Are you frantically trying to sell your home so that you can move into the “dream home” that you just found? Do you come home day after day waiting for the phone to ring and hope that someone is calling to schedule a showing to see your beautiful home. That one that you thought for sure would have SOLD by now because everyone that sees it, just loves it and tells you how beautiful it is?

If you’re stuck in the real estate market, maybe it’s time to think about what it is you are doing that is working for you and what are you doing that isn’t working for you.

Are you happy with the amount of showings? Is the feedback from your showings telling you that it’s time to consider a price reduction?

What is stopping potential buyers from making an offer?

If you’re anything like the average homeowner who is presently trying to sell their home, you probably have heard of staging, but are skeptical about giving it a try.

What would be stopping you? Lack of knowledge about the benefits would be my first thought.

What about, not wanting to “SPEND” money to get your home SOLD.

Well, I hate to be the bearer of BAD news….. but that is exactly what is going to be needed to get your home SOLD. When we place our home on the market, it now becomes a product. Just like any other product on the market, what are you going to do to make your product stand out?

It’s too difficult to be objective in our own home, first of all. Secondly, unless we’ve been taught through the buyers’ eye what our home should look like, what makes us experts?

We hire a professional to sell our home, why not hire a professional to prepare our home?

When you hire an Accredited Staging Professional, ASP, you will see first hand how staging can give you the edge you need to get your home SOLD.

Why? Because the buyer only knows what he sees, not the way it is going to be”?

Buyers don’t have a clue when it comes to visualizing space. They can’t imagine what it can look like, therefore, an empty room can also confuse the buyers as to what the space is used for or just how much space there really is.

Also, let’s say a buyer is viewing a home that hasn’t had any new furnishings in it, in over 10 years. Potential buyers are looking at rather “out of style” things in the home that are actually turning them off. That’s right!

Turning them off? It’s STUFF in the house that distracts them and doesn’t allow them to feel all fuzzy inside when they walk in.

If you can imagine, just for a minute, what it would be like to be living in a Model Home, what would it look like?

Staging can transform your home into a model, through strategic furniture placement, removing just the right stuff, and highlighting the focal points in a room.

So, before you lower your asking price, consider staging. Staging is proven to sell your home for more money and in a fast amount of time.

Imagine what it was like when you first moved into your present “dream house.” After the unpacking, what’s the first thing that you wanted to do? Perhaps it was to paint the off-white walls. Maybe you wanted to get new furniture, or hang drapes, etc. In most cases, you probably started making plans to make it your “home”, by adding touches that would reflect who you are and what you like. We call this “decorating”. Slowly, but surely, your new surroundings start taking on a new look, as you display your doll collections, the children’s trophies, or maybe your husband took up hunting and placed a deer head above the fireplace. In time, we start to fill our home with personal items and family photos that describe who it is that lives in the home. It’s very easy to start to add “clutter”. What about those household items that we receive as gifts? We want to honor those who gave and so we add it to the curio cabinet, whether there is room or not.

All along enjoying your lived -in family style home, until one day your husband comes home and says he’s just accepted a job out of town and now your family is moving.

Now, after several years of enjoying your home, you now will be selling it. Once you decide to sell your home, your home now becomes a product. Yes, it is a commodity. Possibly, the largest investment that you own. Now, realtors will be viewing your home and deciding whether or not it fits the criteria of their clients. Also, buyers will be viewing photos on the internet and before you know it, showings will be scheduled. So, what can you do to appeal to a wide variety of buyers? When we “stand in the doorway”, we literally, stand in the doorway, and we ask ourselves, “what is it that we see? Is it something that we would want to view as buyers? What about the dark decorative colors that fill the walls? Can you get away without painting? The answer is NO! The majority of potential buyers’, will want to see a light color on the walls and will not want to have to do the painting themselves. What about the doll collection that is taking over the entire family room? Or the family photos that are up and down the hallways? When these remain throughout showings, buyers have a difficult time emotionally moving in, because they can see who is living there. The best thing that you could do is to emotionally remove yourself from your “things”. It may sound silly, but you really must not take it personally that some lookers may not appreciate your collections, and find themselves not connecting with the home.

The more neutral your home is, the better chance you have to attract a wide variety of buyers, to your home.