How to Stage Listings - Kevin Ward

Hi there, it's Kevin Ward with yes Masters Real Estate Success Training, helping you get more yeses and more successes in your business and in your life. And today, let's talk about how to stage listings. More specifically, how do you stage listings in a way that doesn't make the seller mad at you or make the seller hate you or even worse, cost you the listing? Because one of the things that I ran into when I first started really talking about staging houses with sellers was I discovered that I could get a listing where against a lot of agents who were better than me, or when I say better, who are bigger producers than me. Because when they would talk about staging the house and they would tell the seller, okay, you need to do this, you need to do this, you need to do this, you need to do this, they would actually put off the seller. They would actually make the seller mad because the seller felt like that the agent was coming in there and telling them to spend all this money and do all this work, that the agent was trying to boss them around. They were like, this is my house. And I just felt like they were coming in and they were telling me that they weren't going to list the house or they were going to. It wasn't going to sell good if I didn't do all this work and put all this money into it. And so the seller actually took it personal and decided they didn't like the agent. And the agent was trying to help them get the property prepared in a way that made it really work. Now, when I first started selling real estate back in the 1900s, staging was not nearly as important as it is today. In fact, when I first started selling real estate back in 1998, staging was not even something I was trained on. It was not something that when I in the training that I went through that and I was with one of the number one companies in the world, they never talked about staging really, it was just not something that we did. And even in the luxury markets, I was in Dallas, Fort Worth, in South Lake, in Colleyville, Grapevine, Texas, where you had the high end properties, properties that were over half a. They were over half a million dollars back then, were definitely luxury homes. Even the new construction, the model homes, very rarely were they staged, which meant were they furnished and all of that. It just wasn't that common. Only with the big tractor, the big volume builders, where they had model homes and they had a lot of, you know, a lot of inventory, where they were building a lot of spec homes, would they have a model Home that was actually staged back then, that was still something that most normal sales and most normal sales was not that common. And even with a lot of new construction with custom homes was not even that common. But some things have changed in the last 15 years that have made a dramatic impact on how, on the importance of staging a house and getting it really market ready. And that is two things. Number one, Pinterest and number two, hgtv. Because here's the reality. Every lady, before she buys a house, she spends weeks, if not months, spending all of her free time looking at Pinterest pictures and watching hgtv. And if you watch hgtv, all the television, all the shows on hgtv, most of the shows are in real estate and most of them are about people taking and finding an ugly house and making it a beautiful house. And when they're done, they're looking at this gorgeous home and it's perfectly decked out. Everything's up to date, everything's modern, everything has custom professional interior designers that have come in and made everything match and it just looks fabulous. And they spend all their time watching this. And so they get in their mind, that's the house that I want. Or they spend an hour at night sitting in bed looking at Pinterest, looking at all the cool pictures. And what kind of pictures are they looking at? They're looking at pictures of houses. And what kind of houses are they looking at? What kind of kitchens and bedrooms and master bathrooms are they looking at? They're not looking at the fixers, they're looking at the perfectly staged, perfectly designed, perfectly laid out, professionally decorated, perfect dream homes, dream kitchens, dream closets, dream bathrooms, dream master bedrooms, dream backyards, dream front yards, dream flower beds. I mean, all of it is like the dream. And that's what they're spoiled with. They're like, I want that. I want, it's like a little kid, I want that. And so today when you're showing houses, if the house is ugly, it will still sell, but it sells for less because people go like, that's a fixer. And they want to get a big time discount if a house doesn't show perfect. And a vacant house, oh my goodness, vacant houses, used to is no big deal. But now a vacant house looks unloved, it looks unlived in. It doesn't feel like a home. And because they're so used to seeing the pictures, Pinterest and on HGTV and on all the other places, social media and on the Internet, because they're so used to that people have a higher expectation of what they want their new home to look like. So all of a sudden, or maybe not all of a sudden, but over time, staging has become a critical part of not only the high end, but even a bread and butter homes is the. Is the better a house shows, the more like a model home it shows, the better off it's going to be. So I want to share with you today three key steps doing a great job of not only staging a house, but of communicating it with the seller. Now, this video is not