Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
10 Homebuyer Turnoffs
As seen on LindaSecrist.com - April 15, 2014
Here are 10 items that sellers should take a look at and handle today!
Hands down, NOTHING turns off a buyer quicker than a dirty house.
The No. 1 biggest mistake is not getting the home in the best possible condition. Linda Secrist and Associates strongly recommend that sellers go the extra mile, from steam-cleaning tile and grout to replacing carpets. If the carpets are old and smelly, you should put in new. If the carpets are in good condition and are relatively new, then at least have them cleaned by a carpet cleaning professional.
GRIME CAN AND WILL DERAIL A SHOWING! The home should be neat and clean and free of all debris. If it reeks of cats, or the kitchen sinks and counters are filthy and cluttered, agents and their buyers will not want to come in or at least not continue through the rest of your home.
Buyers, it's said, buy with their noses. Make sure your home smells fresh and inviting.
Odors are a big one, especially kitchen odors. You may even want to avoid cooking foods, like fried foods, fish, or using certain spices that can leave lingering odors, such as garlic or curry, while your home is on the market.
Some pet owners mistakenly believe pet smells to which they've become accustomed help make their abode homey. Nothing could be further from the truth. If you're a dog person, you might tend to think everyone else is a dog person. But the truth is, 50 percent of the population hates dogs and doesn't want to be near them. If you have pets in the home, you need to deal with them while your home is on the market, to avoid these odors.
It is a good idea to iliminate all traces of pets, not just pet odors. It's important to get rid of pet paraphernalia and have a "pet plan" to make sure the animals are not around when the house is shown.
Often, sellers will leave pet items out such as dog dishes, cat litter boxes, etc. These items will immediately deter a buyer because they wonder, 'What has that animal done in the house?' Also, some people really don't like dogs. The minute they walk in and see this big, old dog bowl, they immediately won't like the house. Same for cats, rodents and especially reptiles!
The same rules hold true for smokers: Remove all ashtrays, clean all curtains and upholstery, and consider smoking outdoors while your home is on the market.
Want buyers to roll their eyes? Leave old fixtures on your doors and cabinets. This may surprise many sellers, but new cabinet hardware and doorknobs will probably cost all of $400 or $500, but it makes a huge difference.
The same holds true for dated ceiling fans, light fixtures and kitchen appliances.
Sellers often say, 'Oh, the buyers can take care of that.' Well, yes they can, but it's going to impede you from getting the highest price possible for your home and it, most likely, will make your home take longer to sell.
Your grandmother may have had it in every bedroom. Your mom may have loved it as a room accent. But today's buyer wants no part of wallpaper. Wallpaper, in today's market, is a definite NO-NO!
Wallpaper is a pain to remove and simply adds another chore to a buyer's to-do list. Today's buyers are very reluctant to take part in this task and will move on to the next home.
Wallpaper is extremely personalized. You've spent hours looking over books to pick out the wallpaper you want. What are the odds that the person walking in the door will also like that wallpaper that you picked out?
Times change, and with them home decor styles. Acoustic popcorn ceilings, once the must-have for fashionable homes in the '60s and '70s, now badly date your space. Popcorn acoustic ceiling is a major turnoff! Best to get rid of it.
If you can't stomach the cost or the mess to remove the overhead popcorn, be prepared to credit a buyer in certain markets in order to close a sale.
When buyers tour a home, phsycologically, they're trying it on to see how it fits, just as they would a pair of pants. If your house is cluttered with too many personal items, it's like the buyer is trying on those clothes with you still in them. A fit is unlikely.
Anything that makes your house scream 'you' is what you don't want. Linda Secrist tells her clients that how we decorate to live and how we decorate to sell are different, and right now, it's crucial to decorate to SELL!
Sellers should try to eliminate personal items, including family photos, personal effects and even unique colors, she says.
As soon as you have family photos, buyers get very distracted. 'Oh, did I go to school with him? What do their children look like?' Suddenly, you're selling your family, and you're not selling the home.
If you really want to hook a buyer, try to place a mirror strategically so that people can actually see themselves in the home, so they can actually picture themselves living there.
