EZ Staging Tips for Sellers. Or; For the Love of Pete, Don’t Do This…

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My lovely bride and I have been quite busy lately showing homes. One client is “downsizing” after the last kid went off to college. Two different couples relocating to the Phoenix area in the coming months are exploring options in the East Valley. All of these buyers have a good idea of what they are looking for. Francy has the uncanny ability to glean a clients needs, wants and desires, which eliminates, oh, I don’t know, several thousand options before we even get in the car.

But relocators in particular like to look at lots of houses in different areas. Neither of the couples we’re working with had ever set foot in Phoenix. Through our and other web sites though, they had a pretty good idea of where to start looking. They’d even identified several houses through our IDX search that they wanted to see long before they even called us. However, they still wanted to see several homes to get a better idea of what is available, what the subdivisions are like, what different parts of town have to offer, you get the drift.

Anyone who has read this blog (or almost any other Phoenix based blog) knows there is a significant amount of inventory available in the Phoenix market. With lots of homes to chose from, sellers need to make sure their homes are priced competitively and are in “showing shape”. Despite this, we found countless (literally) homes that weren’t priced well. As for “showing shape”, well….. that’s why I’m writing this. What we saw was pretty amazing. Below are true life examples of some of the homes we saw for sale this month. I couldn’t make this stuff up folks…

Purple and orange may be the colors of the Phoenix Suns, but even a devout Suns fan probably doesn’t want a master bedroom with purple and orange walls.

Ditto for dog feces. We love dogs. We have a large dog named Trudy. Large dogs like Trudy leave large piles of doody. Some potential buyers may be able to overlook piles of dog feces in the backyard. It’s far more difficult however, to overlook feces deposited on the living room floor.

On the subject of pets: if you have a lizard in an aquarium, please make sure it’s alive. A live lizard is kind of cute. A dead one is just an assault to both the eyes and the nose.

On the subject of smells: You know that little curved part of the drain pipe under your sink? That’s called a “p-trap“. It’s main purpose is to create a water filled barrier between your home and the sewer. When a house sits vacant, the water in the p-trap evaporates. When that happens, obnoxious smells from the sewer waft up into your house. I have yet to have a buyer that enjoys the smell of sewage when they step into the foyer of your for-sale home.

On the subject of sewers: How hard is it to flush a toilet? I don’t really understand the buyer’s fascination with toilets, but everyone looks at them. Many like to see if the toilet is operable. No one likes to see it full of…. stuff.

On the subject of stuff: Virtually everyone knows that you should “de-clutter” a home before you list it, and keep it de-cluttered throughout the showing period. Now we all know that people still have to live in the home, and the occasional clutter is to be expected. But these scenarios in particular should be addressed:

A dirty plate, or even two can be forgiven by (some) buyers. Both sides of the double sink stacked two feet high is difficult to overlook.
Ditto with the dirty laundry. Particularly when it’s piled on the couch.
Every suburb I’m aware of provides trash pickup service. I strongly recommend that household trash be disposed of in the big giant trashcan the city provides. I don’t really see the point of stacking up bags of garbage in the spare bedroom.
Finally, put the shotgun that’s leaning against the wall by the front door out of sight. Even disregarding the huge liability presented if little Johnny pulls the trigger, it tends to make potential buyers question the safety of the neighborhood.

That pretty much sums up the disasters we saw this month. Don’t get me wrong, we saw many very nice homes. They were properly priced and well presented. Offers will be written on homes like this. Those homes with the anomalies mentioned above were rapidly dismissed from consideration. (Note to agents with few, poor or no photos in their listings — your client’s homes weren’t even considered by any of our buyer clients. No matter how well presented they may have been.)

If you are a seller, and you don’t know what you need to do to make your home presentable, ask your agent. Although in all honesty, your agent should have educated you long before you signed a listing agreement.

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[tags]showing homes, staging, nasty homes[/tags]

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Sam Chapman

Jay is right on here about how a home looks or should look. One thing you touched on with the Suns colors on the wall is a perfect example of over-customizing a home. When getting ready to sell, people need to understand that this kind of thing should be changed to something more nutral so as not to distract people from really seeing the house. Having a ton of photos all over the place is distracting as well. Many people tend to look at the photos rather than the house.

Kate Spilinsky

Well, I have to respectfully disagree with Sam's assertion that you have to use "nutral", okay, neutral paint colors when preparing a home to sell. I have sold more homes with anything but neutral colors. They aren't wild by any means, but they certainly aren't beige either. I find that warm, rich earth tones in the golds and greens with an occasional accent wall of brick red in the main living areas, always, always get high praises from buyers and realtors. A home recently sold was purchased specifically because the buyer loved the rich wall colors.

Take a look at model homes. They rarely use neutral colors to create a dramatic designer look. Typically they are warm earth tones with depth.

I use calm colors in bedrooms (light chocolate, taupe), and bathrooms (silvery blue-green, taupes).

Tim Wallace My Arizona Home Te

Kate, I'd have to agree that one never knows what colors are going to appeal to what buyer. After all, someone (the owner?) likes the strange colors and it is highly unlikely that they'd be the only ones who like those colors. My experience does tell me that the more neutral colors tend to show better.

One other thought...in my opinion, staging is one of the primary reasons we have so much inventory on the market right now. I like Jay, have seen some atrocious things in homes recently, from the dishes/laundry to the lizard to the hookah pipe and the "tobacco" on the coffee table. Agents are horribly missing their duty when they aren't totally square with their clients on this issue. Hard as it is sometimes, we have to tell our sellers the hard truth. Otherwise, we aren't representing them as best we should.

Nancy

Jay, thanks for the healthy dose of truth. Most Realtors anxious to get your listing might be reluctant to say, "hey, your home looks like crap" or "the pink and orange walls make me queezy". Consequently, we now live in a world of Professional Stagers. Staging certainly has its place in the marketing of your home. Professional Stagers have made an industry out of the blurred line between real value, perceived value and image. For example, having your hardwood floors refinished adds value. Moving the furniture to give the perception of more space gives you perceived value. Removing family photos adds no real value, but may encourage the prospective home owner to imagine themselves in your property.
We don't want to malign those tireless souls who dedicate their lives to positioning throws on chairs and arranging three candles in varied heights on entryway tables. Staging has its place, but it's gone too far. There are schools--we're not going to name them here--but they do exist with programs that charge from $300 to $900 for Certifications. This is rediculous. Between the Internet and the Home & Garden Channel, you can find everything you need to know to have a beautifully staged home.

The Bottom Line
There are 3 things that sell a property:
1. Price
2. Location
3. Market Conditions

If these elements are working for you, your home will sell in a timely manner and for top dollar, provided it doesn't look like a pig sty.

Our basic rules on staging:Don't have stupid stuff in your home when you're trying to sell it; no bathtubs in the Living Room, no hand-painted "Star Wars" murals, or Elvis shrine altars.Clean up your crap... If you've become accustomed to living in squalor and you want to sell your home, you're going to need Windex, paper-towels and a bunch of trash bags. If you can't afford a Professional Stager, check out www.stagedbyowner.com -- It's a great, no-cost staging resource.