The value of staging ?

[Anonymous]

My next door neighbor staged their home and it made a huge difference. Before it looked depressing as he was a sloppy senior bachelor and in general the house looked like a frat house. After the staging, it looked like a 4 person family home, complete with kids' bedrooms. Would never know that he lived there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our house was painted (we paid for this) where it hadn’t been painted in a while, we removed all extra furniture, pulled out the ugly ikea furniture to put in a generic sofa, pillows, took down family pictures and put up generic canvas art, removed tchotchkes except for a smattering, and put white fluffy towels where our beige ones had been. We had very nice pictures done including dusk shots of the beautiful outside space that’s really our biggest selling factor (we are in a meh neighborhood). It was very light staging, our realtor did it as part of her fee (FWIW our house was fairly nicely updated in most rooms for the neighborhood), and it sold over asking in the first 48 hours. It was purchased by someone looking online only. So I would say in our case it was worth it. Our house looked amazing in the pictures. It looked nice in person, too. Other homes in our neighborhood have been sitting longer.

It sounds like you did 90% of the work decluttering, getting it painted, and getting fluffy new towels and sofa pillows. Moreover, it's not really "staging" if you don't put all/most of your furniture in storage and bring in the realtor's (or their contractor's) furniture. Most of this--taking down family photos, new towels, painting--is stuff sellers like our parents have been doing forever. Apart from arranging the photos, what exactly did the realtor do?

The realtor gave us the list of items to remove/fix/repair/paint, organized their mover to come and pick up the extra furniture to storage/move in their furniture, picked paint colors, arranged/scheduled the painters, picked the carpet/kitchen flooring (forgot we did this!), arranged the installation of flooring, and provided all of the accessories, art, pillows, towels, area rugs, lamps, and furniture. They also came and arranged those things before pictures were taken. My realtor also hosted two open houses personally.

[Anonymous]

I sold two condo units, and both times he realtors suggested staging, and these cases I really think it helped with the sale. Might not be so important for a house, but for apartment units, it helps I think - even though I bought both of them without staging.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My next door neighbor staged their home and it made a huge difference. Before it looked depressing as he was a sloppy senior bachelor and in general the house looked like a frat house. After the staging, it looked like a 4 person family home, complete with kids' bedrooms. Would never know that he lived there.

Several of you are conflating decluterring--done by you--with staging.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our house was painted (we paid for this) where it hadn’t been painted in a while, we removed all extra furniture, pulled out the ugly ikea furniture to put in a generic sofa, pillows, took down family pictures and put up generic canvas art, removed tchotchkes except for a smattering, and put white fluffy towels where our beige ones had been. We had very nice pictures done including dusk shots of the beautiful outside space that’s really our biggest selling factor (we are in a meh neighborhood). It was very light staging, our realtor did it as part of her fee (FWIW our house was fairly nicely updated in most rooms for the neighborhood), and it sold over asking in the first 48 hours. It was purchased by someone looking online only. So I would say in our case it was worth it. Our house looked amazing in the pictures. It looked nice in person, too. Other homes in our neighborhood have been sitting longer.

It sounds like you did 90% of the work decluttering, getting it painted, and getting fluffy new towels and sofa pillows. Moreover, it's not really "staging" if you don't put all/most of your furniture in storage and bring in the realtor's (or their contractor's) furniture. Most of this--taking down family photos, new towels, painting--is stuff sellers like our parents have been doing forever. Apart from arranging the photos, what exactly did the realtor do?

The realtor gave us the list of items to remove/fix/repair/paint, organized their mover to come and pick up the extra furniture to storage/move in their furniture, picked paint colors, arranged/scheduled the painters, picked the carpet/kitchen flooring (forgot we did this!), arranged the installation of flooring, and provided all of the accessories, art, pillows, towels, area rugs, lamps, and furniture. They also came and arranged those things before pictures were taken. My realtor also hosted two open houses personally.

OK. But most of this isn't "staging," it's simply fixing up your house for sale. All of us do it anyway. It's what our parents did when they sold their houses--they painted, they decluttered, they rented a storage unit for all the stuff. You make the house look as nice as possible--this is different from staging.

