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Selling Your Home? Five Reasons Why You Need a Home Stager in a Slow Market

If you have decided to sell your home, you probably are trying to prepare your home to sell in this slow market. Here are five reasons a professional home stager can help you sell your home:

1. Outshine your competition.

The real estate market is still slow. Most homes will sit on the market for months because there are so many homes for prospective buyers to consider. Today, there is so little incentive for buyers so, as home owner, you need to stand out from the rest! Consider hiring a home stager/ real estate stager to evaluate your home and give you an objective point of view with their recommendations on how your property can outshine the rest.

Recently, my clients spent less than $500 to have me stage their home. I helped them declutter, used most of their belongings and added accessories for punch. Their condo received two contracts in 10 days and sold for more than the asking price. The feedback from these prospective buyers was very complimentary, while their neighbor's condo sat on the market for more than 6 months with no contracts.

2. Save money and preserve your equity:

For the desperate home seller, a home stager can be the "light at the end of the tunnel." Real estate agents can give you advice on ways to sell your home, but the bottom line is your home needs to shine above the competition. If the home does not show well, often these price reductions will impact the profit from the sale. The longer the home sits on the market, the more money you may lose when the home finally does sell. An investment in home staging (at least an objective report on what needs to be improved) costs much less than another price reduction, which is money out of your pocket.

3. Meet a deadline for a conditional offer on another house:

Conditional offers are based upon the sale of the buyer's existing home by a deadline. If you've found the home of your dreams and have to sell your old home fast, staging can provide a way to speed up the sale of your old home so that you do not lose out on your dream home.

4. Increase the number of showings on your home:

According to internationally recognized home staging expert, Debra Gould, The Staging Diva, "There was a time when buyers and sellers were totally dependent on real estate agents. Those days are gone. Approximately 80% of prospective buyers shop online before ever calling an agent," explains Gould. "Now that the public can access MLS listings and shop from the photos they see online, it's even more critical for your property to show well in listing photographs. Otherwise, your agent won't even get a request for a house showing. Staging makes all the difference in how rooms look both online and in the real world. Savvy real estate agents are recommending staging to their clients as a way to draw attention to their listings and to sell homes faster," states Gould.

Here's another example of how home staging helped my client. Their home was unstaged and on the market for almost a year. After I helped them stage their home, they reported an increase in the number of showings and within a couple of weeks, the sellers had a contract.

5. Alternatives to paying commissions.

In this slow economy, many home sellers are trying to avoid paying real estate commissions when they are selling their homes. One option many home sellers are exploring is "For Sale By Owner" (FSBO), and there are a vast number of websites and services available to assist them. Home stagers can help FSBO sellers with their knowledge of the real estate market, creativity and skills in preparing their homes for sale and making their photos stand out online.

For all the reasons listed above, sellers should consider hiring a professional home stager to help you achieve your goal -- selling your home faster and for the most money possible!

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