Priced NOT to Sell?

Lenn - In today's market price is critical.  Buyers are expecting bargains, but I do agree that a well-staged home can aid the process. However, the best tool for both buyers and sellers is a knowledgeable and experienced agent.  Having bought and sold hundreds of properties during my career, I've seen the "bottom line" benefits that a professional real estate agent adds to the process.

Yes, this is an excellent post by Karen.  She wrote something similar a few months back...I remember it because it had this same philosophy and I though "Oh yes, Lenn would like this."

In my limited experience on this topic, I sometimes see sellers thinking they can increase the asking price of the home because it's staged.  This isn't the way I see it...usually, it means you can get the full potential for it and avoid a price decrease.  But, a lot of people have difficulty wrapping their minds around this.

Lenn, I actually shared a guest radio spot today with a stagger-designer. I was asked if I stage my listings. The answer was no.  I do recommend sellers de-clutter their home and I will make recommendations to remove massive amounts of furniture so that more of the home can be seen.  Clean the home, make sure the yards are maintained, price it right, and it will sell.  This is not to suggest that I am not an advocate of staggers and staging. Staging is simply a service I have not incorporated into my listing marketing.  Homes do sell with staging and without staging.  PRICE is the key!

Hi Lenn-I saw Karen's post earlier (of course I had to she mentioned little ole me :)! ) and thought it was an excellent representation of a home stager.  Properly pricing a home is paramount in today's market...once that's done, making it appealing to the masses is the next step.  Sometimes stagers can help a lot with this if the seller desires it!  Great reblog!

Hi Lenn - No one will ever mistake you for a potted plant:)  Aggressive pricing overcomes all issues.

After being contacted by many stagers to get business from my sellers this is the first time I have ever heard a stager acknowledge that price, as always, is the key to getting a property sold.

Staging is another way to make the property attractive to potential buyers but realistc pricing produces offers and closings.

Lenn I just finished reading Karen's blog and she did a great job of presenting the point that you picked up on.

Lenn, staging does not help to sell an overpriced home and I tell that to my clients, but it could help sell it at the higher price but based on comps in the neighborhood. Plus less time on the market. I also think that priced to sell staged homes will more likely get multiple offers and sell higher than asking, but I have not had any client to agree with that strategy.

Lenn

The home has to be price right to sell.

Good luck and success.

Lou Ludwig

Thanks for the re-blog. Apparently our attempts to get Realtors to take staging seriously are serving to alienate the very audience we're trying to reach. 

Perhaps we're over zealous when extolling the virtues of staging (guilty as charged)... but that doesn't mean we think the agents' role in the home sale process is insignificant!!  I am very glad to know that's how you perceive our claims. 

You've provided valuable insight that all stagers can benefit from.  Thank you. 

P.S.  It wasn never my intention to make you feel like a "potted plant"! 

So glad you reblogged this, or I would have missed this excellent post.  I recently hired a new secretary who stages all my new listings now.  Most of the time, we don't bring things into the home, we use only what the seller already has if possible. Most of the time, staging is just a pretty word for "de-clutter" and "start packing."  I tell all my sellers that it doesn't add to the value, it just allows the buyers to see the value that's already there a little better, and brings out the best features of the home.  I am sometimes met with resistance, but my secretary has a great response:  "This is no longer your home...this is your potential buyer's new home.  Let's get it ready for them."

Lenn, Karen has it right - staged homes do have broader appeal and feature a house at its best.  Buyers have little imagination and the more obstacles we put in their way of picturing themselves in the home enjoying a great lifestyle, the longer it takes to sell -- all things being equal.