Imagine These Thought Bubbles

Imagine these internal conversations. 

“It is my first date.  I don’t need to worry about my clothes or grooming.  I will just show up and he/she will fall in love with me.” 

 “My college graduation/church directory picture will work just fine on Match.com.  No one pays attention to the pictures any way.” 

“It is just the initial job interview.  I don’t need to fix the hole in my shirt or have my suit pressed.  I will make those repairs after I get the job.”

Sounds pretty absurd – doesn’t it.  And yet, are those thought bubbles any different than these?

“We are going to put the house on the market for a month or two and see what happens.” 

“We don’t need a professional photographer for our online photos.  Our shots are good enough.”

“We don’t need to replace or clean the damaged carpeting; wash the windows; paint the red bedroom, etc.  We can do that after we have an offer and are preparing to move”

There is another set of thought bubbles you can also easily imagine if you are in the real estate business.

“Not much to see in these pictures.  No sense wasting our time there.  Let’s look at the next online MLS listing that fits our criteria.”

“This house does not compare well with the other houses we’ve seen.  I think they just put a For Sale sign out and expected it to sell.”

“Too many problems, too many repairs.  I am not interested in buying a house with projects.  I want move-in ready.”

When we are getting ready for a date or a job interview, we make sure that we look our best (that is if we want a second date or the job).  Typically, we are properly groomed and wearing one of our better and appropriate outfits.  We want to impress our date or the person doing the job interview. 

Why should it be any different when we decide to sell our house? 

§  Do we think that our house should not be cleaned and groomed or outfitted as well as when we get ourselves ready for a date?

§  Do we not think that the importance of how our house looks is any different than the importance of how we look for a job interview? 

§  Do we think that potential buyers will overlook obvious repairs and problems just because you might be willing to fix them later?

The answer to these questions is very simple –it is very important that our house look its best when a buyer visits.  It needs to be “show ready”.

Remember – you are never given a second chance to make a good first impression.  If the house is messy, cluttered, or confusing to the potential buyer, odds are they will not be back. 

In its simplest terms, home staging involves making sure your house is cleaned, groomed and properly outfitted.  When I stage a house, I make sure that it is ready for its first date with every prospective buyer. 

 

Remember to dwell in possibilities!

 

Cindy

 

Just the Facts - Less than First Price Reduction

We often make the claim that the cost of professional home staging is less than the first price reduction.  Today, we prove that it is more than just home staging marketing fluff. 

Just look at the facts.

Using figures provided by CORT, the world’s largest provider of rental furniture, we can imagine a very conservative first price reduction of 5% on a $250,000 house equals $12,500.  This conservative assumption is supported by the National Association of Realtors which cites a 10% lower sales price associated with more than 24 weeks on the market. 

In the CORT example, the average cost of home staging was $4,700 and likely involves renting their furniture.  The CORT figure is higher than my average vacant staging engagements but comparable to staging in other parts of the country. 

Using these figures, the cost of home staging would be less by $7,800 (or a whopping 62%) than the first price reduction of $12,500. 

It is hard to argue - the price of professional home staging is significantly less than the first price reduction. 

The savvy seller and proactive Realtor also recognize that the cost of home staging is an investment in selling their house quicker and for the best possible price –without having to reduce their price.  They completely understand the reality that their house is competing with what potential buyers are seeing on TV and in the magazines as well as with professionally staged houses in their market.

I recognize that it can be a tough sell to convince a seller to invest in professional home staging.  Maybe today’s facts can help them better understand the possibilities.

Dwell in possibilities!

Cindy

 

 

Help a Seller Out: 5 Tips Buyers Would Give Sellers If They Could

What a gem of a find and something my Realtor partners and savvy sellers can use today and tomorrow and on into the future!  The advice is timely, relevant and absolutely perfect.

We found this article in one of our news feeds.  “Help a Seller Out: 5 Tips Buyers Would Give Sellers If They Could” was written by Tara-Nicholle Nelson, a San Francisco area real estate broker, attorney, speaker, author, and publishing/media entrepreneur.  And it is chocked full of deep insights and great ideas.

Here is Tara’s list of buyers’ tips for sellers:

1.    You should see what your home looks like online. No, really

2.    If your home is seriously overpriced, I’ll wait for the price to come down before I even come see it.

3.    There are a whole lot of fish in the sea - I only have to find one.

4.    If I nitpick your house, that probably means I like it.

5. When it comes to staging, the bar is high. Really high.

As you can imagine, I just love what she has to say about home staging.

“HGTV. Houzz. Architectural Digest. All these outlets which constantly publish beautifully designed and decorated homes have influenced what the average American expects their home to look like - and yours, for that matter. Additionally, all the do-it-yourself publications and shows along with the advent of home improvement stores which double as DIY design emporiums have given everyday people of modest means the power to live in beautiful and functional homes, without breaking the bank.”

“Beyond all this, professional home staging has taken off in recent years, as data has repeatedly shown that staged homes sell faster, for more, and more certainly than homes that are not staged, nor well-prepared by their owners.”

