By Melissa Borgerding
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

“There were three other condos for sale in my complex. I was the one who sold,” says Dorothy Fisher, who recently moved to Fox Run from Rochester.

Despite bleak reports about the state of the Detroit-area market, Fisher sold her condo in just two weeks. It wasn’t luck, she says—it was having the right people behind her.

“I recognized that this is a difficult market, and that’s why I decided to listen to the professionals,” she says. Once she decided to make the move, Fisher immediately sought the support of the Erickson Realty and Moving Services (ERMS) program at Fox Run.

No one size fits all
A free program available to all Priority List members, ERMS connects homeowners with the resources they need to get moving, including assistance with packing, downsizing, and even selling. Because each home is different, the ERMS program is tailored to the needs of each individual homeowner.

“ERMS is able to offer the services needed to sell any home,” says Mary Wolfe, Fox Run’s personal moving consultant and a licensed Realtor.

“We perform a personal consultation and property analysis to determine a specific plan of action for each property. Creating a plan prior to listing can really make a property stand out from the competition.”

For Fisher, selling her condo in the current real estate market was the top concern. With three nearly identical condos all up for sale in her neighborhood, Fisher needed to make her home stand out from the crowd.

“I was worried,” admits Fisher, “but the people from Erickson Realty and  Moving Services seemed so confident. They went through my house and helped with staging my home.”

‘Staging’ for a sale
Like many homeowners, Fisher was unfamiliar with the process of “staging,” or sprucing up the interior of a home to reflect what a potential buyer wants to see.

For Fisher, that meant taking down her upstairs wallpaper, painting, and rearranging furniture to maximize the appearance of space.