Staging – Especially valuable in today’s market!

If you are considering selling your home, but you are scared by all of the “reduced price” signs out there. Has all the bad press about the housing industry left you wondering what the heck to do? You have your housing needs, whether its upsizing, upgrading , downsizing, relocating or whatever but you are afraid that your home will just sit on the market or you will have to lower your price below the point of reasonability. 

There is hope. Normally people love their home and see a lot of value in some many things that just don’t equate to actual value…from the BUYER’S perspective. Those $6 plants you bought from the home and garden store won’t add $5,000 to your home’s value…sorry.   

There is so much competitive inventory out there for buyers to choose from that if you want to sell, you MUST make your home stand out from the rest, or it will end up in the graveyard of all the other homes that have been sitting for months and months with “price reduced” signs. Statistics show that most homes still sell within the first 2 to 5 weeks on the market!!! Yes, that’s correct. This data I gathered from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

 If you want to sell your home there are a few simple tips that you MUST employ. It’s a really good idea to get together with your agent (yes…you really need to use an agent in this market especially) and go preview a few of the competitive homes that have just gone on the market. Then go walk through a few that have been on the market for 6 months. Then go look at 2 or 3 that sold within the first 5 weeks. Do all of this with the eyes of a buyer to gain proper perspective. 

That exercise is to learn two things: 1 - The actual market value of your home so that you price it correctly and 2 -  you need to take notice of how nice all the homes are that are selling. You’ll notice that (unless they were bought as below market value “fixers”) they are almost all going to be nice. That means in good condition, fresh paint inside, manicured yard etc. The cream of the crop will be homes that were professionally staged, which is the point I’ve been taking forever to get to. 

Staging! When prospective buyers view your home they need to actually say “wow” when they walk through. Your home needs to be the ONE of probably 10-20 choices that buyers have that they will want. If you decide that you can’t afford a professional Stager then there are a few simple things you can do on your own:

 1 – Clean, clean, clean and did I say clean??

2 – Pack away all your personal items like family pictures, books, extra furniture etc. You’re moving anyway right…just pre-pack everything but essential items you will still need to use and put the rest in a storage unit.

3 – Put on some fresh paint inside. Neutral colors.

4 – Add some basic, modern dÉcor. Its safe and everyone will be impressed. A few items from Pier 1 Imports or Craigslist.com won’t cost that much.

5 – Curb appeal outside. Spend a weekend trimming up the plants and putting down some fresh bark chips etc. and don’t forget to clean/treat the roof. 

If you employ these basics I can tell you from my own experience of viewing a lot of homes, your house will be in the upper percentile of what buyers will see! Put in a few weekends of work…it will be much less troublesome that waiting for months for your home to sell. Isn’t that what you want to do?

Brought to you by Sharon Kreighbaum, Staged Makeovers