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Real Estate Agents, BEWARE!By Pauline Stevens
Home stagers are cropping up all over the globe (though home staging has been around since the 1970's) and real estate agents need to get savvy so as not to get sued by their clients after selling their home for them. Home staging is the art of decorating a home to sell for top dollar and in the least possible amount of time. Recently in Ontario, Canada, a real estate agent was sued by his client AFTER having sold the home. It would appear that the real estate never spoke to his client about home staging (because he didn't know it existed). The court decided the real estate agent should not only have known what a home stager was, but the agent should have offered the service to his client. Here's the nitty gritty: Man (Let's call him Mr. Jordan) puts home on market with real estate agent. Many months later, the house is still for sale, has had no offers and few visitors. Real estate agent suggested lowering the price. Mr. Jordan wanted to sell, so followed the expert advice of his agent and lowered the price thousands of dollars. The house finally sold UNDER the asking price that had already been reduced. On the same street, just a couple of doors down, another man (Let's call him Mr. Wills) put his house up for sale with another real estate agent. Within just a few weeks, Mr. Wills house sold ABOVE the asking price. Since Mr. Jordan and Mr. Wills live in townhouses EXACTLY ALIKE except for the decorating, Mr. Jordan just couldn't figure it out. Until Mr. Wills explained that his real estate agent suggested hiring a home staging expert to get top dollar for the home in the shortest amount of time possible. It worked. Mr. Jordan was furious (justifiably so, if you ask me) and took his real estate agent to court. And won! So beware all you real estate agents. Your job is to sell people's homes quickly and for profit. So get out your contacts, hit the internet or consult your yellow pages but make sure you offer your client the services of a home stager and protect your profits. And if you actually stop and think about it for a moment, hiring a home stager is a great thing for you too. A home stager will have absolutely no qualms about telling your client that while selling his/her home, the smelly kitty litter has to go and by the way, the cat has to go too. And do you really have time to make sure the client gets their home spic and span for selling or open house visits? Isn't your job to get listings and sell? Let a good home stager do their job and remember, it's an investment on a high return. Sure, 10k lower for the sale of a home doesn't really affect your bottom line. But if you have 16 homes listed for sale, 10k on all 16 of the homes makes a major difference to your bottom line! And keep in mind that a home that has been staged sells higher, on average in 15 days and the trend is that staged homes are so nice, multiple offers come in on a home and then you can just sit back and advise your client to take the highest bid... Much better than telling your client to lower the price. Hire a home stager, let the client pay for it and you get to take all the credit for selling high and selling fast... What more could you ask for.
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