Home Staging and how it Helps You Sell Your House
WHAT IS REAL ESTATE HOME STAGING?
Simply put, home staging is the art of preparing a house for resale maximizing your home's potential by emphasising its positive qualities. First impression is the key factor in selling your house and you only get one chance to make a first impression! A well staged house creates a positive first impression.
This is especially important in a tough market.
Why?
Use of the Internet to search for a home has risen dramatically over time, increasing from only 2 percent of buyers in 1995 to 77 percent in 2005. Consumers skip over homes without photos. Further, most search engines are designed to favor homes with virtual tours and photos. In addition, homes with the most pictures and virtual tours had fewer days on the market than the ones without. *
It is vital to have a beautifully presented house in these photos and virtual tours to even have a showing in a slow or difficult market. With many homes to choose from why would a potential buyer look at a home that doesn't show well on initial Internet photos and/or virtual tour?
Would you?
Essentially you must have a great first impression to garner a showing.
In a nutshell, No showing, no sale
But Does it Work?
Real estate professionals who use staging swear by it, no matter what part of the country they work in or the price range they serve.
Valerie Torelli, broker/owner of Torelli Realty in Costa Mesa, Calif., has been staging homes since 1991.
"I have five seconds to sell a home—five seconds to make an impact on the buyers when they first walk in the door," said Torelli. "Staging ensures that that impact is a good and lasting one." *
* http://www.realtor.org/
StagedHomes on The Today Show!
Watch the video of Home Staging on NBC's TODAY SHOW for TWO Days straight. She and a team of regional ASPs staged a house in Lansing, Michigan last June 10, 2006 and June 11, 2006, LIVE on National TV.
Click the link to see the video; http://www.stagedhomes.com/public/061006_TodayShow.php
Recent article from the Detroit Free Press
Nail the sale: You can sell your home
BY LYNNE COBB • March 2, 2008
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080302/TWIST01/803020301/0/TWIST03
Deborah O'Leary is a Realtor with Sine and Monaghan GMAC Real Estate-Woodwardside Office in Royal Oak. She shares tips for home sellers and words of encouragement to other Realtors trying to stick it out in this market.
HOME SWEET HOME SALE!
• Clean! Scrub from top to bottom.
• Have your house inspected; repair items noted.
• Professionally stage your home, inside and out.
• Paint the front door, spiff up landscaping and have the lockset checked/oiled for easy entry.
• De-clutter, renting a storage unit if necessary.
• Add a second bathroom.
• Be prepared! Showing calls can come with 10 minutes lead time.
• Remember that pricing is key. If you're upside down, speak with your lender to see if he or she would consider options such as writing a personal loan for the difference owed or taking a short sale. (If going this route, speak with a real estate attorney.)
• Consider options, such as renting.
• Be patient.
"There's much that we can't control now -- the economy and market -- but we do have control over how we conduct our business," Deborah says.
"I have an opportunity to meet some really interesting people, and I'm privileged to be invited into their life and learn the inner workings of their lifestyle."
