By Laura Hipshire
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

With so many houses for sale these days, it is indeed a buyer’s market, so any method that will help a house sell faster is a plus.

One surefire method to try is staging.

“You have to think of your home as a product,” says Barb Schwarz, CEO and founder of StagedHomes.com, in a recent Fortune magazine article. Schwarz has personally staged more than 5,000 homes over the past 33 years.

Experts: staged homes sell in record time
According to Schwarz, staged homes sell in an average of seven days, compared to 45 days for unstaged homes.

De-cluttering the inside is essential. Clark and Barbara Reid agree. The Reid’s sold their Birmingham condo in 30 days, due largely in part to staging.

“Show nothing on the floor but the furniture,” Clark Reid says. “Remove a large portion of wall decorations, particularly family photographs, but also ‘extreme’ art works. Remove or temporarily hide overabundance of souvenirs, collector’s items, knickknacks. Taking up runners or throw rugs gives the room an appearance of more spaciousness.” He says these were all ideas he used to stage his home.

New moving program aids sellers
A new national realty program, Erickson Realty and Moving Services, is now locally available at Henry Ford Village. The program is designed specifically for those wanting to sell their homes and move into any one of Erickson’s 20 communities.

“This program will be proactive in simplifying every aspect of the move-in process, including hands-on consultative home visits; a network of resources including professional real estate advice and marketing, staging, downsizing, packing, moving, and any other services that make moving to an Erickson community easier than staying home,” says Move-In Program Manager Sharon Baksa.

Baksa, based in Novi, Mich., will be managing the program for all Erickson communities through the corporate sales education and talent development department.