showhomes.com