Staging 101.

Picture this….

 

You’ve just been relocated for work from Toronto to Vancouver and you need to sell your house, and fast! You need to maximize your profits on your house and do so in a timely manner.

First step is to of course, sit down with your local realtor who you’ve connected with either by a referral, calling the top agent in your neighbourhood, searching online for active and competent realtors or just simply asking someone you know to come, sit down and explain their approach to selling real estate.

Of course there are factors to consider when you are going to work with a realtor on the sale of your house, but for the sake of time and efficiency of this blog Im going to focus in only on the staging aspect and its importance. If you think you can sell your home with your old dusty books, your plastic wrapped couch and your old gym sneakers by the door, your beyond mistaken.

Myself personally, I need your ENTIRE home empty… I want everything out as if the home is already sold.. (Condo or house this is applied to) Most of the times I want to completely paint the house white as well, so I really need everything out.

Once the place is emptied, painted white and I’ve had my cleaner through the property… It’s now time to stage. The way the property is presented will dictate A. the price the property sells for and B. how quickly the property sells. Days on market are almost like strikes in baseball, you can only have so many until you strike out (by strike out I mean not sell for the top possible dollar).

I like to take a modern and rustic combined approach in my staging. I think modern items like couches and lighting fixtures bode well with antique pieces such as credenzas and artwork. You need to make sure when potential buyers walk in they are wow’d by the staging! I work with so many buyers and when we walk into an empty condo its so dull… I’ve never had a client walk out of an empty condo like “Thats the one!” It just doesn’t happen. If it’s a condo I’ll even want a furniture set out on the balcony so potential buyers could imagine coming home from work and relaxing on their outdoor oasis in the city.

Think of it the same as when you go in for that big job interview.. You’ve just finished years of education, spent hours on your resume and now its time to showcase your skills.  You need to go in fresh…  Clothes clean, well groomed, your favourtie pair of shoes and your game face on to convince your potential employer your the man/woman for the job.  There’s no difference…

Staging is a service I always include in my listing efforts and its combined in my commission.  Average price to professionally stage a condo will be approx $3,000 and a 3 bedroom home would be approx. $6,000, I will not put my name on a listing without having it portrayed in the highest regards on the market. There are so many part time agents out there who will list your property for 1% with an iPhone picture of the outside of the house or condo… But that 1.5% you’ll be saving on listing your million dollar property equates to $15,000… I GUARANTEE you’ll sell for at least $25,000 less than you could of if you went with the strategy that works with a full service realtor. $10,000 could be a year of your child’s college education.

Long story short… If you’re going to sell the biggest asset you’ve ever owned… Do it right