I can see hiring the realtor to do these fixing-up and decluttering tasks because it takes a lot of the logistics off of you. But know that you're paying more if you go through a middleman (the realtor) and use their contractors. For example, if the realtor recommends paint colors, that's great, but your own painter will probably do it more cheaply than paying a middleman (your realtor) to call up their own painters (who won't give you the long-term customer discount we always get from the painters we always use). When we sold our starter house, we rented a storage unit and DH and his friends moved our extra furniture in temporarily. Installing new kitchen flooring sounds extra and does requires professionals, but again you don't need to pay a middleman (your realtor) to text their flooring contractor.

Actual "staging" is the part where they move out your furniture and put in beige, white and grey furniture. It sounds like they gave you a few pieces, like a sofa and some throw pillows?

Impressed that your realtor hosted two open houses personally, though. Ours hosted one (makes me wonder about how your realtor priced your house, but that's a different topic), but it sounds like lots of realtors just send a trainee to sit in your house during the open house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Staging grew big just as the housing market went online and realtors' role in finding buyers evaporated. Coincidence?

Not a coincidence at all - pictures play a huge role in selling

Exactly what role DO agents play? Because they can’t even bother to work their own open houses. They send warm bodies with no knowledge of the property at all who don’t bother to make people sign in and let any random person wander through your house.

It is a protectionist guild. But necessary, unfortunately

What is necessary? That they want their big, fat commission checks but can’t be bothered to work for it?

Our landlords just did an open house and despite promising us it would only be realtors with clients, it was public and the agent sent “friends” to “work” and they let everyone on who came to the door and said it was “so great” to have nosy neighbors walk through every corner of our private living space. Zero respect for people and their lives. It’s all about getting their check.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Staging grew big just as the housing market went online and realtors' role in finding buyers evaporated. Coincidence?

Not a coincidence at all - pictures play a huge role in selling

Exactly what role DO agents play? Because they can’t even bother to work their own open houses. They send warm bodies with no knowledge of the property at all who don’t bother to make people sign in and let any random person wander through your house.

It is a protectionist guild. But necessary, unfortunately

What is necessary? That they want their big, fat commission checks but can’t be bothered to work for it?

Our landlords just did an open house and despite promising us it would only be realtors with clients, it was public and the agent sent “friends” to “work” and they let everyone on who came to the door and said it was “so great” to have nosy neighbors walk through every corner of our private living space. Zero respect for people and their lives. It’s all about getting their check.

They want you to think texting their contractors to stop by your house, and reminding you to declutter, are worth tens of thousands of dollars. Oh, and mentioning the latest paint color they read about on some blog, so you can tell their contractor when they stop by for the estimate. Staging is just the latest scam, where they convince you your furniture isn't good enough. Maybe some furniture, like the old bachelor's above, needs to be substituted, but even then it's not clear that's still necessary after a good decluttering and painting the walls (yourself or with your neighbor's favorite painter, because there's no guarantee the agent's painter is even any good).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Staging grew big just as the housing market went online and realtors' role in finding buyers evaporated. Coincidence?

Not a coincidence at all - pictures play a huge role in selling

Exactly what role DO agents play? Because they can’t even bother to work their own open houses. They send warm bodies with no knowledge of the property at all who don’t bother to make people sign in and let any random person wander through your house.

It is a protectionist guild. But necessary, unfortunately

What is necessary? That they want their big, fat commission checks but can’t be bothered to work for it?

Our landlords just did an open house and despite promising us it would only be realtors with clients, it was public and the agent sent “friends” to “work” and they let everyone on who came to the door and said it was “so great” to have nosy neighbors walk through every corner of our private living space. Zero respect for people and their lives. It’s all about getting their check.

They want you to think texting their contractors to stop by your house, and reminding you to declutter, are worth tens of thousands of dollars. Oh, and mentioning the latest paint color they read about on some blog, so you can tell their contractor when they stop by for the estimate. Staging is just the latest scam, where they convince you your furniture isn't good enough. Maybe some furniture, like the old bachelor's above, needs to be substituted, but even then it's not clear that's still necessary after a good decluttering and painting the walls (yourself or with your neighbor's favorite painter, because there's no guarantee the agent's painter is even any good).

