When there are too many homes on the market for the level of demand, prices go down and the length of time to sell goes up. This is bad news for home sellers because it means less money in their pockets. How can anxious home sellers increase their chances of a quick and profitable sale in the current real estate market?
Most importantly, the home must stand out from the crowd and be a welcoming island in the sea of homes for sale. Without a doubt, having a home professionally staged is the single best way to outshine the competition. Home staging (also known as house staging or real estate styling) is the art of decorating a home to sell quickly and for top dollar.
According to home staging expert Debra Gould, people shop with logic and buy on emotion. “If prospective buyers don’t fall in love within minutes of walking into a house and don’t maintain that same emotional connection all the way through, they’ll be off to the next house. This is especially true in a buyer’s market when they feel no pressure to make an immediate offer,” says Gould.
Home builders offer model homes for viewing because they know how important it is to help potential buyers imagine themselves living in the house. Staging allows individual home sellers to employ that same proven concept.
There are several points you should keep in mind when hiring a home stager, including the home stager’s knowledge of real estate and the local market in particular. Most importantly, however, you should be aware that the home staging industry is unregulated. There are no official home staging credentials, so you should not assume any home stager is an expert simply because he or she is “accredited” or “certified.” It is always important to ask questions and view the portfolio of anyone you are considering hiring.
Real estate agents or neighbors are excellent sources for referrals. Alternatively, individuals can locate a home stager in their area by visiting the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers or doing an Internet search for “find a stager, city name” or “home staging city name.”
In the current real estate climate with so much inventory and competition, achieving the best possible sales result has become even more difficult, and many sellers are simply hoping that their homes sell at any price or that they can avoid the significant price cuts recommended by their agents.
But in order to sell, a home must be marketed wisely. Statistics show that staging homes results in faster sales and higher prices than homes that are put on the market “as is.” A small investment in staging can make a significant difference in the outcome of a sale.
Internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould is president of Six Elements and creator of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program with over 4,000 students worldwide. Gould is the author of four home staging guides and offers a Directory of Home Stagers to help homeowners and real estate agents locate home stagers who will decorate homes to sell quickly and for top dollar. To learn more, visit www.stagingdivadirectoryofhomestagers.com
Written by internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®, www.stagingdiva.com. © Copyright Six Elements Inc. Used with permission.