Faced with a massive glut of unsold homes, many would-be sellers are struggling to make their properties stand out in today's downtrodden real estate market. But while the economic head winds are beyond property owners' control, home-marketing expert Barb Schwarz says they can dramatically improve their chances of making a sale by devoting attention to an often-overlooked aspect of real-estate selling: home staging.
Schwarz, the CEO of StagedHomes.com, was a pioneer in home staging back in the early 1970s and has used the techniques to sell properties ever since. "The goal [of home staging] is for the buyer to mentally move in," Schwarz says. "If they cannot mentally feel and see themselves living here, you've lost them." Schwarz offers six simple tips to help home sellers better position themselves in a sluggish market.
1. Get them inside. The first thing a prospective buyer notices about a home is not the living room but the front yard. "A lot of people think staging is the inside only," Schwarz says. "[But] we've got to stage the outside to get them inside." So cut the grass, trim the hedges, rake those leaves, sweep the sidewalks and power-wash the driveway. And make sure you don't have too many potted plants scattered around the property. "Nothing dead," Schwarz says. "You'd be amazed how many people have dead plants in their yards."
2. Pretend you're camping. Schwarz says a cluttered room will appear too small to buyers. "Clutter eats equity," she says. Schwarz tells homeowners to go through each room of the house and divide their belongings into two piles: "keep" and "give up." Items in the "keep" pile will be used to stage the room, while those in the "give up" pile should be stored elsewhere. "Pretend you are camping," she says. "When you go camping, you are not taking all those books, right?"
The de-cluttered rooms may appear bare to the seller, but the buyer won't think so. "We are not selling your things. We are selling the space," Schwarz says. "And buyers cannot visualize when there is too much [stuff] in the room." De-cluttering a home's outdoor spaces is important, too, she says.
3. Balance hard and soft surfaces. When staging a room, it's essential to have a good balance of hard surfaces, such as a coffee-table top, and soft surfaces, like a carpet, Schwarz says. For example, a room with a cushy, 7-foot-long sofa, a love seat and four La-Z-Boy recliners has too many soft surfaces and not enough hard surfaces. "The room is sinking," she says. "It's all too heavy." Instead, consider getting rid of the La-Z-Boys and the love seat, replacing them with two wingback chairs. "If you have hardwood floors but no rugs, it's too hard," Schwarz says, "so you want to add a rug."
4. Work in ones or threes. Schwarz recommends arranging items on top of hard surfaces in ones or threes.
You would place three items — say, a lamp, a plant and a book — on top of a larger hard surface, such as an end table. "You take away the plant and the book, it's too bare," she says. "[But if] you put 10 things on it, it's overdone." The three items should be closely grouped in a triangle. "I draw a triangle for my clients," Schwarz says. "I say, 'Here is the end table — let's superimpose a triangle on top of it.'" For hard surfaces with less area, however, a single item will do.
5. Decide from the doorway. Since would-be buyers will get their first impression of each room from the doorway, homeowners should use that perspective to judge their staging work. "Do your work, go back to the doorway. Do some more, go back to the doorway," Schwarz says. That way, you'll be better able to ensure that each room appeals to buyers.
6. Make your place "Q-Tip clean." A properly staged home should be immaculate — "Q-Tip clean," as Schwarz puts it. "I mean Q-Tips getting dead flies out of your windowsill [and] going around the bottom of your toilet on the floor," she says. The purpose of ensuring the house is spotless is more than simply making it presentable. If a home is unkempt, a buyer will wonder what other, less visible problems may come with the property, Schwarz says. "They'll say, 'Gosh, if they live like this, what don't they take care of that I can't see?'"
With most major markets experiencing declines in value and a huge inventory of unsold homes, it's vital that sellers do everything they can to make their home more attractive to buyers and agents alike.
Here's what these top agents are advising home sellers to do.
1. Have an Internet strategy. Web sites or blogs with photos help sellers showcase their home with more pictures than the local MLS might allow. Make sure you are getting your home up on as many sites as possible, including your local Craigslist.
2. Stage the home. Paint and clean and de-clutter as much as possible. Get any needed termite or chimney inspections done before you put the property on the market, so you can hand the paperwork to buyers and talk about what you are willing to pay for, while they are still excited about the home. (See before and after photos of staged homes here.)
3. Pick the right agent. Has she worked in a down market before? Does she sell a lot of homes in your area? Can she afford to advertise? Check with your local association of Realtors and talk to brokers and office managers at different firms to find out which agents are the top sellers.
4. Throw some freebies to buyers and brokers. Hold broker luncheons at your house to get more people through. Gregg Neuman, a Prudential California Realty agent, has even had luncheons at a property with a Nordstrom gift certificate raffle to get more traffic in. If you are selling a condo, offer to pay homeowners association fees for a certain period of time. Sell the home with a free home warranty — anything to set your property apart from the next one.