Ideally someone does this before bring in a realtor/selling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Staging grew big just as the housing market went online and realtors' role in finding buyers evaporated. Coincidence?

Not a coincidence at all - pictures play a huge role in selling

Exactly what role DO agents play? Because they can’t even bother to work their own open houses. They send warm bodies with no knowledge of the property at all who don’t bother to make people sign in and let any random person wander through your house.

It is a protectionist guild. But necessary, unfortunately

What is necessary? That they want their big, fat commission checks but can’t be bothered to work for it?

Our landlords just did an open house and despite promising us it would only be realtors with clients, it was public and the agent sent “friends” to “work” and they let everyone on who came to the door and said it was “so great” to have nosy neighbors walk through every corner of our private living space. Zero respect for people and their lives. It’s all about getting their check.

They want you to think texting their contractors to stop by your house, and reminding you to declutter, are worth tens of thousands of dollars. Oh, and mentioning the latest paint color they read about on some blog, so you can tell their contractor when they stop by for the estimate. Staging is just the latest scam, where they convince you your furniture isn't good enough. Maybe some furniture, like the old bachelor's above, needs to be substituted, but even then it's not clear that's still necessary after a good decluttering and painting the walls (yourself or with your neighbor's favorite painter, because there's no guarantee the agent's painter is even any good).

Ideally someone does this before bring in a realtor/selling.

Yes, so the realtor can do even less work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had already moved out of our house before it was put on the market in Bethesda in April. We paid a relatively modest fee (~$2,200 - we had two quotes and one was $1k more for the same service) and they filled two floors with furniture and left the basement empty. We were laughing because the stagers used our space better than we did. In the end we were under contract in 48 hours w/o contingencies and $100k over list. Did staging make a difference? Probably IMO. The house looked great in pictures and I think it helped us get to $100k over ask instead of maybe 80 or 90k over.

Exactly our experience. We paid about $1000 to stage our small, dark, and inspiring townhouse. The stager was one that I knew because a friend had bought a house that has been beautifully staged by her.

She did it an amazing job, and it looked much better than it ever did when we had lived there! We ended up with a bunch of offers and selling much more above list than I think we would have. No regrets.

(we had also paid to repaint, but that desperately needed doing so I don’t really count that as staging, more catching up on deferred maintenance)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had already moved out of our house before it was put on the market in Bethesda in April. We paid a relatively modest fee (~$2,200 - we had two quotes and one was $1k more for the same service) and they filled two floors with furniture and left the basement empty. We were laughing because the stagers used our space better than we did. In the end we were under contract in 48 hours w/o contingencies and $100k over list. Did staging make a difference? Probably IMO. The house looked great in pictures and I think it helped us get to $100k over ask instead of maybe 80 or 90k over.

Exactly our experience. We paid about $1000 to stage our small, dark, and inspiring townhouse. The stager was one that I knew because a friend had bought a house that has been beautifully staged by her.

She did it an amazing job, and it looked much better than it ever did when we had lived there! We ended up with a bunch of offers and selling much more above list than I think we would have. No regrets.

(we had also paid to repaint, but that desperately needed doing so I don’t really count that as staging, more catching up on deferred maintenance)

The problem with these anecdotes is that we have no counterfactuals. Would pp have gotten $100k over asking anyway because the realtor priced low, which is a reasonable strategy in this market? How about all the folks who paid the realtor $$$ to arrange staging but didn't get it back? We just have no real data, and I'm not counting the article that's been rightly criticized.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My next door neighbor staged their home and it made a huge difference. Before it looked depressing as he was a sloppy senior bachelor and in general the house looked like a frat house. After the staging, it looked like a 4 person family home, complete with kids' bedrooms. Would never know that he lived there.

Several of you are conflating decluterring--done by you--with staging.

PP that you quoted.

