If you’ve been a real estate agent for any time at all, you know that nothing that YOU DO can overcome what the SELLER WILL NOT DO.
You know the importance of how a property shows when it comes to selling. You know how competitive the real estate market is these days. And you know that sellers have about 10 seconds to capture a buyer – unless they want to sell for below market value that is.
At Rocky Mountain Home Staging, we make your job easier so that you can focus on pricing and marketing the property knowing that it is “show ready” both in on-line photos and in person.
Our average days to offer for homes that are staged from the very beginning AND professionally photographed and marketed is just 5 days. When you have the houses that always look great, you sell more homes. You can also use it as a positioning tool during the listing presentation to show potential clients the kind of sellers you work with and thus, the results you get. When your listings sell fast, you get more referrals and more listings. You have time to do the things that grow your business or (and here is a novel concept) that you enjoy. You get the results that other realtors don’t. Staging is a proven strategy to sell homes faster and for more money. It is also a go-to strategy for high performance agents who are motivated by results. Our realtor clients are top producers who strive for excellence with every transaction.
We know that often you can only recommend so much to your sellers. Sometimes they just don’t listen or they don’t think that your recommendations for selling their home are important because they “didn’t have to do all that the last time they sold” or because “those things weren’t done when they bought the home and they still liked it” or because they simply don’t have the money or don’t have the time. At Rocky Mountain Home Staging we spend time educating and empowering sellers about their part in a successful home sale. When sellers do their part, your can get them much better results by doing your part. It’s truly a win-win situation for everyone.
Busy agents don’t have the time to provide a comprehensive home staging analysis. Most give a few tips here and there and hit on the main issues, feeling the seller out before making further suggestions. Representing the property as a seller’s agent is already a big job with the marketing, negotiations, contracts, inspection and appraisal details, closing coordination and general hand holding required. There is already a lot of educating to do without adding staging into the mix. Especially because 75% of homeowners think that their home décor is fabulous as is and any mention of changing it can be an emotional minefield.
At Rocky Mountain Home Staging our role and relationship with the seller is different.
It’s ok for us to be the bad guy. We can be the one who tells them straight up that their house smells like pee or that the wallpaper border absolutely must be removed. We will do it kindly, we will do it gently and we will do it honestly. We support you by providing a complete blueprint for selling success including all the components that the seller can control; how the property shows, the emotional triggers, the condition of the property and the curb appeal. You don’t have to worry about jeopardizing your seller’s agent relationship with discussions of property challenges. And rest assured that we will work in concert with you to make sure that we aren’t contradicting what you are telling the seller.
We will be your partner throughout the transaction. We will focus on making you and your listing look good. We will never undermine you or your suggestions.
You may think that staging is only for higher end homes or properties other than what you specialize in selling.
The fact is every house needs to be staged. It doesn’t matter if the house is listed for several million or is a one bedroom condo listed for $95,000. All properties can benefit from staging. Even houses that look great can be improved. Sometimes the most beautiful homes are the hardest to sell. Buyers look at the designer showplace and can’t picture their old couch in there or maybe they are distracted by the original art and the antique rugs. Effective staging isn’t only for the ugly houses – it helps sell the beautiful ones too because it is about packaging, about positioning a house to sell.Staging is not about decorating or fluffing, it’s a business strategy designed to elicit specific and measurable results.
Maybe you have worked with stagers before.
Maybe you think it works great and you already have someone who you work with. If that’s the case, we wish you well. The average days to offer of our team is 5 days. So if your home stager is ever too busy we hope you will give us a call.
We also know that maybe your past experiences with home stagers may not have been the greatest.
You may think it’s not worth the money or that it hasn’t gotten results. We wish that we could tell you that all staging is the same and that all of it is effective. But that would be like us telling you that all of your marketing or advertising works the same. The fact is, some things work better than others. And some approaches to staging yield better results than others. The home staging industry has evolved a lot in the last few years and what worked a few years ago, is no longer very effective. There are inexpensive stagers out there who do some random accessorizing and call it staging. We don’t happen to think that a few wine glasses next to the tub or plastic plants create the desired results. We don’t use anything that isn’t carefully designed to create an emotional response in a specific target buyer.
In the coming years, we believe that home staging will become a necessity when selling a house. That it will be similar to getting your car detailed before you sell it. People will just expect that if they want to sell their home that it needs to look nice. They will come to understand that most buyers can’t see past the kid toy explosion in the living room, the princess pink walls, the floral wallpaper or the worn out teal carpet. Sellers will also come to understand that how their home relates to the competition is important; that buyers are looking for the very best home for their money.
Before you recommend a price adjustment to your sellers we hope that first you will always recommend a staging consult.
Considering that most price adjustments are $5,000 minimum and often more, whereas a staging consult is a few hundred bucks – it is definitely a great deal for your seller and will make you look like a hero for recommending it.
Also, ask about our partner programs for real estate agents. We are here to make your job easier and to make you more successful when it comes to helping your clients sell. Call us today at 720–295-0720 or email us. We’d love to make selling easier for you too!
Rocky Mountain Home Staging works with real estate agents, home sellers and investors to help sell their properties in the Colorado towns of Boulder, Broomfield, Superior, Louisville, Lafayette, Niwot, Nederland, Lyons, Longmont, Erie, Golden and Westminster.