Mid Missouri Real Estate BlogRecently posted or modified blog posts by tag - Marketing Your Homehttps://www.heartlandnetwork-midmo.com/blog/Copyright HeartlandNetwork-MidMo.com2023-04-27T12:37:21-07:00tag:heartlandnetwork-midmo.com,2012-09-20:21644Why You Need Professional Staging and Photography for Your Home Sale<img src="https://assets.site-static.com/userfiles/4283/image/Blog/Seller_Blogs/Why_you_need_professional_staging_and_photography_for_your_home_sale.png" width="750" height="275" alt="Why You Need Professional Staging and Photography for Your Home Sale" title="Why You Need Professional Staging and Photography for Your Home Sale" />
When it comes to selling your home in the Mid-Missouri areas of Boone, Callaway, and Cole counties, making the absolute best first impression is critical. The way your home is presented, both in person and in photographs, along with a <a href="https://www.heartlandnetwork-midmo.com/sellers/pricing-your-home/" title="Pricing Your Mid-Missouri Home" target="_blank">strategically set price</a>, will drive what happens after it goes live on the market. When you use both professional staging and photography, you are ensuring that buyers see your home in its best light and accentuate its best features. We believe professional home staging and photography are the foundation of an <a href="https://www.heartlandnetwork-midmo.com/sellers/marketing-your-home/" title="Marketing Your Mid-Missouri Home" target="_blank">effective marketing plan.</a> We believe in the power of professional staging and photography so much that we invest in both of them for all of our listings. Let’s dive into why these things matter so much for your home sale in Mid-Missouri.
What is home staging?
To start, it’s important that you have a true understanding of what professional home staging really is. It’s more than just giving your house a good cleaning and getting rid of some clutter (both of which you should definitely do before you list). You should always take the time to thoroughly prepare every part of the home for potential buyers (our handy <a href="https://www.heartlandnetwork-midmo.com/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-preparing-your-home-for-sale/" title="Preparing Your Mid-Missouri Home for Sale" target="_blank">Home Seller To-Do Checklist</a> is a great guide!). Professional staging takes this preparation a step further, going the extra mile to drive the best possible outcome for your home sale. It is all about highlighting your home's best features and making it appeal to a wider range of audiences. Home staging is a proven technique that uses the visual presentation of a space to draw a potential buyer’s focus to the best features of a property.
What do professional home stagers do?
Professional stagers will work with you to decide what you should keep out and what you might want to put in storage to maximize the visual appeal of the space in your home. They can work with what you already have, including your furniture, paint, and decor to help highlight the best features of your home. They may also suggest small, affordable adjustments that can often have a huge impact. Professional stagers use their knowledge of design trends, real estate ethics, and property renovation solutions to help home sellers reach their goals for the sale.
Why do you need professional staging and photography?
Staging and photography can make a bigger difference than you might realize. <a href="https://www.heartlandnetwork-midmo.com/agents/heather-weber/" title="Heather Weber, Listing Manager Heartland Network-Mid MO" target="_blank">Heather Weber</a>, Listing Manager for our team shared a personal experience where minor adjustments using professional staging totally changed the outcome of a sale. She shared, “We listed a home without any staging, and after two months on the market with very little activity, the sellers agreed to our suggestion that they take it off the market for about three weeks and make some interior changes. They met with the stagers, painted one room, decluttered all over the home, and added some more neutral soft furnishings (shower curtain, bed linens, etc). The home went under contract the first weekend after we relaunched it for nearly the full asking price. Just those small changes allowed buyers to see how much they were getting for the price when they couldn’t see it before.” Professional photographs of a staged room will capture your home at its best to elicit a positive emotional response in buyers, leading them to schedule a showing. This is the power of professional staging and photography. Can you see the difference in the photos below?
<img src="https://assets.site-static.com/userfiles/4283/image/Blog/Seller_Blogs/Professional_home_staging_before_and_after_photos.png" width="750" height="300" alt="Professional Home Staging Before and After" title="Professional Home Staging Before and After" />
How does professional staging benefit your home sale?
