There are many reasons why your house won’t sell. Common reasons include condition, buyer appeal, price, marketing, market conditions and you!

To sell a home fast and for the price you want, it has to appeal to buyers!  Buyers want a move in ready property that is clean, modern, well maintained and that they make a connection with and can visualize themselves living in. It has to be at a price they can afford, and they have to know it is for sale!

Condition-Does the house appeal to buyers?

Is it move-in ready?

• Does the home need repairs?
• Does your house smell due to old carpeting or pet odors?
• Are your appliances ancient and barely working?
• Is your lighting out of the 70’s?
• Is your flooring cracked and chipped?

Don’t try to hide issues from buyers like covering odors with freshly baked cookies or other silly tricks. If your house won’t sell, fix the problems and be honest and disclose any issues with the home.

Is it clean?

• No-one wants to buy your dirt. Get it professionally cleaned.

Is it professionally staged?

• Do your paint colors appeal only to a limited number of people? A professional stager can make recommendations on paint colors that can actually increase your selling price.
• Is your space so cluttered it is hard for buyers to see the space? If so, your house won’t sell. A stager can help you determine what is important to keep and what should go. Homeowners that do their own staging often take out too much, making the house feel cold and uninviting.
• Are Buyers making an emotional connection and able to visualize living there? Home stagers are professionals at seeing your house objectively; highlighting the homes best features to make that connection with your target buyer.
• Is your house vacant? Vacant houses do not connect with buyers, appear smaller than they are and buyers have a hard time visualizing how their stuff will fit in the space. A stager can take an empty house and make it look like a home.
• Are you living in the house while selling? A stager can work with what you already have, making sure the house does not retain enough personal items to distract buyers
• Do you have good curb appeal?
• Was the house staged by a trained and experienced professional stager? Staging done by home owners, realtors or friends often fails to connect with buyers. Non-professionals often stage with too little or too much furniture which is distracting to buyers, or does not appeal to the right target market. Silly staging tricks are often used which makes it look staged and un-natural or it is decorated to their personal taste rather than to appeal to the greatest number of buyers. A professional stager may be a greater investment up front but will more than pay for itself in your final sales price. Professional staging always costs less than your first price reduction.

Price- Is it too high?

• Is your price too high? Listen to your realtor.
• Is your house in the upper price range for homes? More expensive houses usually take longer to sell because the pool of buyers that can afford it is smaller.
• Have buyers viewed the property, made positive comments, but no offers?  Your price may be too high.
• Have you made the mistake of pricing it based on what you need to get from it rather than market value?
• Are you worried about pricing it too low? If the price is too low, and the house looks great, buyers will bid up the price to market value or beyond with multiple offers.

Marketing

• Do you have professional photos? Great photos of a properly staged home online are the first step to attracting buyers to visit your for-sale property.
• Has Your Realtor done sufficient and effective marketing? Not all Realtors are created equally. If your Realtor can not find the time or money to properly market your home, find another Realtor.
• If you are FSBO, have you done sufficient and effective marketing?
• Has it been on the market too long? If you have made some of the mistakes listed above and the house has been on the market a while, buyers will wonder what is wrong with the house and will no longer consider looking at it. It may be worth taking it off the market, fixing the problems, taking professional photos and re-listing so it appears as a new listing.

Market Conditions

• Is it a Buyer’s Market?- Regardless if it is a buyer’s market, if your house provides what buyers want, you can sell it fast and for a good price. If your house is outshining the competition and has a reasonable price, buyers who usually take more time to make a decision in a buyer’s market will realize they need to get an offer in fast.
• Is there an economic recession?-Sometimes economic conditions can make buyers reluctant to spend money on a home. In this situation, the only options are to make sure your property outshines the competition, wait it out, lower your price or offer other incentives to buyers.

You

If your house won’t sell you also need to consider your role in the problem.

• Have you been willing and available to show your home when buyers have been interested in seeing it?
• Have you kept your for sale home clean, de-cluttered and looking at its best for showings?
• Are you hanging around and making buyers uncomfortable during showings?
• Have you been honest and disclosed any issues with the home?

