Cleveland Real Estate And More

EVERY SPACE MUST BE DEFINED IN ORDER TO GET TOP DOLLAR FOR YOUR HOME 

There are three factors that determine if a house sells; price, location, and condition. Home staging focuses on condition.  We stress the importance of professional home staging so you can get the most amount of money for your home. Today's tip will focus specifically on the importance of making sure potential buyers understand the purpose of every room in your house.

An important point to remember is that how you live in a home and how you market and sell your house are two different things. While living in a home, many owners use rooms differently than their intended purpose. Some people use a formal dining room as an office, a living room as a play area for young kids, and a bedroom as a storage room. Regardless of how you use a room while you live in your home, the rooms must be converted back prior to putting the home on the market. 

If the buyers don't know what they would do with a specific room, it then becomes useless space to them.  They will have a harder time envisioning their furniture and themselves in your home and more importantly, a buyer won't pay your price if they feel they cannot properly use the space of the home. Why pay for something you don't think you'll use?

Here are some examples:

In this example, the sellers used a sitting area / living room as a multi-purpose room. It looks more like a storage area than actual livable space. After staging, the room now feels like a defined sitting area. It is much less cluttered and is more appealing visually to a potential buyer.

 

 BEFORE                                                                                      STAGED

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this example, a seller was using their family room as an office. While it is common to do this while living in the home, it needed to be better defined before putting it on the market.  

  

 BEFORE                                                                                      STAGED

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here, the family room was being used as a storage/exercise room. It is not uncommon for home owners to keep weights and other exercise equipment in a bedroom or other room in their home. However, when selling your home, the rooms need to be staged to allow a buyer to get a better sense of the purpose of the room.  

 

BEFORE                                                                                        STAGED 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

If you want to get top dollar for your home, you must define every room. A qualified home stager has the vision, experience, and knowledge to assist in your efforts to best market your home to sell.

Click below to view more Schuman Team Staging Tips.

First Impression Is Key

Click here if you want to learn more about home staging.  

Amy Schuman is an Accredited Staging Professional and has staged dozens of homes. Click here to see some great before and after photos of her work.

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If you are looking to buy or sell a home in Bainbridge, Beachwood, Moreland Hills, Orange, Pepper Pike, Solon or the surrounding Eastern suburbs, please contact us as we would be happy to show you why people love working with the Schuman Team.

The Schuman Team uses their home staging expertise to sell listings quicker and for more money. The average home in the Cleveland area sold in over 100 days in 2008 and our listings sold in less than 60 days. The Schuman Team specializes in luxury homes and are members of the Luxury Home Consultants of Keller Williams Realty Greater Cleveland and of the prestigious Institute for Luxury Home Marketing, the premier independent authority in training and certification for real estate agents working in the luxury home market. We also work extensively with buyers and sellers who are relocating in or out of the area. Check out our great relocation package.

To see all homes currently on the market in the Cleveland area, click here. For a personal consultation or to speak directly to The Schuman Team, call 216-346-3235.

 

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HOME EXTERIOR CAN BE CRUCIAL TO SELLING

When staging a home, we stress the importance of making a postive first impression. While the entryway or first room that a buyer sees upon entering is important, the most overlooked area is the exterior and doorway. Let us explain why this is so critical to your efforts in selling your home.

WILL YOUR EXTERIOR "WOW" A BUYER?

To begin, let's assume that a buyer saw pictures of your home on line and couldn't wait to see it in person. As a seller, this is the golden opportunity that you have been waiting for. You now have one chance to "wow" the buyer and get them to fall in love with your beautiful home.

Now, imagine this scenario; the buyer gets out of their car, and, along with their agent, walks to the front door. As it can take a minute or so for the agent to get the key out of the lock box, the buyers get some extended time to stand in front of the home and take it all in. Their eyes will focus on the walkway, landscaping, windows, exterior of the home, and often the front door as their agent will be fumbling for the key and opening up the home. This is the time when first impressions are really formed.

