The Staging Fairy struck again (please see Monday's post)! If you read the post, I told you of the best client a Home Stager could ask for. Well, I wanted him cloned, as did others who commented on the post. and, my wishes have come true!! Thank you Norman Vincent Peale and the Power of Positive Thinking.
And yet, for a moment today, it occured to me I might have just talked my way out of a Vacant Home Staging Project.
I know, many of you with Sales training are saying "She probably didn't know when to stop talking." But in this case, my problem was that I listened. You see, the Client/Realtor had purchased the home from a bank and had already made some major repairs and additions. It is close to the beach, on a canal, has a southern exposure, and has been priced right. Yet, despite several showings, Buyers were passing on the house. She is ready to get it sold and contacted me to provide some Staging.
She showed me the house and told me of some of her ideas of what needed to be done. The problem was that even though the kitchen and other areas of the house had been upgraded, the Master Bathroom had not. It was small, dated and not appropriate for its price point (850K+). My client had to weigh just how much more money she was willing to spend.
"If you have to make a budgetary choice, then I'd upgrade the Master Bathroom before you considered Staging the house".
Yes, my words exactly! You see, I truly felt that it was in her best interest to upgrade the master bath if she wanted to sell this house, even if that meant that Staging would either take a second seat or none at all. Had I talked myself out of a job? Should I have kept my mouth shut?
By now, you know the outcome! As soon as the contractor begins work on the master bath and the dust has settled, we'll Stage the house. She said that she liked that I didn't come in and start telling her what I would do and how much it would cost her. I listened and gave her an honest opinion. Now this was not meant to be a 'Toot my own Horn" post. It could have turned out the other way. I wanted to share with you something I have found serves me well in my marketing efforts:
You can't sell something to someone until you know what it is they need.
