How PODS(R) helps real estate agents sell homes

Things are doubly tough for real estate agents today. Homes take longer to sell, and when they do it's often for prices that don't meet home sellers' (often unrealistic) expectations. The difficult market makes it harder to create the kind of customer satisfaction that generates referrals, which are critical in any market condition. PODS® helps on both fronts.Home Staging and DeclutteringIt's clear that home staging works. Intuitively, this makes sense; a cleaner canvas allows home buyers to more easily paint their own mental pictures. Removing clutter and personalized items helps buyers see a home as their own. StagedHomes (a PODS partner) has an amazing statistic from a 2009 survey which showed homes they staged sold in just 29 days versus 145 for non-staged homes. That's an 83% difference. StagedHomes also sites a HomeGain.com survey which found incredible returns on the costs of various staging actions (for example, $200 in cleaning and de-cluttering offers an 872% ROI in selling price). So if staging and decluttering works, why doesn't every home seller do it? Because it's a pain! Nobody wants to schlep items from the house to a rental truck and then to a fixed storage facility and then to a new home later on. PODS makes decluttering so much easier. Just load items in the driveway, at ground level. PODS takes the container off-site and out-of-sight to potential buyers, and then redelivers the container to that home or a new one, across the street or across the country. Easy, simple, convenient. Customer satisfactionPrice pressure and longer stays on the home market makes it harder for agents to achieve "wow" customer experiences that drive word-of-mouth referrals. Customer expectations simply arent' aligned to the market realities and that creates dissatisfaction. Savvy agents find other ways to create great customer experiences, aligning themselves with respected brands that bring added value to the experience. PODS allows real estate agents to refer an easier way to declutter, store and move -- at specially discounted rates. PODS is aligned with most of the major real estate brands and offers co-branded collateral and discount programs for customers. Agents who refer PODS help their customers lower stress levels with an easier decluttering and moving experience while also saving them money. Agents can find out more about PODS real estate programs here. Savings and satisfactionIn this market, it's critical for real estate agents to use all they tools they can to create great customer experiences that derive maximum value from properties in as short a sales cycle as possible. PODS is helping real estate agents do just that, every day.