Lori Fischer

Don't Apologize for Offering Staging!

I have been so fortunate to hear from Realtors all around the country that they whole heartedly believe in the value of Staging. The sticking point is how to bring up that conversation. I have offered a few blogs about how to do just that, but at a certain point, we have to truly acknowledge that we are offering Staging because we want to help our clients. If we operate from that standpoint, we may have more success.

If you struggle, here are some ways that you can think about it to reframe it for yourself when a client has these objections:

Cost: Staging will actually save your client money. The Real Estate Staging Association has a Staging Calculator app that allows you to plug in mortgage, carrying costs + Staging fee for that property. It will then calculate cost to not stage + savings when the house is staged first. Great tool. Get it.

Why Do I Need It?: Again, Staging saves your client money. 94% of home buyers aged 25-44 start their search online. They will rule out houses immediately that don't have great listing photos. No showings, no offers. Your sellers need to hear that information. Have they looked online? Which houses are they interested in? Which ones are they not interested in? Why? Take pictures of their home + compare to the pictures that they liked.

Does It Make A Difference?: What do you think? If you don't believe that Staging makes a difference, your client won't. If you don't think it's a value, they won't. If you don't think it sells a house faster, they won't. On the contrary, if you believe that it works, they will appreciate you recommending it. Everyday, I am talking to Realtors who want to offer Staging as a new part of their service to clients. This can't be because the service isn't considered an important aspect of marketing a house.

Reach out to a Stager + learn about what they can do for you, what their rates are, how they operate so that you are informed before you enter the staging conversation. Partner with them. We all have the same goal--taking stress out of selling + helping people get the most money possible--but your knowledge about your local Stagers will help you have these conversations better.

The bottom line: Your client has a need to sell their house. You have a solution to help them sell smarter. Who would dispute that? As always, would love to know your thoughts!

Sellers: 7 Mistakes That Can Keep You From Selling Your House

Not many showings? Little interest in your property? Control what you can control + make sure that you aren't doing any of these:

Forgetting that your property is now a product: As soon as you decide to sell, your house is now a product. Divorce yourself from what you know + feel about your house and get in the mindset of buyers. They want to buy an immaculate, spacious, updated + well maintained home. If you can't say this about your house, roll up your sleeves + get working. If not, buyers will not even come and look at your house because....

You haven't prepared your property for real estate photos: 94% of home buyers aged 25-44 start their home search online. You can't afford to turn them off when they see your listing photos. Poor preparation + listing photos directly impact your pocketbook.

Short term financial thinking: Thinking that you are leaving this place, so you aren’t interested in investing in fixes/change means that you need to now calculate the cost of carrying the house while it remains unsold. Add up mortgage, insurance, taxes, utilities, upkeep, assciation dues, etc. and project that out over 9 months (the average time it takes to sell an unstaged house). That is the true cost of not taking time and spendig a little money upfront to get your house ready.

Confusing the buyer: Are you keeping your dining room as a playroom/home office/etc? Again, if you are marketing a house on the internet, buyers are not likely to even come to see your property. Using the space in a non-traditional way tells a buyer that there is no room in that house for a dining room, playroom, office, etc. Confused buyers won't visit + won't put in offers.

Overwhelming the buyer: Less is more when you are going to sell. Too much furniture, clutter + knickknacks make a house feel small. + make your listing photos look horrendous. Online photos only amplify these issues. Take pictures of each room. How can you improve the space?

Giving TMI: Leaving out pet cages/bowls, too many personal items, collections, knickknacks,etc. can all be turn offs when viewed online + in person. Take some time to put these away before your photos + keep them away for all showings. Packing up collections + knickknacks gives you a jump start on your move.

Selling a vacant home: Not what you want to hear, but trying to sell a vacant home is not ideal. There is not visual cue to how furniture will fit in the space. or anything to emotionally connect a buyer to the space.

I know that it's a little tough love, but we are in a new era in real estate. Staging a house is becoming the norm, not the exception. Keep up with the Joneses + make your place look beautiful!

