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When Putting Your Home on the Market...


How will you select your real estate agent?
  • A friend?
  • Someone you know?
  • An agent who is very visible through their personal promotion?
  • Their experience?
  • An agent who sells more homes?
  • An agent who sells homes for more?
  • A referral?
  • Someone who provides great service (and how would you really know)?
  • Someone who possesses superior professional skills (and how would you know which skills to look for)?
  • Should you select a successful listing agent or a successful marketing agent (and do you know the difference)?
Do Select a Marketing Agent
Demand that your agent is fully committed to being your marketing agent-dedicated to not just getting your home to sell but to causing your home to sell for more. Marketing agents leverage the laws of supply and demand. Your marketing agent will create the optimum competition for your home. Marketing agents encourage all other agents to sell your home.
 
Do Select an Effective Real Estate Negotiator
If your marketing agent has a fiduciary responsibility only to you, demand that their full negotiating efforts are focused on your benefit. Negotiating experts assert that there are five negotiation styles: Accommodators, Avoiders, Collaborators, Compromisers, Competitors
Make sure you pick a negotiator-not an arbitrator.
 
Do Select a Property Promotion Specialist
Demand an agent who is committed to robust off and online marketing. Insist upon not only a comprehensive marketing plan, but one that is customized for your property's distinctive characteristics.
 
Do Select Great Skill
Property Staging Skill: Your home has only one chance to make a first impression.
 
Networking Skill: A successful real estate transaction requires the involvement of other members of the real estate community or network.  
 
Information Technology Skill: Online marketing strategies are extremely important as most buyers, due to the Internet, are now seeking a far greater level of information and transparency than ever before.
 
Low Cost Home Staging Ideas
 
 
Accent with Color
 
Surfaces are decluttered and red accents added to enliven a seating area. Purchased: Nothing except the flowers
 
 Set a Scene
 
Kitchen counters are transformed from utility into a welcoming oasis. Purchased: Cream vases, $40, succulents, $12, pear tray, $13, basket, $5, towels, $8
 
 
Think in Threes
 
Odd numbers create tension that provides visual interest. This principle is applied with three grass bundles on the fireplace hearth and three varied-height vases on the kitchen counter above. A painting retrieved from storge and a large rug improve the balance on and add warmth to the mantle area. Purchased: Grass bundles, $30
 
Pare Down
 
Books and photos go into storage, replaced with accent pieces and flowers that brighten the dark shelves. Purchased: Baskets, $10, mirror, $12, vase, $30, top shelf basket, $25
 
 
 
Reprinted from Realtor magazine online 02/01/2008 with permission of the National Association of Realtors.
 
 
 
The Value of FengShui Staging
 
 
FengShui is age-old Asian design science that emphasizes our fundamental connection with nature.
 
According to FengShui, everything in the natural world can be classified into elements Fire (Tuesday), Water (Wednesday), Wood (Thursday), Metal (Friday), and Earth (Saturday), and named 5 days significantly.
 
And all beings are influenced by the interactions of these (5) elements.
 
Since our houses are microcosms of our large planetary home we can apply this thinking to all the colors, textures, shapes, and design elements within our houses.
 
If all of the five elements exist within a space and that space does not contain too much of any one particular element, it produces a feeling of comfort, internal harmony, thus raising energy.
 
When buyers experience this sensitivity on an energetic or subconscious level, sellers can usually expect to receive an offer to purchase.
 
Through 20 years of experience helping people buy, sell and our intensive study of the design science, let us demonstrate this brilliant concept and thereby maximize value.
 
 
(7) major home staging principles:
  • Make a great first impression:

Be certain the entire entrance area is pleasing and positive; swept clean and turn on every single light, lamp, and chandelier. It sets the tone for buyer's expectations of the house, becasue it usually indicates how well the rest of the property has been cared for.

  • Encourage serenity and physical comfort:

Play soft background music, aroma-therapy works great, and keep the thermostat around 65-70 degrees.

  • Let the beauty of nature come in:

    Brighter is better, open the shades and raise the blinds, open several windows for ventilation.

  • Maximize space and eliminate clutter :

    The goal is to show the potential of the house. Reposition any furnitures obstructing buyer's forwarding pathways. Think, Less is Definitely More when you sell home.

  • De-emphasize flaws:

Accentuate the home's positive features.

  • Make home generic:

Religious items, family pictures, hobbies, and achievements must go. Generic is not the same thing as neutral. Home doesn't need to be all white or all beige. These days, the definition of "neutral" extends way beyond; from warm tans and honeys to soft blue-greens. But the strong impression of a potentially offensive colors should be minimized by effective staging.

  • Keep safety foremost:

You want your buyer to fall for your house, not in it!