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A Tough Thing for Many Sellers
By marionduffy | October 15, 2009
In his book, Duct Tape Marketing(Chapter 1, page 10), John Jantsch writes “A tough thing for some small business owners to swallow is that it doesn’t really matter what you like or dislike, what matters is what your target market likes or dislikes”.
When I read this, the first thing I thought was that this also applies to real estate. I thought to myself “A tough thing for many sellers to swallow is that it doesn’t really matter what they like or dislike about their house; it matters what their target buyers like or dislike”. It is especially hard when you are selling your primary residence. This house has been your home, your personal place for as long as you have lived there. It is hard to imagine it as anything but your home.
However, when you list your home for sale, you have to think of your “target” buyers. Those would be the buyers who are looking in the price range of your house. You have to stop thinking about what you like in your home and more about what your buyers like and what will attract buyers to your house.
And, this is where staging comes in. Staging is marketing your house. Staging is bringing attention to those feature that buyers in this price range like. There are a lot of misconceptions about staging. Some people think it is cleaning the house and making minor repairs. While it is absolutely necessary to have the house really clean and make needed repairs, that is not staging. Some people confuse decorating with staging. Decorating is personalizing a home. Staging is “depersonalizing” a house.
When you are trying to sell your house, it is best to think of it more as product or business than as a home. Think of the pool of buyers looking in your price range. What appeals to those buyers? What are buyers in that price range typically looking for? How can we make our house appeal to the greatest number of buyers in that pool? What can we do to our house to make it really stand out over and above the other homes currently on the market? Think marketing, think staging.
Topics: Staging, Selling a house, Preparing Your Home for Sale |