Colorado House Finders

By now, staging a home for sale has become a common practice by sellers and their real estate agents. And like many things in preparing a home to sell, you can either choose to do it yourself or hire one of the many professional stagers around. There are advantages to both. The obvious benefit to staging your home yourself is the cost savings. If you are really on a budget, you might want to do a few Internet searches for staging tips and put your head together with your agent to come up with a house that presents itself well and that potential buyers can imagine living in themselves. 

This brings us to our first tip. All that wonderful memorabilia, photos and items that truly express your personality – take them down. Try to use more generic furniture, art and only a few accent pieces. That leads us to the next tip. Less is more. We live in a time where we have a lot of stuff, and most homeowners really like their own stuff. But, for a buyer to truly get a feel for the home and be able to, once again, imagine his or her own things in that house, you must create visual space.  

While painting, cleaning carpets and assuring that your home has the scent of a warm and inviting place are no-brainers, they bear mentioning. These are the basics to making sure your home shows off in the best possible way. Antique white shades for the walls works marvelously. Lighting should be bright and well-balanced, and left illuminated when you know you have a showing. Clean out closets, garages and other storage areas to increase the sense of available space for the buyer.  A great thing to do is leave the scent of baking bread wafting through your home on the days when there’s a showing. For the bread, don’t think you have to make your grandmother’s bread from scratch. Get a conveniently packaged, unbaked loaf or rolls at the grocery store. Just pop them in the oven and the smell will be intoxicating! 

A professionally trained stager will come in and help you move beyond these basics. In that process, they take out everything from the room and start all over. Large pieces of furniture come in first, then smaller pieces, lighting and, finally, artwork. There is an art to it and, if your budget can handle it, this kind of service can end save you valuable time and help you get closer to your asking price.   IRIS (Interior Redesign Industry Specialist) is a nonprofit organization with high and comprehensive training standards in the industry. Look for a stager who has trained with an IRIS approved instructor to make sure you’re getting the best possible service. The Colorado House Finders’ Real Estate Consulting team is experienced, professional real estate agents with certifications in Real Estate, Lending and Appraising, who specialize in Denver Colorado real estate.  For access to Denver MLS listings , contact Colorado House Finders or www.ColoradoHouseFinders.com.

Just the other day I was at a listing presentation with a prospective client discussing how to sell his home faster than the other active listings during the Denver Colorado real estate housing slump.  He of course wanted to know about our marketing strategy, communication plan, and competitive listings in the area and what I suggest for a listing price.   

Most successful agents who practice selling real estate in Colorado full-time instead of part-time will deliver a comprehensive plan for marketing and communication, however, there are very few within the Denver real estate market that have the experience or skill set to analyze any market and determine the optimum price that will sell their client’s house in the shortest timeframe. 

When evaluating your listing agent, it is important to pay attention to the marketing and communication plan, but it is absolutely imperative that your agent can recommend a listing price for your home and concisely illustrate the methodology to arrive at the listing price. 

The analysis should illustrate the general market conditions of the area, inclusive of current market conditions, employment factors, increases or decreases in property values during a 36 month timeframe, owner vs. tenant occupancy and comparable units for sale.  It should illustrate the marketability of the subject property inclusive of neighborhood value ranges, marketing time in the area, and specific comments regarding the positive and negative characteristics of the property that could affect the value. 

If your real estate agent provides you the analysis illustrated in the paragraph above, you are working with an agent that is a step above 90% of the other real estate agents in the Denver CO real estate market.  However, if you want your home to sell faster during a buyer’s market, you need an agent that will comprehensively evaluate the following characteristics of your home to arrive at the optimum listing price.  Such market factors and home characteristics as seller concessions, days on market, neighborhood location, site size, front and back yard views, house style, condition, room count, basement finishes, heating and cooling features, energy efficient items, types of porches, patios and decks, fireplaces and basement types.   

 If all of the following home characteristics are evaluated and compared against three to six past neighborhood home sales and current listings during a twelve month timeframe, it is without question that your agent will be able to recommend the optimum price to sell your house in the shortest timeframe.  Remember, 80% of selling your home in the shortest timeframe is a result of pricing it at market value from the beginning.