How to refresh a vacant home listing post the Holidays?

The holidays are over and everybody’s back to serious work!. The parties over the holidays are over and we all get to get back to what we have to get back to. So, how was home selling during the holidays? Let’s face it there is no straight jacketed fact – many homes do sell over the holidays. Maybe fewer homes get listed but nevertheless there are some serious buyers.

Then again, as the New Year starts there is a new found enthusiasm in revitalizing  a home  on the market which has been on the market for a while

Here are steps to revitalizing a listing post the holidays. These are not necessarily to do with MLS refreshes, which are often not possible and a personal decision but more of steps to refresh the home and market it stronger. If a home has been on the market for many days (and without getting into price related or demand supply decisions) what is it that one can do to refresh and revitalize the listing. What is it than can infuse the listing with some marketing juices and creativity to get it all set to attract more buyers.? After all if we change actions in our control, our outer sphere of influence changes!

Take a critical view

As a home owner it is often not easy to step back, keep emotions aside and assess - are there simple, cost effective steps which can remove any barriers not helping the home sell?

Often, this is not serious upgrades, but maybe simple steps which can be taken. For instance, on a home being sold, full of new upgrades, there were still these mirrors across the living, which received mixed feedback in a very subtle manner from buyers. Nothing major, but possible better removed.  Believe me doing away with those huge mirrors covering the wall helped!

Consider Staging

If the home is not already staged you may want to consider this.  I am not saying this cause am a home stager.  Just kidding, actually I am saying this cause I AM a home stager and I have seen in ALL of the situations that we staged vacant homes on the market for long they followed with multiple offers. They gained traction, interest and the same buyers had a point of reference to understand the potential of the house. Three such vacant homes in the last two months which moved to getting offers post staging – one could be a coincidence, but three?

Here is why staging a vacant home along with taking other steps will help – It gives a point of reference and natural flow to the home. Buyers spend an average of three times more time in vacant homes and it makes a home out of a house.

After - A downtown contemporary condo stage

Before

Clean Up

After being on the market for a while, the home tends to get dirty. We often walk into many such homes where the pathway is riddled with leaves and the flooring immaculate, as it may be needs a thorough mopping. Cobwebs at the entry door can be a turn off to any buyer. And as we spoke about this earlier how emotional connections impact home sale, so clean areas are vital even if the listing is on the market for a while. This is a small but much needed feature if one needs to be sure the home continues to make a great first impression.

Pictures Refresh

Re-look at the pictures - a critical view, do they need to be changed, do they look bright and clear or do they look cold and dark. Would new staged home pictures with furniture and accessories impact marketing? It sure will. Refresh the pictures on the MLS and real estate sites and get a new audience who want to see the home.

A bit of this and a bit of that, spice up and revitalize the home with simple actions which can be taken and refresh the home on the market.

Pramiti Bhargava

HSR Certified Home Stager

RESA Staging Awards Top 10 Rising Star 2015

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Establishing Emotional Connections to help sell homes to buyers.

How do emotional connections, the home buyer’s psyche and home staging interplay to help home sale?

That’s a picture of Death Valley, CA - Expansive, rugged, awe inspiring

By the way, the second picture is of me at Death Valley for a trip this December.

What do you think when you see pictures of or experience Death Valley. What would such a place inspire in you?

It means different things for different people. But, yes one thing it imbibes is emotions. And by emotions I don’t mean dramatic emotions! Just plain and simple emotions - a mix of thought and emotion. We can’t do without emotions no matter where we are.

Let’s understand emotions in the context of home buyers, A BMO study published in 2013 says that 80 per cent of potential buyers know if a home is right for them as soon as they step inside. 

In a study, Professor Van Lieshout, an experimental psychology professor at the University of Toronto links the power of emotion to first impressions. As an example as to how emotions play a role, he cites - a deficiency in a living area may not be an immediate deal breaker when noticed by a buyer, but it will often raise emotional suspicions. In due course they will double-check everything and the buying cycle is somewhat influenced.

Harvard Business School professor Gerald Zaltman says that 95 percent of our purchase decision making takes place in the subconscious mind. Sights, experiences, smells and sounds can selectively activate goals or motives that buyers have about a home they are viewing.

Emotion and logic hence bundle together to make a home buyer take action. While logic can be presented with facts such as price, neighborhood quality and core features of the home (and real estate agents are great at presenting those), Home staging can directly impact the emotions to help make a strong case for the home. The interplay of emotional connections and logic affect buying decision of course.

The key elements of home staging, which a skilled home stager will influence are a mix of leveraging the home architecture, décor, feel, smells, style and the presentation of a lifestyle home buyer’s aspire. Some examples come alive in this gallery of mine.

Here are four ways to create emotional connections with Home Staging and Home Preparation:

1. Creating a Vision

Prepare the home to make it the home of aspirations coming alive. A dining table set with wine and candles to come back to. A chicken pot roast recipe, opened up on a recipe book, a book waiting for its reader in a window bench with a cup of coffee. All of these directly impact emotions – warmth, comfort family, relaxation all of it comes alive, doesn’t it? The vision needs to stand true such that buyers can imagine themselves and their families in the home not the current family. Hence de-personalizing is a vital area of Staging.

What’s the home brand in the process of marketing this house? The moment you start thinking of creating a brand even if it is for the short duration of the few months of home sale - you start creating emotional purchase connections to create a brand of this home in the customer’s mind. A brand which is unique to this home, compared to competition. You do more than sell a house, you sell the customer the brand.

Home Staging Connections

Reading nooks

2. Creating a brand

The brand is your promise to your customer. It tells them what they can expect from the home. A brand is a sum of the tangible and intangible assets this home stands for in the customer’s mind. Home Staging creates the brand. It personifies the intangible assets with décor, a natural flow, the right layouts and elegant style intrinsic to the home strengths, area, architecture. It creates a brand because it leaves an impression behind in the home buyer’s mind.

The brand is your promise to your customer. It tells them what they can expect from the home. A brand is a sum of the tangible and intangible assets this home stands for in the customer’s mind. Home Staging creates the brand. It personifies the intangible assets with décor, a natural flow, the right layouts and elegant style intrinsic to the home strengths, area, architecture. 

3. Creating focal points

Home Staging will build the customers emotions and likes towards the strengths of the home. These could be the focal points, which deserve attention and influence points towards the buying decision. For instance the fireplace, the French window turned into a reading corner showing the beautiful view outside, the patio surrounded with entertainment possibilities.

4. Creating a flow

As buyers walk through a home a seamless flow can be crated directing their eyes and thoughts to the right strength. This allows them to walkthrough a layout which lets them visualize the possibilities vital to strengthen the emotional connections. A stager with expertise can help create the right layout and styling to create this natural flow.

Natural Flows

All in all, emotional connections are a vital strategy to help home sale, of course bundled with other valuable marketing factors. 

Until next time happy connecting!

Pramiti

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