Super Staging Will Not Overcome an Overpriced Home ~ Get the THING priced right.

For one reason or another you’ve decided it’s time to sell your home. So you googled “How to sell a house or how to sell my home”.
At the point your home becomes “for sale” in your mind, you need to stop thinking of it as your “home”. It is now a product on the market (house for sale).

• Whether you have listed with a real estate agent or not.
• Whether you’ve told anyone that it is for sale or not.
• Whether you’re considering staging, or any other aspect to do with selling it. You’ve decided to sell… so it’s time to think differently.
• It becomes a product on the market (how to sell my home) the moment you decide that your home is for sale, it needs to change its role and function in your mind.

That’s the first step to reach your goal of selling your home.

Of course, I believe you should immediately call a real estate agent. They are going to be the ones that know the most about what is happening in the market and how to price the home in order to get it SOLD. These two things will get you on your way to moving to your next home. Staging and Pricing. The one thing that you can’t change is the location of the property. If it is a great location then you have it made if not you may have to budge on price to make up for it. Either way you will still have to stage the home and make sure that it is in the best possible condition in order to compete with other properties.

With that said… NO AMOUNT OF SUPER STAGING WILL OVERCOME AN OVERPRICED HOME.

Get the thing priced right!

Yes, I called it a “thing”. Please start thinking about it that way too. It will make it much easier to look at the situation objectively because buyers are going to be looking at it objectively, again as a product on the market.

~Selling your home is not like playing monopoly, where the roll of the dice tells a buyer what house they are going to move into and then they pay for it with funny money. ~

Buyers are looking for homes that suit their needs and are priced right. Getting the money to pay for that home is a more involved and complicated than it’s ever been… SO…

Number 1 – Price it right. Price the house according to the local market that it is located in. You may think your house is worth more than any other comparable house in the neighborhood. Your neighbor down the street says the same thing about his house. In reality, the house on the next block might be worth more than either one of yours. Maybe you and your neighbor both have not completed any additions or updates that add value to the house. The house on the next block updated the kitchen last year, built a nice sunroom and patio on the back on the back of the house and has a top of the line solar system.
Price it right or its dead on the market. Let me qualify that last statement. There are a few brave souls that will make an offer according to the market, even if you’re not priced that way. BUT usually if you’re way overpriced, they are not going to bother to make an offer on the property. Usually if you’re more than 5% overpriced, no offer. Also Buyers look at homes in ‘Price Points” If they are approved to purchase up to $200,000. If you are listed at $210,000 just 5% higher than their max they won’t even be looking at it.

Price it right!

But you’ve heard that staging sells houses. No. Staging does not sell a house if you do not have it priced right. The savvy buyer (the one listening to their real estate agent) sees beyond the pretty arrangement of furniture and decor. They are looking at THE HOUSE. The house will show better in photos, may get viewed more because it looks attractive, but staging will not affect the appraisal on the home, staging will not cause your house to sell for the same amount as the house on the next block with the patio, sunroom, and updated kitchen.

Make sure your home looks as good as it can. Clean it, de-clutter, and arrange as though it were going to be featured in a magazine that is distributed worldwide. That magazine is going to have large full page glossy pictures of your home (house) and everyone in the whole wide world is going to see them. (The right real estate agent will actually accomplish something very similar to that with internet marketing.)
If you want to pay someone to stage it.. Fine. Go for it. BUT don’t start adding to the price of the house when you do. You cannot add up every little thing that you’ve ever spent on your home and expect it to bring the sum total of those expenditures.

It may very well do that…

But then again, it may not. If it’s priced according to the market (for your home, in its present condition and location), and if you’ve got the property presentable for that glossy magazine photo shoot, you are really ready to sell. Get proper exposure for it to the world so that buyers can find it and you should see an offer soon.

Author: Shelley Frody
Broker/Owner
CITY2SHORE Real Estate
December 9, 2011

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