Staging makes rooms appear larger
Home staging is an art, and it has to do a lot with space. Professional stagers will work with you to reduce clutter and maximize the space you are working with using the arrangement of your furniture. If you remember when you first walked into your home, you probably felt like the rooms were so much bigger before you began filling them with furniture. The more you put into a space, the smaller it seems. A simple way to open up a room before you list your home is to cut down on the number of things that you have in it. Cutting down clutter as well as strategic placement of items to keep a good flow can make even the smallest rooms appear open and airy. This will make them far more appealing to potential buyers. If your house feels small and cramped, buyers will quickly be turned off to the idea of living there.
Staging helps buyers visualize themselves in the home
Everyone has their own individual style and taste, making the way you decorate your home innately personal. What you must understand as a seller is that when you are selling your home it is no longer yourself that your home must appeal to, but the buyers walking through it. When you remove personal decor, reduce clutter, and use neutral tones, you turn your house into a home that buyers can visualize themselves in. It may be surprising, but something as simple as the color of a wall can easily cause potential buyers to move along without a second thought. When you effectively stage your home for sale, you are increasing the likelihood that buyers will make an emotional connection with what they see. They begin to imagine their own family living in these spaces. The more buyers connect with a home on an emotional level, the more likely they will be to put in an offer. You want buyers to walk into your home and think, “I could live here”. Professional staging is one of the best tools we have to make this happen.
Staging defines how a room should be used
Buyers should never have to guess the purpose of a room when they walk through your home. How we live in our home and how we sell it can be very different. While certain rooms in your home may serve multiple purposes (such as a living room doubling as a fitness space), when you go to sell you should give each space a defined and single purpose. Even though you may think the intent of a space is obvious, it can be difficult for some people to visualize how an area should be used. Professional stagers will use your items to define a clear purpose for every space in your home.
Staging highlights the best features of a home
Maybe your home has amazing built-in shelving, but it’s covered in DVDs and games. Or it has a beautiful trey ceiling and crown molding, but there is a huge four-poster bed in the room distracting the buyer’s eye. These are the features that make your home unique, and you want to make sure those who walk through the home don’t miss them. Professional stagers will work with you to make sure nothing in a space takes away from the beautiful and unique features that buyers will go after.
You must also remember that homes are lived in, and even though you may have addressed many items needing attention as you prepared your home for sale, it will never be completely perfect. In some cases, a house may have some downsides, like size or proximity to busy streets, that just can’t be changed. A well-staged home will present itself in such a way that buyers can overlook these downsides, or in some cases not even notice them, because they are so drawn in by the beauty of the home’s positive features.
Professional photography takes your listing to the next level
The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) 2020 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends Report shares that 93% of all buyers went online to search for their home. With the rise of online shopping, it comes as no surprise that buyers are browsing the internet for houses at an overwhelming rate. This is why it is imperative that your listing has a strong online presence that will make buyers stop and look at your home instead of just scrolling past it. While staging will play a huge role in this, what will catch the eye more than anything in an online listing is outstanding photos of it. Professional real estate photographers know what it takes to capture the home’s beauty through the lens of their camera. Combined with post-production editing, and in some cases, video, a professionally photographed home listing is guaranteed to stand out from the crowd.
The power of professional photography
We have seen the power of professional photography so many times. The home in the photo below was an inherited listing that had been sitting on the market for a month with no staging or professional photography. After updating the listing with new photos from a professional photographer, the house went under contract almost immediately at the full asking price. There was absolutely no additional staging or changes at all besides the photography. Isn’t it amazing what a difference something so simple can make?
<img src="https://assets.site-static.com/userfiles/4283/image/Blog/Seller_Blogs/Professional_home_photography_before_and_after_photos.png" width="750" height="300" alt="Professional Home Photography Before and After Photos" title="Professional Home Photography Before and After Photos" />
Are you looking to get the most from your home sale?