a how to stage. There's a lot of people out there that are professional stagers and all that. They're going to be better than me. In fact, I'm going to recommend that if you're going to do a lot of business, which I think you should do a lot of business is I recommend that you hire a professional stager to do your staging for you and that you hire them to come in and do the basic staging consultation. And then for the actual process, they can do a staging consultation with a seller. And then once they do that staging consultation, then if the seller wants the stager to actually do all the work and provide the fixes and all that kind of stuff, then they can hire the stager to do the work. You pay for the initial consultation, which is typically 90 minutes, 60 to 90 minutes, you pay for the staging consultation, and then they can pay for anything else. If they want the stager to actually bring in the furniture, bring in the decorations, help them actually physically make the changes and so forth, or if it's a vacant house, to help them to bring in the furniture, or they can just simply kind of do the help you do it, teach you what to do, and they can give the seller a list of here's the things I recommend you do, but here's the keys that I want you to think about in terms of how to stage listings. Number one is kind of the way you think of it is think model home. Because a lot of what you have to do here is it's. You got to communicate this to the seller in a way that they see the value of it. And this is critical. You can understand the importance of staging, you can tell them how important it is, but if they don't get it, if they don't, you can tell them exactly what they need to do to stage their home. But if they don't like it and it seems like an inconvenience or hassle for them, or they don't see the value in it, then they're going to resist it and they're going to say, no, no, no, no, no. How do you help them see the value? So one is, I want to communicate to them so that if they're like, let's say that somebody doesn't want to spend a lot of money and they go like, I can't afford a stage or I can't afford to do anything. I. What is the poor man's way to stage my house? Here's what you do. Go look at next weekend, I want you guys to go look at all the new homes in the area and go look at the model homes. If there's any new construction in your area, send them to the model home. Say, look at how the model homes are done. Take pictures and videos of the model home and look at the model kitchen, what it looks like, what the countertop looks like, how much wall space there's. How many pieces of furniture are there in the room, what kind of furniture, how is the model home set up? And that's the key, because they have. That has been proven by studies and marketing studies and all that. Those new home, new construction, new homes, new home specialists, they know how to make a house sell for top dollar and fast, that the better a house shows, the faster it's going to sell and the more money it's going to sell for. So. Which is true. So you want them to think model home. How do you make your home look like a model? Now that's the thing you do. I recommend if you've got good staging training and you've got a knack for that, and you're a real estate agent and you can do that, great. That's awesome. If not, if you're like me, if you're a guy and you don't have that creativity or that eye for design and eye for flow and all of that, I always had a professional stager that I would literally pay to come in and do a staging consultation. And then I would. I could either pay her then or I could pay her at closing, depending on the agreement you work out. And by the way, this is a great investment if you sell all your listings. And I could bring in stagers all the time because. And they love working with me because they knew I would get the listing sold. So bring in a stager. They do the work, they do the consultation, then either the seller can do the work or the stager can do the work. It didn't matter to me if the stager did it, seller paid. If the seller did it, seller Paid. All I paid for was the initial consultation, but it's a great value add. When I would do the listing presentation that I take care of that. Now, I'm not saying you have to do it, just a suggestion, but this is the vision that I want to help the seller understand in case they don't see the value of a staged property or of staging. And a lot of times they'll go along with it until they see the inconvenience and the cost and then they want to resist it. So I want to give them an image of, here's what we want to do with your house. We want to make your house market ready. And this is a great term to get your house to up to market standard or market ready. We want it to look as much as we can like a model home. Now I'm going to show you in a second, I'm going to tell you the two keywords to never use that almost every agent uses. And almost it's a huge mistake. It will make sellers resist you and it'll make them mad when it comes to staging. I'll talk about those two words in a second because here's the second thing you've got to keep in mind. Remember, never forget this. Remember it is the owner's home. Remember, it's their house. It's not to you, it's a listing to you, it's a commodity to you, it's something to put on the market and to sell it to them. It's where they live, it's their home, it's personal. And so when you come in and start talking about all the things they need to do, or the stager comes in and says, you need to do