STAGING TO SELL THE SECRET TO SELLING HOMES IN A DOWN MARKET BARB SCHWARZ SOLD SOLD SOLD THE INVENTOR OF HOME STAGING

Transcription

1 STAGING TO SELL THE SECRET TO SELLING HOMES IN A DOWN MARKET SOLD SOLD SOLD BARB SCHWARZ THE INVENTOR OF HOME STAGING

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3 STAGING TO SELL

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5 STAGING TO SELL The Secret to Selling Homes in a Down Market BARB SCHWARZ John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

6 Copyright 2009 by Barb Schwarz. All rights reserved. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey. Published simultaneously in Canada. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) , fax (978) , or on the web at Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) , fax (201) , or online at Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages. The Career Book is a Federally Registered Trademark of Stagedhomes.com. All rights reserved. The Marketing Portfolio is a Trademark of Stagedhomes.com. All rights reserved. Stage is a Federally Registered Trademark of Stagedhomes.com. All rights reserved. The Creator of Home Staging is a Federally Registered Trademark of Stagedhomes.com and Barb Schwarz. All rights reserved. Stagedhomes.com is a Federally Registered Trademark of Stagedhomes.com. All rights reserved. IAHSP is a Federally Registered Trademark of Stagedhomes.com and IAHSP International. All rights reserved. ASP is a Federally Registered Trademark of Stagedhomes.com. All rights reserved. ASPM is a Federally Registered Trademark of Stagedhomes.com. All rights reserved. For general information on our other products and services or for technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at (800) , outside the United States at (317) or fax (317) Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. For more information about Wiley products, visit our web site at Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Schwarz, Barb, Staging to sell : the secret to selling homes in a down market / Barb Schwarz. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN (pbk.) 1. House selling. 2. Home staging. 3. Real estate business. I. Title. HD1379.S dc Printed in the United States of America

7 I dedicate this book to the women of the real estate and Home Staging industries. You are the women who make the world of real estate go round. Throughout my travels as I give my Home Staging and real estate training all over North America, I am blessed to meet the most beautiful, talented, graceful, and inspiring women. You have the creativity and the mind of genius as you Stage, market, and sell homes, and consult with the sellers whom you represent and help. This book is for you because you are a blessing to all whom you serve.

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9 CONTENTS Preface Acknowledgments ix xvii CHAPTER 1 Get Set, Go! 1 CHAPTER 2 The Let-Me-Tell-You-How-I-Work Approach 11 CHAPTER 3 Step 1: Meeting Together the First Time 25 CHAPTER 4 The Career Book: The Key to Your Credibility 39 CHAPTER 5 Prospecting and Uses of the Career Book 55 CHAPTER 6 Step 2: The Exclusive Detailed Report 71 CHAPTER 7 The Marketing Portfolio 83 CHAPTER 8 Recipe for a Sale: Pricing the Property Right 105 CHAPTER 9 The Pricing-Your-Home Triangle 117 CHAPTER 10 Staging the Property: The Outside Story 131 CHAPTER 11 Staging the Property: The Inside Story 147 CHAPTER 12 Staging Completion 195 CHAPTER 13 Stage Your Life and Work, Too! 205 vii

10 viii CONTENTS CHAPTER 14 Your Journey Toward Success 213 CHAPTER 15 The S Factor: Staging Success Stories from ASPs and Their Sellers in the Field 221 Appendix: Barb s Real Estate Words and Tools That Will 249 Work for You! A Brief History of Staging and the Stage Trademark 261 Index 265

