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Issue: #46November 2010

 

 

Room to Breathe Home Organizing & Staging

 

-Realtors Only Edition-

In This Issue
How to Best Utilize a Stager
STAGING CONTEST...only until 11/5/10!
Join Our List
Join Our Mailing List

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Testimonial

"Thanks again. And I really love working with you ! Your advice is wonderful and it will help these folks get their homes off the market if they listen."

 

Sincerely,

 

Lorraine Spock, Keller Williams Realtor and Past President CCAR (Centre County Association of Realtors)

 
Simply.

It's how we do things.
For Your Sellers

Too often do we see sellers going the wrong way, only to end up redoing things and paying more than necessary. It's also never too early to start thinking and planning for future sale. We also see sellers wait too long before preparing for sale and this is incredibly overwhelming for them. 

 

Encourage your sellers to start sooner rather than later...selling and moving doesn't have to be a stressful and frustrating process for them.

Greetings!        

As promised, we bring you how to best utilize a home stager.  Please take the time to read all the way through so that you can rest assure you know how to use a stager (whether it's us or someone else) and get all you can from the experience.
 
And don't miss the first and only Staging Contest to happen in Centre County!  Your details are below...and we know you have a listing that could win!

Happy Staging and Selling,

Jessica Dolan
 Bringer of Order
 
  


P.S.  If you call today to get your free 30 minute consult and find out how we can best work together to ensure your success.
A How to Best Utilize A Home Stager

Why Stage?
Staging helps you market your listing in a way that will make it stand apart from the other listings in the same price range. Buyers want it all in this market and staging helps the seller present their house in a way that will draw buyers in. With professionalism and compassion, Room to Breathe will advise sellers on sensitive issues like pet or smoke odor as well as how to enhance the appeal of every room in the house. Your sellers will be proud to market their house and they will appreciate that you went the extra mile in advising them to market their house at its best potential.

 

How Can Staging Help My Business?
In this competitive Real Estate environment, sellers are looking for ways to help their houses stand out. They are much savvier about the benefits of staging as it has been talked about more and more in the press. Agents who offer Staging Reports and Consultations are finding that sellers are becoming more receptive. It is a cost effective tool that is cheaper than advertising costs and holding a listing for a long time. The benefits of staging include:

  • Offering to have a stager do a consultation and report as part of your marketing helps you to get the listing. It sets you apart from the realtors who do not offer this.
  • Staged homes look better in pictures and internet marketing. We are finding that internet marketing has become the most significant marketing tool. Staging will make your listings stand out as well as get buyers to call. It will also help you get potential sellers since your listings will be presented well in print and on the internet.
  • Staged homes statistically sell faster and for more money.
  • Appraisers like to see that a home is taken care of.
  • Psychologically it helps to remind the seller that their house is a "product" that must be "packaged" like other "products". This serves to take out some of the emotional attachment that sellers have about their houses and helps them to keep things in perspective when you are discussing things like price and marketability.

Now that you know why staging can help, here's how to best utilize a staging service to get the most you can for your expenditure. 

Think of home staging has a great recipe...if you leave out ingredients or mix ingredients out of order you will not have a successful dish.  Staging the house is just a portion of the recipe for a successful sale and you must make sure to add all the proper ingredients.

Here's your Sure Sale Recipe:

 

Educate Your Sellers.  Share with your sellers why you use staging and let them know how important it is to create first impressions.  Staging is still a relatively new concept to our area and it really helps to have your endorsement before we enter the house.

 Work WITH the Stager. Now we don't mean that you need to get down and dirty, but we do mean share feedback and details with the stager.  The more the stager knows the better they can help your seller.  Successful staging definitely takes teamwork and we want to be a vital part of your team.

 

Communicate.  Remember to communicate with your stager by replying to voicemails and emails in a reasonable time frame, preferably 24 hours or less.  Ultimately, your response times may reflect the response times between the stager and seller.  We all want to be timely and be readily available!

 

 Stage The House Before It Hits MLS! We repeat, stage BEFORE the house is entered into the MLS!  This is so important because you know how much traffic you get when a house first hits the market.  What a shame if it doesn't show well and all those showings are for nothing.

 

Take Great Photos.In some cases your seller may spend upwards of 3% of list price in preparing a house for sale.  And even for those that don't spend that much ensure their spending was well worth it.  Consider using a professional photographer to take great shots of the house.  Professionals can make the darkest of rooms appear light, bright, and airy.  Room to Breathe can set you up with a great photographer so just ask.   At the very least, invest in a good camera and learn how to take interesting shots.  Do not post blurry shots, shots with dirty dishes/cat litter boxes, clutter, etc.  Yes, we see this all the time and so do you.  :)

 Staging A House That's Been On the Market.  Occasionally there will be houses that weren't staged prior to listing.  This typically happens because a seller forgets that their home is now a product and feels that buyers should "just see past the wallpaper/broken door/dated flooring/family photos/etc".  We both know that this isn't the case because over 90% of buyers can't visualize past these things.  For these sellers, it's late, but it's not too late.  Get a stager in there pronto to explain the benefits and show them why it works.  Give them a timeframe to do some work and make sure to get new photos posted immediately.  If a house requires a decent amount of work, it may even be a good idea to pull the listing and start fresh once things show well. 

 

Encourage Constant Staging.  We understand that getting a house ready for sale is overwhelming to say the least.  Is it best to have everything done prior to listing?  Yep, but it's not always feasible for the seller.  Encourage your sellers to keep working even after the sign goes up.  Staging is an ongoing process that should stop only after the offer has been received and fully accepted.  And even then we think you should carry on staging into your new home.  Wink! Wink!

Sure Sale Staging Contest
 


 

The 1st Annual

Sure Sale Home Staging Contest

  • Not sure why your house hasn't sold yet?
  • Tired of waiting for that one pefect buyer?
  • Are you ready to be on your way to your new home?

If you answered 'Yes', 'Heck Yea', 'You Betcha', 'Sure Thing' you must enter The Sure Sale Home Staging Contest now:

 

Email [email protected] with 'STAGING CONTEST' in the subject line.

 

A simple entry form will be sent to you.  

 

Please note that Before Photos or a Current MLS Listing (featuring photos) will be necessary to enter.
  
 

 

 

Don't delay entries will only be received until 11/5/2010!