I have been a realtor for over 25 years and back in the day we had a black and white publication that had all the available listings.  People looked forward to getting their weekly Real Estate section with a featured home in the local paper and seeing all the listings.  Realtors would advertise themselves in magazines that you could pick up in your grocery stores and view all the listings in the area and it was likely that they were still available for you to buy. What happened????  It was a much simpler and much less competitive time in the real estate market... it would take a minute to get some good photos up.  Now with everything moving online and iphones having a camera that can pick up even the littlest flaws, we are in a much different business and I needed to adjust to quickly present my homes that I represent in the best possible light.  Whether or not you have quality videos or photos may be a huge factor as to whether or not a home is selling or not selling.  I got a call from a seller that had their house on the market for months and was wondering why no one was even coming through the doors. Within two minutes I looked online and saw the dark, unatractive photos of this property and knew exactly why people were not going to this home.  When I went to meet with them I expected to see a dark home that needed a ton of work, but instead I found a beautiful gem... but the photos were not telling the true story at all.  I have quickly learned that in order to serve my clients I must invest in the best videos and photos to present my homes in the way they deserve.  .  With all the change that has happened, Professional property staging has never been more important.  The Professional Stager Institue: 4th Edition stated, "On average, staged homes sold 76% faster.  And, that after staging, sellers received 6% more return on their investment. In other words, a home listed for $500,000 after being staged was valued at an additional $30,000.  Imagine earning another $30,000 on your property!"  Everyone loves HGTV and all the amazing things they do to the most unassuming properties and the truth is every home can achieve the wow factor and get substantially more for their homes. I have a team of people that get my listings shown in the best possible light, Jody Lovitt is my professional stager and just look at what she did below!  You can learn more about Jody Lovitt at www.facebook.com/Lovittbydesign . We are going to continue to answer questions about staging in upcoming videos on facebook.  

Here are stats from the March edition of the 2019 Profile of Home Staging, provided by the National Association of Realtors® Research Group. 

Home Staging: Buyers’ Agent Perspective:

• 40% of buyers’ agents cited that home staging had an effect on most buyers’ view of the home.

• 83% of buyers’ agents said staging a home made it easier for a buyer to visualize the property as a future home.

• Staging the living room was found to be most important for buyers (47 percent), followed by staging the master bedroom (42 percent), and staging the kitchen (35   percent).

• One-quarter of buyer’s agents said that staging a home increased the dollar value offered between one and five percent, compared to other similar homes on the   market that are not staged.

Home Staging: Sellers’ Agent Perspective:

• 28% of sellers’ agents said they staged all sellers’ homes prior to listing them for sale. 13% noted that they only staged homes that are difficult to sell.

• The most common rooms that were staged included the living room (93%), kitchen (84%), master bedroom (78%), and the dining room (72%).

• It was common that sellers’ agents personally offered to stage the home (26%).

• The median dollar value spent on home staging was $400.

• When staging a home, 22% of sellers’ agents reported an increase of one to five percent of the dollar value offered by buyers, in comparison to similar homes.       Seventeen percent of respondents stated that staging a home increased the dollar value of the home between six and 10 percent.

• 28% of sellers’ agents stated that there were slight decreases in the time on the market when the home is staged.

• The most common home improvement items agents recommended to sellers were decluttering the home (95%), entire home cleaning (89%), removing pets during     showings (83%), and carpet cleaning (78%).

Look what Jody did to my new listing on 10245 S. River Rd., she took a smaller bedroom right off the front living room and transformed it into a functional and beautiful office.  Since Covid hit, buyers are looking for an office space at home and a place for their kids to do school work.  As I will show in the upcoming video series on my facebook page.  She also had an amazing idea upstairs and created two identical nooks, that have built in desks and shelving for the kids, in the jack and jill style bedrooms.  Be sure to watch!