Below is a response to an article I read in Realty Times: http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20081231_inout.htm . (Basically, in the article, the author says that staging is OUT in 2009. As you can imagine, I have a differing opinion and was shocked that an “expert” of his status would say such a thing.) I was glad he published this article though, as it gave me the opportunity to respond.
- Ashley
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Hi Mark,
I just read your article “What's In, What's Out with Home Buyers in 2009?” I was surprised to see that an author of several books on selling real estate and niche marketing and someone who is viewed as a real estate expert would not advocate a tried and true marketing principle of taking a productand making it better, which increases its value and sale-ability.
I’ve worked in real estate for over a decade. As a new home sales representative and licensed realtor, I recognized the importance of making the properties I was selling stand out among the rest. It’s not rocket science, just basic marketing principles. I’ve sold millions in real estate and worked with hundreds of buyers. I know what sends them running and I know what compels them to make an offer. This same principle is why builders spend large portions of their marketing budgets on decorating their model homes and why they use the models as a very effective marketing tool. Malcolm Gladwell even wrote an entire book on the principle Blink. His book is about rapid cognition, about the kind of thinking that happens in a blink of an eye. When you meet someone for the first time, or walk into a house you are thinking of buying, or read the first few sentences of a book, your mind takes about two seconds to jump to a series of conclusions. Gary Keller even dedicates an entire chapter to the subject of home staging in his latest book, Shift: How Top Real Estate Agents Tackle Tough Times. In it, he says, “A seller should never ask if they should stage. This is simply the wrong type of thinking and the wrong question. The question they should ask is how should I stage? Staging is an essential part of the marketing process.”
I’m surprised that you would diminish the importance of such an effective marketing tool that is recognized across all industries, not just real estate. Below is an example of effective marketing in a completely unrelated industry. Here, the competing companies have take two similar products, and packaged them very differently. Which one looks more appealing? Which one stimulates a positive emotional response? Which one seems like a vacation in a bottle and which one conjures of images of living in a trailer park? (Not that there’s anything wrong with that – my family and I are RV enthusiast, but I think you get my point.)
If you’re referring to the minority of inexperienced or ineffective home stagers or agents who place bad silk floral arrangements and a few plants in a home and think that’s going to sell it, then that’s understandable that you would not advocate that as an effective marketing tool, however, I’m surprised you would write about the minority in your article. True home staging is much more pervasive than “tired silk plants” and “stale potpourri”. It’s the process of assessing all aspects of the property and figuring out a way to make that property stand out and look better than the competition. It’s the process of creating value on a small budget and finding areas of improvement that yield a return on the investment that justifies the investment in the first place.
Mark, I’m not usually the type to respond to articles or write “letters to the editor”. I’m far too busy and I believe that everyone deserves to have their own opinion, however, in this case, I feel that you have the opportunity to educate professionals with your article, and you’re doing the opposite and perhaps misinforming them.
I’m passionate about this not because one of the companies I own offers home staging as part of our services, but because I see what a difference effective home staging has made in many peoples’ lives. Most recently, our company staged a vacant property in a community with a 12-month supply of inventory. The owner had just been laid off and desperately needed to sell. The combination of an effective pricing strategy and a cost-effective staging plan created a property that stood out among the sea of other listings, and it sold in less than 2 weeks after being on the market. We have many more stories like this one.
One of the things that I love about what we do is that we don’t just have a job. We do work that helps people who desperately need it in times like these. We make a difference in peoples’ lives. We, along with their Realtors, help them to avoid foreclosure, bankruptcy, stress and turmoil. We help Realtors by assisting them to sell their listings, and by highlighting their true level of professionalism and expertise, which shines through every time they sell a listing more quickly than the other agents in town. This helps further their careers and ours.
As I say in the Texas Real Estate Commission-approved MCE course I teach for Realtors on Strategic Marketing through Home Staging, an agent isn’t doing their job if they don’t help their sellers to effectively prepare their listings to go on the market. They are paid because they are experts and professionals. Part of their marketing plan should include the effective preparation of the home as a product. Some call it Home Staging, I call it Marketing 101. Whatever you call it, I often draw the analogy of my job as a parent to the job of a listing agent – when my 6 year old son says he doesn’t feel like brushing his teeth or doing his school work, I wouldn’t be doing my job as a parent if I just said, “OK!” and let him off the hook. It’s my job to discipline my child. The root of the word discipline is to teach. I’m the expert – I’m older, wiser and have seen the consequences of poor dental hygiene or lazy school work habits. The same holds true for Realtors as it applies to marketing real estate.
Thank you for your time, and for writing an otherwise interesting read! J
Yours truly,
Ashley Whittenberger
www.theinterioritycomplex.com
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