15 real estate myths and realities

 Derrick Penner, Vancouver Sun

 Published: Saturday, April 26, 2008

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Lower Mainlanders are said to be savvy about property. Read on to see how your knowledge stacks up.

#13. A home that has been staged using professional design principles to make it more appealing to buyers sells - and FOR MORE.

Reality

No one keeps hard stats on sales prices of staged versus unstaged homes, but expert opinions are that despite what you might believe about house hunters being able to see the jewel of your home amidst what might be the rough of your daily life isn't true.

Homeowners furnish and decorate their homes for their own personal tastes, and often those personal tastes might not be shared with a large enough segment of the market that is going to be scrutinizing it to consider buying it.

You might think that old couch you picked up at a vintage store as funky, a potential buyer might not. To you, the clutter of daily life that you've accumulated over years gives your home a "lived-in" look, but the potential buyer sees something that's perhaps not well loved or maintained.

Clean and well maintained is the look that sellers are after. A neatly trimmed yard and bit of fresh paint gets across the message that you look after your property and that it is worth a look.

And staging can help too. A professional design helps the potential purchaser see how well a home's rooms work, or could work if they owned it and were putting their own stamp on things. That is a vision that is more difficult to conjure up with your kids' toys piled up along the wall in the living room, or your impressive collection of National Geographics stacked in the hall.

Sources: David Wan, instructor, BCIT real estate marketing program, director of sales and marketing, Aragon Properties; Rudy Nielsen, president, Landcor Data Corp.