Summer has come to Washington!
Along with fields of ripe berries, ice cream trucks joyfully ringing the bells as they tour our neighborhood, and the smell of sun tan lotion...it's legitimately sandal season!
Along with fields of ripe berries, ice cream trucks joyfully ringing the bells as they tour our neighborhood, and the smell of sun tan lotion...it's legitimately sandal season!
Sandal season is so much prettier with a pedicure!
It's Saturday morning, and the first order of my day is a trip to the salon.
On my drive home, I pondered my situation:
In a basket under the sink in my bathroom, I have my own nail care station complete with bottles of polish, cuticle cream, brushes, files and toe separators. I already own everything I need to apply polish to nails...and if polish on the nails is the intent, then why would I choose to spend three hours in a salon on a beautiful Saturday morning to pay someone else to paint my nails?
I have an artistic eye for these kinds of things. I know my way around a color wheel and a beauty counter. I know good work when I see it. In the end I come to the conclusion that I am able to do them "good enough". While they may be "good enough" for me, any one looking at my "polished" nails would have quite a different opinion of my results.
How can I get such drastically different results? It's a basic reality that though I use the same tools, read articles and own books on nail techniques, and even work from the same expert hints...I lack the expertise to gain the same results.
It's Saturday morning, and the first order of my day is a trip to the salon.
On my drive home, I pondered my situation:
In a basket under the sink in my bathroom, I have my own nail care station complete with bottles of polish, cuticle cream, brushes, files and toe separators. I already own everything I need to apply polish to nails...and if polish on the nails is the intent, then why would I choose to spend three hours in a salon on a beautiful Saturday morning to pay someone else to paint my nails?
I have an artistic eye for these kinds of things. I know my way around a color wheel and a beauty counter. I know good work when I see it. In the end I come to the conclusion that I am able to do them "good enough". While they may be "good enough" for me, any one looking at my "polished" nails would have quite a different opinion of my results.
How can I get such drastically different results? It's a basic reality that though I use the same tools, read articles and own books on nail techniques, and even work from the same expert hints...I lack the expertise to gain the same results.
These comments are not so different from the comments we hear from Sellers / Realtors who opt not to have a professional ASP Staging of a home before listing on the market. There seems to often be a wife, sister, or girlfriend who has an "eye" for this kind of thing, afterall they watch all the HGTV shows on home staging. What they are really saying is they believe they can present the house "good enough", but just like my toes..."good enough" isn't necessarily "Good!"
The investment in having your house professionally staged by an ASP Home Staging Professional prior to listing with your agent is always going to be less than the first reduction on your listing when it sits in the market...days, weeks, or months. It may help you to make your decision to Stage or not to Stage when you ask your agent when and how much the initial reduction will be. (Yiikes...How much?)
Since "a picture is worth a thousand words", it's really the "AFTER" photos that will be your Buyers first impression of your house. They don't care what it looked like "before," they are here NOW.
When it comes to making the offer, buyers won't care how much "stuff" you took out, or how much time you spent getting your product ready for sale.
It won't matter to buyers how long this has been your home, or how difficult it may be for you to be selling this chapter of your life.
Buyers are in the market to buy their "home". If your house doesn't capture their hearts, they will move on down the aisle to find one that does.
Price is generally the first filter for the buyer. Price is the ingredient that will get them to your door step. In today's virtual market, that "door step" may very well be a visit to the web listing via a googled address and not through your agent at all.
The buyer's first visual, emotional impression will be the "After" photos on your web listing and posted brochure.
The second emotional impression will be the "feeling" that they get when they tour through the house.
Buying a home is an emotional decision. You want buyers to fall in love with your house and see it as their home.
You will never know how many Would-have-been Buyers walked away from your house without ever opening your front door because "good enough" wasn't "GOOD!"
Give yourself every benefit possible! You are selling every room in your house, be sure to maximize every viewing and ASP Stage EVERY room!
Since "a picture is worth a thousand words", it's really the "AFTER" photos that will be your Buyers first impression of your house. They don't care what it looked like "before," they are here NOW.
When it comes to making the offer, buyers won't care how much "stuff" you took out, or how much time you spent getting your product ready for sale.
It won't matter to buyers how long this has been your home, or how difficult it may be for you to be selling this chapter of your life.
Buyers are in the market to buy their "home". If your house doesn't capture their hearts, they will move on down the aisle to find one that does.
Price is generally the first filter for the buyer. Price is the ingredient that will get them to your door step. In today's virtual market, that "door step" may very well be a visit to the web listing via a googled address and not through your agent at all.
The buyer's first visual, emotional impression will be the "After" photos on your web listing and posted brochure.
The second emotional impression will be the "feeling" that they get when they tour through the house.
Buying a home is an emotional decision. You want buyers to fall in love with your house and see it as their home.
You will never know how many Would-have-been Buyers walked away from your house without ever opening your front door because "good enough" wasn't "GOOD!"
Give yourself every benefit possible! You are selling every room in your house, be sure to maximize every viewing and ASP Stage EVERY room!
...As for my morning at the salon, yes, I staged all my nails and had a manicure too!
You'll have to trust me on this one, no one wants to see my "before" shots!
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