Ready Set Sold with Bryan Vogt #06-03: Kelly Etheridge of RE/MAX Preferred #1: Examples of staging success

Bryan Vogt: Welcome back, everyone. Thanks so much for joining us. I’m here with one of my team members, Kelly Etheridge.
Kelly Etheridge: Hello, everyone.
Bryan Vogt: Yeah, hi, Kelly. I am Bryan Vogt, your host. I left you with some of the things about, as far as staging, why it’s so important, how it can actually cost you money, with sellers not even knowing about it, or worse, not getting an offer at all, and having the buyers walk away.
One of the things I really want to focus on this segment here is lighting. Oh my goodness, lighting is so-
Kelly Etheridge: It’s huge. It’s huge.
Bryan Vogt: Yeah, it’s important. Then Kelly, you’ve had some situations more than a few times-
Kelly Etheridge: Absolutely.
Bryan Vogt: And maybe you can relay some of those stories.
Kelly Etheridge: Had some clients that wanted to look at this home, pictures online. It was their dream home. We got in. Every light was off. The shades were drawn. It looked like a cave. Being a good agent, I went through, opened everything up as quickly as I could, turned lights on. They just weren’t quite sure, so we went back a second time. This time, every light was on. The blinds were drawn. It just looked huge, and they kept making the comment, “It’s so much more open. It’s so lovely, the lighting.” It had vaulted ceilings, you know, and it just felt so much bigger to them. They kept saying, “It’s huge. It’s a big house.”
Bryan Vogt: That’s the amazing part. I don’t think sellers sometimes understand that, and that’s okay, but that’s what we’re talking about. Those type of elements can be so huge, natural lighting, natural lighting. People just, we’re just humans. We just like natural lighting, so pull those blinds up, or at least open them wide open. Either way, make sure you don’t have the curtains drawn. Make sure you don’t have these things. Again, cave is a good analogy. Again, they’re walking into what they feel is their dream home, and they walk into darkness. It’s not the first impression that you want to make. It just isn’t. That goes back on, too, if you have under the kitchen cabinet lighting.
Kelly Etheridge: They love that. They absolutely love that.
Bryan Vogt: It’s fantastic. I always tell sellers, and again, hopefully your agent’s going to do the same thing, add that in. That’s a very, very economical item to add in any priced home, and it’s huge. People love that. The same thing with the dining room hutch, if you have that. The bookshelves, make sure those lights are on.
Kelly Etheridge: Battery operated candles.
Bryan Vogt: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, battery operated, that’s the key word there. That’s the key word there.
Kelly Etheridge: Yes, yes, please don’t leave open flames.
Bryan Vogt: No, no, that freaks everybody out. That’s not good.
But again, focusing on the lighting, that is so huge. Here’s some tips to think about on the lighting. Sellers that have the most success is they just start their day with the idea they’re going to have a showing. Turn on all your lights. Take about 15 minutes. There is work involved. I’m not going to deny that, but it can be very quickly.
The dirty clothes, you can throw those into the washer or dryer. You don’t have to turn it on. People never, hardly ever, will look in the washer and dryer. If they do, they would expect to see clothes, anyway, so it really doesn’t matter. Again, keep in mind that making the beds, the better you make that bed, it does make a difference.
Kelly Etheridge: It does.
Bryan Vogt: I mean, throwing a quilt over it might sound like a good idea, but if you take that extra couple of minutes and really make that bed look sharp, people notice that. People love that. Buyers love that. That’s so critical. Again, you can have clothes baskets, and we know people that will go around and do that. I mentioned about having just that bucket for the bathrooms. Just throw the things up the first thing in the morning. Whoever is the last person to leave, go ahead and throw that in there. If you have children, and sometimes that can be a challenge, and we understand that, but if you have children, bribe them.
Kelly Etheridge: Absolutely.
Bryan Vogt: You just bribe them. If McDonald’s is their favorite place, then tell them at the end of the week, you do this, this, and this, keep your house in good shape, we’ll go to McDonald’s. If that isn’t an option, maybe fast food’s not where you want to go in a direction with, find a privilege that they like. They get to stay up.
Kelly Etheridge: Give them a sticker every day.
Bryan Vogt: Give them a sticker every day, depending on their age, yeah. It doesn’t have to be that big. Cook their favorite meal, or whatever that situation, or tell them they’ll get their favorite meal.
Because one of the things you have to understand, the reason why we’re doing these things, we always talk about top dollar, but we talk about fast. Get these things done now, up front, and now we’re looking at weeks. We’re talking about two to three weeks of getting your house sold, not two to three months. That’s the big difference here is so it has value.
There’s work involved, but then the speed at which you can do it, and also the bottom line, the dollar amount that you can get. That becomes so huge. We always talk about before. It doesn’t mean a house will never sell, but it puts it into the many or the few. You want the most amount of people coming on there at one time, or do you want the fewest amount? You can sell it either way, but most people like the many.
With that said, the next step that we’re going to talk about is space. It’s so important, spacing. With that, go get the book, readysetsold.org, not dot com. Just go right now during the break, readysetsold.org, not dot com. Get the book. You’ll soon be ready, set, sold.
I’m your host, Bryan Vogt. See you in a few.

See you in a few.