Attention Real Estate Professionals: Want to enhance the service package offered to your customers? Want to win more business and give yourself a competitive edge over other agents? More and more real estate agents are providing free staging consultations to their customers as part of their marketing strategy, knowing that their listings will sell for more money and in less time than they would otherwise. Why not offer a service that is guaranteed to pay for itself?
Why Stage?
Recently the Department of Urban Housing and Development conducted a staging study that showed staged homes netted 17% more profit than un-staged homes. So in effect, any money invested in preparing a home for sale will be paid back and much, much more!
Staging ALWAYS costs less than your first price reduction!!
Furnished homes:
Personal items in a home can distract potential buyers and make them feel as if they are invading on someone else’s space. Home staging strives to de-personalize your home to make it appealing to the widest range of people. A balance must be found that doesn’t feel too impersonal yet that allows prospective buyers to visualize themselves in the home.
Additionally, with a staged home selling at least 50% faster, in a slow market you are much less likely to have the inconvenience of having to show a home over months. For the realtor it can be exhausting, not to mention for the homeowner invasive, to have traffic in and out of a home for months, all the while having to keep it in showcase condition.
Unfurnished homes:
The idea of a vacant home being the best way to showcase a property has proven unfounded. With a vacant home, normal wear and tear is much more visible, and every small flaw becomes obvious as there is nothing else to look at. Also, most potential buyers have a hard time visualizing the home with furnishings, and to them a vacant home will look cold and uninviting. Vacant listing rarely make the necessary emotional connection with the buyer. Plus, with homebuyers increased savvy, leaving a house vacant can put sellers at a distinct disadvantage. Many buyers will assume that because the homeowner has already moved they are anxious to sell and therefore tend to come in with lower offers.
Curb Appeal:
Staging involves much more than just de-cluttering and moving some furniture around. It is a combined focus on showcasing the interior of your home, incorporating emotional connection points through staging techniques, identifying any minor home repairs needed, and improving the landscaping and exterior of the home. Improving curb appeal has one of the highest ROI’s of any improvement in preparing for sale. According to Nancy C. Somerville, the executive vice president of the American Society of Landscape Architects, “....If the landscape is poor, you could expect a sale price of 8 to 10 percent below comparable homes with good landscaping.”