Here is an example of a home staging project I did that had many of the problems listed above, had been on the market for many months and was not selling or generating interest.

1. The house had some repairs and updates that were needed.
2. The house was not professionally staged.
3. The price was too high compared to similar houses in the same location.
4. The market conditions were poor, and it was a buyer’s market
5. The house was in a higher price range.
6. There was an economic recession in the area.

After the house was taken off the market, repaired, properly staged, new photos taken and the price was lowered to meet prices more in line with the location, the house sold within a few months.

Need Help Getting Your House Ready for Market?

Why not get things right before you list and save yourself time, money and stress. Get a home staging consultation to learn everything you need to know and the you can stage it yourself or have it professionally staged.

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Call 907-362-0065 today

 info@northernlightsstaging.com

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Interested in becoming a home stager? I recommend the Staging Diva Home Staging Training program!

Do you need to stage a high end home? I often get calls from home owners who have put high end homes on the market but they are not selling.  

After sitting on the market with no offers, they wonder why? So before yet another large price reduction, they wonder if staging will help.

Why would it be important to stage a nice high end home before listing? Here are a few examples.

The personal taste of the owner does not appeal to the majority of buyers.

You may have beautiful taste or had your house designed by a professional Interior Designer. The style reflects your personal preferences in color, furnishings, art etc.

You may have decorated your children’s rooms with elaborate but beautiful paint jobs that they love.

You may have filled the home with custom lighting, accessories or wallpaper. 

Unless a buyer has the same taste in color or style as you, or they have kids of the same age and taste as your children, your home may not appeal to most buyers.

 A home stager can give you an objective view of what needs to change to appeal to most buyers and help you let go of things that might be personally meaningful to you. In other words, we help you “break up with your house” and prepare to move on to your new house.

The home does not portray the lifestyle buyers want.

People buy on emotion. They select a house that that portrays a lifestyle they want to live, and they can picture themselves living there happily ever after.

I recently staged a beautiful log home with beautiful furnishings that should have been the ultimate Alaskan dream home. Yet, as you walked through the various rooms, it did not portray a feeling of warmth and comfort. Mis-matched mixtures of overly rustic and stiff antique furniture, lack of warm color and rooms being used for functions other than what they were intended made the space seem uninviting and confusing on how to use the space.

Re-arranging furniture in more appropriate groupings and highlighting the functions of rooms totally changed the look and feel for buyers.

The home is vacant and buyers cannot visualize how their belonging will fit.

No matter how beautiful the home is, if it is vacant, the majority of buyers cannot visualize how their furnishings and belongings will fit and look in the space. Most buyers assume the spaces are smaller than they are with nothing to give them a sense of scale. Any flaws in the building, flooring, walls, moldings etc. will be highlighted, as they have nothing else to focus on. The house will feel cold and it will be hard for buyers to make an emotional connection.

Staging the most important rooms such as the living room, kitchen, dining area and master bedroom and bathroom are critical.

Rooms are not set up as originally designed and buyers can’t see the possibilities.

Sometimes home owners change things to suit their lifestyles but the arrangements may not suit what buyers are looking for.

In one home I staged, the dining room had been set up as a third living room. The master bedroom was very small. Although there were nearby schools, there were no rooms set up for children.

The very large house would have been perfect for an extended family, yet bedrooms were limited. To stage it for buyers, the family/dining room was staged as a dining room, the large lower level which had 2 living rooms and an office was set up as a mother in law suite or alternate spacious master bedroom with an adjacent family room, and office.

An upper bed room was staged as a child’s bedroom. The new arrangement, using what the owners already had was much more appealing to buyers.

The house was customized for the owners, but is not what buyers want.

I recently consulted on a custom home with ornate lighting fixtures, mirrors, artwork and bedding that suited the owners taste but did not appeal to buyers. Replacing some of these items with simple, modern alternatives helped update the look of the home and made it more appealing to buyers.

Your asking price is at the very high end of the price range for similar houses.  

