5 Essential Tips for Selling Your Home

Whether you are getting ready for a job interview, preparing to meet someone special for the first time, or selling your home – first impressions are vital. As homeowners begin preparing their homes for sale, Showhomes encourages them to take some essential steps to make sure the most important first step takes place: buyers make the decision to view the home.

"Many people think all they have to do is make sure the inside of their home is clean, but it really goes far beyond that when it comes to making sure your home looks its best so that buyers will take a look." said Thomas Scott, Vice President of Operations for Showhomes Franchise Corporation.

"Your home has the best chance of selling if it is fully staged and full of life. That is why we have released five essential tips that can help local residents stay on the right track when preparing their homes for a sale."

Scott reveals Showhomes' five tips for selling a vacant home:

1. Curb Appeal – the better the curb appeal of your home is, the more attractive it is to prospective buyers. When selling any home, it’s all about presentation. The curb appeal of your home is what influences people to look. It’s your first point of contact with a buyer and it better be a good one! Here is what Scott recommends:

Trim overgrown bushes, weed beds and add a fresh layer of mulch .

Clean your front door and repaint if needed .

Add a fresh doormat – thick sisal or coco mats make the best first impression. Not only do they make for a better look, everyone steps on the doormat and a clean, fresh one makes a distinct first impression.

Keep grass cut, edged and blown.

Plant some color in the beds to add contrast.

2. Cleaning – People are buying a lifestyle when they buy a new home, not just a house. A dirty and unclean house translates into an unclean life. For most buyers, dirt equals stress and the last thing most buyers want is more stress in their lives. Cleaning is easy to accomplish.

Here is what Showhomes recommends:

Pressure-wash the driveway and sidewalks. The driveway is one of the largest visual elements buyers see and a dirty or stained driveway sets a poor tone.

Clean windows inside and out – this often overlooked item really makes a huge difference. Even a spotlessly clean home will look grungy with dirty windows.

Pressure wash decks and patios. Outdoor living space makes a home larger and can draw people outside the home and make them feel more comfortable with the home. People spend more time in these spaces than in some rooms so making sure you clean these well makes a big difference.

3. Paint – When selling any home, the condition and color of the paint can make a huge difference in how buyers react to your home. Touch up or paint your walls and trim and select neutral colors. Avoid painting white – it is sterile and stark and can make buyers feel uncomfortable and unwelcome in your home. Select light neutrals – creamy kakis, pearly grays or soft greens.

4. Replace Worn Carpet – nothing runs buyers off quicker than worn and stained carpet! Dirty carpet is unsanitary and nobody will be able to overlook your worn carpet. Replace the top layer with inexpensive neutral colored carpet and you will always recoup the investment.

5. Stage your home! – Showhomes knows that buyers who look at vacant homes only see floors, walls and ceilings. With nothing else to look at, they focus on flaws. Because of this, vacant houses are very vulnerable to low-ball offers and often sell for 15-20 percent below list price.

Unfortunately, this is simply because they are vacant. Hire a whole-house staging company or if really want to get the best results, use a live-in Home Manager to stage your home. These two services add life to a home and rather than flaws, buyers can visualize themselves living in your home.

“The value of the life they see becomes worth more than the price of the home and because they make an emotional connection with your home, they will buy it,” says Scott.

Showhomes, the country's largest home staging company, has three decades of staging experience and has helped over 25,000 home owners and Realtors sell vacant homes, Scott said, adding that the company's business model has proven to be effective in any market condition, especially in today’s slow market.

For more information about Showhomes, or additional advice on selling your vacant home, please visit http://www.showhomes.com/.

Chicago Success Story

Chicago Showhomes franchise owner Barbara Bliss, the one who compiled the wonderful staging stats for her market, emailed this success story about a recent Lake Forest home she staged which sold for $1,120,000 - just a bit shy of its $1,199,000 list price.

If that were not enough, this home had been on the market for 458 days before Showhomes. Barbara staged it on Jan 10th and it went under contract within 10 days!

To view a real estate show of this home click here.

Showhomes Staging Case Study

Showhomes North Shore, a Chicago area franchise owned by home stager Barbara Bliss recently completed a case study comparing homes in the North Shore area of Chicago that had used Showhomes against homes that didn't use Showhomes. The results are eye-opening!



Barbara tracked 18 homes she contracted and whole-house staged with a live in Home Manager, such as the photo above. These homes sold for an average of 93% of list price and dramatically beat local market conditions. Homes sold within 147 days on average after staging with Showhomes. Since Showhomes targets larger, more expensive homes, the average list price of these homes was well over $1 Million. Average Days on Market for these homes is over a year, running about 500 days on market average!

That's a success story for staging in itself and any staging company would trumpet those sales results. The most amazing thing was this: the comparison on homes Barbara pitched. She tracked the life of a similar group of homes in the same price range, size and location of town. Each one of these homes was a good candidate for Showhomes and we believed that our service would affect sales for the owners. Despite this, the owners decided not to use Showhomes and left the homes vacant.

None of the homes in her non-Showhomes group sold! At the end of her case study, these homes had several price reductions and were listed at an average of 86% of original list. 86%!! That means these homes will likely go further down in price when and if buyers make offers because we all know that no body pays list price for a vacant home. They are simply too vulnerable to low-ball offers.

We estimate for the average home owner in this case study that the cost benefit to the homeowner when they used Showhomes and our Home Manager staging was $75,000!
We welcome you using these stats, just be sure to credit them to Showhomes as we have put a lot of time and energy into this project.

Another Showhomes Success

$3.6 Million home sells in less than 90 days after a year on the market. Showhomes has been staging in Scottsdale and Paradise Valley for the past decade and Showhomes franchise owner Kathy Haase has won our Franchise of the Year Award in 2004 and 2005. Her staging has been featured in many magazines and newspapers and her franchise has generated numerous sales results.

Phoenix and Scottsdale have seen huge increases in home inventory - in 2002 there were less than 9,000 homes for sale. In 2008 there are over 48,000 homes for sale. In addition, the days on market are much longer. This 3.6 million dollar home is a real success story for Showhomes and Kathy!

To see a Real Estate Show featuring this home, click here.