I get so many questions each month from our APSD Certified Home Stagers, Stager Pro’s, Property Scene Designers and of course, most come from the APSD Certified Trainers because they are moving at a very fast pace and need answers quickly! Here, I want to cover some of the most common questions, so I can give you all a little ‘help’ this month.

One of the questions that I recently answered was how to deal with homes that are priced too high for the market.  I think I answered this question for home stagers on the East Coast, West Coast and in Canada this month!  It is a great question because it means you are acting with integrity.  Is staging going to still help sell this home in a short amount of time if it is overpriced by $50,000?

Good and effective staging always helps but if there are 10 other homes in the area for sale as well and the homes are all ‘apples to apples’ and they are priced correctly, chances are, nothing is going to help until there is a price reduction.

In a buyer’s market, staging will help to sell faster and for more money, just like in a seller’s market, but your pricing still has to be somewhat realistic because today’s buyer has so many choices.

So what happens when you get called in to do a staging and you know that it is overpriced, that the staging is going to sit there and you can’t do anything about it?

Today, you have to be better than just another Certified Home Stager.  That is why all the APSD Certified Home Staging Professionals also learn marketing and business…it is not enough to just be a good stager anymore.

Before you go to the property, do your homework.  Take a look at the listing online if it is available.  Next, go to Realtor.org and Zillow.com to check out comparable listings and sales.  Make sure the properties are as comparable as possible.

While Zillow has not had a good reputation in the past for accuracy, today, they have really come up to par and are now an excellent resource to use.   Print out the information you find.  A few flyers in the local neighborhood are also helpful, especially if you have collected them (assuming you work in a regular area and can maintain a file of flyers) and not the asking price on the flyer, the selling price and the DOM which you can often find from the local listing agent, the MLS listing or on your local assessors site.  There are many ways, find the one that works best for you…*

***Continued next week!

kCapital Home Staging & Design

Kristy Morrison

27 Auriga Dr, suite 64
Ottawa, On
K2E 0B1

(613) 832-8958

www.CapitalHomeStagingAndDesign.ca
www.CHSD.ca

info@chsd.ca

Thanks to Karen Schaefer of APSD (www.APSDmembers.com) for writing the above article.

Kristy Morrison
Staging Careers Canada
1-888-9-STAGER
1-888-978-2437
www.StagingCareersCanada.ca
info@stagingcareerscanada.ca

I get so many questions each month from our APSD Certified Home Stagers, Stager Pro’s, Property Scene Designers and of course, most come from the APSD Certified Trainers because they are moving at a very fast pace and need answers quickly! Here, I want to cover some of the most common questions, so I can give you all a little ‘help’ this month.

One of the questions that I recently answered was how to deal with homes that are priced too high for the market.  I think I answered this question for home stagers on the East Coast, West Coast and in Canada this month!  It is a great question because it means you are acting with integrity.  Is staging going to still help sell this home in a short amount of time if it is overpriced by $50,000?

Good and effective staging always helps but if there are 10 other homes in the area for sale as well and the homes are all ‘apples to apples’ and they are priced correctly, chances are, nothing is going to help until there is a price reduction.

In a buyer’s market, staging will help to sell faster and for more money, just like in a seller’s market, but your pricing still has to be somewhat realistic because today’s buyer has so many choices.

So what happens when you get called in to do a staging and you know that it is overpriced, that the staging is going to sit there and you can’t do anything about it?

Today, you have to be better than just another Certified Home Stager.  That is why all the APSD Certified Home Staging Professionals also learn marketing and business…it is not enough to just be a good stager anymore.

Before you go to the property, do your homework.  Take a look at the listing online if it is available.  Next, go to Realtor.org and Zillow.com to check out comparable listings and sales.  Make sure the properties are as comparable as possible.

While Zillow has not had a good reputation in the past for accuracy, today, they have really come up to par and are now an excellent resource to use.   Print out the information you find.  A few flyers in the local neighborhood are also helpful, especially if you have collected them (assuming you work in a regular area and can maintain a file of flyers) and not the asking price on the flyer, the selling price and the DOM which you can often find from the local listing agent, the MLS listing or on your local assessors site.  There are many ways, find the one that works best for you…*

***Continued next week!

***To receive Karen Schaefer’s APSD  Certified Home Stager Session #1 Free CD along with the Session #1 workbook, Karen’s book on the ‘5 Steps to Selling a Property or Listing in 30 days or less’ and her favorite Pocket of Emotion, just go to www.APSDmembers.com or call            1-877-900-STAGE      

In part 2 of this series we talked of the importance in creating a niche for your home staging business.  During this part I am going to show you exactly how to do the research in order to make sure the niche you choose is fun, abundant and profitable.

As you commit to your niche it is always tempting to slide backward.  It is just human nature as we fear that there will not be enough work.

That is why it is not enough to just love doing a certain type of  home or working with a specific genre of agent and so on.  You have to do your research.  Yes, it is always awesome to be able to do something you love and you are, by being in the home staging industry.  Now though, you must take the next step and do your research.

Let’s say for example that you have decided to focus on staging homes that are in the $1-$2 Million dollar price range.  You may have an affinity for affluent home, own several great home staging décor items that lend themselves well to high end staging’s and not enjoy doing small homes, hence your selection.

Now you have to go out and find enough $1-$2 million dollar homes in the area in which you are going to offer your home staging services.

There are 3 things you need to pay attention to:

1)    Are there enough homes in your home staging area within this price range to support your home staging business goals?  This is easy, if there are several neighborhoods with this type of home, the answer is yes, if there is only one, I would proceed with caution.

2)    If there are enough, how many are for sale, how often do they go for sale and how long do they stay for sale?  You need to make that there is enough turnover to keep your home staging funnel filled with home staging jobs and the only way you can do that is by finding out these statistics. Once you know there are enough, how often they get listed for sale, you also need to find out how long they stay on the market.  If they generally sell in under 30 days without any staging, they will be hesitant to use your services in a buyers market.  In a sellers market, this may not be the same case as then, they will be looking to get a higher price so you need to know what type of market you are in when you begin your research.

This is not difficult information to find, usually you can find it on the county assessors site, city-data.com, zillow.com or by calling a local real estate agent in the know.

3)    Finally, do they have a history of buying?  Specifically, do they have a history of buying home staging services.  Again, this is where your agent will come in handy as an agent that works the area would know whether or not these homes have a history of buying home staging services.  If they don’t have a strong history at this point, the other point upon which to inquire would be if they are trending toward home staging services.  So it may be a new idea or need in the area that is just now coming.  Either way it is great news.

Remember, yes, choose your niche according to what you love, and what you are good at but be a business person first and do your research.  That way, you will also love the income you are now making with your new niched home staging business.

***To receive Karen Schaefer’s APSD  Certified Home Stager Session #1 Free CD along with the Session #1 workbook, Karen’s book on the 5 Steps to Selling a Property or Listing in 30 days or less and her favorite Pocket of Emotion, just go to www.APSDmembers.com or call 1-877-900-STAGE

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 15th, 2011 at 11:28 am and is filed under Home Stager, Home Stager School, Home Stager Training, Home Staging Business, Home Staging Career, Home Staging Certification, Home Staging Marketing, home staging statistics, Home Staging Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.