Staging matters–big time!Every agent knows the old adage, “Homes that don’t show well don’t close well.” But still, time and time again we see sellers rail against the time and cost associated with staging a home. Afterall, if they love their home as it is, why shouldn’t everyone else? This is a situation where sometimes showing trumps telling. If you have a particularly stageing-averse client, take them on a two-home showing; one where the home is staged and one where the home is not.Be sensitive, but firm. Their decor may be a beautiful expression of their personality, but sometimes less is more.

4 Buyer Incentives that Sell HomesWhen you find your home struggling to compete against similar listings, selling can seem difficult at best, impossible at worst. You’ve cleaned, staged, upped the curb appeal and lowered the price. So what else is a seller to do? Offer incentives. Outlandish incentives make headlines, but basic incentives that fill real buyer needs have the most power to get your home sold. Here are four you should consider offering to help you sell:1. Interest rate buy-downWhen a seller offers to “pay points,” it means they’ll award the buyer a certain number of percentage points of the sales price, which will, in turn, be paid to the buyer’s lender as discount points that bring the buyer’s interest rate down. This decreases the pressure buyers feel to guess the best day to lock in their interest rate, and sends the message that, if they buy your home, they’ll automatically beat the market rate. Seller-paid rate buy-downs also save buyers money on their monthly payment over the lifetime of t

The median price for a single family home in December 2013 ($177,000) was 24.0 percent higher than in December 2012 ($142,750). In fact, the median price grew $7,000 or 4.1 percent from November 2013. In addition to media price gains, sales for 2013 finished 3.2 percent higher than in 2012. Inventory continues to be a challenge and buyers spent much of 2013 competing for available properties; also, many local residents had to compete with cash buyers, as 53.6 of existing single family homes were purchased with cash in 2013.