If you want to net the most amount of money, within the least amount of time, with the fewest problems, then professional staging and photography are the key. At the Heartland Network-Mid MO we implement a top-of-the-line marketing strategy, including professional staging and photography with every home we sell. We absorb these costs, which sets us apart from many other REALTORS®. When you list your home with our team you will see the difference. We would love to speak with you about your real estate goals and how we can help you get there. <a href="https://www.heartlandnetwork-midmo.com/contact/" title="Contact Heartland Network-Mid MO" target="_blank">Contact us</a> today or fill out the form below and a team member will reach out!2022-08-17T09:42:00-07:002022-09-25T22:01:56-07:00Beth Carrtag:heartlandnetwork-midmo.com,2012-09-20:2161110 Mistakes to Avoid in Your Home’s Listing Photos [Infographic]You have done everything you need to prepare your Mid-Missouri home for sale. You have cleaned every square inch, painted the walls, freshened up the landscaping, met with the stagers, and everything looks picture perfect. Now, it's time for your photography appointment!
You want your listing photos to make a great first impression on buyers. After all, when it comes to selling a home, a first impression is oftentimes all you will get. According to the National Association of REALTORS <a href="https://www.nar.realtor/sites/default/files/documents/2021-home-buyers-and-sellers-generational-trends-03-16-2021.pdf" title="NAR Home Buyer and Seller Trends 2021" target="_blank">report</a>, 97% of home buyers used the internet to search for homes in 2021 and more than nine in 10 buyers under the age of 55 expressed that the most important feature in an online listing was the photos. Outstanding listing photos are more important than ever! Even the most beautiful home, if not photographed properly, will cause buyers to scroll right past the listing. So, to help you prepare, we have shared 10 mistakes that you should avoid in your home's listing photos. You can find them in the infographic below.
<img src="https://assets.site-static.com/userfiles/4283/image/Blog/Infographics/Mistakes_to_Avoid_in_Your_Homes_Listing_Photos.png" width="672" height="2400" alt="10 Mistakes to Avoid in Your Home’s Listing Photos [Infographic]" title="10 Mistakes to Avoid in Your Home’s Listing Photos [Infographic]" />
Professional staging and photography are a crucial part of an effective marketing plan, and the Heartland Network-Mid MO understands this. We implement a top-of-the-line marketing strategy, including professional staging and photography, with every home we sell, and we absorb those costs, which sets us apart from many other REALTORS®. We partner with the best in real estate photography to make sure our listings shine. You will see the difference when you work with our team. We would love the opportunity to share more information about how our team can help your listing stand out in the Mid-Missouri areas of <a href="https://www.heartlandnetwork-midmo.com/boone-county/" title="Homes for sale in Boone County, MO" target="_blank">Boone</a>, <a href="https://www.heartlandnetwork-midmo.com/callaway-county/" title="Homes for Sale in Callaway County, MO" target="_blank">Callaway</a>, and <a href="https://www.heartlandnetwork-midmo.com/cole-county/" title="Homes for Sale in Cole County, MO" target="_blank">Cole</a> counties. Fill out the form below or <a href="https://www.heartlandnetwork-midmo.com/contact/" title="Contact Heartland Network-Mid MO" target="_blank">contact us</a> today to learn more!2022-08-03T14:07:00-07:002023-04-27T12:37:21-07:00Beth Carrtag:heartlandnetwork-midmo.com,2012-09-20:21659Should You Hold an Open House When Selling Your Home?<img src="https://assets.site-static.com/userfiles/4283/image/Blog/Seller_Blogs/Should%20you%20hold%20an%20open%20house%20when%20selling%20your%20home.png" width="750" height="275" alt="Should you hold an open house when selling your home" title="Should you hold an open house when selling your home" />
When you read that 93% of all buyers start their home search online, as noted in the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) 2020 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends Report, it makes one question whether holding an open house when selling your home is worth the effort. Drive around any of the Mid-Missouri towns in <a href="https://www.heartlandnetwork-midmo.com/boone-county/" title="Homes for Sale in Boone County Missouri" target="_blank">Boone</a>, <a href="https://www.heartlandnetwork-midmo.com/callaway-county/" title="Homes for Sale in Callaway County Missouri" target="_blank">Callaway</a>, and <a href="https://www.heartlandnetwork-midmo.com/cole-county/" title="Homes for sale in Cole County Missouri" target="_blank">Cole</a> counties on a Saturday or Sunday and you will see plenty of signs directing you to an open house. Just because they are common does not mean they are right for every home seller. It is up to each seller and their agent to plan an effective marketing strategy to sell their home.
