Is Your House a Bad Fruit?

Hardly a day goes by that I don’t run into someone that asks me about the condition of the real estate market. Often it seems they are expecting to hear a tale of doom and gloom based on what they hear and/or read in the media outlets. So I’m not sure if they are disappointed or relieved when I tell them our market here in the Dallas area is not so bad. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not gangbusters, plenty of inventory available, many listings aging with no real interest from any buyers. But there are still plenty of homes that come on the market and sell with the first few days, maybe weeks, of being listed. Not at all uncommon for the first buyer to see these homes and make an offer at or near full price.

Why is this happening? What sets these apart from the rest? Preparation and staging. The buyers out there are seeing a lot of homes, either in person or online or both. Kind of like picking fruit at the grocery story store. The bruised apples and squishy tomatoes get left behind. It is a process of elimination and takes very little for a property to be rejected. Bad photos, challenging location, poor presentation, obviously overpriced. The location certainly cannot be changed but the other items are under the control of the seller, with input from their Realtor.

Quality of photos can make or break a listing. Even the best property can be made to look bad using inadequate equipment or improper technique. If good photos cannot be taken by the seller or the agent, spend the money to hire a professional otherwise they won’t even make it to your house to reject it in person.

Poor presentation is the kiss of death. The buyers are watching the same programs on HGTV among other channels, showing them how a house should be “staged” to sell so that’s what they expect to see. If a seller believes they can market a house the same way they live in it, most will be disappointed by the lack of interest from buyers. Make the house look like a model home. If you’re not getting the suggestions from your Realtor, hire a professional stager to help you with this and you’ll more than recapture the money spent for this.

Pricing. Get the thought out of your head that you can price it high and a buyer “can bring us a lower offer – we’re willing to negotiate”. The higher you are priced above where you should be, the lower any offer will come in, you’ll likely be insulted or angry by the offer. Greater chance that you’ll receive no offer at all, then go through a series of price reductions and end up selling for less than if you had priced it right from the start. As a listing ages, buyers often see that as an opportunity, thinking the seller may be getting desperate now. Until it becomes a seller’s market again, and it will at some point, don’t “test the market” – price it to sell now.

Bottom line. Buyer’s are choosing the cream of the crop at the best price. They’ve seen the rest and when the good ones come available, they are snapping them up in a big hurry. Do yourself a favor, get all your ducks in a row and put your best fruit forward.

Stay off that bed!!!

Thank goodness for HGTV! Seems like nearly everyone I know is watching it, making plans for their next remodeling project, learning how to "flip" properties, and why to put in a gazillion dollars worth of landscaping improvements. Most importantly, I rarely have to explain any more what I mean when I talk about "staging" a house for sale. Most of the home sellers know about it, and many of them are doing it very well, oftentimes with professional help. And it works! Buyers like those homes better that are well staged, they sell faster and at a higher price as a rule.

There is an image that comes to my mind sometimes though, probably fueled by my sense of humor that has been referred to as "pure corn" (spent a lot of years in Oklahoma). I envision the sellers coming home, eating their evening meal (Hot Pockets perhaps) standing up in the laundry room so as not to disturb the table setting (permanently in place until the house sells) and to keep any crumbs off the den furniture and floor. Can't stay up and watch TV now or the furniture will be mangled by butt prints and deemed unpresentable to the next buyer prospect walking through the door. Might as well go to bed. Get out the sleeping bags, lay them next to the beds and do not, I repeat DO NOT pull the covers back and ruin the balance of the 8-15 pillows of various sizes and shapes on top of the bed! Sleep well...

You get the picture. Living in a house while trying to sell is very different from "real life". The sellers that do the best job staging their home are usually rewarded -- and should be. They need to sell quickly so they can get a good night's sleep -- in between the sheets.

Bottom line: properly staging a home to sell works extremely well. It's not always easy to live that way, but it is so worth the sacrifice. Check with your favorite Realtor for tips and/or referrals to professional home stagers.