Realtors and buyers alike generally bristle when the seller greets them at the door for a showing.
It can be annoying and a deterrent. They will want to walk around with the potential buyer and put in their two cents' worth. It's not good. Realistically, there is only one out of 10 sellers where it's OK to have them there, and that's because they know what is up with the property and how everything works.
Misrepresenting your house online in the Multiple Listing Service is a sure way to really upset buyers and their Realtors.
No buyer wants to see the perfect house online, go to see it, only to find out there is a commercial development backing your yard. Be up front, even show a photo within the home tour with the commercial development. Otherwise, you may get your home ready to show and the buyer will refuse to even go in. Best to prepare the buyer prior to going to the lengths it takes to get your home show-worthy.
Sellers are going to paint the best picture they can. Some listings we 've looked at and wondered how in the world they got that gorgeous photo without showing all the junk that's around it. When you get there, you wonder why didn't they just be upfront?
Much is made of curb appeal, and for good reason: It's your home's handshake, the critical first impression that lasts with most buyers.
Sellers need to trim and edge their yard to get it into the most immaculate condition possible. Power wash the exterior, make certain mud daubers, wasp and bird nests are removed from around doors. Even freshly mulch the beds and trim the trees. Every little detail counts.
Whether inside or out, less is more when it comes to clutter.
Start in the closets. Your closets should be half-full with nothing on the floor. Why? Because most people looking for a house have outgrown their previous house. Showing them that you've still got room to grow gives them a reason to buy.
Kitchens and built-in bookshelves should showcase spaciousness by following the rule of three. For kitchens, there should be no more than three countertop appliances. Meanwhile, bookshelves should be divided into thirds: one-third books, one-third vases and pictures, and one-third empty.
LINDA SECRIST - LINDA SECRIST & ASSOCIATES - WHATEVER THEY TOUCH TURNS TO SOLD!
Here are 10 items that sellers should take a look at and handle today!
#1 - Dirt
The No. 1 biggest mistake is not getting the home in the best possible condition. Linda Secrist and Associates strongly recommend that sellers go the extra mile, from steam-cleaning tile and grout to replacing carpets. If the carpets are old and smelly, you should put in new. If the carpets are in good condition and are relatively new, then at least have them cleaned by a carpet cleaning professional.
GRIME CAN AND WILL DERAIL A SHOWING! The home should be neat and clean and free of all debris. If it reeks of cats, or the kitchen sinks and counters are filthy and cluttered, agents and their buyers will not want to come in or at least not continue through the rest of your home.
#2 - Odors
Buyers, it's said, buy with their noses. Make sure your home smells fresh and inviting.
Odors are a big one, especially kitchen odors. You may even want to avoid cooking foods, like fried foods, fish, or using certain spices that can leave lingering odors, such as garlic or curry, while your home is on the market.
Some pet owners mistakenly believe pet smells to which they've become accustomed help make their abode homey. Nothing could be further from the truth. If you're a dog person, you might tend to think everyone else is a dog person. But the truth is, 50 percent of the population hates dogs and doesn't want to be near them. If you have pets in the home, you need to deal with them while your home is on the market, to avoid these odors.
It is a good idea to iliminate all traces of pets, not just pet odors. It's important to get rid of pet paraphernalia and have a "pet plan" to make sure the animals are not around when the house is shown.
Often, sellers will leave pet items out such as dog dishes, cat litter boxes, etc. These items will immediately deter a buyer because they wonder, 'What has that animal done in the house?' Also, some people really don't like dogs. The minute they walk in and see this big, old dog bowl, they immediately won't like the house. Same for cats, rodents and especially reptiles!
The same rules hold true for smokers: Remove all ashtrays, clean all curtains and upholstery, and consider smoking outdoors while your home is on the market.
#3 - Old Fixtures
Want buyers to roll their eyes? Leave old fixtures on your doors and cabinets. This may surprise many sellers, but new cabinet hardware and doorknobs will probably cost all of $400 or $500, but it makes a huge difference.
The same holds true for dated ceiling fans, light fixtures and kitchen appliances.