It wasn't just decluttering.
They (his realtor's team) packed up his furniture and brought in completely new furniture.
The home is contingent now and it's been almost 30 days and guess what? The new furniture, dishes, fake plants, etc. Are all packed up and gone.

How is setting up bedrooms for a family of 4, when he lived alone in the home prior, decluttering?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Staging grew big just as the housing market went online and realtors' role in finding buyers evaporated. Coincidence?

Not a coincidence at all - pictures play a huge role in selling

Exactly what role DO agents play? Because they can’t even bother to work their own open houses. They send warm bodies with no knowledge of the property at all who don’t bother to make people sign in and let any random person wander through your house.

It is a protectionist guild. But necessary, unfortunately

What is necessary? That they want their big, fat commission checks but can’t be bothered to work for it?

Our landlords just did an open house and despite promising us it would only be realtors with clients, it was public and the agent sent “friends” to “work” and they let everyone on who came to the door and said it was “so great” to have nosy neighbors walk through every corner of our private living space. Zero respect for people and their lives. It’s all about getting their check.

They want you to think texting their contractors to stop by your house, and reminding you to declutter, are worth tens of thousands of dollars. Oh, and mentioning the latest paint color they read about on some blog, so you can tell their contractor when they stop by for the estimate. Staging is just the latest scam, where they convince you your furniture isn't good enough. Maybe some furniture, like the old bachelor's above, needs to be substituted, but even then it's not clear that's still necessary after a good decluttering and painting the walls (yourself or with your neighbor's favorite painter, because there's no guarantee the agent's painter is even any good).

Ideally someone does this before bring in a realtor/selling.

Yes, so the realtor can do even less work.

Most don't do much but put in the contract.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Staging grew big just as the housing market went online and realtors' role in finding buyers evaporated. Coincidence?

Not a coincidence at all - pictures play a huge role in selling

Exactly what role DO agents play? Because they can’t even bother to work their own open houses. They send warm bodies with no knowledge of the property at all who don’t bother to make people sign in and let any random person wander through your house.

It is a protectionist guild. But necessary, unfortunately

What is necessary? That they want their big, fat commission checks but can’t be bothered to work for it?

Our landlords just did an open house and despite promising us it would only be realtors with clients, it was public and the agent sent “friends” to “work” and they let everyone on who came to the door and said it was “so great” to have nosy neighbors walk through every corner of our private living space. Zero respect for people and their lives. It’s all about getting their check.

They want you to think texting their contractors to stop by your house, and reminding you to declutter, are worth tens of thousands of dollars. Oh, and mentioning the latest paint color they read about on some blog, so you can tell their contractor when they stop by for the estimate. Staging is just the latest scam, where they convince you your furniture isn't good enough. Maybe some furniture, like the old bachelor's above, needs to be substituted, but even then it's not clear that's still necessary after a good decluttering and painting the walls (yourself or with your neighbor's favorite painter, because there's no guarantee the agent's painter is even any good).

Ideally someone does this before bring in a realtor/selling.

Yes, so the realtor can do even less work.

Most don't do much but put in the contract.

WHY does this job exist and why do they get make an annual salary off a couple sales? The whole business is thievery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My next door neighbor staged their home and it made a huge difference. Before it looked depressing as he was a sloppy senior bachelor and in general the house looked like a frat house. After the staging, it looked like a 4 person family home, complete with kids' bedrooms. Would never know that he lived there.

Several of you are conflating decluterring--done by you--with staging.

PP that you quoted.

It wasn't just decluttering.
They (his realtor's team) packed up his furniture and brought in completely new furniture.
The home is contingent now and it's been almost 30 days and guess what? The new furniture, dishes, fake plants, etc. Are all packed up and gone.

How is setting up bedrooms for a family of 4, when he lived alone in the home prior, decluttering?

You said his house was a sloppy frat house, so decluttering is assumed.

I'll grant you that there are certain cases where the house needs nicer furniture. But for the rest of us who live in houses with pretty new, pretty nice furniture, even if it's not greige, a furniture swap doesn't seem necessary.