In order to get the highest price for your home, it is critical that the home be in excellent shape.  Furnishings, accessories and lighting should be on par with the price point of the home, and it should be well staged to maximize the space, highlight  the focal points, downplay any flaws or show how they can be overcome, and make an emotional connection with buyers. A home stager is an expert at making that happen so you can get the highest price possible on your home sale.

Stage Your High End Home Today

Are you ready to stage your high end home? All staging starts with a consultation which can be in person or online. Feel free to call if you have questions and would like to discuss what would be best for you.

 

 

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As a professional home stager, I often see home owners and realtors make three home staging mistakes that can cost the home seller more time on the market and lower offers on their home sale. These home staging mistakes can be easily avoided!

Listing before staging the home

Home sellers often do not want to spend money on staging and list first, assuming they will stage it later if it does not sell.  In other cases, in a rush to get the house on the market, the staging happens after the home is listed.  Sometimes realtors tell their clients they do not need to stage the property.  Later, the home sellers contact me to stage it after it has been on the market for a while without receiving any offers.

Why is this a home staging mistake?

Buyers look for a house online before they ever visit it in person. If the original photos are not appealing, staging later and then updating the photos will not attract buyers that have previously viewed the listing. You have essentially lost that part of the market that could have been interested in your home sale. The longer the listing has been up, the more likely buyers are going to wonder what is wrong with the house or submit a lower offer, thinking the sellers may be getting desperate for a sale.

Staging after listing is better than not staging at all, but statistics show that the time on the market will be longer than if had been staged prior to listing. The longer a house is on the market, the more price reductions you will likely have, causing you to lose money on your bottom line as well as costing you money in mortgage payments, utilities etc.

Not using professional photos for the listing

Professional photos of a beautifully staged home are critical to attracting buyers and making your property outshine the competition so buyers will come to view the property in person. Then, they can make an emotional connection with the house, which is what causes them to make an offer!

Home owners or realtors that post unprofessional photos online will not generate the same interest that professional photos will.

Altering the home staging

If you have paid for professional home staging, trust your stager!  Decorating a home for sale is very different than decorating it to live in. Home owners or realtors at times want to modify the staging by adding, removing or re-arranging things. Well-meaning as this may be, it can undo key aspects of the staging that the home stager had good reasons for doing.

Staging is not about the personal tastes of the home owner or realtor, which of course are all different. It is about appealing to the greatest number of buyers, making an emotional connection with the target market and highlighting key features of the home.

As an example, I had a client who was concerned with my staging plan which included red sofas because they were not to their personal taste. We stayed with my plan which was meant to appeal to a younger target market. The house sold the first day on the market for full asking price.

Do it Right the First Time

Stage before listing, trust your home stager and do not modify the staging, and get professional photos to show off your beautiful house! Happy Selling!

Are you Ready to Sell Fast and for More?

Try one of my online home staging services below. Feel free to call if you have questions and would like to discuss what would be best for you.

For in person consultations or staging, call for a custom quote.

Home Staging Consultation- In Person or Online- Learn More

 

• Get your Free Report

Interested in becoming a home stager? I recommend the Staging Diva Home Staging Training program!

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Low Cost Home Staging Can Cost You Money

We have all experienced a time when we were “penny wise but pound foolish” and regretted buying something because it had the lowest price, only to find out the item broke too soon, was not the quality we were looking for, had maintenance problems or other issues. I know I have with a few vehicles I have purchased!

If we had just purchased a higher quality item, it would have saved us money in the long run and we would have been much happier with our purchase. It is easy to make decisions quickly based on cost rather than stepping back and considering the “bigger picture”.

As a home stager, color consultant and designer,  one thing I do is help home sellers sell their house as fast as possible and for the highest possible price. I know your home is probably your biggest financial asset and that selling a house is stressful. Helping you get through the process fast and with great results is my success story too!

How Cutting Costs can Hurt Your Bottom Line

I have seen many cases where a home seller has been “penny wise but pound foolish.”  It makes me sad to think of how things might have been different for them. They try to save as much as possible during the sale by cutting “costs” but it hurt them in the end with a much lower sale price. Home staging is an investment, rather than a “cost” that can give you a great return on your money.

