Setting the Scene for Selling Success

Setting the Scene for Selling Success

By Stacy Cate

Most of the time the thought of putting your home on the market to sell is also surrounded with many strong emotions. You are filled with excitement and anticipation about the next nest that you will make into a home. But, at the same time, you are also filled with the stress and fear of the unknown and the overwhelming question of how to sell your current home quickly and for the most money. This is the best point in time to reach out to a professional Realtor to help you sort through all of these strong emotions and create a strategy for how to tackle these issues and sell your home.

There are many steps in the road to successfully preparing your home to sell. One of these steps is preparing the home for the potential buyers. Today’s buyers are more ‘educated’ about what they want in a home… thank you HGTV! Buyers’ expectations about what their home should look and feel like from the moment they step foot into the doorway are higher than ever before. In addition, a recent study by the National Association of Realtors reports that 44% of buyers start their home search online and 98% of buyers frequently use the web to search for homes.

12 | Ann - LifeAndLuxuryMagazine.com Therefore, your home must be prepared properly and have exceptional professional pictures and video created before the “For Sale” sign is in the yard.

Essentially, home staging is the art (and the science) of maximizing the appeal of a home to prospective buyers. The goal is to help a home sell as quickly as possible, for as much money as possible. Successfully staging a home has proven to work. Studies have shown that while staging requires an investment of approximately 1-3% of the home’s asking price, it will typically generate an 8-10% return.

The goal of staging is never to create the ‘perfect home’. Why? Because no two buyers have the exact same preferences. Instead the goal is for the prospective buyer to be able to immediately visualize how he or she would personalize the home. It’s helpful to think of home staging like the packaging of a product. The right packaging works to attract buyers. By staging a home, you make it stand out from the competition, tap into the buyer’s psychology, and give buyers the confidence to make an offer.

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There are many options to tackle that initial investment for setting the scene. Be sure to ask your Realtor what options they may offer for such services. Some brokerages offer specific programs to assist the seller with preparing their home. Compass, with real estate offices across the country, offers a customized concierge program, Compass Concierge, to make the process nearly painless. The program will front the seller the cost of home improvement services such as de-cluttering, staging, flooring, painting, landscaping and more without fees or interest – ever. Any costs accrued for such seller approved services are simply deducted once the property sells.

Setting the scene for a successful sale is crucial and a professional Realtor will bring to you great value in evaluating your home and identifying where the biggest improvements should be made to get the biggest return on your time and investment. Then partner with a professional stager to implement these strategies. All it takes is a small investment and a little bit of effort to make your property stand out.