Home Staging is a proven vital tool in today’s flooded real estate market. With well over 90% of all prospective buyers searching the web before touring homes with an agent, and mere seconds to make that first impression, MLS or FSBO photos on-line had better WOW! Having an abundance of homes to choose from has left the buyer’s market very particular and demanding. Builders too, who have been hit by the recession, are slashing prices on new homes. So, the competition is tough!
Although every home should be staged prior to listing, it’s never too late. The Real Estate Staging Association polls 2000 active real estate agents annually for their current home staging statistics. Once again, consistently since 2007, despite the market being down, homes that are staged to sell, do sell faster; saving sellers thousands in monthly expenses. Just one of the impressive statistics in their 2010 report is for Occupied Homes that were listed without staging first. The average DOM (Days on Market) was 233 days–that’s almost 8 months! After those same homes were staged to sell, the average DOM was 53. That’s 78% less time on the market!
Today, home sellers have options. A professional home stager can be brought in to make the needed changes, or for the Do-It-Yourself generation, who’d like to save some money, many staging ideas can be done by the home seller. And for the very design-challenged seller, who has difficulty knowing where to begin, personalized advice and guidance can Read the rest of this entry »
