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Staging to Sell
By Senitra Horbrook
Realtor Melanie McLane remembers working with an 85-year-old
widow selling her home that kept saying to her “when my husband
and I bought this house, nobody helped us.” McLane’s client
ultimately sold her house, but in a deal that netted her less
money because she wouldn’t take the previous
offer that had included a seller assist.
“One of the things some seniors have a hard time getting their
mind wrapped around is a seller assist, which is when a seller
pays closing costs or does something else to help the buyer,”
said McLane, of The
Melanie Group in Jersey Shore, Pa.
McLane’s client is one example of a senior who is not abreast of
all of the changes in the real estate market over the past 20 to
40 years since she and her husband
last purchased a home. “Most of them (seniors) probably bought
in a time when realtors generally only represented the seller.
No one represented the buyer,” McLane said. “We have buyer
representation now and
that’s huge.”
McLane has the SRES designation, which means she is a senior
real estate specialist. She is also an instructor who teaches
other real estate agents how to deal with the senior market.
“The SRES designation means that the realtor has t
Once you’ve figured out what’s going on the back of the
moving truck, there’s room to make your house the model home
that it always could have been! Here’s your opportunity to get
creative with your “new space” with advice from the experts.
By Senitra Horbrook
Selling a home, buying another, packing, moving, and unpacking
are enough to wear out the most energetic of individuals at any
age. Add downsizing – moving from a larger home to a
smaller one – to the equation and that
can amount to even more stress.
“There is stress with any kind of move or downsize,” said Donna
Willmann, downsizing specialist and owner of Byron Home Inc. in
Haddonfield, NJ. “Pace yourself and do it with some kind of
support system.”
consolidating the keepers
You’ve decided your existing home is too big and you want to
move to a smaller home or maybe even a condo. You may have
acquired a lifetime’s worth of belongings, many of which may be
stored in the basement, attic, garage,
spare bedroom, etc. Well, your new, smaller home probably does
not have that much storage space.
Sifting through all your belongings is both a time-consuming and
emotional experience, and that’s why people often turn to
Willmann, who can help you decide what to keep, what to throw
away, and what to find another home for.
“I tell my clients when downsizing that they need to have a
destination in mind,” said Willmann, a founding member of the
National Association of Senior Move Managers (NASMM). “Moving is
daunting. Having a destination in mind focuses your energies
rather than being overwhelmed. It really informs your planning
and
decision-making.”
Willmann recommends that once you’ve decided what you want to
keep, ask family members if they want anything and give them a
deadline to pick it up. After that, Willmann often refers her
clients to buy-out and clean-out services which will do all the
work for you
when it comes to selling or donating items.
Willmann’s other big tip is to break up the move into manageable
pieces. Once you have a destination in mind, set a date and
decide what to go through week by week. Sorting items like
pictures should be done last.
“Otherwise you get stuck,” she said. “It could take you
days for very little yield.”
In most moves, people move out of one house and into another the
same day; however, Willmann said
seniors should go against the norm. “I recommend we (they)
get moved into the new community prior to
settling on the old house,” she said.
Keep in mind the feelings of your adult children, who may be
willing to help, but also will be dealing with their own
emotions about the move. “Moving out of the home you grew up in
is hard to see,” Willmann said. “The
children have to separate their emotional needs.”
dramatizing the space
You’ve gone through all your belongings and decided what to
keep, what to donate, what to sell, and what to trash. Your
existing home may still not be in tip-top shape and may need a
little sprucing up to sell quickly in today’s real estate
market. That’s where real estate
stagers like Sanka Coyle come in.
“I’m an organizer and designer; I do Feng Shui, cleanliness, and
maintenance. If you don’t have emotional appeal, you have
nothing,” Coyle said. “Emotional appeal – it used to be putting
cinnamon buns in the oven and lighting a candle. Now it has to
do with
comfort – fabric, color, and simplicity of the room.”
Coyle owns Sanka reSolutions, based in Bala Cynwyd, PA and says
she works with seniors about once a month. “You really need
appeal because you need an offer. You have to be unique among
everyone else,” she said. “Keep in mind it’s not your space
anymore; it’s about showing the details of the home to
someone else and enticing them to stay.”
Getting rid of clutter and removing anything from the floor is a
major part of staging. Emotional appeal can be added by buying
inexpensive, new items like fresh shower curtains, bedspreads,
fluffy shower rugs or
window treatments.
“I have calls where people don’t have a dining set, so I’ve put
a round rug in the dining room and a $25 set from Ikea,” Coyle
said. “You have to have the space set up to give the buyer an
idea of what they’re going to do in that room, but also give
them enough space to
envision their things in that room.”
For more information on downsizing or staging, visit
www.byronhome.com or
www.sankaresolutions.com .
aken a two-day course dealing with the senior market. It
covers issues that are very important to seniors,” she said.
“Topics are reverse mortgages, downsizing, etc., so they’ve got
specialized training.”
Thirty years ago, the process to buy or sell a home was very
simple; the real estate contract consisted of one page. McLane
said that the contract in Pennsylvania is now twenty-one pages
long. Also, many states have adopted the use of the Seller’s
Disclosure, which has come along in recent years and protects
the buyer. In addition to all of these changes, financing
has also evolved greatly.
So what should a senior do if they’re looking to buy? “The key
is to get an agent knowledgeable in your area. I like to assure
my senior clients that I will do everything for them that I can
do,” McLane said. “For a lot of them, it’s a real emotional
thing. You’re selling a house you’ve been in for forty years,
and you raised your family there. You’re giving
up a big chunk of memories.”
Al Cloak, a senior specialist at Century 21 Hughes-Riggs in
Mullica Hill, NJ, takes a similar approach.
“It’s a partnership in buying and selling. It’s especially
stressful when you’re buying and selling at the same time.
I do as much as they give me the authority to do,” Cloak said.
“You can’t force them either. It is an expense
to sell.”
However, in spite of the expense, many seniors still
come out on top as a result of downsizing. “If you’re moving
from a high-end area to a mid-area, there’s usually a plus cash
flow,” Cloak said. “Most of the time
people walk away with money in their pocket.”
Cloak has noticed that the widening use of technology is one of
the biggest changes to the market. Properties are listed on the
internet, marketed not only with photos, but also with a digital
tour. The combination of traditional advertising with modern
technology works best to reach
the biggest potential market.”
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