Enhancement Services (virtual staging) for real estate agents
Please, bear in mind that home enhancement services are different from the redesign and interior design services. The goal of redesign or one day decorating is to bring out the personality of the homeowner and make their home more functional and more attractive.
However, the purpose of home staging or home enhancement is to feature the home, not the occupants. In-Home Enhancement or recently known as virtual staging or home staging, the idea is to de-personalise the home. You never want potential buyers to get caught up looking at the furnishings, or photographs, or personal items. You want them to solely concentrate on the home and helping them to see themselves living happily in such a home. These are distinctly two very, very different goals.
By eliminating all furniture and accessories that are not needed or that make the room look cluttered, you will make the home seem larger. This will be far more appealing to prospective buyers.
The real estate agent’s position
When selling a home, it has become a product, and you want to emphasise its good features while de-emphasizing or eliminating its less than ideal characteristics. How well you do this for your client can make a significant difference as a real estate agent. To compete with the competition, your seller must have the home priced right, and it must look better than the other products in its price range. You must
help the homeowner present it to prospective buyers in the best possible light.
Special criteria list
Most buyers set out looking for a home with a particular criteria list. It is often quite impersonal. The better you “show off” the features of your client’s home, the better chance you’ll have of exciting a buyer. In staged homes, as opposed to un-staged dwellings, it is not uncommon for buyers to so fall in love with the house that they let go of their criteria list altogether. That is the power of making a home stand out from the competing homes on the market at that time in that price range.
When a home is up for sale, the goal is to sizzle the HOME not the PERSONALITY of the present owner. This is a very different concept so be sure to keep it in mind. When done right, it will have
a positive effect on buyer prospects. You see, they walk into a house carrying with them all their hopes and dreams for a new life in a new environment. How they are made to feel in the home of
your client will be directly reflected in the sales price and the number of offers your home seller receives.
We all have the same universal desires: prestige, love, dreams, hopes, goals. You will be helping your home seller to maximise on all of these natural feelings by intensifying them when prospects walk through the door.
Higher sales price
The higher the asking price, the more excitement you need to generate ln a buyer. The higher the rate, the more you need a buyer to be overwhelmed with the “Wow!” factor. You need to help the home seller inspire their prospects. You want the prospect to walk in and say, “This is where I’ll curl up with my favourite book”. Or “This is where I’ll entertain the boss or the relatives for Thanksgiving!” or “This is where the kids will play, and that is where we will relax and watch TV.”
The whole goal, boiled down to one statement is, you want to create for the home seller an atmosphere of spaciousness and homey-ness all at the same time. When you achieve this, the final sales price will surely be higher. Staging the inside and outside of the home attractive, organised and yes, even neutralised, will be a significant part of your job as a real estate agent, and you want to make sure that you are in “safe hands” using the services of proper virtual staging or home staging specialist.
The best scenario and typical mistake
The best situation in the world for your home seller is to have 10-15 prospects all bidding against each other for that home. This is called a “bidding war”. In a competitive market, some homeowners will be willing to pay some pretty substantial fees for someone to transform their
dull rooms into scrumptious interiors. The talented person who gets that assignment should be staging specialist will not only get the opportunity to help someone else achieve their goals but will develop a healthy relationship and drive the agent’s business.
The mistake that can be fixed
I’ve worked professionally in the redesign/interior design profession since 2011 in Central Europe. But it doesn’t matter where we live. We will always be surrounded by people who are buying and selling houses, either to live in or to rent out. The opportunities are enormous!
I see, a lot of people don’t know how to adequately prepare a home to put it on the market and many, even if they did know, don’t want to take the time to do it properly or don’t have the time, or they think it might be too costly service.
The fix
The mistakes they make are widespread. But everyone knows what they like when they see it. As a real estate agent, you need to listen very carefully during the interview portion which you will learn how to do. You’ll need to ask the right questions and then utilize all that information when you plan out the new Enhancement Plan for your home seller.
Benefits You Can Expect from home staging.
I don’t know about you, but I love a business idea that has minimal overhead and minimal risk. That couldn’t be truer of the virtual staging consulting services. This business is providing a valuable service. As the whole service goes pretty quick in most of the cases, You get the virtually staged photos of the property not less than three days. This means you can start selling and getting buyers’ instructions in less than a week since you agreed with your seller to do so.
The virtual home enhancement service is fresh and innovative. It’s very creative and challenging, and no two projects are ever alike if you hire the right professionals.
There are a few other articles where I described more in-depth about virtual staging and its use:
How to stage a house on a budget?
