I get so many questions each month from our APSD Certified Home Stagers, Stager Pro’s, Property Scene Designers and of course, most come from the APSD Certified Trainers because they are moving at a very fast pace and need answers quickly! Here, I want to cover some of the most common questions, so I can give you all a little ‘help’ this month.
One of the questions that I recently answered was how to deal with homes that are priced too high for the market. I think I answered this question for home stagers on the East Coast, West Coast and in Canada this month! It is a great question because it means you are acting with integrity. Is staging going to still help sell this home in a short amount of time if it is overpriced by $50,000?
Good and effective staging always helps but if there are 10 other homes in the area for sale as well and the homes are all ‘apples to apples’ and they are priced correctly, chances are, nothing is going to help until there is a price reduction.
In a buyer’s market, staging will help to sell faster and for more money, just like in a seller’s market, but your pricing still has to be somewhat realistic because today’s buyer has so many choices.
So what happens when you get called in to do a staging and you know that it is overpriced, that the staging is going to sit there and you can’t do anything about it?
Today, you have to be better than just another Certified Home Stager. That is why all the APSD Certified Home Staging Professionals also learn marketing and business…it is not enough to just be a good stager anymore.
Before you go to the property, do your homework. Take a look at the listing online if it is available. Next, go to Realtor.org and Zillow.com to check out comparable listings and sales. Make sure the properties are as comparable as possible.
While Zillow has not had a good reputation in the past for accuracy, today, they have really come up to par and are now an excellent resource to use. Print out the information you find. A few flyers in the local neighborhood are also helpful, especially if you have collected them (assuming you work in a regular area and can maintain a file of flyers) and not the asking price on the flyer, the selling price and the DOM which you can often find from the local listing agent, the MLS listing or on your local assessors site. There are many ways, find the one that works best for you…*
***Continued next week!
***To receive Karen Schaefer’s APSD Certified Home Stager Session #1 Free CD along with the Session #1 workbook, Karen’s book on the ‘5 Steps to Selling a Property or Listing in 30 days or less’ and her favorite Pocket of Emotion, just go to www.APSDmembers.com or call 1-877-900-STAGE
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