this, this and this. Well, you're talking about their own personal home and now you're telling them it's all wrong, it's got to be fixed. So you got to respect the fact that it's their home, they live there. And so what I would do, what I suggest you do is you say, now what is going to happen is I'm going to bring in a stager. Now, I understand this is your home and you live here. So you don't have to do anything the stager recommends, or if you're doing the staging consultation yourself, you don't have to do anything I recommend. I respect that this is your home and you live here. However, the goal is for you to not live here. Right? So we want to make sure your home shows at its best for sellers or, I'm sorry, for buyers. So that when they walk in here, they want to own your home. Does that make sense? And the sellers go, yeah, that makes sense. So here's the third thing. So I want to. One is I acknowledge this is your home and you live here, so you don't have to do anything you don't want to do. And by doing that, I basically help them drop their resistance because I'm acknowledging that it's their house and I'm not coming in trying to tell you guys what to do in your house. Okay, they're funny. Sellers are funny that way, but you got to respect that. But then the main thing that you do is focus on the benefit. I think that's benefit. No, benefit. That's right, benefit. Focus on the benefit of the staging. Now, the benefit is going to be the result, which means it's all about getting the house sold in the best amount of time for the most amount of money. Right? Because that's what you want. So make sure when you're talking to the seller that you're talking about. Now, I understand it's your home, so you don't have to do anything you don't want to do. However, you don't want it to be your home for very long. Right? So the purpose of staging is so that we can make your house show it its best. So when buyers walk in here, they're not only excited about it, but they're willing to make a better offer because the house looks great. Does that make sense? So we're making it about the result, which is to make buyers excited about it. So they'll be willing to write that. So they'll write the best offers so we can get your home sold for top dollar in the best amount of time with the least hassle. Does that make sense? Now, if it'll help the house sell for more, are you guys willing to go through a little inconvenience, a little work to get the house showing at its best so that it will get you a better sale and more money in your pocket? Yes, yes, absolutely. And when I focus on the benefit, then they're going to go like that makes total sense. And you may have to come back and visit it, because here's what's going to happen. My stager would come over, sit down with them, and I would let them know. I would let them know before the stager comes in, prepare them to meet with your stager, and here's what you tell them. Now, look, my stager is going to come in here and I'm going to tell you guys, her job is to help you get your house where it will show it its best, so it'll sell for top dollar, because that's what you want, right? Right. So now I get them to agree what they want is the house to sell for top dollar, which is the benefit, and that's what my stager is going to help them do. So I tie the staging consultation to the benefit, so important that I've acknowledged it's their home. But I've also now tied what the stager is going to tell them to the benefit, because I know the stager is going to come in and tell them stuff they don't like to hear. So I let them know. Now, she may tell you some stuff you guys don't like to hear. She may have you ask you to do some stuff. And here's the reason. Because she's an expert and she knows the things that will make your house show at its best to make buyers excited about it, that will make a house look like where other people that don't own your home, it walks in and they feel like it's home to them. Does that make sense? Now, here's the two key things. The two words you never, ever, ever want to say. If you say it to a seller, they're going to go like, they're going to be mad at you. They're going to hate these words because these words are bad. One is declutter. We need to declutter your home. You're going to want to declutter your house. Now, why is that a bad thing? Because the very fact that you're saying declutter is a message to saying your house is cluttered. And they're going like, my house is not cluttered. Automatically, people, without even thinking about it, get resistant. They get defensive because now you're telling them their house is cluttered. And we thought we kept a great house. So whenever you use a word that can come across as judging their house, this is their home. And frankly, you know, most Americans live in cluttered houses, right? We have more stuff. We have too much stuff in our house. Don't use the word. What you want to focus on is we want to get your house showing at its best. Right? Now, if you're doing the staging consultation and you use a language instead of saying, we want to declutter is say, what we want to do is we want to make the fewer things that are in your house, the bigger the house looks, and the more comfortable the house looks, the more stuff that's here. When People walk into it. You're used to it because it's your home and you know where everything is, and it all has its place and it all fits perfectly. But when somebody else walks in here, it looks busy and it gets them. There's too many things for them to