Sparked by Sharon Tara's blog, I Disagree With His Agent And I Let The Seller Know, I decided that the discussion of making decisions for the sellers should be brought up. Too often I hear real estate professionals make the decision that this home is too inexpensive for home staging, or that it 'shows well', or like Sharon's blog post, they'll wait to bring up home staging until and IF it doesn't sell quickly.
My question is, "Whose money are you spending?"
Often well meaning Realtors think that by holding back on the recommendation that they are saving the customer money. They'll only recommend staging if the home meets a very small criteria. Like all other parts of the home selling process, however, agents need to realize that it's not their decision, it's the sellers. It's important for the sellers to be made aware of all of their options and decide after they have been informed.
Recently, I wrote a blog entitled Why did it take my agent 6 weeks and a price reduction to recommend staging? Thsi particular seller was upset that staging wasn't even recommended until after the price reduction was. Again, this is similar to Sharon's situation - if it went out another six weeks.
What if the home could sell quickly without home staging?
Sure, some homes sell quickly and even with multiple offers, so agents wonder why they should be staged. What if a small investment could provide several thousand additional dollars in sale price? What if instead of one offer within the week the seller received two, three or four? Would that affect the likely seale price?
At the end of the day, it's just simply not the agent's job to decide. It's their job to provide all of the options, then let the seller make the decision on how they want to spend their money. By not informing them about staging, regardless of the reason, you could be spending the seller's money. You may be creating the recipe for price reductions or elmininating multiple offers.
Don't know how to talk to sellers about home staging? It's easy, give us a call today to reserve your seat in one of our upcoming Realtor education sessions.
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