Home Staging in a Saturated Market

This is my first blog…ever, so I thought I should write about something safe and within the realm of the EWM agents before I release it to the public. Everyone has been giving me a hard time about not blogging, so I thought I should take a few minutes and give it a try. Ines and JoAnn – you can no longer tease me about not blogging. 🙂

I am a firm believer of staging a home. I took a listing 3 months ago that had expired with another agent – it was overpriced and the agent didn’t communicate with her seller regularly…imagine that…and they had only 1 showing in 3 months. Lucky me. 🙂 Shortly after I took the listing, we had the home professionally staged by Martin Amado, of Channel 7’s Room for Improvement. I’m very fortunate to have an exclusive affiliation with him, and it helps me differentiate myself when competing for a listing, and my sellers love it. Well, the “staging” was featured on TV, and I was too – and realized I am not a seasoned on-camera talent.. so I’ll stick to real estate and I think I need to hit the gym more, cuz the camera added a few pounds I didn’t know I had.

Anyway, the home looked great before-hand, but Martin was able to add finishing touches like curtains, candles, table and floor lamps, as well as move some furniture around, for less than $800.00. Within just 4 weeks of taking the listing and after the staging, we received our first 2 offers……now they were a little low, but nonetheless we got offers. Couldn’t make them work, and within another 2 weeks received offer 3, which again was too low. I forgot to mention when I took the listing, I recommended the owner reduce her price $50,000 from where it was listed with the other agent, so the home was also priced to sell. That helps too, but made negotiating with my client a little more difficult. We then received offer #4 and and made it work. We are expected to close at the end of the month and have no further contingencies to overcome….but one never knows these days so I wait with anticipation. My point is that in this type of market, staging is crucial.

I accompanied my showings for this home and was able to see the non-verbal cues of the potential buyers and their Realtors, and how they liked the home. The feedback from showings were all positive, and validated the investment for staging a home. It was an absolute pleasure showing this home, because it looked great. The ultimate reward is a happy seller and an executed contact – Goal Accomplished.

Although staging is not the end-all solution in selling a home, it is definitely is a key factor in creating that emotion for potential buyers. It worked for me. 🙂

Until my next blog,