While selling your home it’s best to enjoy the holidays away from home especially if the holiday is religious in nature.  Why?  We don’t really know who’s going to purchase your home or their religious preference so keeping the decorations out of sight will help you appeal to everyone.  The best part about this tip is you can get away on a short vacation or enjoy your aunt Betty’s apple pie.

When I entered this once empty elegant living room I found the fireplace and it’s amazing mantel very imposing.  What I mean is….as beautiful as the majestic fireplace was, it was overwhelming the space partly because of it’s size.  The best way to downplay a wonderful feature like this without losing it’s importance is to add a little drama.

From the foyer you can see the measurable size of the mantel

In a nearby tree I found the exact amount of drama I was looking for.  Why drama you ask?  By adding some worthy drama I downplayed the size of this magnificent fireplace but didn’t take away it’s relevance.  Now buyers can take in the windows, custom cabinets and molding, hardwoods and last but never least the chandelier too!

A little drama can sometimes go a long way

And now the ‘big picture’…….

The end result was a living room that displayed all of it's beauty!!!

Presto, a buyer can now love it all.

HomeGain Survey:  Home Staging Top Priority for Sellers

HomeGain recently conducted it’s third Nationwide home improvement and home staging Home Sale Maximizer survey to reveal the top 12 do-it-yourself (DIY) home improvements for people getting their home ready for sale.  Nearly 1,000 Realtors responded to the survey.

To read more just go to the link below.

http://tinyurl.com/yeaxzct

In today’s world of ‘free’ information it’s important for realtors to realize that sellers are watching, not their back, but them.  

I’m certainly not an advocate of hype and hysteria nor is my intention to promote it.  Rather, I think it’s important to help my realtor friends and colleagues with valuable information that can help them along their career path.

Everyone is looking online these days, sellers and buyers.

Sellers are more involved in the process of selling their home in today’s market so they naturally spend more time wondering why their house isn’t selling or just trying to stay on top of this important transaction.  They’re searching the Internet to compare their home verses the competition and while there, they’re also noticing how their home appears to a prospective buyer.  They want to know if their representation is getting the job done.  

For more information about this important survey and other questions asked sellers/buyers go to the 2008 Survey of California Home Sellers (released July 2008) link below.  I’m thinking it might be of great interest to my colleagues.

http://www.car.org/meetings/carmeetings/committee-materials-archive/oct2008committees/spf/2008_Home_Seller_Survey_FIN1.pdf

Who needs home staging? These days every seller does especially if you consider the return on investment. Recent surveys indicate that even in a poor economy home staging is still providing a 150 to 191 percent return on investment according to HomeGain.com.

I believe there are three basic types of sellers and each one can benefit from home staging in their own way.

3 Types of Sellers:

1. A Home Seller who lives in their property.
   These sellers need help de-cluttering and de-personalizing their home.  Most of us have way too much stuff purchased over the years.   A lot of this information can be found on the web as almost every home stager only deals with this type of seller.
2. A Home Renovator.
   Most renovators do their work based on one of two determinations: what’s in their pocketbook or what ‘they’ think a buyer would like.  In either case they do themselves a great injustice when applying this thought process. Renovators should seek professional advice but almost always don’t because the cost may be out of their budget or they believe the products they will use are good enough.  Renovating with products and finishes buyer trends indicate are desirable will save money in the long run with less time on the market. You also save the cost of ripping something out to replace it with the right materials after buyer views of the home indicate they don’t like what they see.
3. A seller who is transferred out of town or a builder of new construction selling vacant homes.
   These sellers are the most vulnerable as vacant spaces evoke vacant emotions.  Since a home purchase is mostly based on emotion, you can see what a challenge this must be.  Empty spaces do not tell a buyer how to use the space as 90% of buyers can not visual the room.  Beautiful furnishings that describe the functionality of each room will create the emotional appeal necessary to put ink to paper with an offer every seller will be pleased with.

Each of these three types of sellers can benefit from home staging. If you want a higher return on your home investment and you desire your home to sell fast, you need to find a professional home staging service and employ their help for your return on investment.