Home Staging for Better Presentation: The Garage

When anyone decides to place their home for sale, the Broker should guide them in how to stage their garage. Garage staging is just as important as home staging and maybe more. There is nothing worse than a prospective buyer walking into a garage and seeing boxes everywhere and huge oil slicks in the middle of the floor. 

The seller spends lots of money on staging the home but when it comes to the garage he says, "Who cares about an old garage." One of the biggest mistakes a seller can make is to forget about the garage. Just as you would pay special attention to the yard and curb appeal, you must care about the looks of the garage.

As a listing agent, I want the entire home in tip top shape. Home staging is not stacking boxes on the ceiling and carpets over oil slicks. It is making the garage look as good as the home and very spacious. When a prospective client walks into the garage from a door off the home, he must feel as happy with the garage as he does the home.

1. Clean and Tidy:

All boxes should be transferred to a storage shed or a rental storage somewhere. Ladders should be folded and hung on the walls along with major tools such as chain saws and shears to cut the shrubs with. There should be some sort of incense hanging in the garage, to give it a wonderful smell and all bad odors eliminated, before anyone shows the home. The garage must be freshly painted as it is a possible room of the house. All holes need to be patched and any cracks sealed.

Nothing worse than walking into a home and seeing many cracks everywhere. The first thing a prospective buyer thinks, is that this is not earthquake safe. A garage should be open and clean but organized. Making a home feel tidy and welcoming.

2. Make it look Spacious and Open:

There should be hanging peg boards for all tools. The tool bench must be painted red as that is the color all buyers expect. There should be a few tricycles on the floor next to the door, as to make the garage and the home look like someone lives there.

3. Make it homey looking and welcoming:

Curtains must be hung on the windows and the curtains should be real home looking and not formal looking.

4. Make it look as though someone lives here:

A empty garage is not garage staging. Giving the impression that no one has ever lived in the home is not a selling point. Try to imagine if you are walking into the garage before seeing the home, how would you feel? Would you be interested in seeing the rest of the home? As anything, this should be a showplace and something that draws the buyer in.

5. Arrange the garage for the garage lover:

How can you make a garage welcoming? A work bench with peg boards and a large step stool next to the work bench. A tall tool box, red of course and some pictures hanging of the Grand Canyon and places that people might long to see. Huge metal shelving with all cans of nuts and screws divided and all winter items, such as sleds on shelves.

Many do not spend enough money on the total presentation, such as having a working garage door opener. If the garage door is old and squeaky, try to replace the opener. The cost is only a few hundred dollars and can make the difference in a low ball figure.

Things for garage staging:

1. Fresh coat of paint and all cracks and holes fixed.

2. Peg hole shelving

3. All boxes removed

4. All ladders and large items hung out of the way

5. Home looking curtains on the window

6. Pictures of pleasant looking areas

7. Tidy and clean and all oil spots removed

8. Fresh smelling room deodorizer or incense

9. A few personal items to make the home lived in

10. All the above applies.

Selling your home for the top price is the goal of any agent and only with the cooperation of the sellers and tenants can this be accomplished. Help your agent, help you.

Earnest Money - The Tool Used Against Home Buyers

Earnest money is just that, a deposit in Escrow that states you the buyer, wants the seller to withdraw the property off the market for so many days. You earnestly promise to purchase the property if the seller agrees by signing legally binding escrow instructions. This tool, the earnest money deposit is held against the buyers many times as leverage to force him to buy a home at any price.

The buyer who earnestly tries to purchase a property and then cannot through no fault of his own is entitled to his money returned, but many times a Broker or Seller will pressure the buyer to stay in an escrow against his will. He is pressured to accept a home he is not happy to purchase.

Ethical Behavior is Just Good Business:

This is where ethical behavior comes into real estate. It is unethical for a Realtor to hold the earnest money as a tool against the buyer. It is unethical to require a buyer to purchase a home, unless there is not a valid reason to proceed. But, like many things, it happens every single day.

A really good ethical Realtor would never require a buyer to pay a large amount of money in escrow to begin with. On a small home, $1000 is sufficient. If there are bidding wars going on, then a larger deposit is required. Sellers do feel better with an offer that has $2000 or more, but it is a useless scenario.

The buyer always win in the end, if he knows anything about real estate at all. He signs a contract guaranteeing him arbitration. The arbitration clause states the most he can lose is $1500 in most states. So even if they went for everything he has, that is the most he can lose. Most agents who follow their brokerage, knows that it is against policy to hold a buyer against his will in a contract. As with sellers, they are released automatically with a little pushing.

No brokerage wants to be involved in a lawsuit. If the buyer will just say the words, "Lawsuit" they will set him free. But hungry agents and hungry Brokers today in this awful market play the trump card and threaten the buyer, that he will be sued for the entire amount of the home, which is correct. The buyer can be sued if the seller presses charges, unless they signed the arbitration clause.

But unethical brokers and unethical agents will pressure the buyer, by not telling him the truth. They will tell him all kinds of bad things just to get one "lousy" paycheck. That buyer will tell everyone how he was treated and they will lose more business than it was worth. The buyer will remain in the deal, but he will not be happy and an unhappy buyer will tell 9 people. A happy buyer will tell one person.

It is never worth the consequences to hold a buyer in a contract when he does not want to purchase the home. It is very sad today as many buyers will go and see another home they like better and try to break their contract illegally, causing everyone hardships. The seller lost prospective buyers for his home by taking it off the market and the agent loses the commission. In the times of hardships, everyone is suffering. It seems more and more that not only are Brokers unethical in some cases, but buyers are falling into the trap also.

Many unethical Brokers are also soliciting buyers when they know they are in a deal already. It is against every rule, that the Board of Realtors maintains. An agent can be brought up on charges for soliciting another persons client. A Broker has a fiduciary duty to his client and a client owes loyalty to his Broker.

Legally the buyer is entitled to cancel his contract for many reasons.

1. Does not qualify for the loan.

2. The house does not appraise.

3. The house fails the home inspection.

4. The seller refuses to repair items on the home inspection.

5. The title report shows the owner of the property is not the one signing the contract.

If any of these items come up, the buyer has a right to cancel the contract and receive all his money back. The only way this can happen though is with signed cancellation instructions in escrow. Should the seller delay, there is very little the buyer can do other than threaten to sue or go to arbitration.

Many sellers will delay hoping the agents put the deal together and in some cases it does happen. It is never a good thing to threaten your buyer or place him in jeopardy. It is better to cancel the contract and place him in a different home. If he does want a new agent, then hopefully down the road he will refer to you a buyer. Keeping your reputation clean is more important than winning $500.