Staging - It Works!

For about two years now, I've been an Accredited Staging Professional Realtor. Staging plays an important role in how I help my listing clients sell their properties quickly, but for some reason I have never blogged about the topic here.

Recently, I had a couple of great opportunities to prove to myself how effective staging is, as far as reducing time on market and attracting top-dollar offers. One listing was a home that had marketed previously without staging, the other listing was my own personal home. I'm not going to get into what we did on our personal home in this post, but will at some point in the future.

The listing I want to talk about was a wonderful home in a nice neighborhood that had been listed and failed to sell. Clients contacted me to find out what my suggestions were. When it had been listed originally, it was sort of oddly furnished and mostly filled with kids' toys, so buyers were having a hard time understanding how to use the spaces of the home. It was in a neighborhood which usually attracts buyers who have sort of upscale aspirations.

It seemed to me the lack of furniture and the confusing use of the rooms was putting buyers off from making an offer, so we determined that we would address these issues.

To do so, we gave the home a thorough cleaning and did some patching of interior paint. Then, we brought in furniture to show how the rooms could be used, and also to attract our "aspirational" buyers. We did some simple decorations using items that I and the seller already owned to make the home as appealing as possible.

When we returned the listing to the market, we received a full price offer in less than 6 days. This was a great result since typically in this neighborhood, it takes upwards of a month to get an offer and the house was listed at the highest per-square-foot price ever in its neighborhood.

Here are some before and after shots.




Here is a "before" shot of the dining room of this home, taken from the stairwell. You can see from this picture that it was not entirely clear what the space should be used for. It was also not a great picture to put on the Multiple Listing Service, because of the way the banister of the stairwell cuts off the bottom of the shot. It makes the room appear oddly shaped.









Here is an after shot of the dining room, showing the furniture and accessories we brought in to show off the use of the space. The professional photography also made a difference because we were able to get an angle on the room that shows how it flows to the rest of the house, and the lighting is better. Brown and neutral tones along with place settings and exotic flowers give the room a warm, modern feel.

Here is a "before" shot of the living room, before staging. You can see that although it appears neat and clean, there are children's toys and no real furniture in the space. The photograph doesn't provide any real feel for the dimensions of the room either.

This is a shot of the living room, after staging. It's a different angle on the room than the before shot, but you can see that we brought in furniture and arranged it to illustrate how the space could be used as a living room. We also took care to take the photograph in a way that illustrated the great open floor plan of the home, and provided an appearance of spaciousness for the MLS listing.

A Marketing Process for Selling Homes

I came to real estate from the consulting world, where everything is done via a defined process. I've spent most of my career in real estate trying to develop and apply a strategic process to marketing the homes I list.

I like to break it down into stages that take place before, during and after the time a seller lists their home for sale. To my mind, the preparation is really what will determine whether you are successful in selling it. Everything else--pricing, promotion, etc., will depend on how well prepared the property is.

The first step in the process is to understand your target market. In real estate, the question we must answer in order to be effective as listing agents is, "who is the buyer that will buy this home?"

Not every home appeals to every buyer out there. You wouldn't market a high-rise urban condominium in the same way you would market a retirement community, suburban residence or a luxury estate. Each of these has a different target market and has to be marketed differently.

So first, you have to identify your target market and understand what is important to them. What makes them get excited about one house, or product, over another? What is the best way to reach them? How do they make decisions? Once you know the answer to these questions, you can proceed to the next steps--developing the plan to attract the targeted buyers, implementing the plan, and then measuring your results.

Let me give you a real world example of how the preparation and target marketing part of this works.

I recently had a listing appointment with a seller whose listing had expired. They called and invited me to come and present a marketing plan to them and identify some of the reasons why their house hadn't sold.

The home was a lovely newer construction home on a greenbelt, with a low maintenance yard, in an upwardly mobile neighborhood. Most of the families have young children, and two parents working. They tend to stay in these homes for 3-5 years. It's a mid-price commuter neighborhood in an affluent area, surrounded by homes selling for as much as twice what these homes sell for. The neighborhood is on a golf course.

All of the above tells us a lot about our target market. They see this neighborhood, with it's smaller, attractive and conveniently located homes, as a good stepping stone towards the lifestyle they aspire to. This is the kind of neighborhood where staging makes a big difference because its not just about the four walls, it's about the life they envision living once they are in the home.

Unfortunately, the home had not been staged in its previous listing. In fact, because the family didn't have much furniture, most of the spaces in the house were used as play areas for the kids. The previous agent had taken pictures of the home with kids' toys cluttering the shots. Poor lighting exacerbated the problem, making the home appear dingy in pictures. The home still had the original flat finish builder's paint and was in need of some color treatments to bring life to the rooms. And furniture was needed to help buyers understand the potential of the rooms and how the home could fit their lifestyle.

The marketing plan for a home like this one would have to solve the issues of room usage, clutter, lighting and color. The price for the home needs to be right as well. And the home needs to be marketed to those buyers who are most likely to buy. For the demographic looking at this type of home, internet marketing is probably the most effective tactic.

People often ask, "can't buyers look past that and use their imagination?" The answer is no. Buyer's need to be shown that a home is right for them. Without furniture, without some color, without a feeling of space and light, it is hard for a buyer to imagine what their life will be like when they are living in the home. Without good pictures, it's hard for buyers to understand why they should come to see THIS house, when there are others on the market that may look more inviting.

