Posts Tagged ‘Staging’

Home Sellers – What Agents Aren’t Telling You About Home Staging Could Cost You Thousands of Dollars

March 12th, 2021

I believe passionately that every property, regardless of location, size or price point, benefits from some degree of home staging. After all, home staging, simply stated, is the process of preparing a property for sale. Depending on the condition of the property, this can include editing, cleaning and window washing, painting, removal of carpeting, floor work, repairs, staging and showcasing with the homeowners’ furnishings and/or rental or newly purchased items.

Yet it continues to amaze me that some agents still don’t fully understand the importance of home staging all their properties – surely it’s their responsibility to their clients to represent their best financial interests. And yet many still don’t even bring up the topic of staging because:

they are fearful of upsetting their clients;

they don’t know how or when to introduce the topic of staging;

they truly don’t understand the benefits of staging and the costs of not staging.
Sorry, but no more excuses! Fear or a lack of understanding is just not an acceptable reason for not addressing important home staging issues with sellers. Agents need to stop thinking about home staging as a “negative” topic. Of course if agents present home staging in a negative way, sellers are going to react accordingly. Instead, we recommend that home staging is introduced as an integral part of a winning marketing strategy. Agents can offer their clients a professional home staging consultation with their professional home stager as a value added service. This is the best way for an agent to introduce home staging to their clients. We are the experts and we understand that home staging is not an expense but the best short-term investment a home seller can make.

Professional home stagers know that home staging works, but the best indicators are proven when an unstaged listing has lingered for months without selling. The agent loses the listing for lack of success, which is unfortunate for the agent, of course. But what is even more unfortunate is the significant financial loss suffered by the home seller. Monthly carrying costs for mortgages, taxes, insurance, maintenance, utilities, etc. are a burden for most homeowners. When a property doesn’t sell these are true expenses and represent significant losses in the tens of thousands of dollars. And this does not even include the ramifications of the emotional distress!

The quantifiable benefits of home staging are demonstrated when the seller signs with a new agent, who insists that the only way they can sell for top dollar is to “stage.” Time and time again, these listings sell quickly once they have been professionally staged and re-listed with the new agent. Unfortunately, by then months and thousands of dollars have been lost.

Just think about the process in terms of Economic Theory 101. An entrepreneur is about to launch a new product into a highly competitive market, but the product is damaged and the packaging is dated and unattractive. What is the only way that product will sell (if at all)?….at a DISCOUNT of course. And for home owners selling their most valuable asset, this discount, compounded with increased carrying costs, represents significant financial loss that they will never be able to earn back. Savvy agents won’t risk this because they know they should do what is best for all their clients. And this includes small and large properties,owner occupied and vacant, high-end and less expensive ones too, because every seller deserves the opportunity to sell for top dollar as quickly as possible.

Home staging is no longer an option. Never before have presentation and condition been as important to the sale of real estate as they are today. Every home seller deserves to get the best marketing advice for the sale of their most valuable asset and the marketing process needs to begin with a comprehensive and thorough home staging consultation. If your agent is not advising you to home stage your property to achieve a profitable and quick sale (and in some cases to sell at all) they are not saving you money. They are costing you tens of thousands of dollars, and maybe even more!

Nairn Friemann, MBA, is a Certified Staging Professional and Instructor. As president of Ingenuity & Pizzazz, Inc., one of New York City’s leading home staging companies, she has collaborated with agents and home sellers on the staging and marketing of over $600 million in real estate. A nominee for the Real Estate Staging Association’s 2010 Pro Stager of the Year Award, Nairn has received exceptional media attention including the CBS Early Show, CNN, Dow Jones Market Watch, Business Week, the New York Times, New York Living, the Staging Standard magazine and others. As an instructor for Certified Staging Professionals, Nairn draws on her extensive staging and award-winning teaching experience. Nairn teaches the 3-Day Certified Staging Professionals program in the U.S. and Canada and shares her signature, 10 step program for “Mastering the Art of Difficult Conversations with Home Sellers” in her popular webina

Comments Off on Home Sellers – What Agents Aren’t Telling You About Home Staging Could Cost You Thousands of Dollars »

Posted in Uncategorized

Tags:

Most Common Myths of Home Staging and Truth Behind Them

January 12th, 2021

Home Staging has been helping homeowners and real estate professionals enhance the sale price of properties for more than 20 years by now. A new trend appeared in California, USA in mid-80s and gradually became popular all over the world. Although the increasing number of home sellers and Realtors are actively using home staging as one of the most effective marketing tool in selling a property for top dollar and within the shortest period of time, there are still a lot of people who didn’t hear about it or don’t believe in it due to erroneous information or lack of it. For those, who have been mistakenly led to the opposite of the home staging direction, let us name most common home staging myths and reveal the truth behind them.

Myth #1: Not every home needs a professional home staging.

Practice shows that almost every home needs to be staged by professional prior going on the market, whether it’s a million dollar house or a small condo. It’s been proven that after living in one home for more than 3 years, it’s almost impossible to take a detached view and look at it as the buyer would. No matter how big the house is or how expensive the finishes are, after living in the same property for a number of years, you set emotional connections with it and view it through the prism of the time spent there. Professional home stager will help you to move that mental shield away and show you what needs to be improved / changed / enhanced in order to make the home appealing to the wider audience. Even the most expensive and beautiful homes sit on the market for months because buyers don’t “feel as at home” there. Staging helps bring that warmth and universal appeal to every property.

Myth #2: Staging costs a lot.

“A lot” is a very extensible term. To narrow it down let’s say staging can cost you somewhere from several hundred to several thousand dollars, depending on the size and condition of the property. The fact is that NOT staging a property can cost you “a lot”. Remember: staging is always cheaper than your first price reduction. Plus, taking into consideration the return on investment that staging gives (more than 500%); it considers being a wise investment, not a spending.

Myth #3: I can stage my own house or my real estate agent can do it for me.

There is a great saying: everything should be done by professionals; especially in those areas that have to do with your most valuable commodity, in this case – your home. Professional home stagers have been trained to prepare homes for sale, they do this on a daily basis and have years of experience in making the most out of every home. Home staging is not about removing all personal items, de-cluttering, turning the lights on and putting flowers in vases. Home staging is the whole art of preparing a home for sale that requires a non-mediocre talent to create a space that buyers will fall in love with.

Would you ever let someone repair your furnace just because he/she read a book on how to do it? Doubtfully. So why should you rely on someone rather than professional in preparing your home for sale? Especially if you stand to make thousands of dollars on a profitable sale. So let your Realtor do his job – market your home – and delegate the preparation of you home for sale to a professional.

Myth #4: Home Staging is the same as home decorating.

There is a huge difference between preparing your home for sale and decorating it. In fact those are the opposites. Decorating a home is aimed to create a unique environment that reflects owner’s taste, individual style and lifestyle preferences, while home staging is aimed to create a universal appeal that caters to a wider audience. The main purpose of home decorating is to create personal comfort and functionality. Home staging eliminates everything that speaks about the personality of a homeowner so anyone can imagine living in there and call it a home.

Myth #5: Vacant spaces appear larger than furnished ones.

In fact it’s quite the opposite. The paradox is that vacant rooms appear much smaller than furnished ones. Also some homes have odd layouts with questionable areas that, if empty, leave buyers guessing on the purpose of the space. Home staging leaves nothing up to the buyers’ imagination, giving homes style, flow and that much needed feeling of a home.

Staging a home could be the most intelligent decision one can make. So why taking a chance and not investing in your most valuable commodity.

Comments Off on Most Common Myths of Home Staging and Truth Behind Them »

Posted in Uncategorized

Tags: