Home "Staging" Question to Realtors (agents, contract, listing)
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Do any of the Realtors on this forum use staging professionals to help sell homes, and more importantly, how receptive are the sellers to the idea? Are they offended if you suggest they could use some help? Or do you ever help them stage the homes yourself? If so, do you charge extra for that service?
Would you ever back out of a selling contract on a home because the sellers would not follow your advice on improvements (such as getting rid of obvious clutter, or removing dated wallpaper) that you feel is in the way of getting a good price for the home? I'm doing a marketing research study on this and I truly appreciate any insight, feedback, or experience you wouldn't mind sharing regarding this subject. Thanks!
Yes, we do most of what you asked; suggest ways to improve appearance, on vacant home use a professional stager or at least provide a few items ourselves (make the kitchen and baths look nice, add a few large plants to bare areas). sometimes you can get the owners to pay for professional staging but much of the time this is at our expense alone. I've also been known to power wash a house and do some gardening, and I mean that I personally do it! Husband helps.
I probably would not decline a listing but I would make it clear to them how their home compares to others of similar "value" so to speak. I may also include in the listing contract definite times and reasons for price adjustments such as "if no offers in 30 days price will be reduced by 10%".
1. Yes, staging pros are great. For a home that's in decent shape with a motivated seller, they will do almost anything we tell them -- get rid of pics, new pillow for the couch, clear off about 3/4 the stuff off the shelves, store about 90% of everything in the hall closet, etc., start packing up the kitchen and kid's rooms, flowers by the door, etc., etc. Often we will pay for the first hour of a stager's confernence and the seller will pay for the rest (it's usually a 2-hour consult).
For homes that need more -- i.e., vacant, etc. -- we have stagers come in and perhaps furnish one or two rooms.
We've only had one client who completely balked at any staging -- as the wife declared, "it doesn't feel like OUR home anymore." We had to gently point out that we were not selling HER home -- HER home was the home they were building two hours away. THIS house was going to be someone else's home. She was stubborn. Her house is still on the market . . . she's starting to re-think it. :-) Another client was adamant that the extensve collection of family pictures -- all deceased, unfortunately -- MUST stay, because that was where she prayed each day. (There were other issues there . . . )
We have refused to take listings where the sellers did not want to do the work necessary to sell their house. Our time is our money -- why spend time and money marketing a house that, despite your best efforts, people are going to walk in and go, "Oh, HELL no!" and walk out? Plus, if they are unreasonable at the beginning, it's a clue that the entire transaction is going to be like that. Life's too short, and we'd rather spend our time and money on homes that are going to sell. Telling a seller that you won't list their house because it's not saleable at the price they want is a pretty severe wake-up call. One house, in particular, we passed on -- another agent took it, listed it for what they wanted, and ended up having the listing for TWO YEARS, where is sold for 78% of list. What a complete waste of time. That agent fervently wished they had never heard of that house.
In addition, other agents trust us to have a house ready to show to their clients. They know if it's one of our listings, it WILL be in good shape and they don't have to apologize to their clients for the condition of house . . .
Thanks so much for the responses. This is such helpful information; you have answered my questions really well and I sincerely appreciate your taking the time to share your experiences. I hope more will post their feedback on this.
Do any of the Realtors on this forum use staging professionals to help sell homes, and more importantly, how receptive are the sellers to the idea? Are they offended if you suggest they could use some help? Or do you ever help them stage the homes yourself? If so, do you charge extra for that service?
Would you ever back out of a selling contract on a home because the sellers would not follow your advice on improvements (such as getting rid of obvious clutter, or removing dated wallpaper) that you feel is in the way of getting a good price for the home? I'm doing a marketing research study on this and I truly appreciate any insight, feedback, or experience you wouldn't mind sharing regarding this subject. Thanks!
Everyone one of my listings gets a staging consult and I use my stager to stage 99% of my listings. Most of the time she can work with what the seller has and we bring in accessories. I personally don't stage.
I talk about staging at a listing presentation and I've only had a seller get offended once. They weren't satisfied with their first agent, who is a decent local agent, and were interviewing others. They said they were going to live in their house and not a museum and thought prepping a home for sale was idiotic.
I've been using a stager for several years now. People that don't want to stage don't hire me for the most part. I generally give people two list prices. The "current home condition price" and the "prepped for sale price." People that don't hire me use the prepped for sale price and then don't do anything to the house and it sits there most of the time.
I did list one that wanted to list at the prepped for sale price but didn't want to do the work, and then he was upset when I got him multiple offers, but none were at full price. I wouldn't do that again.
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