This all comes down to packaging and preparation. You have to package your product so that a buyer can appreciate what it has to offer. To do it, you have to understand who your buyer is, and how to appeal to them. This is the kind of expertise that makes the difference between selling for full price, selling for less than full price, or not selling at all. And it's what home staging is all about.

Top 10 Staging Tips

Thinking of selling your home? Want to get the most money possible in the least amount of time?

Then staging is your friend. Here are my top 10 tips for staging any home.

1. Make sure your home is CLEAN. I mean, spotless. You need to be looking at your home the way buyers do, and you would be amazed at the kinds of they notice. One of the things they notice is dirt. Grime. Dust. Cobwebs. These will literally distract buyers from the positive qualities of your home, and cost you offers. It may make sense to hire a professional housecleaner and have the home professionally deep-cleaned, including around, under and behind everything. Have carpets and windows cleaned, and scrub any walls that may be dirty.

2. No CLUTTER! Don't leave papers or anything else on flat surfaces. Countertops, tables, floors must all be kept neat and free of unnecessary items.

3. COLOR is important. Your home doesn't need to be "real estate beige," but if you have any wild colors on the walls, the time to tone them down is before you sell. Same goes for purple carpet. Offering a paint or carpet bonus doesn't work because buyers "only buy what they can see." If there are 2 similar homes on the market and one needs paint, the one that needs paint will sell last.

4. "If you can smell it, you can't sell it" So, take it easy with cooking those spicy dishes while your home is on the market. Keep the catbox clean and take out the garbage EVERY DAY. I know, you probably already do that, but this message is for those who don't. I have seen buyers pass up homes that they otherwise loved because of strong odors. So don't let this happen to you.

5. "If you can't see it, you can't sell it" This is another Barb Schwarz-ism that sums up very nicely the ill-effect of overgrown landscaping and indoor plants. Don't let them overshadow what you want buyers to see (your home).

6. Deferred maintenance--take care of it BEFORE going on the market. You will have the luxury of shopping for the best price, rather than going with the only contractor who can replace your roof before you close (rush jobs cost more). If you don't know what needs to be done, talk to your realtor or have a home pre-inspection done.

7. Vacant vs. "vignettes" If you're trying to sell your home vacant, it probably makes sense to consider leaving a few pieces of furniture and decor behind, in order to help buyers see how furniture fits in the rooms, and how the space can be used. Buyers have a hard time warming up to vacant rooms.

8. Go outside and look at your home from the street. How does it look? Grass should be mown, hedges trimmed, weeds weeded. Flowers are an inexpensive way to improve your home's curb appeal and provide contrast and texture to a yard that otherwise doesn't catch the eye.

9. Clean out your closets and garage, and STORE all your extra stuff while you are on the market. It doesn't make sense to stage the entire house and exterior and then leave a pile of stuff in your closet, waiting to fall on the next unsuspecting buyer. It detracts from the overall impression of the house, and makes it seem as if the home doesn't have enough space. Don't give buyers a chance to think this--if you don't need it while you are on the market, hire a POD (portable on demand storage) to get rid of it until you sell. You may even find that after going a few weeks without the stuff, you don't need or want it after all. Moving is good for helping us sort the wheat from the chaff!

10. Make sure your MLS pictures look great. If your agent doesn't take great pictures (ask to see samples!) have them hire a professional so that all your hard work staging doesn't get overlooked on the MLS due to bad pictures.

Staging Success Story

About a year ago, I received my designation as an Accredited Staging Professional Realtor. What that means is that I have taken and passed a two day course on staging homes and helping sellers prepare their properties for sale.

Staging is one of the best ways to ensure that a home sells quickly and for the most money possible. The reason it works is that buyers have a hard time using their imagination to see what a property would be like if they lived there. All they can see is what it looks like now. And most of us don't live in our homes the way they need to be when we sell them.

Staging a property isn't just about making sure it's clean and clutter free. It's not about bringing in expensive furniture and decor. And it doesn't have to cost a lot of money.

It's about identifying what excites buyers and what turns them off, and solving any issues a house might have, BEFORE it hits the market.

Recently I got to work with a seller through the entire process of preparing their home for sale. Believe me, what we started with and the end result were two completely DIFFERENT things.

The home was a cute little rambler in a relatively inexpensive, but nice and safe, neighborhood. The best way to classify the homes in the area is that they are starter homes. They sit on very nice sized lots and are close to Boeing and other amenities.

Anyway, the seller had owned the home since it was built in 1984 and had never updated it. Carpet and paint were worn and dirty, and the entire house was cluttered and messy. To get top-dollar, it needed fresh paint, new carpet, and a thorough scrubbing from top to bottom.

Fortunately, the sellers were on-board with staging and willing to put in the work. They also went a little further than necessary, putting in a new mid-price kitchen with Corian countertops, new cabinetry and new flooring. This added value to the home, but wasn't strictly necessary from a staging perspective.

The sellers also worked on the home's curb appeal, making some changes to the landscaping that enhanced the view from the street.

This was the end result.

Average market time for comparable homes in the area was more than 30 days. This home sold in a week with multiple offers. The total amount spent on staging, upgrades and deferred maintenance was less than $8,000, but brought a price more than $40,000 higher than comparable, unstaged properties in the neighborhood had received.

That's the power of preparation and staging!

Here is a link to the full photo gallery.