SHARON CHARBONEAU- Upstaging BC's West Coast

Home staging is about making a home look its best: ensuring it looks attractive, spacious and welcoming. This is difficult to achieve in some homes which have too much furniture, or too much clutter and no space the buyer can appreciate.

One of the common problems many sellers have when they are putting their house on the market is where to put all of the furniture & personal belongings that will not be needed during the selling process.

I have anticipated this need by meeting with a major mover in our area and negotiating a discount for my clients. They will exclusively offer my clients a free month of storage if they use their company to move after the house has sold.

Now when I meet with them to discuss staging their home and the process of de-cluttering and packing up out of season items, they will groan a little less. And the extras won't be clogging up their garage or basement.

IT'S A TIME FOR NEW BEGINNINGS

The real estate market is picking up for Spring. See the real estate section of today's Globe & Mail. It is about the Toronto market; however the major point applies to every market. If your home does not look its best, there won't be a sale at all, or the offer won't be at the price you were expecting.

Savy sellers are calling in home stagers months before they want to list their property: motivated sellers then follow up on the home stager's recommendations made during a short, reasonably-priced consultation:

• They begin their packing up & de-cluttering process - putting away out of season clothes, boots, sports equipment, furniture, books etc that will not be needed during the selling process
• They get rid of junk that has accumulated, donate to charities, give to friends & family and have garage sales: then they place the extras that will go to the new home in storage - not in their garage or basement
• Savy sellers know that buyers don't want to look at cramped closets and garages and basements that will leave them with the impression the home does not have enough storage space
• They use this time to get any repairs done, remove wallpaper which many buyers don't want, refresh the walls, ceilings and floors with cleaning and fresh paint, re-grout the sinks and bathtubs, clean the rugs, wash the windows and ensure their home is spotlessly clean.
• Motivated home owners who are smokers understand that there are more buyers who are non-smokers. They will have to commit to not smoking inside the home again once it has been cleaned and refreshed
• Clean up yards, prune bushes, sweep off porches, replace dirty old doormats, replace lightbulbs
  
• Ensure the front entrance to your house has curb appeal

Sellers who don't have the time or the ability to do these tasks will be given the names of independent contractors the Stager has worked with in the past who do good work for reasonable prices: the Stager can also manage these projects if time is an issue for sellers with busy professional lives.

IT IS TIME TO EMOTIONALLY DETACH FROM YOUR HOME AND RECOGNIZE THAT IT IS NOW A HOUSE BEING MARKETED FOR SALE: THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO DISMISS THE PROFESSIONALS ADVICE ON HOW TO EFFECTIVELY MARKET YOUR HOUSE. IN FACT, THEY ARE DOING THEIR JOB MORE EFFECTIVELY IF THEY DO SAY SOME THINGS YOU FIND HARD TO HEAR!

In most cases, the Stager can work with the homeowner's belongings - and may just re-arrange some furniture and artwork and do some more de-cluttering and de-personalizing. Home Stagers know what buyers want to see when they walk into their potential new home, and that does not include items such as family photos, hunting trophies, or political or religious objects or photos. They may be special to the homeowners, however these items have been known to turn a buyer off, and prevent them from seeing your house as their new home.

Vacant houses do not sell easily, and can be considered cold and uninteresting to buyers. Only about 10% of buyers can visualize how the house could look.

Stagers can provide furniture from their own inventory or through rental firms they work with on an on-going basis. This will be an additional cost to the seller, however it usually pays off in a quicker offer, and maybe even a higher offer than expected.

Savy sellers think of hiring a Stager as an investment in their future.

In all instances, the cost of staging is far less than the first price reduction your realtor may recommend

The Stager is looking at your home from an objective view point, they know what buyers want: they want you to achieve your goal of selling the house quickly and for the best price.

Once your house is presentation-ready, it is time to call in an experienced realtor who knows the market and will price your home properly.

Not suprisingly the realtor is more likely to recommend a higher list price when they walk into a spotless, well presented house.

PRICE AND PRESENTATION ARE CRITICAL FOR ATTRACTING BUYERS

Be prepared to work with the realtor to effectivlely market your home - don't just place your major asset in their hands, without input and follow-up.

• Have photos of your home, inside and outside, to show to your realtor and to offer them to use on MLS and their website.
• This is very important during a transition period like Spring, when the home may have a beautiful garden that would be an attractive selling feature in a few months; however at the moment garden beds are not particularly attractive, depending on what is planted there. It is important for buyers to see what will be in a few months, when they are moving into their new home.
  

Draft a description of the home and its best features for the realtor to work with: sellers know their homes and the features they have loved over the years. Who better to describe the assets for the description of your house and area?

