Selling Your Home? Stage Your Yard!

Real estate agents now urge homeowners to invest in "staging" for their homes before putting them on the market. But sometimes they forget that staging outside can be even more important than staging inside.

What is staging? It's setting the stage. It's clearing the clutter, cleaning thoroughly, and re-arranging things to give the best effect. It's de-personalizing a house so that prospective buyers can imagine how their own belongings would look and fit in that house. It's getting rid of distractions that keep buyers from really seeing what the house has to offer. It's creating a "homey" effect in such a way that potential buyers can see it as their home, rather than yours. When possible, it's creating that "Wow" effect.

But no matter how well a home is staged indoors, without attention to the exterior, it still might not help to sell the house.

The exterior is that magic "first impression," and it matters for two very important reasons.

The first is that the exterior is much like a headline for an ad or a web page. It's what makes people slow down, take a second look, and decide that they want to see or know more. It grabs attention and says "Hey! There's something good here!"

The second is that it creates an expectation.

A yard that is over-run with weeds, peeling paint on the window sills, and a grimy front door all say "This house hasn't been very well maintained."

A yard that is landscaped, paint that looks fresh, and a clean front door all say "These people take care of their things."

Prospective buyers will expect to see more of the same when they get inside, and they will see it, if for no other reason than to justify their own opinion.

Even if the interior has been cleaned and staged, if the exterior has created an impression that the house has not had good care, buyers will look for and see things that justify their first impression.

By the same token, once the buyers expect to see good maintenance, they're apt not to be put off by a little clutter that shows the house is occupied.

So if you're about to put your house on the market, take a good look at it from the curb. What will a stranger see when they pull up outside?

Is the fence sagging? Are the shrubs overgrown? Should you trim a tree branch to let in more light? Do you need to touch up the paint on your door and window trim? Is your front door covered in muddy paw prints? How about that screen door... is the screen intact?

If you have flower beds, are they weeded and mulched? If you don't have flower beds, where can you add some potted flowers to lend color to your exterior?

Give your house the "Wow effect" from the curb first - then go inside and continue with more of the same.

Marte Cliff is a Freelance Copywriter who specializes in writing for real estate and related industries.

She'll help you with one letter, or an entire marketing plan. For Real Estate agents and brokers who are ready to get full value from their websites, she'll be happy to put together an entire package - from the web copy to the lead generation packages that make an agent's phone ring.

For busy agents on a budget, Marte offers pre-written letter sets for use in postal mail or in e-mail continuity campaigns. The current selection includes letters for FSBO's, Expired Listings, Short Sale sellers, First Time Buyers, and a set for new agents to send to buyers. Read what's included in these sets by visiting http://www.copybymarte.com/pro/prospecting.html

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