Sellers often say, 'Oh, the buyers can take care of that.' Well, yes they can, but it's going to impede you from getting the highest price possible for your home and it, most likely, will make your home take longer to sell.
#4 - Wallpaper
Your grandmother may have had it in every bedroom. Your mom may have loved it as a room accent. But today's buyer wants no part of wallpaper. Wallpaper, in today's market, is a definite NO-NO!
Wallpaper is a pain to remove and simply adds another chore to a buyer's to-do list. Today's buyers are very reluctant to take part in this task and will move on to the next home.
Wallpaper is extremely personalized. You've spent hours looking over books to pick out the wallpaper you want. What are the odds that the person walking in the door will also like that wallpaper that you picked out?
#5 - Popcorn Acoustic Ceilings
Times change, and with them home decor styles. Acoustic popcorn ceilings, once the must-have for fashionable homes in the '60s and '70s, now badly date your space. Popcorn acoustic ceiling is a major turnoff! Best to get rid of it.
If you can't stomach the cost or the mess to remove the overhead popcorn, be prepared to credit a buyer in certain markets in order to close a sale.
#6 - Too Many Personal Items
When buyers tour a home, phsycologically, they're trying it on to see how it fits, just as they would a pair of pants. If your house is cluttered with too many personal items, it's like the buyer is trying on those clothes with you still in them. A fit is unlikely.
Anything that makes your house scream 'you' is what you don't want. Linda Secrist tells her clients that how we decorate to live and how we decorate to sell are different, and right now, it's crucial to decorate to SELL!
Sellers should try to eliminate personal items, including family photos, personal effects and even unique colors, she says.
As soon as you have family photos, buyers get very distracted. 'Oh, did I go to school with him? What do their children look like?' Suddenly, you're selling your family, and you're not selling the home.
If you really want to hook a buyer, try to place a mirror strategically so that people can actually see themselves in the home, so they can actually picture themselves living there.
#7 - Snoopy Sellers
Realtors and buyers alike generally bristle when the seller greets them at the door for a showing.
It can be annoying and a deterrent. They will want to walk around with the potential buyer and put in their two cents' worth. It's not good. Realistically, there is only one out of 10 sellers where it's OK to have them there, and that's because they know what is up with the property and how everything works.
#8 - Misrepresenting Your Home
Misrepresenting your house online in the Multiple Listing Service is a sure way to really upset buyers and their Realtors.
No buyer wants to see the perfect house online, go to see it, only to find out there is a commercial development backing your yard. Be up front, even show a photo within the home tour with the commercial development. Otherwise, you may get your home ready to show and the buyer will refuse to even go in. Best to prepare the buyer prior to going to the lengths it takes to get your home show-worthy.
Sellers are going to paint the best picture they can. Some listings we 've looked at and wondered how in the world they got that gorgeous photo without showing all the junk that's around it. When you get there, you wonder why didn't they just be upfront?
#9 - Poor Curb Appeal
Much is made of curb appeal, and for good reason: It's your home's handshake, the critical first impression that lasts with most buyers.
Sellers need to trim and edge their yard to get it into the most immaculate condition possible. Power wash the exterior, make certain mud daubers, wasp and bird nests are removed from around doors. Even freshly mulch the beds and trim the trees. Every little detail counts.
#10 - Clutter
Whether inside or out, less is more when it comes to clutter.
Start in the closets. Your closets should be half-full with nothing on the floor. Why? Because most people looking for a house have outgrown their previous house. Showing them that you've still got room to grow gives them a reason to buy.
Kitchens and built-in bookshelves should showcase spaciousness by following the rule of three. For kitchens, there should be no more than three countertop appliances. Meanwhile, bookshelves should be divided into thirds: one-third books, one-third vases and pictures, and one-third empty.
LINDA SECRIST - LINDA SECRIST & ASSOCIATES - WHATEVER THEY TOUCH TURNS TO SOLD!
Friday, February 13, 2015
8 Shockingly Bad Staging Ideas
As seen on Trulia - By Tara-Nicholle Nelson
Real estate is an intensely personal experience for many buyers and sellers. After all, a home, at its core, is a personal expression of a homeowner’s entire life wrapped inside four small (okay, sometimes not so small) walls.
