You have only ONE CHANCE to be New To The Market

Home sellers often resort to staging their homes only after a long unproductive stint on the market. They see it as a last resort and a step they were not willing to consider when they first listed their house. "We'll wait and see if it sells. I'm not going to spend money on trying to sell this house if I don't need to".

The problem with this approach is that the first few weeks your home is on the market is a window of saleability that you can never recapture unless you take your house off the market and allow an extended period of time to elapse before re-listing.

The longer your home sits on the market, the more likely you are to have to lower your price and make concessions to the buyer.

Read that sentence over about three times.

Remember there are two variables you have control over. Price and presentation. If your house is priced right AND presents well you have the best possible chance of selling in the first weeks, even days of listing.

So let's look at price first. You interviewed 3 realtors and they all gave you a price they felt your house should list for based on the comps in your area and the current market. The 3 quotes differed by several thousand dollars. Do you pick the realtor suggesting the highest asking price because you think he is the only one that truly recognizes the greatness of your home and you'd much rather sell for $450,000 than $415,000?  Do you pick the realtor with the biggest dollar signs because even though you bought the house 5 years ago at $375,000 you did paint a few walls and did some routine maintenance that you think should net you a profit of $75,000?

I'm suggesting to you that when a house is priced wrong from the get-go, you will give up something you cannot recoup. That golden position called "New To The Market".

An acquaintance who sold her house 3 years ago had an agent that grossly overpriced her home. There  were no good comps in the area. The homeowner had over-improved her house for the area she was in. Her upgrades were not in line with other area homes in terms of the interior finishes. She sold her house 9 months after listing it for $450,000 after lowering her price by $139,000. The people who bought the house had looked at it during the very first open house but felt it was overpriced at the time. When the price came to where it should have been....they bought it. In that eight months the homeowner had to endure multiple life disrupting open houses and showings; leave most of her furnishings behind; and pay two mortgages since she had already bought another home. The toll in stress and financial loss was enormous. She has no doubt that if it had been priced right at the get-go, her house would have sold immediately. But she was flattered by the higher "appraisal" this realtor provided and was too clueless (her admission) to know that it was unrealistic.  

Now let's talk about the other controllable factor. Presentation. It's a proven fact that staging will increase a home's saleability. But the majority of homeowners don't even consider it and those that do often do so as a last resort after their home has languished on the market for extended periods of time when that golden window of being New To The Market has long passed and the blush is off the rose. I'm not saying that you shouldn't try staging as a last resort but I am saying that the absolute best time to stage is before your home ever gets listed. Before one potential buyer walks through your front door. If your home is priced right and is presenting well, you have a priceless edge on your competition and the best possible chance of making a quick sale that is at or very close to your asking price.

Penny Wise and Pound Foolish

When I was a kid, I had heard grown ups say it more than once and I remember asking my mother what it meant.
After explaining that 'pound' was a denomination of money in England she said that "Penny wise and pound foolish means that someone is reluctant to spend a small amount of money on something that would result in them either saving or not losing a large sum of money."

This is what happens today when a seller takes a hard line on not wanting to spend a few hundred dollars to improve the saleability of their house with staging. A few hundred dollars invested in just the right improvements or changes can mean 5 to 10 thousand dollars more in a sellers pocket on closing day.

"I don't want to have to spend money on this house. I need to put all my money into buying my next house" said a woman I met at a business gathering. I happened to know that this woman had a home with dark paint and very dramatic ethnic themed wallpaper. "I love it" she said. "And someone else will come along that loves it too".

Well, hopefully. But she may wait significantly longer to find that buyer because dark and dramatic wallpaper will leave some buyers cold. Most buyers want light. Realtors agree that people will pay more for light. Two rooms of the same size and shape...one with lots of light and one that's dark, the light will always sell quicker. People see dark paint and wallpaper of almost any color as something that will have to be done over. They may not even be able to envision how the room would look if the walls were made lighter or the shrub was cut back from covering most of the window. They will move on to where they can already see the light. In the meantime, this lady will wait, having more open houses and more life disrupting private showings than the owner of the 'light' home. The issue of light is only one of many selling roadblocks that stagers can help you avoid. Many houses sit for months on the market before a seller decides to try staging. The house may then sell quickly but after sitting for months on the market, buyers will see a seller in a more disadvantaged selling position. They make lower offers than they would on a house that only just went on the market. Stalling to stage is rarely a good strategy.

"My realtor hasn't told me I need to stage my house. I'm sure if she felt it needed it, she'd say so".

This does seem counter-intuitive but consider this. Telling a homeowner their home needs staging might rub a homeowner the wrong way and the truth is....if you get $5000 more for your home after staging and your realtor is splitting a 6% commission on a $400,000 house , the difference in your realtor's pocket is just $150.
Do you really think that $150 is a strong incentive for a realtor to convince you to stage....especially if you resist?  It's only $150 for them but it's a difference of $5000 for you!  Many homeowners think staging is a function or a priority of the realtor. Much of the time, it is not. A homeowner needs to make his own decision about staging because he will ultimately reap the greater return. And it is rare to find a realtor that is willing to pay for or share the cost of staging, even if it may mean selling your house quicker. In  today's economy and with lower commisson percentages, sometimes as low as 4%, realtors do not 'invest' in selling homes as they once did.

Don't be penny wise and pound foolish. Give your home the advantage over un-staged homes in your neighborhood and price range and you'll sell your home if it is priced right. If you question whether it is priced right, visit comparable homes on the market and be realistic about how your home compares to theirs. Pretend you are a buyer and see your own home as objectively as possible in comparison to those who are competing for the same buyer you are.

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