think about. So it's when the house feels busy, then they aren't as comfortable. Make sense. So declutter, Never say declutter because you're going like, my house is not cluttered. You cause people to become defensive, and they don't like the idea that their house is cluttered. Number two word you never want to use is depersonalize your Home Depot. So all the pictures you guys have on the mantel, on the fireplace of your family and all that are, you know, like a lot of people, especially baby boomers and maybe the great generation, even before the baby boomers retirees, they have their whole hallway or maybe the wall going up the staircase is covered with family pictures, right? And it's like all every. Their kids, their grandkids, their wedding pictures, all, every. It's just got a hundred wall. A wall covered with photos. Right? It's beautiful. But it doesn't make seller buyers feel comfortable because they walk into it and they're trying to feel. And this is the way you can explain this to sellers, is that when they walk into. When buyers walk into a house, they are looking for a feeling, and the feeling they're wanting to have is, does this feel like home to me? Does it feel like our home? And when they see. When they look at the wall and it's got a bunch of pictures of strangers staring at them because they're your family, they're not their family staring at them. They don't feel at home, and they don't understand it. They don't think about it. It's not conscious, but it doesn't feel like their home. They're walking into this house and they're going like, wow, it's a pretty house. Could I feel like, does this feel like my home? So the more. The more impersonal it is, the better. But when you say depersonalize to them and go like, but this is my home, it's very personal. Because to them, selling their house is personal. So when you use the word depersonalize, people are like, but now they take it personal. So don't use the word. Focus on the result and help them see the buyer's perspective of what a buyer is wanting to feel, not of what they need to do. Depersonalizing sounds painful. Helping a buyer feel at home and make the house feel like where they walk in, and they want to feel like, does this feel like my home? You want to take out anything that could cause them to not feel like. Like it's their home. So the more depersonal it is. By the way, just a little bonus tip here. That is the greatest reason why you never want a seller to be at home in the house when the buyers are looking at the property. Because when the sellers are there, no matter how, even if they're polite and they're kind and courteous, and there's some exceptions to this, but for the most part, when the sellers are there, the buyers feel like they are intruders. They're coming in to see, does this feel like it could be our home? And while the sellers are there, then they're in the seller's home, and they're like, we're intruding. And for those of you that have been in real estate for a while, you know this is true, that buyers are more uncomfortable when the seller is there and the buyers will not stay as long, and they leave quicker. Well, the quicker they leave, the less likely they are to make an offer on that house and buy that home. Why? Because they're just saying it didn't feel like home to us. Well, it couldn't feel like their home because it was the seller's home and the sellers were right there. Whether they were polite and friendly or another room, it didn't matter. Just knowing the sellers were present reminded the buyers the whole time, this is not your home. This is somebody else's home. And the buyers are trying to feel, does this feel like our home? So you want to do everything you can to depersonalize it. Just don't use that term. Does that make sense? And when you do this, what you're really doing is you're focusing on what the seller wants, not the process. See, the seller wants the home to show it its best, so buyers are excited about it, so buyers choose it, so buyers are willing to pay the most money for it and so forth. What buyers, sellers don't like is all the work attached to get that outcome. So focus on the result, not on the process of staging, of decluttering, depersonalizing. All of that feels painful. It's just like, no, I don't want to do that. But when you understand we want your home to look like a model home, I understand it's your home. I respect that. However, I assume you want it to be somebody else's home and you want to show at its best. So buyers will want it more, so they'll pay more money for it. Yes. Perfect. That's what we're going to do. Now, if it requires you to do some changes and a little inconvenience and a little expense, is that okay with you guys? If it helps you get the better result, yep, we're okay with that. Perfect. Now you can tell them anything you want to. The stager can come in, tell them anything that she needs to tell them the truth because they understand and are focused on the benefit and the result it's going to give them rather than the pain of that process. It is a game changer. Remember, it's not just about the staging itself. It's about helping the seller appreciate and understand the value of what you're doing. So they're excited about it, so they buy into it. So you can do it, get the result, get their home sold, get them the result for them and and for you. I'd love to hear your feedback. If you have comments to make, post them below. Any questions about it, post it. If you like it, give it a thumbs up. We'll look forward to talking to you soon.