SORRY... If It's Ugly on the Outside Buyers Ain't Going Inside

CURB APPEAL... well I am sure every home seller has heard about how important it is. But the truth is there just is not as much information out there that helps a seller understand what to do to stage the outside of a home as there is to stage the inside. Which is unfortunate because in some ways staging the outside of a home is even MORE important then the inside. WHY? Well let's face it, if the outside of a home looks bad a seller is probably NOT going to get a potential buyer to look at the inside... they will literally drive on.

So it was good to see that the Chicago Tribune published an article that took new look the “staging story” in its Special Curb Appeal Addition. In today’s Tribune, Carol Monaghan does a great job reporting not only WHY staging outside a home is important, as well as sharing some great home staging tips on just what a seller can do to make the outside of their homes be as appealing as possible.

Carol quotes a certain Chicagoland home stager who gives this simple advice... "Sellers should consider a home's ‘Web appeal’ too, says Craig Schiller, a home stager and principal of Real Estaging in Park Ridge. Because many buyers begin by prescreening houses on the Internet to determine which houses to visit, finding ways to make one stand out can give it an advantage over its competition."

This certain stager goes on to say… "People always say buying a house is the biggest purchase of your life. The reverse is also true: Selling a home is the biggest sale of your life. You want to do all you can to make buyers excited about your house." (Boy I love that quote! I wonder where I’ve heard that before?)

But seriously, while Carol's article offered some great curb appeal staging tips I think the most interesting tidbit she dug up and reported was a fact that every home seller should know… "A recent Real Estate Agent Community Trends survey, sponsored by Jeld-Wen Inc., found 82 percent of real estate agents had buyers refuse to look inside a house based on its exterior appearance."

WOW! 82% of the buyers won't walk into an "ugly on the outside" house! I gotta admit... even this certain stager didn't know that!

Me