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How to Tell if Your Home Does Not Need Home Staging to Sell
Your home might not need home staging to sell. Do you know how you can tell? Well, for starters, you probably can’t on your own. But if you ask a top Sacramento Realtor whose specialty is solely working with sellers, I bet she can tell you. When your entire focus in Sacramento real estate is listing homes and selling them — and you don’t work with buyers — you view the world through a dedicated lens. You see things differently than other agents. At least that is the case with me.
I can tell you in a heartbeat if your home does not need home staging to sell. Some homes do not require home staging, and since part of my goal is to increase net profit for a seller, I’m not sending them down that path in every situation. Because some situations simply don’t call for home staging.
Oh, you’ll hear agents say every home shows better with home staging, and that’s not entirely true. For example, tiny, small homes don’t always show better with staging. Too much furniture can crowd a small house. It can make a small house appear even smaller. A buyer will never know she can’t fit a bed in a small bedroom if there isn’t a bed there.
Two homes that I’m presently working on listing don’t need staging and for different reasons. One home is unique, with vintage designer wallpaper. Wood windows. Wood ceiling, beams and fancy millwork. Random planked floors. Handmade braided rag floor covering, wall-to-wall. It’s a special storybook house. Staging might detract from the period and make the home seem smaller. It’s not that large to start with.
Another home features a long room at the entrance, with a delightful bonus view through French doors at the other end. That’s the selling feature. The million dollar shot. I explained to that seller that she should stage the living room / dining area, separating the two spaces. While she does not need home staging to sell, she should stage that very important first impression space. Bring into focus the original fireplace and send the view out into the back yard.
This seller was excited when she called yesterday to say she met with my preferred home stager. The stager not only promised to stage the living area, but she threw in for free the staging of a yoga studio out back. As a bonus for the seller, she said, because I refer so much business to the stager. She makes me look good, and my seller is very happy!
If you really want to know if you need home staging to sell, ask an experienced Realtor for her opinion. In our present seller’s market, it is possible your home does not need home staging to sell.
Sacramento Home Staging Agents Maximize Your Profit
The talents of a real estate agent are often multifaceted but Sacramento home staging agents are generally not real estate agents. Real estate agents must be excellent communicators, expert negotiators and excel at marketing, but they are not a home stager. That’s not to say that a real estate agent can’t give you home staging advice because she most certainly can. But if you want her to stage your home, she’s not the best person to go to — because her specialty is selling real estate not warehousing furniture, not to mention she does not possess the specialized experience that is required to create the stage. There are home staging specialists in Sacramento who do nothing else but that job.
A home seller would no more hire her listing agent to stage her home than she would hire the listing agent to paint the walls or replace an aging roof. If her real estate agent does offer to stage the home, it’s possible the home stager is a professional home stager and not an effective real estate agent. You also would not hire a mortgage broker who happens to hold a real estate license to sell your home. Well, some people might without realizing it. Then they pay for it later when it’s too late.
The fact remains you should hire a person to do a job that the person is licensed to do and solely specializes in doing. My real estate practice is so specialized that I have agents, for example, who work with me to show property because showing homes is not something that I personally do. I’m not that good at it, if you want to know the truth. I walk into the wrong house, get on the wrong freeways, break my nails opening doors and can’t keep my mouth shut if the place stinks.
I’m much better at representing sellers and selling homes for top dollar. That’s my strength. Being an expert listing agent is a real specialty. And I sell homes throughout Sacramento, Placer, Yolo and Eldorado. I can tell you if a room has too much furniture in it and to take down your photographs from the walls. But if your home needs staging — and let me say that not every home does — then I will be the first to tell you so and to help you to settle on a home stager. I have access to many home stagers in Sacramento in my arsenal, but I would never presume to do a better job for you at home staging than a professional home stager will do. To think that an agent would is a crazy presumption.
I prefer to hire the specialists when I need a job done professionally and so should a home seller. Don’t try to shop on price, instead, hire the home stager you relate to. They all tend to charge about the same; it makes sense to hire a professional home stager if and when you need it. Then listen to your home stager and take her or his advice. Home stagers focus solely on staging your home for maximum profit, and typically have earned degrees and certifications in the business. It’s an entirely different business from selling real estate, although it deals with the same outcome, a closing.
If you just want to dump your home in its present condition, I can certainly do that for you. But if I recommend a home stager, it’s because I believe you can make more to cover that cost of home staging and pocket the rest. I have a home right now that if it were sold in its present shape, the seller would lose about $25,000 to $35,000, but with home staging, with fees less than 1/10th of that potential loss, the seller will make a big profit. I’m all about maximizing profit. Home staging pays, it doesn’t cost. If your Sacramento agent suggests it, ask how much you will lose if you don’t.
