Joanne Palumbo

Why Buy Your Four Walls? Good question…. according to the Census Bureau the vacancy rate of properties is at its highest level in 40 years! Combine excessive inventory with the picky buyers of today’s market and it raises the question: How are you going to motivate buyers to buy your four walls over the four walls for sale down the block?

The Answer is simple: It is now more important than ever to have your vacant listings Staged ! Buying a home is an emotional decision and since vacant homes feel cold and empty they evoke vacant reactions from buyers. A Staged home feels warm and inviting and allows the buyers to connect emotionally to it.

Staging also helps to portray a lifestyle and buyers don’t just want to upgrade their home when they move, they want to upgrade their lifestyle as well. 90% of buyers cannot envision how they would live in the empty rooms. By Staging a vacant home, you give the buyer perspective of how their furniture would fill the space and you allow them to mentally move into the home. If they don’t mentally move in, they will never physically move in! A Staged home allows the buyer to imagine their new life in your listing.

Vacant homes don’t sell well in photographs and since 80% of buyers view potential homes online before going to see them in person – you absolutely have to capitalize on this opportunity to make a first impression. Buyers flip through pictures of a vacant home at record speed because the four walls and the floor look the same from room to room. Staging invites potential buyers to linger on the photos of your listing for a longer period of time and they will be more likely to come see the listing in person.

What is involved in Staging a vacant home? Staging a vacant home involves four very easy steps:

* Step One: Homestyling101 visits the property for a free estimate.

* Step Two: Homestyling101 generates a bid for the client within 24-48 hours of viewing the property. This bid includes the Staging Planning and Implementation Service Fee along with the cost of renting furniture and accessories as needed. (It usually benefits the client to have a Staging budget in mind so Homestyling101 can work the estimate to include the most crucial elements needed to Stage the property within that budget.)

* Step Three: Once the bid is accepted, contracts are signed.

* Step Four: Homestyling101 will begin to breathe new life into your vacant listing!

As you can see, Staging a vacant listing takes very little work on the part of the homeowner or the Realtor but it carries such great rewards when the property sells faster and for more money than if it had remained vacant!

What about the expense of Staging a vacant home? It is important to remember that a buyer’s perception is a buyer’s reality. If the buyer perceives that the home is worth more because of its appearance than they are willing to pay more! So when asked about the expense of Staging a vacant home for this reason and the reasons mentioned above, my answer is always the same- you simply can’t afford not to Stage it! And is the price of Staging worth it? Only if you want to sell your home!

Spring is a time for fresh starts: It inspires new thoughts, change and growth. The excitement that surrounds this time of year is both exhilarating and contagious and it inspired me to think of new ways to share the passion I have for Staging with my colleagues in the Real Estate community.

Are you inspired to change this year? Consider this: Do you want your sales to surpass last year’s sales? Do you want your listings in 2010 to sell faster than your listings did in 2009? What are you going to do differently this year to achieve these new goals? Staging can be just the change you need!

* Staging will give your listing a competitive edge in the marketplace! If your product looks better than the competition it will get more attention than the competition and be considered to be worth more than the competition!

* A Staged home will command a higher selling price than a Non-Staged home. This creates a win-win situation! When the homeowner invests in having their home Staged, they stand to earn a higher selling price than before and therefore you, the Realtor, stand to earn a higher commission!

* Staging costs you, the Realtor, NOTHING! All you have to do is suggest Staging!

Now is the time to push through the fear of the unknown and the unfamiliar and try something new. Suggest Staging in your listing presentations! When you suggest Staging as an additional marketing tool to your potential clients, it will tell them that not only are you a Realtor who is in touch with the newest practices in the Real Estate community but that you are going to do everything possible to set their home up for a successful sale! It will set you apart from other Realtors and set your listings apart from other listings. Now is the time to incorporate Staging into every listing presentation! What do you have to lose?

* Staging your listing will maximize its potential and maximize the profits while maximizing your commission as well!

How do you start incorporating Staging into your listing presentations? Call Homestyling101 and we will send you a personalized letter that you can print out and include in all of your listing folders. It will distinguish you as a Preferred Realtor and include a special discount coupon towards Staging services. Homestyling101 will also send congratulatory emails to all your new listings welcoming them as your clients and offering them discounted Staging services just for listing with you, our preferred Realtor! Homestyling101 offers free estimates on your listings. We can do as little or as much as the client would like or what the budget allows!

Don't Sell Your Short Sales Short!

In these recent tough economic times, every Realtor I know has a Short Sale property in their portfolio of listings. But only the savviest of those Realtors have been Staging their short sales! I admit, at first, the suggestion to Stage a Short Sale seems a bit counterintuitive...the homeowner is in financial distress and possibly headed towards foreclosure- How can I responsibly suggest that they Stage this property? But in truth, these are exactly the properties that need to be Staged! A homeowner who is in a Short Sale position is facing selling their home for less than what they owe on the mortgage so every dollar counts! That is why it is always in the best interest of every seller that you suggest that they have their home Staged! It has been proven that a Staged home sells for more money than an un-Staged home. So Staging a Short Sale home will earn the seller the highest possible bid and will keep their Short Sale from falling as short!

This leads me to the discussion about the investment of Home Staging when the homeowner is already in a financial crisis. We believe very strongly at Homestyling101 that Staging is not about remodeling, redoing or spending a lot of money- it is about revitalizing the assets that a home already has to offer. Our One-on-One Verbal Consultations are a very affordable Staging option (starting as low as $250). A thorough walk-thru of the home is conducted (for about 2 hours from the curb into the corners of the home) and the homeowner is given all the information they need to Stage their own home on their own budget. And for those homeowners who really can't afford the small investment, many of our most astute Realtors have been splitting the cost with the homeowners or covering the cost of the One-on-One Verbal Consultations as part of their marketing costs with the belief that any marketing dollar spent after Staging will be much more effective. So don't overlook the importance of Staging your Short Sales- they need to earn every last dollar they can and Staging will certainly do that for them. Don't sell your short sales short!

A homeowner recently challenged me on the necessity of Staging his vacant property. After giving him all the usual Staging rhetoric I began to describe my favorite analogy and suddenly- the lightbulb went off! He got it! So I thought I'd share it:

I like to compare Staging a vacant home to wrapping a present. Imagine you received two gifts: The first gift is a blue sweater thrown in a brown paper bag. The second is the same blue sweater presented in a beautifully wrapped gift box with shiny wrapping paper and white cascading ribbons. Which evokes more excitement? Which do you perceive was more expensive? In the same way gift wrap does not change the gift, Staging doesn't alter what the buyer is buying but Staging does show the home in its best possible light and it evokes excitement and emotion the same way a beautifully wrapped present does. According to Hallmark, the gift wrap industry accounts for approximately $2.6 billion a year in retail sales. Wouldn't you want to use that same money-making idea to sell your home?