Do you ever wonder why some homes sell faster than others? The old saying used to be, "Location, Location, Location." Well in today's market, Location isn't always enough. Staging has become an essential part of the selling process. Staging has become the subject of many popular TV shows on HGTV. I have to admit, it's one of my guilty pleasures.
The sellers on HGTV’s “Secrets That Sell” rarely have a clue about why their house hasn’t sold. To the rescue of these desperate sellers comes the mother-daughter team of Donna and Shannon Freeman.
In a recent episode, the Barbozas are told to “close up the museum”—to get rid of the painting of the family patriarch over the fireplace and hang a flat-screen TV in the space instead. They also are instructed to pack up their collections, including the cute chickens and roosters in the kitchen. Fortunately, they aren’t the family pets, simply a decorating theme that had overtaken the cooking area.
In addition to getting rid of their bold colors and figurines, the Barbozas are told that they need to patch the cracks in the ceilings. And with the addition of the flat-screen TV over the living room mantel, they solve the problem of the dated television set nesting in the built-in living room cabinet (so ’80s). This move also frees up space for storage.
One tip I had never heard of before was to make sure each bathroom has a full roll of toilet paper. This is a subtle and inexpensive detail when adding finishing touches.
As with so many reality shows, the pregnant pauses here that precede the “reality” moment with the sellers are just irritating. But a larger question in my mind remains: How active were the prior agents these people hired to sell their house? It’s also possible the owners had been trying to sell the property without representation. Except for being told the number of days the property had been on the market, we never quite know as viewers what transpired before Donna and Shannon were invited over for a friendly chat.
Besides giving the owners specific advice, Donna and Shannon seem to be delivering an unspoken but useful message to our industry: A service-oriented practitioner has a clear understanding of the inventory at that moment, grasps the nature of the buyer pool for that product, and works with sellers to show them what it will take to get the property ready for market on time and on budget. This same practitioner will also have the confidence to decline an opportunity that would otherwise only lead to frustration and unmet expectations for all involved. Now, that’s the reality that leads to successful sales.
Part of this article was contributed by Marilyn Schumacher, e-PRO, SRE, Harbor Bay Realty, Alameda, Calif.
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