And while, ultimately, buyers should be more focused on the bones of the home—the things that will stay after the current owner has vacated—staging can often be the difference between a buyer bonanza and a dearth of hot offers. Don’t let your sellers suffer at the hands of poor staging.
It may be challenging, but a little tough love now, will make for a love fest post-sale—after the big offers come flying in. Here are 8 of the biggest staging sins sellers make and how agents can help their sellers avoid these pitfalls before it costs them a sweet deal.
1. Collection Overload
It is very difficult for almost any collection to look orderly and neutral, two high-level aims of home staging. Unless the homeowner has attractive, high-end built-in cases to house the collections and the target buyers share a similar affinity for the objects, even the coolest collection can come off as a pile of space-consuming clutter.
When it comes to shockingly bad staging decisions, the choice to give a taxidermy or gun collection a starring role in a home’s staging is high in the oh-so-bad rankings. For some buyers, these collections can trigger ethical and sanitation and can distract from the strengths and features the property has to offer.
What to Tell Your Seller:
Remember that uber-personal thing we talked about earlier? Collections are often a source of pride or hold sentimental value. Tread lightly. Let your seller know that while you appreciate the collection, their home sale will benefit from a more neutral, less-personal aesthetic. You may also want to mention that open houses mean many people in and out of the seller’s home. All prized possessions should be stored ahead of time.
2. Echo-Chamber Staging
In an echo chamber, sounds are amplified because they simply bounce around in that closed space. When left alone, the same thing can happen to sellers if they do not have outside input. And unfortunately, it seems to be the bad staging ideas that get amplified, more than the good ones. Echo chamber staging happens when the sum total of a staging team, well, one person. That bold wallpaper in the bathroom may seem like a good idea, but a little perspective—and another opinion—may prove otherwise.
What to Tell Your Sellers:
The truth can hurt—but backing into your argument can take some of the sting out of the professional staging talk. Sellers who stage with zero external or professional input, are often the sellers who are unable to see:
- that their homes are still significantly cluttered or over-full,
- that their furniture is too plentiful and too large to show how spacious the home truly is, or
- that their sweet feline companions are also rather malodorous to strangers.
Take a little staging field trip with your sellers. Take them to one home with tasteful bring-in-the-buyers staging and another to a home with cover-your-eyes-bad décor. It can be tough to self assess, but once you show your sellers what a big difference a little staging makes, they may be more open to the suggestion. If your clients have a bare-bones budget, see if they’ll hire a pro stager for just an hour’s worth of advice.
3. Failure to Edit
You’ve heard thirty-somethings who still live at home diagnosed with failure to launch? Well, failure to edit is a close cousin of this syndrome. As the New York Times recently put it, “the job of stagers is to reverse the accumulated creep of hundreds of small and misguided design decisions, and to erase any hints of the messiness of daily life.” Your client might have a fantastic rug, a beautiful sofa, amazing tchotchkes and the highest-end personal effects, but chances are good that their cumulative first impression to a buyer viewing the home will still fall short of the “one broad stroke of gorgeousness” the Times piece correctly says home sellers should aim for, with their staging.
The failure to edit is a generalized syndrome which can manifest in all sorts of specific staging woes, from garden variety clutter to disastrous decor style mash-ups.
What to Tell Your Sellers:
Edit, edit, edit. Then go back and edit again. Sellers should think of de-cluttering as pre-packing. If your client is a DIY stager, tell them to ask their friends to come in and help decide what still needs to go, once they think they’re done removing furniture and personal effects. A sassy best friend or a nit-picky sister-in-law can sometimes be an agent’s best friend.
The difference between staging and interior design is simple: staging is cost-and-time efficient design undertaken with the specific objective of showing a home off to its best advantage, playing up its features and helping prospective buyers visualize the best lives they could possibly live in the home, should they choose it. Unfortunately, this has led some well-intentioned sellers and stagers to believe they should stage one bedroom as a Parisian boulevard (Eiffel tower mural included), another with a full-blown butterfly theme and the third as the beach—complete with umbrella, towels on the wall and sunscreen bottles on the nightstand. I saw this house, folks. With my own two eyes.