If the outside of the home looks great, then the buyers will continue to be excited to get iniside. They will enter with a positive attitude, hopeful that their home search is finally over. 

However, if the buyer notices some problems outside, the offer you were hoping for may never come.  If you have a front door with scratches and dents, or one where the key doesn't work properly, this could mean trouble. In a buyer's mind, if the front door looks poorly maintained and it is hard to unlock and operate, they will assume there are other problems with the home and will go out of their way to look for them. Chipped paint on the exterior of a home and unmanicured bushes and landscaping also scream neglect and send a very negative sign to the buyers.

The last thing a seller wants is for a potential buyer to have negative thoughts about their home BEFORE they even have a chance to walk inside. Fair or not, a buyer will form on opinion of a home prior to walking in.

When preparing your home to sell, getting the inside to shine is certainly important. However, once a live buyer pulls up to your home, the exterior is the initial focal point. Everyone knows what they say about first impressions...you only have one chance to make one, so make it a good one!

Click here if you want to learn more about home staging.  

Amy Schuman is an Accedited Staging Professional and has staged dozens of homes. Click here to see some great before and after photos of her work.

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If you are looking to buy or sell a home in Beachwood, Moreland Hills, Orange, Pepper Pike, Solon or the surrounding Eastern suburbs, please contact us as we would be happy to show you why people love working with the Schuman Team.

Dan and Amy Schuman are Solon residents. We use our home staging expertise to sell listings quicker and for more money. The average home in the Cleveland area sold in over 100 days in 2008 and our listings sold in less than 60 days. The Schuman Team specializes in luxury homes and are members of the Luxury Home Consultants of Keller Williams Realty Greater Cleveland and of the prestigious Institute for Luxury Home Marketing, the premier independent authority in training and certification for real estate agents working in the luxury home market. We also work extensively with buyers and sellers who are relocating in or out of the area.

For a personal consultation or to speak directly to The Schuman Team, call 216-346-3235.

 

 

What is Home Staging?

According to Wikepedia, Home staging is officially defined as the act of preparing a private residence prior to going up for sale in the real estate marketplace.

In simplistic terms, staging a home to sell is simply un-decorating, or depersonalizing a home so it will appeal to the masses. It sounds so simple yet many home owners don't do a very good job of putting their home on the market in ideal selling condition for many reasons.

To begin, people have a tough time detaching themselves from their home because of the great pride they have in it. Let's face it, most people love their homes and often put a lot of time and money into them. They love the way their home looks and automatically expect others to feel the same way. In fact, most sellers feel that "if a buyer doesn't like something about our home, they can just change it after they buy it". They don't see a need to make changes to appease a buyer, which is a critical mistake in today's buyers market.

Many home owners also have great sentimental value towards their homes. Perhaps someones child took their first steps in the home, or maybe a special birthday or anniversary occurred there. Most home owners can list dozens of events that took place in their home that will bring about a flood of happy memories. The process of putting a home on the market for sale can be a very emotional experience, and it is often difficult for a seller to let go.

Home sellers must understand that a home turns into a house when you put it on the market for sale. It merely becomes a commodity that will be compared to other homes on the market. Therefore, it is important to be able to detach yourself if you are truly ready to sell successfully.  A professional home stager will help a seller with both the physical and emotional aspects of getting a home ready for the market.

What is an ASP?

Accredited Staging Professionals ( ASP's ) have taken extensive course work specifically in the field of home staging. This is a very prestigious designation that differentiates this type of home stager from one who casually stages but has no credentials and limited experience. An ASP is a very dedicated professional who takes the job of home staging very seriously and is usually a leader in the field of Home Staging.

Amy Schuman of The Schuman Team was one of the first ASP's in the area. Amy has years of experience preparing homes for sale. She also has a highly trained eye, interior staging skills, and the necessary resources to work with any sellers budget. In addition, being a real estate agent gives Amy additional insight when staging a home as she is in tune to what today's buyers are looking for.

