Louise Lamy, a realtor with Long & Foster Real Estate, the largest independent residential real estate company in the United States, recently earned the Certified Home Marketing Specialist designation of advanced real estate.

Lamy said she acquired these new skills to decrease time homes she is selling spend on the market, and to maximize their selling prices. Eager to develop a new approach for timely, efficient home sales, Lamy attended the course taught my Martha Webb on Sept. 18 at Long & Foster’s home office in Chantilly, Va.

Addressing in-depth market analysis, strategic pricing and effective home staging, the Certified Home Marketing Specialist Course provides agents with expertise to excel in today’s competitive real estate environment. This results in homes that sell faster at better prices.

Webb is the author and producer of Dress Your House for Success, and is one of the country’s foremost authorities on home staging. She has taught her CHMS program to thousands of real estate agents nationwide. Following her participation in the course, Lamy has now joined this prestigious group and achieved a higher level of professionalism.

“This course is a must for any agent who wants to provide the best service possible,” Lamy said. “Having this certification means I can offer my clients a level of expertise that you just don’t learn in standard real estate classes. Now, I can go through the house with my clients, room by room, and strategically design a pre-market plan to help potential buyers connect emotionally with the house faster.”

“I’ve learned that strategic pricing is key to moving properties quickly in any market,” Lamy continued. “Add strategic staging to the equation and you have the enviable position of being able to give buyers a true feeling for what it would be like to live there while sellers get the benefit of faster sales at the best price possible.”

Home staging strategy has become much more prominent in the real estate industry in the past several years, one which Webb believes it is an integral component of any successful home sale. According to Webb’s website, real estate agents who have completed the Certified Home Marketing Specialist course offer their clients concrete, market-specific guidance to position properties to make a direct emotional appeal to potential buyers.

“We talk a lot about ‘buyer’s market’ and ‘seller’s markets,’ but what it all boils down to is knowing how to effectively reach out to home buyers regardless of the market,” says Julie Frank, Managing Broker at Long & Foster. “The Certified Home Marketing Specialist Course presented by Martha Webb gives agents those skills.”

For more information, visit www.LongandFoster.com