I caught the following article in this week’s “Weekly Real Estate News” email we receive from
REALTOR Magazine Online. I agree with a couple of the tips but want to propose a better solution that will bring you more value for your time and financial investment than the others suggested. My thoughts follow the article.
7 Tips to Avoid the Vacant Home Look - Daily Real Estate News-April 14, 2009
Selling a home that is vacant can be harder than selling a lived-in home, experts say. Here are some ideas from Pam and Dave Pettigrew, certified residential specialists with Prudential Rocky Mountain in Fort Collins, Colo., on what practitioners and sellers should consider to protect an empty property and get it sold.
·Give the house a lived-in look. Get a neighbor or family member to make the house look occupied by parking a car in the driveway, opening and closing the drapes and taking in any mail.
·Groom the yard. Use a lawn service during the summer to keep the grass cut and a snow removal service in the winter to scrape the walks and driveway.
·No outstanding nicks. Hide the effects of missing furniture. Paint and replace rugs so there are no faded spots or blemishes on the walls. Cover accent paint that alone looks odd.
·Leave some furniture. A few chairs, tables, lamps and beds (or empty mattress boxes with spreads) give buyers a sense of space.
·Keep the utilities on. Set the thermostat at a comfortable level during the winter and summer.
·Hire a maid. Make sure the home remains spotless.
·Check the homeowner’s policy. Understand the coverage when the home is vacant.
Source: Coloradoan, Pam and Dave Pettigrew (04/12/09)
Let me start with the two tips I agree with:
check the homeowner’s policy and
keep the utilities on.
Definitely do these steps. In the winter you do not want prospective buyers shivering and in the summer you do not want prospective buyers sweating. In fact if it is a hot day and they come into the comfort of your home that is a nice first step to a positive impression.
It is also very important to check your homeowner’s policy so you are aware of the coverage when the house is vacant. This is a place where you don’t want any surprises because you did not do 10 minutes of homework.
Now for all the others I offer a much more effective solution –
hire a good home stager. Yes I am obviously biased toward this view since I am indeed in the business of staging homes but here is why I think a home stager will provide you with a better AND more cost effective solution than the ones shared above.
If you are just leaving some random furniture in your home chances are the pieces left behind will not be your best items. In addition to that a piecemeal approach to leaving items will show as clutter to the prospective buyers and will deter from their experience rather than giving them a sense of space.
A good home stager will use current and high quality furniture and furnishings appropriate for the most likely buyers of your home to truly bring out the best qualities of the house and give the possible buyers a sense of space. Random furniture left behind will not help buyers visualize themselves in the home but a properly staged home will.
Yes, touching up paint and higher use areas is a good idea. Don't just do it willy-nilly though. A home stager with interior design experience can help make sure your time and effort in doing this yields the best results possible. They can also coordinate the contractors to help with these activities if you choose to or are not able to do them yourself.
A good staging company will also help coordinate services to keep the house clean while it is on the market and give it all the right touches to keep its vibrancy and soul that attracted you to it when you bought it yourself. I think this is a more marketable approach than just giving your house the “lived in look.”
Remember a key part to selling a house -
If you try to sell your home you probably will fail. New buyers do not want to buy your home; they want to buy your house to make it their home. At Design Matters Home we call this Home-House-Home and use it to frame our home staging solutions and the value we bring to the home sale process.
The home staging company will also keep a presence at the home as they have a vested interest in the safety of their items. They can complement the activities of your neighbors to keep the house safe.
Staging is a smart investment. It will greatly increase your chances of a quick sale for more money. Yes it is another cost of selling a home but the costs are almost always lower than your first price reduction. Especially in this market or in any market for that matter why not do all you can to make your house stand out from the others? Campbell’s still does a lot of marketing to sell their virtually ubiquitous cans of soup, why not do the same for your house?
We believe that a quick sale for as much money as possible requires three key components of a well coordinated home marketing strategy:
- The owner must truly be motivated to sell their property
- The real estate agent must be tapping all their traditional and online resources to bring potential buyers to the house
- A professional home stager, like Design Matters Home, must be used to make the house stand out from others by highlighting its unique qualities
Don’t treat the marketing of your home as a painful afterthought. Buyers in this market of lower than normal inventories have the ability to be even more picky than ever. I have even heard the market compared to a beauty contest. Take the
smart steps to make your house shine and stand out from the rest!
Our next workshop is coming up on Wednesday, April 29th, 5:30pm at the Design Matters Home office. It is called - "Home Sale Strategy and Marketing - A Design Matters Home Perspective." Get the complete picture on the best time and way to market your property for sale from the interior design, real estate, and mortgage perspective. Light refreshments will be served. For more information and to RSVP go to http://event.pingg.com/HomeSaleStrategy.Labels: Home Staging
posted by Helly 
