Home Staging: As I get ready to host Easter dinner it made me think what does Easter and home staging have in common? Well, you can’t put all your eggs is one basket. What do I mean by this?
Let’s say you love your house like most sellers do, it’s been a place where priceless memories have not only been made, but where you’ve had complete design control and freedom to put anything you want on this property for 5,10,15, maybe 20 years or more. Well, just because you think your home is great doesn’t mean you will find others to agree with you.
Putting all your focus on the fact that if you love it, a buyer will love it too and pay your price is ridiculous! That’s why most sellers who don’t think strategically wind up with limited buyer interest. If a buyer doesn’t view your cluttered, crayon-walled, misplace furniture home as a masterpiece and buy it, then guess what? You just dropped your basket and all your eggs are broken. That’s why it’s best to place your time, money and resources into multiple baskets that can all derive at the same end result to sell your home.
I was recently denied a home staging job in Murray Hill, the homeowner wasn’t living in the space in fact she was renting the space and decided she didn’t want to spend any money to stage her home. Her real estate agent brought me to the see the home and this is what I saw:
Clutter and disorganization throughout the home, rooms not being used properly, and just overall the home didn’t feel inviting there was no cohesion or anything that completed the look of each room. And to top it off she’s asking for $1.25 million dollars for a 1100 square foot 1 bedroom apartment, a price that has no research to back it up. Now this is a seller putting all her eggs in that one basket.
And while, I wish this seller luck, I’ve seen this type of problem over and over again and can say she should spread her eggs and not rely solely on finding someone to buy the home overpriced, as-is. Other baskets that she should be using are determining a pricing strategy and a staging strategy, so that she has options if the home is sitting on the market more than 30,60 or 90 days without finding a buyer.
There is nothing more disheartening then being on the market for months at a time, wasting your time, energy, disrupting your privacy or in this case your renters privacy and being stressed that one of your most valuable possessions isn’t selling.
So, to avoid having your basket fall apart, by focusing all your resources on that a buyer will love your home as-is, I urge you to protect yourself and find other strategies to rely on.
