By Debra Gould
April 06, 2009
Home stagers can become a real estate agentīs greatest ally in a slow housing market.
Real estate agents donīt make any money until a home sells, so they become desperate for their clientsī homes to stand apart from competing properties. And to make things even worse, the longer an agent carries a listing, the more it costs them in marketing fees.
Savvy real estate agents are recommending home staging to their clients more frequently, as a way to draw attention to their listings and to sell homes faster-thereby reducing, if not eliminating, the need for price reductions. This is important for a real estate agent because as the listing price on one of their properties dwindles, so does their commission pay out.
There was a time when buyers and sellers were totally dependent on real estate agents but those days are long gone.
Approximately 70% of prospective home buyers in the United States and 90% in Canada browse properties online before they ever call an agent to help them buy a home. Now that the public can access MLS listings and shop from the photos they see online, itīs even more critical than ever for properties to show well in those listing photographs. If the interior photos are not good, the agents wonīt even get a request set up a house showing.
Home staging makes all the difference in how rooms look both online and in the real world and more and more real estate agents are finally catching on to that.
Real estate agents donīt make any money until a home sells, so they become desperate for their clientsī homes to stand apart from competing properties. And to make things even worse, the longer an agent carries a listing, the more it costs them in marketing fees.
Savvy real estate agents are recommending home staging to their clients more frequently, as a way to draw attention to their listings and to sell homes faster-thereby reducing, if not eliminating, the need for price reductions. This is important for a real estate agent because as the listing price on one of their properties dwindles, so does their commission pay out.
There was a time when buyers and sellers were totally dependent on real estate agents but those days are long gone.
Approximately 70% of prospective home buyers in the United States and 90% in Canada browse properties online before they ever call an agent to help them buy a home. Now that the public can access MLS listings and shop from the photos they see online, itīs even more critical than ever for properties to show well in those listing photographs. If the interior photos are not good, the agents wonīt even get a request set up a house showing.
Home staging makes all the difference in how rooms look both online and in the real world and more and more real estate agents are finally catching on to that.
Reprint: American Chronicle
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Staged by Alyn Grayer