Perking up the old shed.

Selling your home can be a tedious process with a list of action items that seems never ending. Somewhere at the bottom of the "to-do" list, between cleaning the garage and listing items on Craig's List, you might just find your lonely little garden shed waiting for a perk me up.

Here are some inspirational photos for adding quick charm to your shed. Give yourself a Saturday, a can of paint, and a few creative tactics and voila! You can perk up your whole back yard.

Outdoor plantings can make a big impact!

Organize the interior.

Paint the door a bright color

Bring in a little home

 A little drama. 

Boxwoods go a LONG way! 

When in doubt, plant a boxwood in a great container.

Staged home sales still gowing strong 2009!

A great thing about selling in a slow, tumultuous, snowy, cold, real estate market in New England is that home sellers can assume the buyers looking at homes are serious about purchasing. As a service provider in the real estate market, we went into January with high hopes and anxiety about the 2009 market. Our clients whom staged their homes in January continued to show strong results, each going under agreement right away, consistently beating the average DOM in their market. View success stories

What is the staging difference and does it really matter in a slow market?
VIEW this MLS listing BEFORE staging on the market 122 days, getting showings yet no offers (prime staging candidate!!)
VIEW this same MLS listing AFTER staging This house is UNDER AGREEMENT from the first showing after staging!!

Yes this is real estate market January 2009!

If you have a listing or a home for sale that is getting showings yet no offers, you have the perfect home staging candidate. Every showing you receive is an opportunity for a sale. Trust us, the tire kickers are home shoveling the driveway, they are not out looking at homes right now. Buyers in 2009 mean business!

Regardless of market conditions, when you decide to sell, your home becomes a product. Staging is the best way to display your product to help buyers identify with the lifestyle your house represents. Statistics show that a well displayed home sells faster and for greater profit. Today's savvy buyer is looking for quality, style, and a smart investment. A home that is offered for sale in "AS IS" condition or "un-staged" before selling, will likely get an "AS IS" price in the marketplace. If you are selling a home without staging then you can consider yourself in the "as-is" marketplace where unfortunately, many of the homes in New Hampshire for sale are foreclosures or bank owned homes in NH.

Especially for Builders, you are off to a rough start if you have a peice of raw land and are asking your real estate agent what you should build. Few small to mid-sized builders understand the role of marketing in new home sales. Construction competence, while necessary for a strong product, is not enough to ensure sales. If you produce quality however find your sales disappointing, chances are you are lacking an effective marketing force. We're not talking about simply hiring the right real estate professional- rather employing a team that together will define your position in the marketplace through brand building and creative marketing solutions.

If you would like more information on home staging or marketing solutions for new homes, CALL New England Home Staging at 1-888-778-NEHS

Getting stuck in the "nice house" syndrome.

How to avoid the "nice house syndrome"

These photos are from a NH home and are a great example of how we live in our home differs from how we must market and sell our home. This is a formal dining room which needed to be defined as such.

The "Nice Home Syndrome" is what we at New England Home Staging call it when your home gets showing activity, the Buyer feedback states " Nice House, we're going to keep it on our list and think about it", yet they leave and you never hear from them again. And the most frustrating thing is, the feedback from the showing is ALWAYS GOOD!

How do you know what to fix when your feedback is always good?

We find this is the most common syndrome in our long list of clients needed some fine tuning.

These Sellers have decluttered and depersonalized, they have repaired and conditioned yet still they find themselves without an offer on their home.
How can you improve your home based on the feedback if the Buyer never has any negative remarks or constructive criticism??

Here are a few of the tactics we use to bring quick, inexpensive, solutions to this common dilemma;

• 
  Spatially define each room by the room's original purpose. (Using a pool table in the dining room is great if you are not selling, but when selling- we need to see a dining room setting.)
  
• Know the demography of your Buyer. What will likely be their age, their style, their likes and dislikes? Playing up to their "likes" will surely help them identify with the home. This creates an emotional connection. We have a secret strategy for mastering this. :)
  
• Keep small projects to a MINIMUM. What may be tiny things here and there, add up to " Let's keep it on the list and maybe come back to it after we've seen a few other homes"
  
• Pay CLOSE attention to the last area the Buyer will likely see in the home. This is typically the basement. Often times we make the upstairs fabulous but leave the basement as a dumping ground. A good impression is important however, create a lasting impression by making the basement, or the last area the Buyer sees, complimentary to the best parts of the house.

Give us a call to find out how you can move from the "nice house syndrome" to SOLD.

1-888-778-NEHS