This weeks Guest Blogger is Vickie Jackson, REALTOR® and Resident Consultant here at Stillwaters Estates. Please read on as Vickie explains the importance of staging a home in the selling process.
Why It Pays to Stage
With their shows about home staging, the HGTV and TLC television networks have done wonders with educating consumers about the whys and hows of getting their homes “market ready.” As a REALTOR® and an ASP® (Accredited Staging Professional), one of the services I offer to my clients is an objective evaluation of their home, and what needs to be done to “position” or stage it.
The burning question for Sellers is, “Why should I stage my home?” Yes, I know…your furniture has always been placed like this and it’s worked just fine for you…why should you change it?
Can’t Buyers see how comfy your home is? The straight answer is: No.
The Buyers see how comfy it is for you. In fact, only 5% of consumers can actually visualize beyond what they walk into, beyond your treasures, beyond your well-intentioned do-it-yourself projects, beyond your family photo shrine. Our goal, from the moment they first view your home, whether online or in real time, is to make them see how comfy it is for them. We want them to walk in and see themselves living in it, working in it, building their lives in it. We can achieve that goal by positioning your home to basically eliminate the feeling that you even live there—and that’s only going to happen if you are truly ready to sell, and willing to live maybe a little outside of your comfort zone, for a temporary period of time.
Staging your home means more dollars in your pocket, in a shorter amount of time. By positioning your home, you can turbo boost your sales time by 30-50% faster than non-staged homes, in most markets. There are subliminal messages to the Buyers when your home is staged: that it is a well-maintained, well cared for home, that it’s worth more, and that you are ready to move.
On the other hand, a home that is cluttered or in disarray screams out to the Buyers that there is probably deferred maintenance going on under all that stuff, that your home is not comparable to the turn-key home that’s listed for the same price, and that, even if they did bring you a cash offer, it would take you FOREVER to get moved out. Which message do you want potential Buyers to receive from your home? The fact is, we only get one chance to make a good impression, and that happens before a Buyer even steps foot through your front door—it happens in the photos that your Listing Broker puts online.
Remember, we are trained professionals at selling real estate. So when we suggest to you the changes we think you need to make to your property to make it more saleable, whether it’s removing furniture, eliminating clutter, removing personal photos, or eliminating pet odors, we hope you’ll listen to us and act on it. We want to believe you are sincere about wanting to sell your property…because we are sincere about wanting to help you sell it.
Still not sure if staging your home is for you? New Stillwaters residents Don & Lynn Rash hired me to stage their previous home prior to putting on the market. Their home sold to the first Buyers who looked at it, and closed within 48 days of being listed, at 100% of the listing price!
Vickie Jackson
REALTOR®, Broker, GRI®, AHWD®, ASP®, SRES®
Your regular blogger, Cindy Mund, will return on October 30th. Thank you Vickie for guest blogging this week. Readers: Enjoy your week ahead!
