Your listing isn’t selling and your clients’ hopes are turning into fears.
When your client chose you as their real estate agent, you had very positive things to say about their home and promised it wouldn’t take long to sell. Now, months after the contract has been signed, the home hasn’t budged and you find yourself continuously loosing sleep and arguing with your client. How much more time can you or your client endure – how much more do you want to endure?
Does any of this ring a bell? Tell me, do any of these questions apply to you:
– Has your listing been on the market for a long time already?
– Have you had numerous showings but no offers?
– Are you stressed that you are unable to get your seller’s asking price – or event a viable offer?
– Have you been considering reducing the price?
– Have you lost sleep because you wanted to satisfy your client?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, it may be that your listing isn’t attractive enough to potential buyers, even though you have it priced right and your seller has cleaned and de-cluttered the house.
What you and your client may need is the help of a Qualified Professional Stager (QPS). A QPS is someone who can view the property objectively and convey the truth about what they see to the homeowner, giving the necessary advice about what changes need to be made that you cannot say yourself.
As an agent, you can only go so far before your client gets upset with you. Nobody wants to hear that their kitchen needs a bit of cleaning, that the cat odors are offensive or that the colors and light fixtures they chose date the house. Your job as a Realtor is to market the listing and make the best deals, not prepare the house for sale. That’s where the QPS steps in.
A professional home stager points out the things everyone is thinking but won’t say for fear of rejection or hurting someone’s feelings by giving homeowners a ‘walk-and-talk,’ or ‘buyers-eye assessment’ of their home. Not only is the Realtor, Stager and Seller a winning combo to get a home sold, but it can also be cost productive.
Would you rather keep reducing a listing by $5,000 – $10,000 – $30,000, or would you rather do what most savvy Realtors do and spend $150-$250 on a QPS who can help ensure a sale is made at its original asking price. The choice is yours.
About the author:
GraceAnn Simoni is the owner of Yours Redesigned in Naperville, Illinois, and provides home staging and redesign services. She is also a recognized trainer with IRIS and operates her own training school, Midwest Staging Redesign Institute (www.msritraining.com) also located in Naperville, IL.
For a closer look at what a staged home looks like, visit www.YoursRedesigned.com.
GraceAnn Simoni can be reached directly at 630 355-1983.