It’s a great tool for Realtors to use with sellers who may be on the fence about listing a home during the holiday season.

10 Reasons to List Your Home Over the Holidays

1. People who look for a home over the holidays tend to be more serious about buying.

2. Serious buyers have fewer houses to choose from during the holidays which, in turn, means less competition and more money for you.

3. Starting in January, the amount of listings will dramatically increase. With more properties on the market, there will be less demand for your particular home.

4. Houses show better when decorated for the holidays! Buyers are more emotional during the holidays, so they are more likely to pay your price.

5. Often, buyers have more time to look for a home during the holidays than during a regular work week, especially during winter vacations.

6. Many people want to buy before the end of the year due to tax reasons.

7. Traditionally, January is the month for corporate transferees to begin new jobs. Since these transferees cannot wait until spring to buy, you must be on the market now to capture that market.

8. You can be on the market and still have the option to restrict showings during the holidays for your special family occasions.

9. You can sell now for more money and set up a delayed closing or extended occupancy until early next year.

10. By selling now, you may have the opportunity to be a non-contingent buyer during the spring, when many more houses are on the market for less money. This will allow you to sell high and buy low!

“How long did it take for you to know that the last home you purchased was right for you?

and

“Who ‘wears the pants’ in the relationship when it comes to making major financial decisions?”

The results of this survey are important for all Realtors, Stagers and home sellers to understand, so that they can make sure the property they’re selling will appeal to the right audience.

Interesting Finding #1:

“Both men and women are increasingly concerned with having a space to work in their homes.”

At Stage to Sell, we always make sure that homes we Stage have a clear space set aside for a home office. In today’s world everyone (whether they work from home or not) needs a space in their home for a computer to pay the bills, do homework, check email and update their Facebook status! Staging the home to include a work space is especially important when you are selling a small home, which may not have  room for a full office.

This home was just over 900sf and had a tiny room, reachable only by a spiral staircase, in the spare bedroom. Because of the sloped ceiling it ended up looking like a storage area when it was empty. But with the correct furniture this small space is now a big feature!

Interesting Finding #2:

“Women may be inclined to make up their mind more quickly than men …”

Almost 70% of women made up their mind that the house they purchased was “right for them” the first day they walked into the house (versus 62% of men). Thirty two percent of men (versus 23% of women) needed two or more visits to be sure.

This is why it’s so important to create an emotional connection as buyers walk through the home. It’s not just the furniture, but all the small details, that make us (and by us, I mean the women) fall in love with a home. When my company Stages a home, we always have the buyers in mind. We ask the Realtor who the prospective buyer is so we know who we’re trying to appeal to. If it’s a family, we often create an adorable child’s room that will make the mom & dad imagine their own child living in (and loving) the space. If it’s a young professional, we might shoot for a more contemporary vibe, with a high tech home office space. For retirees, we might use a second bedroom as an office, but we’d include a small daybed too, so the grandchildren can spend the night. These are just a few of the subtle ways that we make sure to tug on the buyers’ heartstrings with each home we Stage.

This children's bedroom was designed to make mom imagine her own children living in this home.

Interesting Finding #3:

“Couples say that no one ‘wears the pants in the relationship’ in terms of major financial decisions …”

Close to 70% of respondents said that when it comes to major financial decisions (such as the purchase of a home) it’s a mutual decision.

Now this one surprised me a bit because from what I’ve always heard, women tend to influence the home-purchasing decisions more than men. Of course both have input, but generally women tend to feel more strongly about buying one home versus another, and this is where proper Staging can distinguish one home from another. When comparing two homes, both may have the same square footage and number of bedrooms, the same hardwood floors or granite countertops, but the one that “feels like home” is the one that will get the sale (price being equal of course)! Creating those special details that make a buyer fall in love with a home is what Home Staging is all about.

Staged homes create an emotional connection with buyers

Living Room Before

Do these blinds scream luxury home to you? No, they didn’t to me either. First thing on the list to go: vertical blinds. For budgetary reasons we could not install custom window treatments (especially on the large bay window in the front of the room), but simply removing the dated blinds helped immensely. We used inexpensive tension rods to add drapes to the side windows and left that beautiful bay window free and clear so buyers would be able to see the Observatory when they looked out.

Living Room After

On a side note, there was an issue with buyers having to look at the busy traffic passing by out the bottom half of that front window. Solution? We brought in two ultra-high-back chairs to block the lower half while opening up the beautiful hillside views above.

Bay Window View

As I continued my preview of the home the next thing I noticed was the powder room and its dueling vanities.

