Don't Let "Spot" Stop Your Home Sale

If you are thinking about selling your house and own a dog, check out this excellent article about common mistakes dog owners often make when selling their homes...Thanks to Djuna Woods, a dog-friendly Realtor® from the Silicon Valley, for this "Spot"-on advice!

Pittsburgh PA Home Selling Strategy—Start Now to Sell Well

Every year, more savvy home sellers are seeing the value in properly preparing their homes for a sale, yet just about as many are still confused about when is the ideal time to start getting their home ready for a successful sale. If you hope to be a seller who sells quickly and for the best possible price, then “the sooner the better!” should be your home preparation mantra.

If you are fortunate enough to know that you may be moving in the next year or even in the next two years, there are many tasks that you should start on now that will help you be ready when listing day arrives and at the same time keep the prep process manageable. You may think this seems ridiculously early to be getting ready to sell, but it is not.

The process of getting the home you are living in expertly prepared for success on the market takes a good bit of planning and time. While it can be accomplished with Herculean effort in a shorter period when need be, the best scenario is to be able to break the preparation process down into manageable steps and slowly work away at the steps. Decluttering, depersonalizing, painting, updating, rearranging, sprucing up of curb appeal/outdoor spaces, and other tasks take time to be done well. Making your the most desirable one in your price range is what will bring in quick and strong offers.

So how do you know where to start and what needs to be done? You’ve likely been living in this home for a while now, and it can be difficult to figure out what will be the best way to appeal to the broadest range of buyers. You will benefit hugely by getting expert advice on how to most effectively and efficiently spend your time and budget on getting your home ready for a successful sale. This is why now, several months or even a year or more before you plan to be on the market, is the ideal time to call a professional home stager and set up a strategy session to figure out your game plan for preparing your home to sell well.

Bang for your Buck—Savvy Sellers are Smart Investors

A home staging consultation or strategy session costs only a few hundred dollars and then many smart sellers invest a bit more and bring their stager back in to help with the finishing touches shortly before their house hits the market. And the statistics show that if it is staged before listing, your home will likely sell for 7% to 11% more than it would if you had not staged it to sell.

Let’s crunch the numbers. Let’s say your house would list and sell (eventually) for $300,000 without staging. But being the savvy seller you are, you invest $1000 in a staging consultation and then some finishing touch staging and a $1000 in materials to update your house. Now you sell your home in a short time for between $321,000 and $333,000. So you invested $2000 and some time and elbow grease in preparing your home to sell. And now you walk away with between $21,000 and $33,000 more in equity—a 1050% to 1650% return for your $2000 investment! Not to mention a quick and painless sale.

“Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning.”
~Thomas Edison

Plan and prepare now to ensure your good fortune when you sell your house!

Top 10 Reasons Home Staging Pays Off for Savvy Pittsburgh PA Realtors--#7: Staging Brings You Referral Business

Your “ideal” new listing client—one that is excited to list with you because you have been highly recommended to them by someone whose opinion they value and trust.

What is one great source of these “dream” listing clients? Home Staging can generate this “ideal” referral business for you.

Here are three key ways:

· If you are assisting your current listing clients in getting professional home staging help as they prepare their home for the market, these clients will likely be delighted with both your efforts and their resulting quick sale for a good price. These clients will be happily passing your name onto their friends and family.

· People looking at listings are often ones who will soon be selling their home. If your listings are well-staged, these potential listing clients will be impressed with how well your listings show and be more likely to seek you out when they need a listing agent.

· Stagers who know you value staging and the presentation of your properties will recommend you. As staging has become more common in the preparation process, homeowners are using a home stager before they contact a realtor. And these savvy sellers often ask their home stager to recommend a good realtor who will do an excellent job of marketing their property. The stagers you have a strong working relationship with will refer their clients to you.

So clearly, making a professional home stager part of your strategy for preparing and marketing your properties can ultimately bring you referred business. And many of these referred listings will be your “dream” clients—ones that understand the value of preparing their homes before they hit the MLS.

Top Ten Reasons Home Staging Pays Off for Savvy Pittsburgh, PA Real Estate Agents-Staging Benefit #4: Staging MAKES You Money

In this Top Ten List of why home staging pays off for Realtors®, we've already seen:



Reason #1: Staging Saves Time
Reason #2: Staging Brings Traffic
Reason #3: Staging Saves Money



And now we're ready for the next reason Home Staging pays off for Savvy Realtors® - Reason #4: Staging SAVES You Money or "Show Me the Money! - Part 2".

When your staged homes sell for more, you make more - it's just that simple. And staged homes have been shown over and over to sell at higher prices. According to the National Association of Realtors, staged homes sell for 7 - 11% more than non-staged homes.

And when you combine this with the fact that staged homes sell faster and therefore reduce your marketing costs, you understand that, financially speaking, using home staging is a true double-bonus for you as a realtor.







Ok, now for the big question. You're saving money and you're making money thanks to having staged listings. But who's paying for all this staging?

Many savvy Realtors® now include a professional staging consultation for their listing clients. If you choose to offer this service to your listing clients, this small investment will:

1. serve as a great value-added service that sets you apart from other agents (stay tuned for more on this benefit)



2. be deductible as a cost of doing business or marketing expense (consult with your accountant for details)



3. more than pay for itself through both savings and earnings (as already explained).

Another option is to explain the value of staging to your clients and provide them with contact information and marketing materials for the staging professional you recommend and the seller pays the stager for a consultation.

Any hands-on staging services are usually paid for by the home seller since they are the ones who will realize the greatest direct gains from staging. This investment by the seller also helps ensure their commitment to the transformation process.

As a savvy Realtor® looking to continue growing your business, can you afford not to make home staging part of your success strategy?

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Up next in the Ten Reasons Home Staging Pays Off For Savvy Pittsburgh PA Realtors

Reason #5: Staging Helps You Handle Touchy Topics.

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A savvy home seller or Realtor® in the Pittsburgh area? Looking for expert home staging assistance getting a property ready to show to its best potential so you can sell quickly and maximize your profit? Please visit Feels Like Home Interiors to find out more about how our home staging services can make a difference for your home or listings.