4. Silly Scenarios
What to Tell Your Sellers:
Be firm. Let sellers know that they should stage their home to show off its space, light and conveniences, and the best, basic purposes that unusually small or large spaces could be used for. If the backyard is a huge selling point, stage it with outdoor dining or living room furnishings. Similarly, if the home is a two-bedroom with a bonus room in an area of four-bedroom homes, staging the bonus room as a bedroom or home office helps buyers understand the solutions that can minimize the brunt of your home’s challenges.
Staging your home to create “cute” scenarios with no relationship to the selling points or solutions buyers care about is of no value and can create a low-budget feel.
5. The ‘Lived-in’ Look
When a home is being shown for sale, it must be immaculate, every single time it’s being shown. It should look like no one lives there: no toothbrushes, curling irons, protein shake mixes or paperwork allowed.
Is this difficult to keep up? Absolutely. But you’d be surprised at how bad an impression just a few personal toiletries or dishes can make.
What to Tell Your Sellers:
Work closely with your sellers so that they understand the importance of a flawless showing. Encourage your clients to set up a system for putting everything away and wiping down all kitchens, bathrooms and other daily mess hot spots every single time the home is going to be shown.
6. Closet Cramming
Out of sight is not out of mind. Home buyers today are desperate for storage space and will undoubtedly open those same, crammed-tight doors in an effort to evaluate how the home ranks for storage. Beautifully organized closets with ample room create an impression in the buyer’s mind that they, too, can have an orderly life in the home.
What to Tell Your Sellers
Encourage sellers to see the exercise of staging as an opportunity to sell, donate or throw out things they no longer need. Remind them that even huge closets, if crammed to the gills, make buyers wonder how they’ll ever get by with so little closet space.
7. Failing to Stage for All the Senses
A house that smells like pet mayhem or smoke or has a noisily defective heater is a tough house to sell, no matter how beautifully it is staged. Unfortunately, smells and sounds are very easy to get acclimated to, when you live with them. Buyers, though, will detect them the second they walk in—and the moment they do is the moment we in the business call “turn-off time.”
What to Tell Your Sellers:
It may be uncomfortable—but honest is the best policy. Be gentle and sensitive (‘musky’ comes across softer than ‘moldy, dank, and gross’). Offer to work with them to fix it or refer them to a trusted vendor who can.
8. Not Staging at All
Ultimately, the most shockingly bad of all staging decisions is the surprisingly frequent decision not to bother staging the home at all. This explains homes like the one I once viewed which had residents still sound asleep in their beds, in the dining room, as the listing agent walked myself and my mortified buyer clients through the property. On the less bizarre end of the non-staged spectrum, this is how lovely homes with vast potential end up selling at a discount, as cosmetic fixers at a discount. This is a particular tragedy in cases where the owners could have painted, spruced, moved loads of things out and a few newer things in and made much, much more money on their homes
What to Tell Your Sellers:
Ask them what about staging feels off-putting. If it’s a budgetary concern, focus on de-cluttering and small accents or paint, which can make a big difference on a dime. If the issue is—you guessed it—a little more personal, remember that showing can sometimes be more effective than telling.
Thursday, February 12, 2015
6 Things Sellers Need To Hear
As seen on Trulia
In a market where home inventory is low, sellers may think that their home will move in mere minutes—and at a price that defies even the loftiest expectations. When left untethered, these dreams of big prices and warp speed sales can spell disaster—and major disappointment.
Don’t worry! You’re not doomed to this fate. With a few smart, premeditated steps you can head-off seller miseducation and common misconceptions and start on the path to a successful sale from the get-go. Here are six points that sellers need to know before their home hits the market.
Every agent knows the old adage, “Homes that don’t show well don’t close well.” But still, time and time again we see sellers rail against the time and cost associated with staging a home. After all, if they love their home as it is, why shouldn't everyone else? This is a situation where sometimes showing trumps telling. If you have a particularly staging-averse client, take them on a two-home showing; one where the home is staged and one where the home is not.
