Staging

all house staging has to be sharp, because your listing has to sell if you want to close the year out on a high note and leave your sellers feeling satisfied.

Here five ways to help your clients make their real estate listing stand out and get their home sold before the holiday season hits!

1. Suggest Shopping Ahead

These days many sellers are selling to move on to another property. Chances are, your listers have a vision for both the property want and the new furnishings to make the new space into their dream. For sellers who have the budget, encourage them to shop ahead. The dream furniture and non-permanent fixtures for their new space may help their current property sell faster.

2. The “I Have a Dream Speech”

Before you bring up house repairs, find out what your seller’s always wanted to do with the home and never got around to completing. This, sometimes emotional, trip down missed-out memory lane can help you make the case for improvements you know will make the home move.

Sometimes helping sellers revisit their dreams for a property can unlock easy ways to market it as the dream home for someone else.

3. Tally Up the Tax Write-Off

Decluttering always sounds good to an agent, but many sellers need incentive to part with their stuff.

Well, little motivation can compete with money in these situations. If you’re asking your sellers to let go of large amounts of stuff, trying selling them on the idea of a big tax credit for donating their extras. Take inventory and tally up the value of the items you think they should part with. Showing them the tax savings using the Salvation Army or Goodwill donation calculators, especially in extreme situations, may be the motivation to help them let go.

4. List the Inside of it on Craigslist

For your relocating or downsizing clients, your professional photos can do double duty. To help motivate your clients to stage, agree to help them list the contents they need to get rid of on Craigslist or in yard sale advertising. If they know the photos are going to get a lot of mileage and will end in some easy cash, they may be more apt to clean up for the photo shoot and showings.

5. Group the Groupons to Make the Plan Happen

Last but not least, the real downside of staging for many is the cost and the effort. You can help clients overcome this hurdle. Search discount sites like Groupon and LivingSocial for deals on the cleaning, painting, and other tedious to-dos to be done. The ability to affordably outsource the un-fun projects may get you closer to showing-ready home a lot faster.

Don’t Forget your Laundry Room in Home Re-Design

Spending money on fixing up your laundry room can pay off big time when you put your home on the market. Before plunging into a laundry room re-design, though, it’s important to take time to consider various options to include.

Keep these tips in mind when planning your laundry room re-design:

• Take measurements. If you’re putting in a new washer and dryer, measure the space they’ll be going in to make sure there’s enough room for the doors to open.
• Consider a front-loading machine. These machines are more efficient than top-loading ones. A front-loading machine can also help you save space if you stack a dryer on top of it. Just keep in mind that they do cost more than top-loading machines.
• Choose safe materials. Use braided steel washer hoses to reduce the risk of flooding from your washing machine. Install a metal dryer-vent pipe that is sealed with foil tape to reduce the risk of fires from your dryer.
• Install an updated utility sink. New utility sinks come in designs that are much more efficient than older ones. Look for a stainless steel sink that is up to 12 inches deep and has curved corners for easier cleaning.
• Brighten it up. Instead of having a laundry room with a lack of color, add some brightness to yours. Choose a checkered floor in glue-down linoleum for added visual appeal, or choose a warm cherry finish for cabinets instead of plain white.
• Choose open storage. Install open shelves and cupboards for easier access to items you need. You can hang curtains across the openings if you don’t want them completely open.

Looking for more tips on preparing homes for selling?  I have a lot to share!

Interested in Short Sales? Follow These Guidelines

Short sales provide home buyers with a chance to get a better deal on a home. They also allow sellers to avoid going through a foreclosure. Handling these real estate transactions as a realtor requires thorough knowledge of how they work and what types of complications are associated with them.

Here’s some valuable short sale advice for realtors:

• Setting the price. Realtors work with sellers in order to come up with an attractive listing price. However, it’s important to keep in mind that the bank ultimately decides how much the home will sell for.
• Dealing with more than one loan. When a seller has two or more loans, the short sale process will become more complex. Realtors should let buyers know this, so they can decide whether or not they want to deal with the extra time involved.
• Comparing home sales. In order to come up with a reasonable listing price for a short sale property, realtors should compare the selling prices of other homes in the area. This will also make it easier for the buyer to come up with their offer and lower the chance of having them make one that the bank will reject for being too low.
• Keeping sellers informed. Sellers will need strong guidance through the short sale process. The first step is helping them determine whether or not they qualify for a short sale. The bank might not approve it if the sellers own other properties or if they have a solid financial situation.
• Speeding up the process. Working with the bank to come up with an approved short sale helps speed things up for the buyer, since the bank has already approved the price.