It wasn’t all that long ago that a house would sell regardless of how it looked, smelled or presented itself – well, WAKE UP, times have changed and so have buyers. Savvy agents recognize that a shift means its showtime for a listing. Your listing must win a beauty contest and a price war!
As an agent you face two obstacles; the seller’s reluctance to invest in staging and the buyer’s inability to envision how a property will look when it is in its best condition. Generally speaking, staging is an essential part of marketing a home. Keller tells you the numbers are on your side, “a review of over 2,800 properties in eight cities found that staged homes, on average, sold in half the time that non-staged homes did. The sellers with staged homes ended up with 6.3 percent more than their asking price, on average.”
Sellers, while they grasp the benefits of staging, may not see the necessity of staging their home. They have spent money, time and effort in fixing and filling it with their stuff and it bears their personal taste. But now, the house needs to appeal to the broadest possible segment of likely buyers. And, you need to convince the seller that you don’t live in a house the same way you put a house up for sale.
Gary Keller in his book Shift suggests that you might want to use the “3P-2F Formula” in suggesting improvements:
♦ Plantings
♦ Paint
♦ Pictures
♦ Furnishings
♦ Fixtures
The house’s appeal has to start at the curb, if they don’t like the outside, they may never see the inside. And, buyers spend a lot of time on the front porch while the agent is accessing the key. Keller advises taking sellers through the house room by room asking them in each area what three things they would do to improve the appeal for that particular area. The following areas are especially important to buyers:
♦ Entryway
♦ Kitchen
♦ Master bedroom and bath
♦ Main living areas
♦ Other bedrooms
♦ Backyard
In the event that sellers cannot name three things they need to do to improve those areas, you need to be ready with a list to help them out.
Be sure to suggest a thorough cleaning, windows especially need to sparkle. You may need to address clutter; clutter eats equity because clutter eats space. You certainly don’t have to be the one that does any of this, if you want to that’s great, but there are professional stagers you can use as another option. Some agents provide one or two hours of a staging consultation as a part of their listing package. There are advantages to having a third-party professional deliver the bad news especially when you are talking about their precious personal photos or knick-knacks. Remember that the entire idea of staging is to create a neutral environment where buyers can envision their own things.
There are already so many thing you can’t change about a home; its location, square footage and amenities that staging becomes imperative to accentuate the true value of a home and when done effectively can actually create value. Keller says, “Pricing and staging are the issues of the day in a shift…..pricing gets you in the game – staging gets you the offer.”
DF
I am a certified stager and took Barb Schwarz’s program. I totally agree with your post. I had a listing last spring in south Scottsdale, it was vacant and I talked the sellers into changing out a few things, cleaning the windows, adding a few flowers to the front yard and voila we sold the home within 8 weeks. It’s important for sellers to take the emotion out of the equation. I do suggest my sellers take all personal items (such as family photos) out of the home. They are selling their home, not their belongings. You don’t want people focusing on your photographs, you want them to see the space!
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