Your decor may be a beautiful expression of your personality, but sometimes less is more. You can also download Trulia’s 10 Hardcore Staging Tips for Sellers so that you can reference it before every open house.
It’s understandable that many home sellers think that their home is above the price that the market dictates. Sentimental value often translates into an inflated sense of the home’s worth, but when it comes price, the winning opinion is always the market’s opinion. Agents know it’s impossible to effectively price a home without taking into account the competition. Unfortunately, too many sellers don’t.
First, it’s essential to determine how much the seller thinks their home is worth. If their expectation is wildly inappropriate, it may be worth taking the clients to see a home that is on the market and priced at their expectation. Then, take the seller to a comparable home that is priced similarly to where you feel their home should be priced. Take the time to both educate them on the competition and give them expert home pricing tips to help them understand pricing strategy.
In many cases, the cost of a home repair is less expensive than a potential buyer perceives the cost of the repair to be. If buyers over estimate the cost of fixing the problem, it may negatively impact the offer amount and end up costing the seller more in the long run. Be upfront with your seller clients when you spot unsightly blemishes that could cost your clients the deal.
Offering practical incentives might not sound sexy, but those that fill legitimate buyer needs have the power to differentiate a listing from the competition and attract just the right attention needed to get the home sold for the right price.
Talk to your sellers early about how they might be prepared to sweeten the deal if the right offers don’t come rolling in. Talking incentives early and building them into the marketing plan can arm both agent and seller with the ammunition to jump potential marketing hurdles and beat out the competition for a fast sale.
If you need help deciding what incentives help sell homes check out this popular home seller handout on the Top 4 Incentives that Sell Homes.
Too many sellers see the winter months as the slow season. The reality is, there are plenty of upsides to listing and marketing a home when everyone else is taking a break.
The last few years have turned real estate headlines into high-profile news. Home prices are on the rise. In fact, last month home prices were up 11.9% over the year past. While this is great news for the country as a whole, be sure to remind your sellers that real estate is a local industry and that asking price isn’t everything.
In a market where home inventory is low, sellers may think that their home will move in mere minutes—and at a price that defies even the loftiest expectations. When left untethered, these dreams of big prices and warp speed sales can spell disaster—and major disappointment.
Don’t worry! You’re not doomed to this fate. With a few smart, premeditated steps you can head-off seller miseducation and common misconceptions and start on the path to a successful sale from the get-go. Here are six points that sellers need to know before their home hits the market.
1. Staging Matters—Big Time!
Every agent knows the old adage, “Homes that don’t show well don’t close well.” But still, time and time again we see sellers rail against the time and cost associated with staging a home. After all, if they love their home as it is, why shouldn't everyone else? This is a situation where sometimes showing trumps telling. If you have a particularly staging-averse client, take them on a two-home showing; one where the home is staged and one where the home is not.
Your decor may be a beautiful expression of your personality, but sometimes less is more. You can also download Trulia’s 10 Hardcore Staging Tips for Sellers so that you can reference it before every open house.
2. The Market Sets the Price, Not the Owner
It’s understandable that many home sellers think that their home is above the price that the market dictates. Sentimental value often translates into an inflated sense of the home’s worth, but when it comes price, the winning opinion is always the market’s opinion. Agents know it’s impossible to effectively price a home without taking into account the competition. Unfortunately, too many sellers don’t.
First, it’s essential to determine how much the seller thinks their home is worth. If their expectation is wildly inappropriate, it may be worth taking the clients to see a home that is on the market and priced at their expectation. Then, take the seller to a comparable home that is priced similarly to where you feel their home should be priced. Take the time to both educate them on the competition and give them expert home pricing tips to help them understand pricing strategy.
3. Small Renovations May Mean Big Bucks Later
In many cases, the cost of a home repair is less expensive than a potential buyer perceives the cost of the repair to be. If buyers over estimate the cost of fixing the problem, it may negatively impact the offer amount and end up costing the seller more in the long run. Be upfront with your seller clients when you spot unsightly blemishes that could cost your clients the deal.
4. Incentives Can Help Close the Deal Faster
Offering practical incentives might not sound sexy, but those that fill legitimate buyer needs have the power to differentiate a listing from the competition and attract just the right attention needed to get the home sold for the right price.