What Exactly Does a Home Stager Do?

While staging is becoming more popular throughout the nation, a lot of people, especially here in a conservative city like Cleveland, are still not familiar with the specifics regarding home staging. A home stager goes through a home from top to bottom and makes suggestions that will help the home sell quicker and for more money.

The first step of staging a home is for a stager to personally go through a home and take detailed notes on every room and special features of a home. Then, pictures are taken so the stager can assess how certain rooms and features will appear when they get put into the MLS, the multiple listing service, and what improvements need to be done to each room. Then, after the stager is finished, they provide the seller with a detailed written report of everything that needs to be done.

Some home stagers offer a follow-up appointment to assist in moving furniture, picking out paint color, or even to bring in furniture or accessories.  A final assessment is made prior to putting the home on the market to make sure everything is just right.

Why Hire a Home Stager?

Many sellers have watched shows on HGTV regarding home staging and feel they can do the job themselves. The main problem is that most sellers can't be unbiased about their home and need an outsider to point things out. Sometimes the truth hurts, but it will save you a lot of money in the long run. The blue carpeting in the family room that you love so much may have cost a lot of money, but it will turn off a lot of buyers and keep them from even wanting to see your home.  Or what about that really neat wallpaper in the kitchen? At the time, it was probably in style, but few buyers in today's market are screaming for more wallpaper. A good home stager will make an honest assessment about your home and provide cost-effective ways to fix any trouble areas.

  

                                                   

                              BEFORE                                                                                                    AFTER

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can you see the huge difference that staging can make on the presentation of a home? While we certainly don't have a problem with the color blue, it has statistically been shown to be the most unattractive in the eyes of today's buyers. Remember, when your house is on the market, you are appealing to the buyer, not yourself.

The cost of staging this room was relatively inexpensive. Our seller replaced the carpeting and we brought in the rest. By the way, this home was on the market vacant and not staged with another agent for a long time. The seller, who had moved out of state, hired The Schuman Team, and we staged the entire home and received an offer within 2 weeks! It closed within 30 days of going on the market.

The cost of staging your home will be a lot less than the first price reduction you make when your home doesn't sell. If you doubt the power of staging, take a look at these statistics:

   

  

Check out these photos. Do you think buyers shopping on-line for a home would be attracted to one of these over another? 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you know how much it cost to stage this room? How about less than $200! This home sold in less than 30 days.

This chart will show how valuable staging is. It does not cost a lot of money to stage a home, but not staging your home can cost your dearly. Don't think of staging as an expense, think of it as an INVESTMENT to your bottom line.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Home Staging is the very best proven way to get top dollar for your home as you prepare it for sale. Homes that are Staged with an ASP Professional Home Stager sell faster and for more money!  One of the advantaging of using the Schuman Team to list and sell your home is that we offer our home staging services to our clients for FREE. 

With so many homes on the market today, home staging can be the difference in whether or not a home sells. For a free consultation on how to position you home to sell quickly, contact Amy Schuman of The Schuman Team at 216-403-9189 or email us.

 

If you are looking to buy or sell a home in Beachwood, Moreland Hills, Orange, Pepper Pike, Solon or the surrounding Eastern suburbs, please contact us as we would be happy to show you why people love working with the Schuman Team.

Dan and Amy Schuman are Solon residents. We use our home staging expertise to sell listings quicker and for more money. The average home in the Cleveland area sold in over 100 days in 2008 and our listings sold in less than 60 days. The Schuman Team specializes in luxury homes and are members of the Luxury Home Consultants of Keller Williams Realty Greater Cleveland and of the prestigious Institute for Luxury Home Marketing, the premier independent authority in training and certification for real estate agents working in the luxury home market. We also work extensively with buyers and sellers who are relocating in or out of the area.

To see all homes currently on the market in the Cleveland area, click here. For a personal consultation or to speak directly to The Schuman Team, call 216-346-3235.