For our team’s listings, the vast majority of our homes include an open house the first weekend on the market. Why do those sellers make that choice? Let’s take a look at both sides of the issue and outline the pros and cons.
What is an open house?
An open house is an opportunity for buyers to tour a property without scheduling an appointment or using a Realtor® to guide them. During a scheduled block of time, the home is open for buyers to view at their own pace. Sellers prepare their home the same way as they would for a scheduled showing, and a host agent from our team greets guests at the door to invite them to see the home. Guests may include potential buyers, real estate agents, other sellers with homes on the market who are competing with you for buyers, curious neighbors, and people who just find fun in touring homes. <br />
Speaking of preparing your home for a showing or open house, here is a handy checklist you can download with tips to make your home show ready.
<a href="https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:e8be43cf-2a30-36cf-868f-e53b5595aa3f" title="Mid-Missouri Home Seller To-Do Checklist" target="_blank"><img src="https://assets.site-static.com/userfiles/4283/image/Blog/Seller_Blogs/Download_Day_of_Showing_Checklist.png" width="2250" height="400" alt="Home Seller To-Do Checklist" title="Home Seller To-Do Checklist" /></a>
Benefits of Holding an Open House
More Opportunities to Market Your Home
Holding an open house gives us additional opportunities to promote your home to the public. This increased exposure may expand your buyer pool by casting a wider net to catch buyer interest. Buyers have to know that your home is on the market in order to consider buying it, and the best way to do that is to develop a marketing strategy that comprehensively targets all online sources, such as the MLS, Zillow, Realtor.com, Instagram, Facebook, and the like, as frequently as possible. Since most buyers start their home search online, maximizing the internet traffic through advertising is a great way to catch buyers’ attention.
Appeal to Buyers Who Aren’t Ready to Commit
Holding an open house allows buyers in the very early stages of buying a home to view the home without hiring a Realtor. These buyers may be seriously considering their purchase, but may be more comfortable looking around a bit on their own before committing to hiring a professional to guide them. Without a Realtor®, these buyers can’t schedule a showing through the MLS, so an open house gives these buyers the opportunity to tour at their own pace with no pressure. It’s kind of like a car buyer who just wants to walk around the lot alone before talking with a salesperson. That buyer has real money to spend and will probably end up purchasing a car, but they are more comfortable shopping privately before discussing their options with someone else. Our open house host is there to answer their questions but will keep the environment very casual. We can share many stories of buyers who attended an open house without a Realtor® who ended up buying a home after making a connection with the agent hosting the open house.
Add a Sense of Urgency for Interested Buyers
We have found that holding an open house the first weekend a home is on the market makes interested buyers more responsive to writing an offer more quickly out of FOMO, or Fear of Missing Out. It is common for buyers to see a home once with their Realtor® and then come back for a second look at the open house. If that event is well-attended, they might consider sweetening the deal to make their offer more competitive. Without an open house, it is nearly impossible for a buyer to know if others are also interested in making an offer. An open house can make buyers move more quickly with a better offer.
In a Busy Market, Open Houses Increase Efficiency
If your home is a popular one, it can be difficult for buyers to schedule time to see it. Holding an open house for 2 hours gives a higher volume of buyers the opportunity to view it than during a 2-hour window of private showings. This is usually more convenient for sellers as well, as it reduces the number of times sellers have to leave their home to allow for a private showing. For sellers who are having to pack up and move children and/or pets, less disruption is very much appreciated.
Challenges of Holding an Open House
Not Likely to Sell at the Event
The NAR has reported that fewer than 3% of homes sell based on the open house alone. The vast majority of buyers purchase because they work with a Realtor® who arranges for them to tour the property privately. However, as mentioned above, the open house is often a second chance viewing that seals the deal for buyers to write an offer. It is pretty rare for someone to attend an open house for the first viewing of a home and then make an offer to purchase on the spot, but we have seen many instances where a buyer first saw a home during an open house and then returned later with their Realtor® for a private tour that resulted in an offer.
