It is not uncommon for a homeowner who’s decided to sell to think that their house is perfect just the way it is.  However, we all know that most homeowners cannot be objective about how their house will appeal to a buyer. 

I’ve always believed that a real estate agent should tell a seller the hard truth even when it might not be what they want to hear.  In many cases the problem can be solved with a simple staging consultation.

Here are three simple ways to have the conversation to help a seller understand the benefits of staging.

1)      Tell them that the house is now a product that must be marketed to appeal to the tastes of a wide group of buyers.  I like to tell sellers that marketing a house is similar to how companies convince you to take their product off the shelf by putting a lot of thought into their packaging.  The colors they use, the details in the packaging – they all come together to draw you in to buy the product.  That’s what you are trying to accomplish when you market a house for sale.

2)      Help them see how they’re helping to sell buyers on the competition.  When a seller decides to leave a house empty or not repaint that purple living room to a neutral color, what they are doing is selling the competition to prospective buyers.  A great way to make this feel real for a stubborn client is to take them on a house tour of a few of their closest, strongest competitors.  I don’t know anyone who isn’t curious to see what the competition is doing.  Let the competition do the selling.

3)      Show them how not staging, will likely cost them more in the long run.  According to a study completed by the Real Estate Staging Association, the average un-staged home sits on the market for an average of 263 days and once staged it sells in 60 days on average.  That’s 78% less time on the market!  When you factor in an average of 7 months of carrying costs plus price reductions, a seller will always come out ahead by staging first.

I’m confident that these strategies will improve your conversations with your sellers and make the sales process much smoother, and more profitable.