Thursday, October 23, 2008

Agent Open House - Feel Home

I have the fortunate privilege of being able to attend Wednesday’s Agent Open House most every week. This is when the different offices around our county pile up agents in several cars and go tour the new and sometimes not so new listings. Most of the time a snack or food is offered and very often a door prize or two is offered. This is supposed to entice the agents to come and view these houses and I have to say, it works.

What surprises me is that with all the shows on A & E, HGTV and info about home staging and selling a house in a challenging market, that more homeowners leave their home in “live in” condition, than not. The family photos, collections, personal beauty products, even litter boxes and trash cans remain out for all the world to see.

As a professional home stager I believe that successful staging is the art of using marketing and decorating to create an environment that buyers can aspire to….”If I buy this house, I can live like this”. Home Stagers use the art of positioning to create several emotional connection points throughout the home so that when a buyer steps into the house they “feel home.” Not like they are in your home.

Here are a combination of eight things that are analyzed in each room to create a lasting impression for the home buyer.

First Impressions - Room by room, we will walk through and take note of our first impressions,what grabs us, what glares at us and what gives to us a feeling of home?

Eliminating Clutter - The packing starts now as we pack away a good percentage of everything in the room in order to create a more clean, open and spacious feel.

Emphasize The Positive – While Downplaying the Negative - Finding your beautiful focal points, we will emphasize what we love about the room and hide or distract the negative aspects of the rooms.

Lighten Up - Focusing on lighting and color, we will make each room into a bright, warm and inviting space that buyers can respond to.

Home Buyers Appeal - In order for a buyer to “feel home” they need not be reminded of this being your home. We’ll depersonalize the space while retaining the warmth and fun of photos.

Odor Free/Cleaning/Repairs - The dirty work speaks for itself but is many times overlooked because you’ve lived here for so long. Let’s get rid of the buyer’s mental “repair list” by doing it
ourselves.

Modernizing - Updating your style and building simple accessories out of what you already have to create clean lines and form. In some cases, we’ll recommend purchases as valuable
“investments” in the staging process.

“Emotional Connection Points” - Creating the “Wow Factor”. This is the fun part and is a huge focus of our positioning strategy. We’ll show you how to build in these subtleties in order to make the buyers subconsciously desire to live here and “feel home”. The “emotional connection points” are where marketing strategy really comes in to play.

So, if you are a real estate agent with listings, send this to your home sellers. Encourage them to either do this work themselves or call Southern Staging & Redesign to help.

If you are a homeowner with your house on the market or contemplating listing your house for sale, give me a call, let’s discuss my services and choose one that benefits you the most.

Unless you really don’t want to sell…….