The Tale of Two Sellers

Consultation

A staging consultation is one of the most affordable way to ready your home for sale.  A certified home staging professional will come into your home and make suggestions on how to make your property stand out to potential buyers.
A walk and talk consultations will usually run around two hours.  You,the seller, will walk with the stager while she or he make suggestions that limit a buyer's objections and allow your house to stand out on the multi list.  The stager will provide you with a list of recommended changes and repairs to your property.  Now on the ball is your court.  How much time and effort you put on these recommendations is up to you, the seller.  As a Certified Staging Professional- CSP I have had 2 types of

The Reluctant Seller

 The reluctant seller feels indignant and insulted by suggestions made.  This seller is still emotionally attached to the home. This kind of seller, does little to none of a stager's suggestions.  This seller may even wonder why after using a stager the property still isn't selling.  The idea behind staging is to market your home so that a buyer can envision living in the space.   As a stager, I do not care how you choose to decorate your house while living there.  My sister, for example, loves Disney's Tinker Bell.  If you were to enter her home Tinker Bell is scattered through out just like pixie dust.  If my sister were to put her home on the market my first piece of advice would be pack up all the Tinks and save them for your next house. Why?  My sister's house is always cleaned.  Repairs are always done. But for a realtor to find another Tinker Bell lover might not happen.  Buyers would probably label her home as the Tinker Bell house.  Just like on an episode on HGTV's Property Brothers. Once a buyer passes through your home and rejects it, the chances of getting that buyer back is next to zero.
Did you know that the majority of today's home buyers are the millennials?  Studies have shown that that the majority of millennials do not want a fixer upper.  This generation wants a move in ready home that does not remind them of their parents or grandparents houses.  So please remove the doily from the center of the dining table, remove the wallpaper and paint those walls a neutral color!

The Motivated Seller

So this brings me to seller number 2, the motivated seller.  The motivated seller listens to the stager and understands that the stager is a professional.  This seller takes the stagers advice and runs with it. Walls are given a fresh coat of paint, light fixtures, kitchens and baths are updated.  A slip cover is placed over the floral print sofa or another updated sofa stands in its place.  This seller will rent accessory items from the stager or have the stager purchase new items.   If the property is vacant, this seller will have the stager furnish it.  Why? Empty houses usually sit longer on the market. Furthermore, the rooms will appear smaller than what they are left empty.  Only 10% of buyers can visualize what that house could look like with furniture, different paint color or wallpaper removed and updated kitchen and bathrooms.

The Results

Statics from the RESA- Real Estate Staging Association show that a staged home spends 90% less time on the market.  The average time a staged home is on the market is 23 days .  An unstaged home spent an average of 225 days on the market.  This is equal to 7 1/2 months in which the home owner is paying taxes, utilities, normal upkeep and possibly a mortgage.  Staging can have a return on investment as high as 200%.  The cost of reducing the selling price of an unsold home is higher than the cost of staging.

So are you motivated or still emotionally attached?  The choice is always yours.