Talk to your sellers early about how they might be prepared to sweeten the deal if the right offers don’t come rolling in. Talking incentives early and building them into the marketing plan can arm both agent and seller with the ammunition to jump potential marketing hurdles and beat out the competition for a fast sale.
If you need help deciding what incentives help sell homes check out this popular home seller handout on the Top 4 Incentives that Sell Homes.
5. Serious Buyers Never Stop the Hunt
Too many sellers see the winter months as the slow season. The reality is, there are plenty of upsides to listing and marketing a home when everyone else is taking a break.
6. Real Estate Is a Local Business
The last few years have turned real estate headlines into high-profile news. Home prices are on the rise. In fact, last month home prices were up 11.9% over the year past. While this is great news for the country as a whole, be sure to remind your sellers that real estate is a local industry and that asking price isn’t everything.
5 Deal-Killing Winter Staging Mistakes
As seen on Trulia - by Jovan Hackley
‘Tis the season…to stage with smarts. When a winter listing comes in it usually means the clients are driven by serious urgency. Unfortunately that urgency doesn’t always translate into the best staging decisions. Here are five all-too-common winter staging decisions that can crush a late-year sale and a few suggestions for cutting them off at the pass:
Yes, we’ve reached one of the jolliest seasons of them all and that comes with the urge to get in the spirit. For sellers there is a dangerous line between spirited and off-putting holiday decor. Remember that you can never know the preferences of prospective buyers. So, gently guide sellers to decorate in a way that won’t deter anyone and make sure the tinsel doesn’t outshine the home.
Remember a showing is about both look and feel. If your sellers are the habit of having the heat off when they’re not home, make sure you call or text to remind them to heat it up before home tours. Prospects won’t hang around an unheated home long and this little distraction could cause them to miss a listing’s best features.
It’s cold outside and that means cats, pups, and other family friends are more likely to be inside with their belongings and “gifts.” When working with winter sellers, come up with a plan early on for what happens to pets during a showing and special checklist to make sure the toys, hair, and other accessories are stored in a way that doesn’t ruin the showing.
It seems simple, but this can be big. Whether your clients go all out or not on staging, the doormat is essential for the winter season. They don’t want to return home to traces of their prospects in every room or end up with a showing stain they can’t overcome.
Winter repairs take more effort than in any other season in most areas. Make sure the cold or changing weather doesn’t deter your prospects from securing a sale. Just as only serious sellers list during the winter, only serious buyers are on the market. Those buyers have plenty of choices and your staging and listing have to be enough to move them off of a very cold fence.
‘Tis the season…to stage with smarts. When a winter listing comes in it usually means the clients are driven by serious urgency. Unfortunately that urgency doesn’t always translate into the best staging decisions. Here are five all-too-common winter staging decisions that can crush a late-year sale and a few suggestions for cutting them off at the pass:
1. Over-Holidaying
Yes, we’ve reached one of the jolliest seasons of them all and that comes with the urge to get in the spirit. For sellers there is a dangerous line between spirited and off-putting holiday decor. Remember that you can never know the preferences of prospective buyers. So, gently guide sellers to decorate in a way that won’t deter anyone and make sure the tinsel doesn’t outshine the home.
2. De-Heating
3. Pet Pandering
It’s cold outside and that means cats, pups, and other family friends are more likely to be inside with their belongings and “gifts.” When working with winter sellers, come up with a plan early on for what happens to pets during a showing and special checklist to make sure the toys, hair, and other accessories are stored in a way that doesn’t ruin the showing.
4. The Missing Doormat
It seems simple, but this can be big. Whether your clients go all out or not on staging, the doormat is essential for the winter season. They don’t want to return home to traces of their prospects in every room or end up with a showing stain they can’t overcome.
5. Under-Renovating
Winter repairs take more effort than in any other season in most areas. Make sure the cold or changing weather doesn’t deter your prospects from securing a sale. Just as only serious sellers list during the winter, only serious buyers are on the market. Those buyers have plenty of choices and your staging and listing have to be enough to move them off of a very cold fence.
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