“So not only is your home competing with the homes buyers are seeing on TV and in the magazines, it is also competing with professionally staged homes for sale right in your own neighborhood - homes that the very buyers who will come to see your home will also have seen, possibly right before or after they view yours!” 

This article appears in Tara’s blog at http://www.trulia.com/blog/taranelson/  As if you already didn’t need a reason to check out Tara’s blog, she also has an article titled “Help A Buyer Out: 5 Tips Sellers Would give Buyers if they Could”. 

I plan to go back regularly to see what Tara has to say about our business.  I can only imagine the possibilities.

Dwell in possibilities

Cindy

The Topic Realtors Won’t Touch Because It Is Too Sensitive

How do you tell a colleague that they have bad breath, body odor, too much perfume/cologne or moth-balled clothing?  Usually, you don’t and hope that someone else will.  But maybe if the time and place is just right (and you’ve rehearsed a few times in your head), you might just say something to this colleague in a kind and caring way.  

What about offensive smells and odors in a house?  Now that is the topic most (but not all) Realtors won’t touch. 

A fellow real estate professional raised this topic with me after reading my recent “clean freak” post.  She shared some important insights about smells and odors.  In keeping with the title of this blog, our conversation about smells and odors is “to be continued” today.

My real estate professional friend believes that “if it really smells, it never sells!”  She also said that it is “the biggest turn-off I encounter.”

“Here is what happens:  I walk into a cute house and start imaging how my family would live in this house.  I open the door or enter a bedroom with 'the scent'.  All emotional connection I feel with the house is immediately finished.  I can't get out of the house fast enough.  All I can think is this house is dirty - gotta go.”

My friend categorized offensive and unacceptable smells and odors by problem area:

BEDROOMS – “Used bedding is one problem and the smell issue becomes magnified if teenagers are in the house with hormones gone wild.”

PETS – “If you have pets and carpeting, you have pet odor.”

SMOKE – “Don't even go there with me. Buyers won't either. It permeates paint and all furniture.  Get a professional to help.”

KITCHENS- “People who tend to eat or cook any ethnic food often tend to have a scent in their home that is different from the local area.  You know how you walk into a greasy joint and can smell the grease - same thing.  It just gives the scent of not being cleaned properly.” 

So what are we to do with offensive odors and smells?   “Don’t try to mask with a perfumy scent.  It won’t cover the offensive odors.  It gives the impression you know it is there and you are too lazy to clean it up.”

What the seller needs to do is clean, clean some more and then keep it clean!!  Or better yet, hire a professional cleaning service to do a deep clean and then maintain it. 

One way or the other, the sellers need to make sure the following happen:

·         Wash all bedding from mattress pad to bedspread; down comforter to pillow cases

·         Eliminate dirty clothes pile - wash them all!

·         Shampoo the furniture. Shampoo all carpeting

·         Deep clean the kitchen regularly including the oven, microwave and stove top as well as the counter tops.

·         Air the house out often (weather permitting). Leave the air on to circulate house as well as ceiling fans if you have them.

And what are Realtors to do if the topic of odors and smells is too sensitive to discuss with their sellers?

A few of my Realtor partners have a simple solution – they engage me as the professional home stager and “bad cop” to share the bad news.  I guess you could also copy and share the February 20^th posting ("Everyone is a clean freak") and this one – your sellers might get the hint. 

Regardless of how you do it, you owe it to your sellers to broach this sensitive subject.  They will thank you in the end especially after the house sells.

 

Dwell in possibilities

 

Cindy

Realtor Tip - Sell My House to Me

While in the lunch line during the real estate stager’s convention, I overheard one of the speakers giving advice to a fellow home stager about how to interview and select a Realtor. 

Her advice was to ask each prospective Realtor to literally walk you through your own house and sell it to you.  What would their sales pitch be to a potential buyer of your house?  She believed this simple exercise separated the effective and prepared from the ineffective and ill-prepared.

And she was right.  The Realtor listing your house needs to “get” the house; needs to “get” the neighborhood; and, needs to “get” the target market of potential buyers.  In short, the Realtor needs to get how to market your house.  If they don’t “get” any of these key aspects of selling a house, then they should not get your listing. 

 

And if they “get it”, you can expect to sell your house in a reasonable period of time for a good price.

Taking this idea a step further, I believe that my role as a professional home stager is to market a house through staging.  Like the listing Realtor, the professional stager needs to “get” the house, neighborhood and potential market.

I need to “get” what makes this house special and unique, namely, focal points, architectural features and flow.  I need to “get” what types of buyers will be attracted to this house and stage it accordingly.  I need to “get rid of” the clutter and confusion that detract from making this house special and unique. 

If I am doing my job, I need to create an emotional reaction that begins when a prospective buyer pulls into the driveway and does not end until the home has been experienced and the front door is closed. 

If I am doing my job, prospective buyers "get" the house, the Realtor "gets" a sale, and the seller "gets" to find their next dream house.

Dwell in possibilities

Cindy