Summary
A group of home stagers discuss the negative effect that poor photos have on real estate listings and sales potential.
Home Stagers Discuss Issues with Real Estate Listings
(UNITED STATES) February 20, 2012 – On her blog, the Home Staging Business Report, home staging expert Debra Gould invited home stagers to share their pet peeves related to real estate listings.
Gould, who is the founder of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, kicked off the discussion by describing what irks her most: “My pet peeve is the real estate agent who walks into a home I’ve just carefully arranged for photography and throws his coat over a chair, leaves his shoes in the middle of the hallway, dumps papers all over the dining room table and THEN takes the listing shots!”
A number of home stagers joined the discussion, and the common theme behind most of their complaints was poor listing photos, as was the case in Gould’s example.
“My peeve is when I get called in to stage after the property has been on the market for a while and then the real estate agent does not retake pictures,” says home stager Kathryn Wilson of HomeReady Home Staging and Interior Redesign in Ontario. “How will prospective buyers or other agents know then what has been done to improve the look of the property?”
Home stager Jodi Whalen of Pear Tree Home Designs in New Jersey has had a similar experience: “My pet peeve is when I’ve staged AND taken photos and they don’t use my photos. Just finished a house where I got great sunny exterior shots and the Realtor® posted pictures from a RAINY day! Because of this frustration I’ve added a new service of Photo Styling.”
Stacy Goade of Alaska Premier Home Staging also shared her concerns about listing photos. “After recently removing wall paper, painting, decluttering, repairing, and adding accessories and furnishings, the real estate agent took shots of rooms where none of the staging work was obvious or emphasized. I took great digital photos after we finished staging the home and sent those photos to my client so she could forward them to the agent.”
According to Gould, real estate agents who don’t retake photos after staging are wasting money the client invested: “A key reason to stage is so that top notch photos are on MLS so that there will be more showings. More showings means more potential buyers, which means a faster sale and potentially for more money. Home sellers should INSIST that their agent take new photos and tell them that they will find another agent who will if they don’t comply.”
For more advice regarding home staging and real estate, visit the Home Staging Business Report on the Staging Diva website.
About Staging Diva
The creator of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, Debra Gould has staged millions of dollars’ worth of real estate, including 7 of her own homes. She is the president of Voice of Possibility Group Inc., which operates a home staging division, SixElements.com, in addition to StagingDiva.com, which has trained over 7,000 home stagers to start and grow their own businesses.
Debra has gained international recognition through features in major media in the US and Canada including: This Old House, HGTV, CNN Money, CBC National News, CBS Radio, Global TV, City TV, The Wall Street Journal, Women’s Day, Reader’s Digest and more.
Contact
Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
Voice of Possibility Group Inc.
416-691-6615
debragould@stagingdiva.com
http://www.stagingdiva.com
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Kathy Strader says
February 20, 2012 at 7:38 pmGreat blog Debra. Is there a Home Stager anywhere that hasn’t run into this? It is up to us to continue to educate sellers and agents about the benefits of Home Staging. After all, if the house is Staged before it is listed, in most cases there will be no need to retake the photos.
Debra Gould says
February 23, 2012 at 11:12 pmThanks Kathy, it’s really surprising isn’t it?!
Stacy Goade, Alaska Premier Home Staging says
March 3, 2012 at 6:26 pmHi Debra!
Appreciate that you included my comments in your Media Room site. Thank you! Here’s “rest of the story” about that condo I staged and the poor photos used by the seller’s real estate agent. Though the condo had an “offer” within 22 days after I finished home staging, there was little traffic into the condo for the remainder of the 2011 summer and fall. I believe the poor photos taken by the real estate agent AND the poor description of the condos “features” were the cause. I worked with my client on rewrites of the condo’s features but her agent blew them off. By November, there were no other offers on the condo. The seller eventually “fired” the agent, but what a costly mistake! Had the seller, as you instruct above, INSISTED on new photos after the home staging she paid me to do and listened to other staging recommendations I made, but that were negated by her real estate agent, she would have sold her home in 2011 and be in her new condo in 2012. My example validates your advice to sellers; INSIST on new photos after home staging completes! If an agent disregards this powerful form of marketing – fire them on the spot! If this happens enough maybe real estate agents will “get it.” This is a new real estate world we live in and seller’s have to insist the agent is on their side, relentlessly!
Debra Gould says
March 12, 2012 at 5:29 pmStacy, thanks for sharing the rest of the story with my readers. This is a classic example of an agent not operating in her/his client’s best interest.