“A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing”

In his 1709  Essay on Criticism, poet Alexander Pope cautioned against the shallow or casual sampling of information, advising instead to either avoid it, or drink deeply. The Refreshed Home concurs!

Statistics can be helpful, as long as the the data in and context is relevant! NAR’s 2015 profile on Home Staging, and their very cool infographic point to Home Staging being an effective tool to selling well, but a still-evolving industry. Credibility means a lot, but there are three main reasons I’ve never used or even embraced the industry stats:

• Industry numbers show national trends. Interesting, but you want numbers for where you sell.  Check out HGAR, Westchester County’s MLS for the best info.
• You’re not hiring an industry, or a product. You’re hiring a person; who that person is, and what they can do for you is what matters.
• The words “Staged”, even “sold” don’t have a singular industry-wide definition.  Depending on the local MLS, “sold” can mean anything from the ink is dry on the loan papers, there’s a written OR verbal accepted offer, OR fully executed contracts.

Home Staging, done well, delivers both service and results. Here’s what I suggest sellers use to evaluate:

• DOM-Days on Market is a more meaningful metric. Within our local MLS  DOM means first day a listing is live, to when executed contracts are in hand. It’s a tracked figure that can support the claim to how “quickly” things happen
• Percentage of Original List  No two houses are really the same; and here in Westchester 1954 is the median build date of all single family houses.  Comping can be difficult, forget about tracking differences between Staged and non-Staged properties. How much a seller gets from his original list price is about as simple and straightforward benchmark of as you can get.
• What Others Say  Value is always in the eye of the beholder, and past clients’ words mean more than anything I could tell you. Working in Westchester County homes since 1981, chances are good I’ve worked with someone you, your agent or your friends know. Ask around, chances are good I’ve worked with someone you know!

In 2015: 32 of my Staged properties closed for a combined volume of $23.250M. Average DOM was almost half of other Westchester properties at same price points: 49 vs 90, and my sellers averaged 98.6% of original list.

In 2016: TRH topped $400M of total properties sold. This year 54 properties closed for combined value of just under $49M. At years end 13 more were in contract for $10.8 M combined list.

 Talk to me today about getting your property noticed and SOLD!