Sellers: What Apple + Starbuck's Can Teach You About Selling Your House

Selling a home today can be challenging but if you think about your property as a product, you can help your realtor market it much more effectively. We can actually learn a lot about how to successfully sell a product from power house brands like Apple + Starbuck's. What makes these company's products so appealing to buyers + how can we apply that insight into selling your house:

The Power of Stories + The Importance of Me: We all crave a great story, especially if it is about us! Starbuck's tells us to come on in, sit a while, meet friends, stay all day, recharge--this is your place. So, what story does your product tell? Does it tell buyers about your family? About your religion or ethnicity? About projects that you never quite finished? The unique ways that you used the space? If so, it is time to rethink the story you tell.

Buyers want to see their story in the house they are going to buy.

• They want to see that they are going to be organized + happy in this house,
• where they are going to have their morning coffee,
• where they are going to watch the ballgame with their buddies,
• where they are going to entertain their family + friends at the holidays.

If your story is about you, they will not buy.

Clarity: Apple's iPod shuffle is probably easier to use than the first televisions + it sells--a lot. Is your product easy to understand? Of course, it is a house, why wouldn't it be? But, if you are using your dining room as a home office, or a 3rd bedroom as a storage space for extra furniture, you are confusing buyers. A buyer needs to know exactly what the original purpose of that room is or what it should be. If they are confused, they will not buy.

Beauty: Simple is the new beautiful, complicated is the new defective. Powerful + true. People buy Apple products because they have a cool design + they are so easy to use. We have so little time that we make decisions based on visual appeal + ease of use. Your product should send a similar message. Buyers want to walk into a space and know that it is a turnkey opportunity. "We can move right in. We don't have to do anything" is what you want buyers saying when they are walking through the property. If it isn't beautiful + simple, they will not buy.

The Stager's Dilemma

To all who posted on my blog "Realtors Set Yourself Apart: Don't Offer Staging, Offer These Three Things" you have brought up so many of the common resistances that people have to staging:

• money
• they like the status quo
• fear of the unknown
• they don't know they need it
• money
• the results/benefits aren't clearly defined
• they are overwhelmed
• they don't want more work
• money

So Stagers we now have feedback from a wide variety of real estate professionals about many of the key issues + we have a choice.

We can choose to think bigger about what we offer, what we do, how we tell our story, what gifts we give. By doing so, we begin to bridge the gap in understanding how we can help. People pay when they see the value, specialness, uniqueness.

Or we can choose to share the same message as everyone else, make the same promises, give the same presentations, meet the same obstacles. When we think about it, by choosing the same, we become just like the unwilling home owner right down to sharing their objections.

What choice will you make?

So Who Should Pay the Stager?

Based on all of the great feedback (thank you!) to my last blog post, Realtors Set Yourself Apart: Don't Offer Staging, Offer These 3 Things, it is clear that we are definitely still in new territory when it comes to real estate staging. The average seller doesn't truly understand the benefit the way that Realtors + Stagers do. They like their house the way it is. They are blind to the property's shortcomings. They think they can do it themselves (many can, but not all). We are obviously still in education mode + need to think out of the box a bit.

This also means that you have a huge opportunity! You have the chance to be extraordinary and do something different for your clients.

Provide a higher level of service.

Make their lives easier.

Give them a hand to hold.

Rather than suggest staging, perhaps you want to provide a Stager (and, honestly, I wouldn't call it a Stager--too many preconceived notions) as part of your service. Make it the norm + not about their particular house. You provide listing photos, brochures, open houses and video tours--all of which could be in vain if the house is in poor condition. In fact, these things are an expectation. Why not turn staging into an expectation. Your clients won't accept it if they think that you are singling them out. But, if this is just part of the exceptional service you provide to all of your clients...they feel smart for choosing you!

Can you imagine the word of mouth that you would receive by offering something above and beyond other Realtors? What that could mean to your overall business?

Ask Colleen McConnell of Advanced Realty South based in Tallahassee or Bryan Robertson of the Sereno Group of Los Altos in Los Altos, California or Jeremiah Taylor of Keller Williams Southern Arizona what it has meant to their businesses...