11 PREFACE This book exists for one simple reason: to share my secrets for selling real estate in today s market. These secrets are the S Factor. What is that? The S Factor is Staging. WHAT IS STAGING? Staging is preparing a property for sale. I call it the S Factor! And Staging helps homes sell in the shortest time and for the most money possible. But S stands for other things: S stands for Service. I am all about providing service to the very best of my ability. Service, service, service! S also stands for System. And in this book I will be sharing with you the secret of my Real Estate System that works for all involved: the seller, the Agent, and the Stager! S stands for Secret, too. I will be sharing numerous secrets with you that help you sell your home at top dollar, even in a weakened and down housing market. And S stands for sold! And sold is what you want to be. When you list your home for sale or list someone s home for sale as an Agent or Stage someone s home, you want it sold. That is the whole goal. So the S Factor of Staging is to get the house listing and get the home sold. That is what this book is all about. S is also the first initial of my last name, Schwarz. Because I really did invent Home Staging, S stands for Schwarz as well as for Staging. ix

12 x PREFACE Many Real Estate Agents through the years have said to me, This house has been Schwarz d. These are the Agents who have heard me speak and who have been in my How to List and Sell Residential Real Estate Successfully seminars across the country since So the S Factor stands for Staging, Service, Secret, System and Schwarz, too. Agents like to say, May the Schwarz be with you, which, of course, gives me lots of joy to hear. So why is Staging still such a secret? I wish I knew. Few people especially Real Estate Agents who should know what it is really understand Staging. I invented Home Staging over 30 years ago as an interior designer who then went into real estate. I saw a problem with the way homes looked on the market as they came up for sale. So after many experiences, about which you will read and learn in this book, I came up with the ideas and techniques of my invention of Home Staging. In 1985, I became a professional speaker, author, and trainer, and, in addition to my writings, I have spoken about Staging with people for thousands and thousands of hours at large, anywhere I can share my message. Then in 1999, I started Stagedhomes.com as a part of my training company, Barb Incorporated. Through Stagedhomes.com, I began to train Real Estate Agents and Home Stagers to become Accredited Staging Professionals (ASPs). Agents attend a two - day course to become ASP Agents, learning my Real Estate Program. Home Stagers attend a three - day course to learn my Staging Business Model, becoming ASP Home Stagers, and they learn how to build and run a successful Home Staging business. Staging is a part of the real estate industry, not the decorating industry. Real estate is the industry in which I invented Home Staging, and without sellers there would be no Home Staging. Without houses to sell and sellers who needed to sell them, I never would have come up with the idea in the first place. Staging, as you will see, is not decorating, and decorating is not Staging. Staging is my passion, and as much as I continue to educate people about Home Staging, there are still many myths and misunderstandings in the marketplace about it. This book will teach you the truth about Staging and explain a proven program that works! Home Staging works When the market is slow. When the market is depressed. When the market is hot.

13 Preface xi When the market is not. In every price range. In every market area around the world. With homes, condos, and even vacant land. WHY STAGING WORKS Staging works for one very simple reason. The vast majority of buyers can t envision themselves in a property when they look at it. I m talking about 80 to 90 percent of the population and maybe more! It s just human nature! Buying property is an emotional decision for all but a few cutthroat investors, and this vast majority of buyers need help to see a house as a home they can live in. That help is Staging. Please reread this paragraph and understand its significance. This is the key to everything. It is why we Stage and why it works. It is the secret to success in real estate! Why can t people envision themselves in most properties for sale? Again, the emotional reaction of normal human beings makes it very difficult for them to see through the way the majority of homes on the market are presented. Most homes have too much clutter in them, are dirty, have wrong colors, and/or are cold and vacant. Buyers need to mentally move into a property for it to become their home. I can tell you as a former real estate broker that if buyers can t see themselves living in the space, they will walk away, even if it is the perfect place for them. I have seen buyers walk away from a great house hundreds, maybe thousands, of times. I have seen buyers who won t even get out of my car to look at a house because they are so turned off by the street appeal of the property. I can t tell you how many times I have seen buyers walk into a great house, take one look at the inside from the entryway, turn to me, and say, Get me out of here! They wouldn t even take a look because of the dirt or clutter! These are the things that turn off buyers: clutter, a lack of cleanliness, bad colors, and cold emptiness. Is the secret of Real Estate really that simple? Yes! The trouble is that most people won t accept that fact, especially home sellers and unfortunately many Real Estate Agents who don t really understand the secret. If you are a homeowner reading this, you are probably

