Sandy interviewed for Asheville Citizen-Times column

The real estate bubble in Asheville may not have burst, but it has certainly developed enough leaks to make home sellers know that the days of multiple offers, quick sales, and double digit profits are waning.

Staging Your Home –

First Impressions Count

The real estate bubble in Asheville may not have burst, but it has certainly developed enough leaks to make home sellers know that the days of multiple offers, quick sales, and double digit profits are waning.

As a seller how do you get an edge in a sluggish real estate market? Hiring a home staging professional may be the answer. To understand how this works, I recently sat down with Sandy LeRoy, an Accredited Staging Professional and partner in Sterling Property Services of Flat Rock (www.SterlingPropertyService.com).

Q. What is home staging?

A. Staging is a marketing strategy to prepare your home for maximum appeal. Staging is important (and affordable) for homes in every price range. The basic elements include:

•    Creating a neutral environment that emphasizes the house, not the contents.
•    Strategic arrangement of furniture and accessories.
•    Skillful use of color and attention to detail.
•    Meticulous cleaning.

Q.    What are some of the benefits of home staging?

•    Staging highlights your home’s positive features and minimizes the negative ones.
•    Staging makes your home stand out from the competition.
•    Staging creates the feeling that your home is well maintained and ready to welcome the buyer.
•    Staging helps visitors make an emotional connection to your home and visualize living there – the first step in the buying process.

Q. When is the best time to stage?

A. Staging can help at any time, but the best time is before the home goes on the market, and before any pictures are taken for the MLS listing or for print or on-line advertising. In short, the best time to stage a home is before anybody sees it, including the REALTOR®. Why is that? To sell for top dollar the home should look its best before the REALTOR® prepares a competitive market analysis and recommends a listing price.

Q. Is home staging costly?

A. Home stagers offer a menu of services priced to meet the needs of their clients.  In an informal consultation, the home stager will make recommendations while the buyer takes notes. The more formal consultation results in a report with detailed action items. Some stagers can provide a proposal that includes rental of furniture and accessories. The home stager usually focuses on items that cost little or nothing to implement, but if other measures are needed, they will be recommended too. It is always smart to pay the stager to come back when the basic recommendations have been completed and add “pizzazz” with final touches such as furniture arrangement and placement of accessories. When weighing the costs versus the benefits of staging, remember that staging is usually much less costly than a price reduction.

Q. Does home staging really yield results?

A. Statistics compiled by StagedHomes.com in 2007 indicate that professionally staged homes sell in about thirty days versus one hundred and sixty days for unstaged homes. In addition, staged homes typically sell for a seven per cent premium over comparable unstaged homes.  Staging cannot produce a qualified, willing buyer, but staging can help draw prospects to your home and make it more likely they’ll be impressed by what they see.

This is the opinion of Beth Burdick of Ashford Mortgage Advisors. She can be reached at 350-8886 or at www.ashevillehomeloans.com.