The secret truth about Home Staging Statistics - 0.4% - the truth is in the numbers.

June 9, 2008

This is a very different post about home staging statistics. These home staging statistics are irrefutable, and highlight the secret little truth about home staging and the real estate industry that no one seems ready to talk frankly about on the record.

The June 2008 edition of the Realtor Association Magazine is received by all Realtors in the United States, and contains a featured article “10 Ways to Make Your House More Salable“.

Surprisingly, this article, read by Realtors nationwide fails to make a single mention of home staging, preferring to focus on the obvious selling preparation tasks ranging from small repairs to better wattage bulbs. If this is the opinion of the real estate industry magazine, is it any wonder that home staging remains in the real estate shadows?

How could this happen? If we leave real estate industry magazines aside, how could the majority of Real Estate Agents still not know about home staging given the numerous HGTV shows on the home staging, the exhaustive marketing by the home staging community and weekly home staging presentations at real estate brokerages nationwide?

Though home staging has been an established practice within the real estate industry, we are surprised to find that less than 10% of South Florida Real Estate Agents that we meet with have ever mentioned the need to stage a home for a faster sale to their home sellers.

To investigate this statistic, we did a little ‘home staging statistics’ research. (Hardly scientific, but enlightening nonetheless.)

SHOW ME THE NUMBERS. How are Real Estate Agents communicating the home staging message to their sellers? Do they simply cut and paste or are they trusted advisors?

A Google internet search for the term “10 Ways to Make Your House More Salable” produced more than 550,000 results.
- Most were real estate agent websites aimed at home sellers nationwide.
We extended search to include the terms “10 Ways to Make Your House More Salable” *and* “home staging”,
- There are 22,000 web page results on real estate agents websites aimed at home sellers.
- Yet when you search for “home staging”, there are 2.3 Million web pages returned.

SO WHAT? WHAT DOES IT MATTER?

Sadly, interpreting the results;

Less than 0.4% of real estate agents believe in updating their website to communicate the importance of home staging to their sellers as one of their top tips on selling a home.
Most simply cut and paste web content they find elsewhere, without improving it to include their value added comments.
Yet, many multiples more claim that they talk about home staging to their clients - hardly convincing.

WHAT DOES THAT NUMBER MEAN TO ME, the real estate agent / the seller?

It means that there will be a lot of unhappy sellers. These sellers are getting less than the level of service they should be getting, and their homes are sitting on the market. There is no commission for an expired listing and unhappy sellers find new agents and are not a good referral source,
Conversely, it means there are a small percentage of real estate agents that are leveraging home staging, selling their listings and have happy sellers.
It means that sellers have had to educate themselves on the home selling process and are seeking out home staging aware real estate agents. Real estate agents need to mention home staging during their listing presentation or sellers will find an agent that does.

From the numbers above, it is clear that home staging has a long way to go before it is adopted by the real estate community at large.

Perhaps this explains why over 75% of our inbound home staging inquiries come from educated home sellers. These sellers have taken the preparation of their home and it’s market presentation upon themselves. This is an increasing trend, and we are happy to refer these sellers to ‘home staging aware’ real estate agents when they request a referral.

Contact us to join our ‘home staging aware’ real estate agent group.

South Florida’s Premier Home Staging Professional Services Company.

http://www.opendoorstaging.com

Have us present at your brokerage or organization.

Posted by admin | Filed Under Market Statistics | 1 Comment

How do you keep current with your local real estate market conditions?

February 25, 2008

As a professional home stager, staying current with the estate market is a requirement for success.

Market knowledge, combined with the correct definition of the buyer profile (this will be in another post),and the ability to professionally stage a property, ensure home staging success.

Market knowledge is one of the suite of value add’s Open Door Staging brings to the table when discussing the best approach to staging property for sale with my clients.

Real estate market conditions as reported in the media are often based on historic data(90+ days ago), this service from Altos research provides real time information. Information that gives my sellers the edge in making fact based decisions.

Below are the real time real estate market condition reports for the greater Fort Lauderdale area, which covers most of Broward county, south Florida.

		Real Estate Price Trends The median single family home price as of February 10 2008 for FORT LAUDERDALE is $383,786Explain thisFORT LAUDERDALE condo reports and zip-code level detail available for all subscribers. Subscribe today!

		Housing Market Conditions With a Market Action Index as of February 10 2008 at 12.65, FORT LAUDERDALE is currently a buyer’s market.Explain this

		Home Sales and Demand Trends The average property in FORT LAUDERDALE as of February 10 2008 has been on the market for about 155 days.Explain this

		Price Per Square Foot The median price per square foot for homes in FORT LAUDERDALE as of February 10 2008 is about $205Explain this

		Homes for Sale There are about 7,107 properties on the market in FORT LAUDERDALE as of February 10 2008.Explain this

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