by Liz Harrison ASP, IAHSP board member
Builders all over the country are dropping prices, offering free upgrades, paying closing costs and providing any number of incentives to buyers. New home sales are down. The entire housing market is down and forecasts aren't indicating an upturn in the immediate future. Because these new homes sit vacant, builders and owners take losses month after month, tying up funds that are needed to keep construction businesses going.
Professional Home Staging is a long-proven tool that provides the competitive edge for home sales in any market. "Staged" homes sell faster -two to three times faster-and most often at full asking price than comparable un-staged homes. Accredited Staging Professionals (ASP) prove it works for any home, vacant or occupied, but for different reasons. The difficulty in showing/selling vacant homes is three-fold. Professional Home Staging eliminates every one of these obstacles.
- Firstly, buyers have trouble imagining what the space will look like if they lived there. Rooms look bigger or smaller than they actually are, buyers can't judge whether and how furniture will fit and they can't always identify the best use for those non-descript areas like bonus rooms, offices, etc. Professional Staging fills in the blanks and leads the buyers' imagination.
- Second, the best features of the home such as fireplaces, great windows, beautiful wood floors loose their "wow" factor because there is nothing to highlight those features. Professional Staging draws attention to those primary features that will sell the house.
- Finally, and probably most importantly, an empty house feels EMPTY. Generally, they are cold. Voices echo. Blank, neutral colored walls and floors lack appeal. There is nothing in the space to elicit that "Welcome Home" sense that a buyer has to feel before they'll make an offer. Ninety percent of the population can't visualize a vacant house as a comfortable living space. Professional Staging creates a warm, welcoming environment that buyers can imagine themselves living in.
Barb Schwarz, Creator of Home Staging and CEO of StagedHomes.com, puts it simply. "Buyers only know what they see...not the way it's going to be." More and more, savvy builders, agents and sellers of vacant properties are routinely using Accredited Staging Professionals (ASP) as part of their sales and marketing teams. Having that competitive edge in the home market pays off. To view data on the success of Professional Home Staging, go to http://www.stagedhomes.com/mediacenter. For answers to your home staging questions write liz@sprucestaging.com or call 503.428.8434.
Comments(0)