After a month of planning and advertising, I had my first public home staging seminar. It was free, held at my local library on a Sunday afternoon and 12 people showed up including my first client. Although I was a little disappointed, figured 12 is better than 0. (My client was there to give testimony about me and my service and to answer any question.)
After my 60 minute presentation, I asked those attending to complete my evaluation. I received high marks for my presentation, material, organization and overall presentation. (Although I was nervous as heck, no one seemed to notice). At the end of the evaluation, there were 2 questions I was greatly interested in.
- Would you recommend the staging process to a friend?
- If you were selling your house, would you consider using my service?
Everyone asnwered yes to both questions but one person said no, they would not use my service because "I think I am plenty qualified".
This got me thinking. Why does this person and others (Sellers, Realtors) think they are more qualified than I am when it comes to staging their house? Do they think because they have watched the TV shows, read a book or article they know more than I? Hmmm...
Well I am currently writing my May newsletter and this is what I was thinking of putting on the front. Tell me what you think?
"If you are selling your house, you need my help. Yes, you NEED my help. I know this sounds presumptuous but it's the truth. Most homeowners believe they can stage their own house. They feel after watching the home staging shows they know what it takes to effectively prepare their house for sale. They assume they know how to make it stand out from similar houses on the marketplace. In reality, most homeowners and their agents don't truly know what it takes to prepare their house for sale.
How do I know? I visit Open Houses and tour Realtor sites, viewing photos of current listings. What I see are cluttered, dated, personal, easily forgotten houses. This is what buyers are seeing too. They are not impressed. Buyers are looking for "turn key" houses, where they can just move in and start living. They don't want a house they have to "fix up" before they can move in. When you bought your house, you brought in your belongings, personality and style and turned it into your home. Now that you are selling your home, you need to turn it back into a house so buyers can imagine their belongings, personality and style, turning your house into their home.
As a home staging consultant and home stylist, I know what it takes to objectively prepare and style a house for sale, making it appeal to a variety of buyers while creating an emotional connection. I am not emotionally attached to your home, so I can see past the dirt, clutter, bold colors, dated and mediocre appearance of a house that turn buyers off. I have an ability to visualize the potential of a house and I know what it takes to turn your home into a house that will impress buyers. I have taken Larry Hite's Home Inspection course, so I know what repairs need to be completed to give a house a well maintained appearance. I have had many conversations with home appraisers, so I know what upgrades are cost effective and increase the property value of a house. I am always reading and learning about the latest trends in the industry. Home Staging is my profession, not my hobby.
Staging is a simple and inexpensive investment to secure your house's equity. Before placing your house on the market or before lowering your asking price, call me for a free "mini staging makeover". I can show you how I can help bring your house to the bargaining table. Let me help you sell your house."
So would this be too much for sellers to handle and would it be the kiss of death for me? Or would sellers appreciate my straight forwardness?
Note:
- Larry Hite is a local, trusted, expert Home Inspector with a bimonthly newspaper column. He is now training other home inspectors and I took his course to find out what the home inspectors are looking for.
- In my city alone, (No. CA, 2 zip codes) there are almost 800 houses on the market with more being listed weekly. Surrounding cities have almost as many. Last year at this same time, listings were half.
P.S. Want to acknowledge Craig S. for the "home turning back into a house" line. Hope you don't mind I used it :)
Thanks for any feedback.
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