Wonder Why Your House Isn’t Selling? - The Three P’s

The Three P's: Property, Price, and Presentation

What can you do when your house has been on the market for months with no sale? It may seem like all has failed, but consider the Three P's as a formula you can tweek to achieve the results you want.

Property

There’s only so much you can do about the property itself (which includes location, location, location). It is stuck in the current neighborhood, for better or worse. The basic footprint, size, and configuration are probably there to stay since you’ve decided to sell.

Price

By now you have probably analyzed the comps with your realtor and know you’ve priced fairly. There are a number of different strategies you can take, but this is basically a given unless you want to give the house away.

Presentation

First, there is the physical presentation, meaning how the house looks during a showing. Second, the virtual presentation, or how the house looks in the marketing materials. Your house should not only show well live, but also in the photos.

How the home is presented is where you have the most flexibility. It’s about staging to full advantage. There is so much you can do for a little cash or elbow grease that will improve on this part of the home selling equation.

So if your house isn’t selling, take a look at each of these categories. Is anything missing from the equation? What variables can you play with? What can you do to improve or strengthen the value in each category? Consult with local professionals, realtors, stagers, inspectors, etc. for expert advice. They’ll steer you in the right direction, and who knows it could even result in a sale.

Remember, there’s only one chance to make a first impression. Make sure buyers are impressed even before they walk through the door. Make sure you do all you can to achieve the results you want.

Design Star Upstaged - Episode 3

It took me a while to process this episode. It seemed to reflect my life these days a little too much…a bit disjointed. The designers were tasked to design an outdoor patio space at Trump Tower. How awesome is that? Well, the designers didn’t seem to tackle the job as if they were excited. What’s with the cast? They seem to be missing how lucky they are to have this opportunity. Is it the editing, the new format (ok that’s becoming a lame excuse), or the casting?

About the format, they seem to have taken a bit of The Apprentice and mixed it with some Survivor. Sounds like the formula should work. It must be the editing or the casting. I love a good experiment, so I’llstick with the hope that producers see what I see. That means, next season will be amazing! (Because I’ll be on it, but I digress.) Back to the designs…

I’m not sure that I can say enough to comment on each team separately. Both teams seemed to lack any cohesive planning vision. The teams are missing an important Apprentice element, the project manager. It shows.

The Women and Dan (let’s just call them the women) were the winners by a narrow margin this week. I feel badly for the judges who really have to pull elements of design from these lack luster designs. I use the term “design” loosely. It does afterall imply a “plan”. There is no cohesive plan, concept or vision. I only see evidence of two designers work, Nina and Stacey. I’m not sure where the others are represented.

Overall the patio space reads the same way their personalities are coming across…BORING.

The space is empty, disjointed, lacking cohesive design. Oh did I say that already? I’m so disappointed. This is Trump Tower in NYC! There’s little element of urban chic or Trump luxury. This feels like the courtyard at a college dorm.

While the Men’s team lost this week, they used some design tactics that the women lacked. They actually thought about the design planes, including the floor. They added a rug and decking. Genius, sort of. They created groupings and spaces for a variety of activities. Sure it’s a little cramped, like they threw the entire furniture store at the place. EDIT. At least they had the energy to come up with so many ideas.

They, too, seem to have elements that are dorm-chic rather than Trump-chic. I do think they’re leaning in the right direction, though. Gosh how I wish I could set them straight! Maybe they need a woman on their team.

In the weeks to come, I really hope that someone will have some balls and take the lead for the benefit of their group. These talents are really showing badly, but I don’t think it’s a lack of talent. Just a case of acting too timidly. (Wasn’t that something casting was trying to avoid?)

In the end, who was eliminated? The one that seemed to lack the most personality, Trent. He seemed to have strong personal style, but lacked gumption for a show like this.

Photos Source: http://my.hgtv.com/design-star-judge-the-designs-2010/gallery.esi?sortOrder=2&page=1