Is staging an occupied home necessary?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op again.

Btw, the stager’s assistant who I was talking to yesterday was shocked that we had been quoted 16k to stage our home. She thought a max of 6K including changing out lights (that was not included in our quote and cost around 1k). Our realtor said an average of 3-5K. When we turned her down, she said she had made a mistake in the quote, but had declined to answer my earlier question about it. I don’t know her or what was going on! It felt like a money grab to me.

I work for a staging company. There is NO WAY to justify a 15K quote to stage an occupied house. A vacant house with tons of furniture is most often at or around $4000.

Normally around a month. I mean this is all speculative because it depends on how big is the house and how many rooms are being staged. And then different companies have different levels of inventory so some might charge more than others but from what ive seen 3-6 k would be a range for a vacant home for a month.

[Anonymous]

Remember the show “Flip Or Flop?”

After remodeling homes, Christina & Tarek would invest upwards of $4-5G to stage homes.

The staging made the homes look way more expensive than they previously were.

[Anonymous]

Absolutely it is if you would like a good offer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Remember the show “Flip Or Flop?”

After remodeling homes, Christina & Tarek would invest upwards of $4-5G to stage homes.

The staging made the homes look way more expensive than they previously were.

+1

Yes even after rehabilitation the homes still benefitted tenfold from the stagers they used.

I guess it would depend on what company you used.

[Anonymous]

For our house sale in DC we put about 1/3 of our belongings in storage and left just the essential furniture. Our designer who was helping us buy furniture for the new house (larger suburban house) had some staging items we used in our house we were selling. It was just a couple large pieces of art plus a few decorative items for the coffee table and mantle. Really minimal and he didn't charge us anything since we were working with him on the new house.

[Anonymous]

That is an absurd quote for staging.

[Anonymous]

FWIW when I was looking for houses (many years ago) I definitely preferred the houses that were completely empty over houses that were staged or lived in. I could imagine my own future life if the house was empty, and that definitely made it more appealing to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. If you want to get top dollar, and the realtor tells you to stage, do it. Your taste in decor is not as nice as you think.

OP here….No, the realtor paid for the staging consult after we asked for it.

The stager gave good advice which we acted upon ( updated lighting and hardware). She said our furniture is great and she would not change anything about that - a couple of previous home buyers have negotiated our furniture so I know I have decent taste. However, I did take the stager’s advice and bought modern table lamps for 3 rooms. I can take feedback too. 😊

Our realtor came in after we painted and decluttered a bit, and said he could get traffic in here based on how good it looked.

I was a bit worried that he was just being nice. This morning, another home in our price point came on the market and I would say ours should look better. Just stress!

This is the kind of advice people should pay for -- a staging consult. Or, to rent some accessories and artwork.

$15K is wild, and anyone would really have to do a cost-benefit analysis.

GL OP!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FWIW when I was looking for houses (many years ago) I definitely preferred the houses that were completely empty over houses that were staged or lived in. I could imagine my own future life if the house was empty, and that definitely made it more appealing to me.

It depends on the house. It took me awhile to figure out the right furniture configuration on the main level after several tries because it's an untraditional layout and has lot of windows. I'm sure people will appreciate seeing how we laid it out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We staged my house with my own stuff. Painted and recarpeted, got a storage unit and stored anything nonessential. Kept the art neutral, got rid of clutter. Did some minor landscaping. It sold in eight days.

+1, this is what we did when we sold our 'starter' house - moved half our furniture to a storage unit (we had combined our singledom households) along with all out-of-season closet contents and anything recognizable as 'personal' or 'clutter' (large baby toys, photos, etc.). Besides painting and replacing kitchen flooring, the only new things we bought were shower curtains and towels. House sold in a week.

On the flip side, I had a stager for the sale of my empty townhome and I don't think it helped. Granted, it was paid for by my realtor, but it was pretty low-budget and 'quirky' - I think the blank space might actually have sold faster!

[Anonymous]

I sold 3 furnished houses in 2023. All had our furniture in them. Keep things clean, keep things neat. Eliminate clutter.

All 3 houses sold in less than a week. One even had old lady furniture in it LOL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s a money grab from your agent. You don’t need their staging.

Honestly. Staging just makes the house look worse.

No it doesn't. It just depends. If you have crappy stuff, your house needs to be staged. Some people don't realize their house looks like sh*t.

[Anonymous]

For those prices you can rent furniture from cort for a month or buy new. I prefer empty to see the condition of the house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s a money grab from your agent. You don’t need their staging.

Honestly. Staging just makes the house look worse.

No it doesn't. It just depends. If you have crappy stuff, your house needs to be staged. Some people don't realize their house looks like sh*t.

You aren’t buying their stuff.

[Anonymous]

OP here! We are live as of yesterday and I have had realtors, photographers who did our pix and videos ask who we used for staging.

Someone attended last night’s open house and told the realtor who was running it (not my listing agent) he would pay her if she could stage his place.

So I’d say my “staging” was pretty good! I have been looking at similar homes that are on the market (very niche home with limited market) and no one has staged their homes. They’re not selling though so don’t know if it’s the price point. We are proved 100k less than what two agents suggested. We’ll see what happens. My work is done! 😊