Advice from a First-Time Home Seller
Selling your home for the first time can be stressful. This first-time seller explains how staging changed buyer perception and got her sold in less than a month. Prior to staging, she had been on the market for 3 months. After staging, her listing sold in 3 weeks.
DOM: 22
Sale/List: 96%
Neighborhood: Sugar Land
Style of Home: Traditional
Type of Stage: Vacant
Listing Price: $425k
What challenges did you face in listing the home?
This was our first time selling a home. The house was listed for over 3 months with lots of visits but no real interest and lots of negative comments.
Besides staging, what updates did you perform to make the home more marketable?
We put in new wooden flooring and fresh paint. I had also put a few props in the bathroom and kitchen.
How did you decide on your list price?
We based our price on the condition of the property and comparative market analysis (CMA). Since we were also paying for mortgage, insurance, and taxes during this time- we wanted to get it sold. I was ready to renew it if it didn’t sell within 60 days. But it sold faster than that.
You had initially gone on the market without staging (73 days)- what was feedback like during this time?
We received lots of negative comments. Most of the complaints were about the floor plan. It wasn’t obvious where furniture should go.
Once staged, you accepted an offer in 22 days! What changed after you staged?
We hosted open houses 3 weeks in a row. People didn’t want to leave the house because they enjoyed the interior decor so much! We received a lot more interest and another agent even wanted to put in another offer right after we’d already signed an offer.
What do you look for in a staging company?
We saw Shelley’s work and felt she had a good understanding of what’s trendy and would be able to implement that into a home well. I liked her taste.
The drawback of our home was the floor plan. Shelley was able to use nice designs so the buyer could imagine living there. We loved her style, and I could tell all the people who came to the open houses loved it too.
If you could do it all again, what would you do differently?
I would have staged it from day one! I was told by a RE agent friend that only $1M houses need staging, so I didn’t do it. I wish I had started the staging earlier to save all that money spent on carrying costs. Also, I would never host an open house without proper staging- it makes such a big difference!
