When Selling Your Home, Do You Need to Stage It?

We are often asked whether or not a home needs to be “staged” when selling. And the answers is “It depends”.

There are different degrees of staging and your Realtor can help you decide which one works best for you.

1. CLEAN & SIMPLE

The most simple staging involves you preparing your home for market by cleaning & streamlining your house to look as appealing as possible. Your Realtor can do a walkthrough with you and give suggestions. This could include quick fixes like cleaning out your closets so they are only 1/3 full (so buyers feel like there is plenty of storage), clearing your kitchen counters (so buyers envision ample counter space) or hanging baskets of flowers on your front porch (for a friendly, welcome pop of color). There is no additional cost for this option.

2. STAGING CONSULT

The next level up might include a consultation with a professional stager. In Northern Virginia, this could cost in the $300+ range – depending on how much time the stager spends with you. The stager meets with you in your home, walks through with you and provides you with tips to implement to make your home more appealing. The stager might suggest things like removing certain pieces of furniture, rearranging others, removing draperies or regrouping wall hangings – to increase appeal, draw buyers’ eyes away from (or toward) certain features of your home and to help them envision how they would live there.

3. PARTIAL & FULL STAGING

Full staging is often used for new and/or vacant homes. The staging company will furnish some or all of your rooms. It’s a lot easier for Buyers to picture themselves in a home when the stager paints the picture for them. Partial staging is also an option and the stager can help you with storing some of your furniture, bringing in better pieces and developing a cohesive and attractive color scheme that appeals. As an example, you may have a HUGE dining room table – which is great for having the whole family for holiday meals. But if it overwhelms your dining room, potential Buyers may rule your home out because the dining room feels small. A stager can store your table and bring in one of her own that is more conducive to the room size.

Here’s an example of what happens when you stage and your competition does not!

Recently, we put a condo on the market. There were a number of other units in the same condominium for sale. None of the others were staged. And they had been on the market for a while.

When we listed our unit, we provided a staging consultation to our Sellers and at our recommendation the Seller went with Option 3. The cost for staging was $1,450.

Here’s what it looked like:

When our unit came on the market, the others all reduced their prices.So – what happened? Was it worth it?

Absolutely! Within one weekend, our Seller’s unit was under contract. What about the others? Well – weeks later they are still for sale. And we know that per NAR stats, the longer a home is on the market, the less it will sell for.

Contact Terry Belt & The Belt Team at (703) 242-3975 if you are thinking of selling. We are happy to provide you with our FREE REPORT “90 Tips To Prepare Your Home For Market” .

 

42 Questions To Ask When Selling A Home in Northern VA

Are there questions you should ask your Realtor when you’re selling a home in Northern VA?

You betcha! There are more than 10,000 Realtors in Northern VA. So how do you choose the best one for you?

Ask LOTS of questions! We provide our clients with a list of 42 great questions to ask. Here’s a sampling of some – along with the reason why you should ask:

Q. How long have you been in real estate?

Does this really matter? Yes! While new agents can have many skills, there may also be some important ingredients missing: problem solving skills that come from experience for example. Per the National Association of Realtors, the average agent has been in the business for 7 years. Belt Team members average 21 years in the business. So we’ve seen a LOT more things come up and have a lot more resources to handle them. The more homes we sell, the more we learn. So when problems arise, they are usually only temporary and don’t permanently derail your sale. We’ve had lightning strike, raccoons in the attic (twice!), underground oil tanks and more – none of which derailed our sellers thanks to relationships we have built over many years.

Q. Do you have other listings higher in price and lower in price that you will be able to attract Buyers from?

Why does this matter? Because most calls we get inquiring about properties are calls from buyers who want to know the price of the house (and they always thinks it’s lower than it is) or they eventually realize they have to raise their price range to get what they want or lower it to get what they can afford. Since The Belt Team is such a productive team, our Sellers get the added benefit of being able to attract potential buyers from our other listings – both lower and higher in price.

Q. Do your signs have a direct phone number for your team?

Did you know that many newer agents get business by sitting at the front desk of their office as a receptionist and answering the phone – hoping a potential buyer might call about a house because they saw the sign in the yard? Some real estate companies require their agents’ signs to have the company number – instead of the listing agent’s number on the sign for this very reason – to feed newer agents business. While this might be great for the new agent, it’s not so great for the Seller becuase that means a much lesser experienced, less knowledgeable agent will be talking to potential buyers about your home. They might not have even seen your home! (Our signs and ads all have a dedicated Belt Team number that is answered almost 24/7!)

Q. Do you hire & pay for a professional photographer?

This one seems like a no brainer. Of course you would want professional photos of your home – especially when most buyers will see the photos online first! But you’d be surprised how many agents take their own photos to save the money. This is also a good way to guage how professional your Realtor is.

Q. What is the average days on market in my area and what is the average days YOUR listings sell in this area?

This question tells you how well the agent does their job. (Note: Belt Team listings sell much faster than average!)

Q. What percentage of list price do your listings sell for and what is the market average?

This is the logical follow up question to how fast listings sell for. You don’t want an agent who sells fast because they underprice their listings only for the homes to sell for less. And it’s a fine line to walk! (Belt Team listings not only sell faster than average, but for a higher percentage of list price.)

NOW is the time to prepare you home for the Spring Market. Call Terry Belt or Kevin Kleifges at (703) 242-3975 to schedule a FREE Home Selling Consultation or email The Belt Team if you would like our FREE report “42 Interview Questions To Ask Your Realtor When Selling A Home“.

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