After years of helping clients and teaching on how to prepare a house for sale, last year this teacher became the student. I sold my house, downsized and moved. You don’t know what you don’t know until you are in it. The moment you decide to sell is the time to start prepping for the move. The contents of a large house will not comfortably fit in a smaller house.

The process

• Access the entire contents of your house: furniture, clothing, small appliances, junk draw contents. Everything! What’s moving with you?
• Need help? Contact a Professional Stager, Organizer, Cleaning Service, Clean Out Service. Your needs depend on contents, condition and attachment.
• Interview Realtors. Ask: Do you work with a Professional Photographer? A Professional Stager?
• Stage/prepare each room for photos.

 

Pre-listing Staging Consultation

Staging is working within your house to get it to look good online and in person for showings. Your home is now a house on the market. My best advice is to let go. If you can’t move or remove an item because that is where it belongs, you are too attached to your house and can possibly sabotage the sale. A Pro-Stager accesses by removing layers of visual clutter to get the architectural features of the house showcased, not the contents. Staging is tax deductible to seller and marketing expense to Realtor.

 

The Realtor

Each Realtor’s listings, their portfolio, represents how they will market your house. Staging and professional photography is marketing. Online photos are a potential buyer’s first walk through. Every picture tells a story and you want to be a good read.

“When I pitch to a potential client, my goal is not only to get the listing at a price that makes sense, but to always work in the best interests of my clients, by confidently providing up to date insight and information, making sure they’ll receive the best result. Staging can be a scary concept for homeowners interested in selling. The first question is always “how much does it cost?”. A great agent/broker is able to communicate clear reasoning of different points and strategies. Most buyers will be looking at 7-8 other similar homes for sale, and in order to get the desired price, without going through disappointments, losing months of time, price reductions, stress and multiple listing terms with various agents in hopes that the property will sell, we need to create a new, welcoming and wonderful experience. This is important when a seller wants close to asking or above for their home. 

Staging is not wasting money. It’s making an investment by going the extra mile to ensure the security of receiving an amplified response from the market at the highest level possible, with an agent who knows exactly what to do from there. That’s why I’ve worked with Claudia Jacobs on many deals as a part of a very intuitive, detail-oriented marketing plan, breaking records from Rockland, Orange, up to Sullivan County.”

-Nicholas Cuomo, Keller Williams Realty, Chester, NY

 

The Formula

Staged + Pro/Great Photos + Priced Right = Sold!