PROFESSIONAL PHOTOS OF EACH ROOM, THE PROPERTY AND THE HOUSE ARE THE BEST. UPSTAGING YOUR HOMES HAS A PARTNERSHIP WITH A PROFESSIONA HOME PHOTOGRAPHER BECAUSE THOSE PHOTOS ENSURE THE PRESENTATION OF THE HOME IS OPTIMIZED.

• If the realtor is taking the photos, ask to see the ones they plan to place on MLS and their website. Only allow the best ones to go public
• There should be no people, pets or any other distractions, like clutter, in the photos
• Ask your realtor to make it easy for the buyer to "walk" through your house by identifying where the buyer is in each photo as they click away on the websites
• 80-92% of home buyers shop on-line. If a listing does not catch their attention, they just move on to the next listing within seconds
• Review the MLS photos and the realtor's website to ensure the photos are loading properly and quickly - mistakes happen
• If the only photos on the website are of the view, the area - and only one shot of your house - or no interior shots at all, there is a problem. This is a signal to buyers that the home is not much to look at, may be a "ripper-downer". If that is not the impression your realtor left you with, then you better contact your realtor and find out what is going on
• Maybe your realtor found it difficult to honestly tell you your house needed work

TRY PUTTING YOURSELF IN THE PLACE OF POTENTIAL BUYERS. IS YOUR HOUSE ATTRACTIVE AND WELL KEPT INSIDE AND OUTSIDE? AS A POTENTIAL BUYER, WOULD YOU BE INTERESTED ENOUGH TO WANT A VIEWING?

IF YOU AND YOUR REALTOR BOTH KNOW THE ANSWER TO THAT QUESTION IS NO, THEN:

1. YOU EITHER TAKE THE HOUSE OFF THE MARKET AND CALL A HOME STAGER AND DO THE WORK WHICH SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE BEFORE THE LISTING WENT PUBLIC, OR
   
2. YOU ARE BOTH MORE REALISTIC ABOUT WHAT THE HOUSE WILL SELL FOR AND RE-PRICE IT ACCORDINGLY

• Within the first 30 days if there has not been any action, talk to your realtor and see what they have been doing to market your home.
  
• Be receptive to Open Houses - have one scheduled if one hasn't been already
• Ensure you get feedback from your realtor. What are other realtors and buyers saying about your house?
• Don't get defensive - hear it and deal with it - if it is reasonable and not prohibitively expensive
  
• Your home stager can provide advice and may have a quicker, more reasonably priced solution

TO LIST YOUR HOME CALL A REALTOR; TO SELL YOUR HOME CALL A STAGER AND A PHOTOGRAPHER

UPSTAGING YOUR HOMES TAKES 'drab' HOMES TO 'FAB' HOMES

AND

PROVIDES PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHS TO ENSURE THE 'FAB HOME' IS SEEN BY BUYERS

How interesting is this photo to potential buyers in the Spring?

If you still have photos showing snow, snow shovels, Christmas lights or other unseasonal decorations, it is time for removing them and getting new shots taken of those properties.

If you are advertising a property which has lots of greenery, gardens, fruit trees - get those on MLS - not the photos of winter beds with no visual interest.

Granted our irises aren't out of the ground yet.....but that is what is going to wow a potential buyer, not looking at winter bed with no foliageAsk your client for their photos of the garden.

Take a look at the photos you currently have posted for listings that are over 60 days: are they highlighting the best features of your client's property? Or are they out of season, lacking in colour, showing cluttered bath and kitchen counters, piles of shoes, messy beds and sunrooms with cardboard boxes instead of plants and a view.

Don't let your client empty the home of all furniture. Even if it is not the best, a home stager can work with it and make it look much better. Vacant homes are far less attractive and only 10% of buyers are able to visualize how the rooms are to be used and what they would look like with furniture and accessories.

80-92% of potential buyers decide what properties they want to view from MLS photos. If your photos are boring, loading too slowly, not titled so the buyer knows what room they are looking at, you are wasting yours and your clients time, costing them $$, and losing out on potential sales.

Check out the February '09 study on staged vs. unstaged homes and the time spent on the market at www.realestatestagingassociation.com website.

IT'S SPRING - THE SEASON OF NEW BEGINNINGS

IT'S TIME TO RE-THINK YOUR MARKETING STRATEGIES AND HAVE A PROFESSIONAL HOME STAGER AND PHOTOGRAPHER ON YOUR TEAM

Now is the ideal time to ensure your current listings are reviewed and updated with professional home staging, followed professional photographs which will create a "FAB" home out of a "drab" home

Join the group of converted realtors who have already discovered, staged homes look better and sell faster!

REALTORS BRING IN BUYERS; STAGERS BRING IN OFFERS

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UPSTAGING YOUR HOMES on the SUNSHINE COAST