5. Price the home right. Sometimes, taking $5,000 to $9,000 off the listing price will make a home move much more quickly, so it doesn't get the taint that comes from lingering on the market too long. And, in some multiple-listing services, it can bump you down a bracket, so you can reach more buyers.
6. Tap all markets. If you live in a community with a large number of buyers who speak Mandarin or Spanish, make sure your agent is speaking their language and advertising and networking in the appropriate places.
Selling a home used to be all about "curb appeal," or the first impression a property conveys to potential buyers as they pull up in front. A house that looks unattractive from the street won't sell, the mantra goes.
These days, a property's "pix appeal," or attractiveness in photos posted in online listings, is equally important. Eighty percent of homebuyers used the Internet last year to search for a home, and nearly 25% reported that the Internet is where they first found the property they purchased, according to a National Association of Realtors survey.
"Without pictures I am much less likely to go see a house," says house hunter Dan Dillbeck, of Grand Rapids, Mich. In most cases — 85% of the time — online photos are his first view of a home, he says, adding that poor pictures tend to turn him away.
Photographs are powerful bait. Good ones can lure buyers; poor ones can do the opposite. Follow these tips to create flattering photos of your property.
1. Lighten up. For exterior shots, shoot in the middle of the day when the sun is shining and the sky is blue, says Gregory Haberstick, who trains professional photographers for Foxtons, a real-estate company serving New York and New Jersey.
For interior shots, Bill Bayless, a real-estate photographer in Damascus, Ore., suggests turning on all the lights and using a flash. "The flash adds in all of the correct colors and fills in the shadows, making the room look brighter," he says.
2. More is better. Homebuyers want to see more than just the front of the house. Buyers also want to get a look at the living room, kitchen, dining room, family room, master bedroom/bathroom and the backyard, Bayless says. He suggests including your residence's best features, such as a home theater or an exercise room.
Most Multiple Listing Services allow several photos in their online listings, and classifieds sites such as Craigslist let sellers post up to four pictures. You can make additional shots available by using free photo sites such as Shutterfly, Snapfish or Picasa.
For condos and apartments, include shots of amenities such as a pool, tennis court or gym, says Kevin Grolig, a real-estate agent with Llewellyn Realtors in Rockville, Md.
If your home has a spectacular view, say of a beach, lake, mountains, park or golf course, by all means post photos of it, says Ron Luxemburg, a photographer in Pasadena, Calif.
Home seller Dzung Nguyen, 40, of Germantown, Md., posted 35 photos of his home in an online slide show. When sites limit the number of pictures that can be posted, he links to it. "There are a lot of houses out there, and people don't have time to go to all of them," he says. His property has received more feedback from buyers, he says, than it did when it was listed with a real-estate agent who took only one or two photos.
3. Get a clear shot. Remove clutter from an area before photographing it. Clear counter space and remove fridge magnets, children's toys, dirty dishes and other distractions, says Haberstick.
"I've been known to spend a few hours moving things around," says Grolig. He relocates appliances and makes beds to get the best photo.
For outside shots, put away garbage cans and remove the car from the driveway, he says. Try not to include telephone poles, wires and other homes in the scene.
4. Go pro. If you're planning to use a real-estate agent, ask to see his or her photography first. Find out whether the agency uses professional photographers. Some companies use pros at no additional cost to the seller.
If you are selling without a real-estate agent or aren't handy with a camera, hiring a professional real-estate photographer may be the way to go. Examine samples from photographers and ask about their experience before making your choice, Luxemburg says.
Photographers' fees can range from a few hundred dollars to $500, he says. Aerial shots are more expensive, but Nguyen used Live Maps at no cost to show buyers a bird's-eye view of his community.
5. Give it your best shot. Quality counts when taking photos, and cell-phone cameras don't cut it. A camera with a wide-angle lens is ideal, but "point and shoot" digital cameras also can do the job.
For a clear photo, place digital cameras on a tripod or something solid so the camera is steady when the shutter goes off, says Luxemburg.
Set the camera on its highest resolution. If you decide to just use the photos online, you can always decrease the resolution, Luxemburg says. Never use fewer than 72 dots per inch for online photos, Bayless says.
6. Edit. Improve a shot using basic photo-editing software. Crop out ceilings or unnecessary background, says Luxemburg, and adjust the brightness or contrast.
A number of free Web sites make editing a snap. Some to try are Snipshot.com, Picnik.com and Pixenate.com, says Stephen Jagger, co-founder of Ubertor.com, a Vancouver, B.C., real-estate company that creates Web sites for real estate agents.