Open Houses Are “Open”
For private showings, Realtors® are vetting buyers to make sure they are prequalified to purchase a home and their finances are in order. Those buyers understand their budget and know they can afford a home before seeing it in person. For an open house, anyone can view the home regardless of their financial readiness, so it is common for guests to attend who would never result in an actual buyer of the home.
Weekend Window Shoppers
Like unqualified buyers, open houses can attract curious neighbors and folks who just enjoy looking at houses in their spare time. These buyers most likely have no plan to buy a home in the near future, but may be interested in home decor and design styles, or something similar. Not everyone who attends an open house is there to consider buying it.
The Potential for Crime
While rare, it is possible that someone could attend an open house looking for an opportunity to do something inappropriate. Because these events can get busy and the host may not be able to closely follow everyone who attends, someone with criminal intent could see it as a chance to walk around the home unsupervised to steal or make plans for a later break-in, especially if the home is vacant. We advise all of our sellers to remove or secure any valuable items that could easily be pocketed or that would be attractive to a criminal, like prescription drugs, guns, or jewelry. Our open house hosts and sellers are encouraged to double-check window and door locks after the event to make sure everything is secure.
Lackluster Attendance
While we promote every event to generate interest, not every home is well suited for open house traffic. If you live in a more rural area, if parking is difficult, if you live in a condo community with tight building security, or if it might create difficulties with your neighbors to host an event, it might not be worth your time and energy.
A Comprehensive Marketing Plan is Key
As mentioned above, the majority of our home sellers make the choice to include an open house when selling their home because they feel the benefits outweigh the cost. An open house is just part of a well-designed <a href="https://www.heartlandnetwork-midmo.com/sellers/marketing-your-home/" title="Marketing your home in Mid-Missouri" target="_blank">marketing strategy</a>, so a skilled Realtor® will be able to sell your home whether you chose to hold an open house or not. If your agent includes every piece of the marketing puzzle in your home sale plan, as noted below, they will ensure the best outcome.
Include professional home staging to make your home attractive to a wide variety of buyers.
Hire a professional photographer to ensure your home’s online image is superb. Take a look in more detail at the importance of real estate staging and photography <a href="https://www.heartlandnetwork-midmo.com/blog/should-i-stage-my-home/" title="Why you need professional staging and photography for your home sale" target="_blank">here</a>.
Create a wide-reaching social media presence with frequent posts to catch the eye of potential buyers.
Produce engaging marketing materials, such as videos, virtual tours, and home websites to attract online shoppers.
Utilize every online resource to promote the home, including mobile marketing, to make your listing shine when compared to the competition.
»»»» Ready to talk to us about selling your home? Register <a href="https://www.heartlandnetwork-midmo.com/sellers/free-market-analysis/" title="What is your Mid-Missouri home worth?" target="_blank" data-uw-rm-brl="false" aria-label="Register HERE for a no-obligation seller consultation" data-uw-rm-ext-link="" uw-rm-external-link-id="https://www.thechadwilsongroup.com/sellers/free-market-analysis/$here" uw-rm-vague-link-id="https://www.thechadwilsongroup.com/sellers/free-market-analysis/$here" data-uw-rm-vglnk="">HERE</a> for a no-obligation seller consultation.
Are you thinking of selling your home in Columbia, Missouri or surrounding counties? The Heartland Network-Mid MO can help you through the entire selling process from start to finish. Our team of experts is ready to serve you with strategic pricing and a dynamic and diverse marketing campaign. We can help you weigh the pros and cons of holding an open house to decide the best course of action for your unique situation. You can rest easy knowing that our team has done everything we could to secure the best outcome for your home sale. If you are ready to speak with us, fill out the contact form below and a team member will be in touch.2022-07-20T11:25:00-07:002022-09-25T21:59:22-07:00Heather Weber