As an example, I had a call from a seller that said “Our vacant home has been on the market over a year with no interest. We have to do something! I would like you to come and do a consultation and then stage it for us”.  Great! We made plans for a consultation in a few days. At the last minute, they called and cancelled. They said their spouse had decided not  to spend money on staging as they were already strapped paying a second mortgage and would just leave it on the market vacant.  I noticed a few weeks later on the MLS that they dropped their price $35,000.00.  Staging the home would have cost less than 1% of that cost and they would have had a great chance of selling it quickly for their asking price. A loss of $35,000 is a lot of money!!! See how staging could have made a difference in this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzkF3bccgmI

Stage it Before You List

Another example was a call from a realtor a few weeks ago wanting to know the cost of staging for a couple that had had their occupied home on the market eleven months without interest. They got back to me that the couple did not want to spend the money on staging because they could not afford it since they were paying two mortgages. I feel their pain and wonder why their realtor did not suggest staging to them a year ago before listing? Here is an example of professional staging of an occupied home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAqW37LSkRI&feature=emb_title

Hire a Pro to do Your Home Staging

Other common examples are sellers who have realtors willing to pay for a consultation (bravo to those realtors!) but the sellers do not want to invest in the actual staging and decide to do it themselves. They often do not want to pay for a final visit from me to check on or help polish their final product. I always follow up to see how these properties look when listed. In all cases, the property looks much better BUT it does not have the same appeal for buyers as if it was professionally staged. Home owners do not have the ability to be objective about their own property, or “see what the buyer sees” and are not professionally trained in the art and science of home staging. This will definitely affect the final sales price. Saving a hundred or a couple thousand dollars may have cost them tens of thousands of dollars at closing.

Light Staging is a Waste of a Home Sellers Money

I sometimes get calls from realtors looking for “light staging”, where only one room is done or a few rooms only partially done. I do not accept these jobs because I think it is a waste of the home seller’s money. The end result looks odd, as if the movers forgot to take all the furniture and left a few pieces, and it certainly does not create the effect that buyers will fall in love with! Sellers, using this method will cost you more in the end!

How Much of a Difference will Home Staging Make?

You are probably wondering, how much of a difference will professional home staging really make in my sales price or in how fast I can sell my home? Information is often published by the Real Estate Staging Association and National Association of Realtors and other publishers every year or two. The numbers vary each year, and there are no guarantees, as every home sale is different and a variety of factors can affect your sale (such as location, condition, realtor marketing, asking price etc.) but here are some guidelines.

• • The majority of Realtors think staging increases the amount buyers are willing to offer between 1-20%
  • Staging usually costs 0.5%-1% of the home’s value (my experience)
  • Staged homes spend 72% less time on the market.
  • Home staging costs vary by the area of the country you live in, the size of the home, time on the market etc. and generally range from approximately $400 for a consultation to $5000 to stage a vacant home.

Let’s Do the Math

Say the median home price in your area is $350.000

1% increase is $3500

5% increase is $17,500

10% increase is $35,000

15% increase is $52,500

20% increase is $70,000

Much of the cost of this can likely be written off on the seller’s taxes as advertising fees on the sale of the home.

Pretty good investment!

Don’t Forget about Price Reductions and Holding Costs

And remember, if your house is on the market a while, each price reduction will likely be $5000-$15000.  Will you also be paying a mortgage and taxes too? You could end up losing 1-20% from your starting price as your house sits on the market. See this recent info-graphic from the Real Estate Staging Association that summarizes some of the benefits and costs of home staging.

At the end of the day, you as the home seller, have the potential to make the most profit (or take the greatest loss) from your home sale, not your realtor or stager. Step back, look at the big picture, and consider the benefits of making an investment in professional home staging for a higher sales price!

References

The Consumers Guide to Real Estate Staging, Real Estate Staging Association (RESA)

RESA Home Staging Statisics InfoGraphic

National Association of Realtors 2019 Profile of Home Staging

Get a Professional Home Staging Consultation Today

The best way to make sure your home sells fast and for more is to start with a professional home staging consultation. Find out everything you can do to prepare your house for market, and steps you can take to get the best return on your investment. During this time of social distancing, virtual staging is also a great option.

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