Powder Room Before

See that cute built-in vanity? Now granted it’s not the latest in bathroom decor, but it was clean and had some charm. But what’s up with the other vanity that butts up against the first one? It makes this room look like a botched makeover. I suggested they rip out the wood vanity and replace it with a pedestal sink. After all this is a powder room – no storage required.

Powder Room After

Now isn’t that better? We used the homeowner’s stool that had been relocated to the kitchen, some art and decorative accessories to bring out the room’s charm.

If you follow my blog, you may already know one of my many mantras: “Paint the paneling!” So you can imagine what I thought when I walked into this bonus room near the pool. This was a huge room with an attached bath and laundry room and a separate entry. A perfect place for a mother-in-law, a guest or a renter. But with all that dark paneling and the outdated ceiling fan it was completely unappealing.

Guest Suite Before

They painted the paneling and replaced the fan with a ceiling mounted light fixture and voila! Now, I would never have chosen white as the color – too stark. But hey, at least they painted! With furniture, art and accessories, we’ve just added tons of value to this space.

Guest Suite After

These were all relatively simple and inexpensive changes that made a HUGE difference in the saleability of this home.

The result?

We finished Staging on the Sunday of July 4th weekend. They had their first offer by that Wednesday and another shortly thereafter. We have already picked up our furniture less than a month after the initial Staging because the buyer was so anxious to move in!

Towards the end of the blooming season, however, the trees tend to get sparser and most of those purple blooms end up on the lawns and driveways of their owners. In fact today, as I was on my morning walk, I spotted many a lawn completely covered with fallen flowers. Loving the jacaranda as I do, I happen to think of this carpet of purple on the lawn as beautiful, though perhaps a bit melancholy as it marks the end of my favorite season. However, today I began to think about it from a home buyer’s perspective.

If I had been house hunting a few weeks ago I would’ve been immediately drawn to any home with a healthy flowering tree in the front yard. In fact, all things being equal, the tree alone might have swayed me to make a purchase. So let’s say I made an offer. Now we’re past the inspection period and deep into escrow and I decide to drive by my newly purchased home. Whereas when I made my purchase the tree was in its full splendor, now most of those beautiful flowers are covering my new lawn. Yes it’s still pretty, but now something else comes to mind… Boy, it’s going to be a lot of work to rake up those flowers every year! Not to mention they’re going to get all over my car.

Now this problem doesn’t apply only to jacarandas (or other similar flowering trees). What about those huge ficus trees that line the street and park in my neighborhood? We have several of these on the way to my son’s school and when the ficus berries are falling, it’s like an obstacle course trying to get to school without getting a sole-ful (a shoe sole, that is) of those darned things! Once again, if you’re a home buyer this brings to mind thoughts of sidewalk sweeping and cleaning your shoes with a steak knife… not a pretty picture.

So my Staging revelation for today is that if your home is on the market and you’ve got dropping flowers or berries, you should take the extra time to rake the lawn and scrape the sidewalk before any showings so as not to bring up thoughts of unwanted maintenance in the minds of your potential buyers.

Enjoy these final days of spring – summer is almost here!

Built-ins provide a wonderful storage solution, but if they are bursting at the seams a buyer will get the impression that the home does not have enough storage.

We want to give buyers the idea that “there is SO much storage space, they can’t even fill it all!” Now of course we know that the longer we live in a home the more cluttered our bookshelves, closets and cabinets become. It’s just the law of accumulation — I think I just made that one up, but it’s true! So when a home is on the market it is crucial to highlight the built-ins by Staging them like a pro:

1) Keep some shelves EMPTY!
Remember the idea here is to show an abundance of storage space. So if you have a built-in or bookcase with lots of little shelves, it’s a good idea to leave a couple empty to show your buyers they have room to grow.

2) Create balance.
Try to balance each side of the built-in or each shelf on the bookcase. Don’t put all your books to the left of the fireplace and all your vases or statues to the right. Spread them out to achieve balance. When you stand back to look at your work, the overall weight should feel about equal on both sides.

For bookshelves, my rule is that no shelf should be more than 1/2 full. I alternate which half I will fill on each shelf. For instance, on the top shelf I might put a plant on the right side. Below I would set out a stack of 3-4 books on the left. Don’t forget to use the middle of the shelves to create variety. A low bowl or a tray with candles in the center of a shelf can be the perfect decorative item.

3) Remove personal items.
I see many homes where the built-ins are chock full of family photos and the kids’ trophies. Remind your sellers that buyers want to picture themselves and their family living in the home. If they are bombarded with photos of the homeowner’s family, they get too involved with your personal life (“Oh, look, they vacationed in Hawaii! Oh, their son plays Little League!”) and forget all about the home. We want buyers to start “mentally moving in” as soon as they walk through the door, but it’s hard for them to do that when the personal photos and belongings of the current homeowners are so prominent.