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PRE-MARKET STRATEGIES: APPEARANCE

1. The Look: Stage it.

In a way, you could say today’s Buyers are spoiled. In the 1900’s staging was much
less important than it is today. As long as the house was clean and nothing “weird,”
there was little benefit that staging offered. Today, things have changed. Because of
the internet people are used to seeing gorgeously staged homes, and so their
expectations have become much higher over the last decade than they were previously.
Bottom line, making your home show at its best has never been more important.
A good professional stager makes good money for good reason. They know how to
make a house look it’s best to the largest number of people…and to the people that
matter the most…BUYERS. What a skilled staging professional will do is help you
make the house look fantastic in a way that is still “neutral,” which helps it appeal to
potential buyers with widely varying styles and tastes.
Even homes that have been expertly decorated by an interior designer, will still often
benefit from staging, because an interior designer customizes the look of the house to
match the current owner’s tastes. It may or may not be a look that will create the
maximum appeal to the largest cross section of Buyers.
You can find lots of do-it-yourself staging ideas on-line for free, that will give you some
great ideas on making your house show at its best. However, here is an important tip
that will help you understand the psychology of today’s Buyer.
When a potential Buyer walks into your home, how they FEEL about the property is
very, very important. Or to say it a different way…how the property makes them feel.
Here is the question to ask yourself: When buyers walk into my property, is there
anything about it that could keep them from feeling at home?

Once Buyers have identified the key criteria of their purchase (such as price, location,
size, condition, etc), they will ultimately buy based on emotion. How does the house
make them feel? So if a Seller has “eccentric” tastes in paint colors, flooring, furniture,
or decor that does not “feel” comfortable to the Buyer, the Buyer simply can’t “feel at
home” in the house.

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