14 xii PREFACE saying to yourself, Oh, this applies to other people, not me. Sorry! Even the Taj Mahal needs Staging. Agents who are reading this are probably saying, Oh, I know what Staging is, and I tell my sellers to clean their house and put things away. Sorry! Most Agents don t really understand Staging, and, worse, even if they do know what to do, they are afraid to tell their sellers! Once you really understand the secret of Staging, there is only one question: If you were going to sell a property in today s market, why in the world wouldn t you Stage it?! This book shares the simple truths and design basics that will turn any house into a desirable home that buyers can mentally move into and want to purchase. All you have to do is do it! Can I prove statistically that Staging works? Absolutely! At Stagedhomes. com we collect information from our network of Accredited Staging Professionals, who are both professional Stagers or Real Estate Agents with the ASP designation. Over the years I have seen thousands of s with wonderful success stories from Agents, Stagers, and homeowners. In a hot market, like the one we ve had in most market areas for the last few years, Staged homes sell for more money. On average the sale price has been up to 20 percent higher or even more. There are countless examples of homes selling for 5, 10, even 20 percent or more above similar homes in the same neighborhood or area compared to homes that were not Staged. STAGING IN A DOWN MARKET I wrote Staging to Sell: The Secret to Selling Homes in a Down Market for today s kind of market, whether hot or not. When the market is hot and there are not so many houses for sale, Staging helps you sell homes for even more money. In a slow market, even in a down market, the market can be flooded with houses for sale. Staging gives you the edge in a market like that, too. Let s say for an analogy that only 10 houses are for sale in a hot market. All 10 will sell, but the Staged Homes will sell for more money than the other houses, even though the market is hot. But in a down market, instead of 10 houses, 100 houses are for sale, and only 10 of the 100 houses will sell. The other 90 houses are used to sell the 10. Why and how? The 10 houses are sold because the buyer saw the other 90 homes that were not Staged and bought the Staged home instead.

15 Preface xiii You will hear me say many times that two things sell a home in any market, and this is of course true in a down market. One is price, and the other is Staging. So in a down market, when the prices of two homes are the same, the buyer will almost always purchase the Staged home over the non - Staged home. Wouldn t you? A Staged home is usually better cared for, and it is easier to visualize your furniture and possessions in than the cluttered non - Staged home. And in the down market, when the prices are the same for the same houses in the same neighborhood, you would buy the house that looks better than the others. And even in a down market you may still be willing to pay a bit more to get the house you want. If you don t believe me, just look at the pictures in this book and the real - life stories at the end of it. Staging makes all the difference in the world, and I will prove that to you in this book in many, many ways. Selling is all about presentation in any market, and this is crucial in a down market more than ever. Staging gives you the advantage as the seller and as the Agent, and the Home Stager makes it all happen. That is why I invented the Home Staging industry, whose professionals make all the difference in the world. That is also true of real estate industry professionals, who need to work with ASP Real Estate Agents, and of Home Staging industry professionals, who need to work with ASP or ASPM Home Stagers, as well. Staging to Sell: The Secret to Selling Homes in a Down Market will show you what to do, how to do it, and how to sell your home or listing in any market. You will see not only how to sell in a poor market using these ideas, but also how to sell in a hot market for even more. More recently, in a slowed market our statistics show that 95 percent of Staged homes sell on average in 35 days or less. Homes that aren t Staged on average take 187 days or more to sell, or they simply don t sell at all! If you want to sell a home in today s market it must be Staged. This book and my program will make you money! I have made thousands and thousands of dollars for thousands and thousands of sellers, Agents, and Stagers. The program that I have developed through the years and that I am going to share with you in this book is tested and it works! It is a proven program. It is a program of great service and marketing. It works! It works in a hot market, and it works in a poor market! It works in a buyer s market and it works in a seller s market. It has been put to use successfully by hundreds of thousands of Real Estate Agents all across the United States and Canada in all types of markets and price ranges. It is a