Is staging an occupied home necessary?

[Anonymous]

I think staging can help in some cases: one of my teenagers has an extraordinarily small bedroom that is stuffed to the gills with furniture; when we sell, I will probably remove all the furniture and have the room staged with a crib and changing table to make it look larger than it is.

[Anonymous]

OP here… we have an offer. Working on contingencies…very grateful because of the niche market our home caters to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here… we have an offer. Working on contingencies…very grateful because of the niche market our home caters to.

We accepted an offer lower than list price, so glad we saved $ on staging.

Realtor’s feedback was that everyone who saw it loved the home and thought it looked staged. Very clean.

Not that anyone else has asked, but I would get the free staging consult if your realtor offers one. Paint your house neutral colors. If you can spend a few hundred bucks, white fluffy bedding, white fluffy towels (make baths spa-like), a few fake plants if you need. Declutter and clean - nothing on counter tops except towels (bath) and fruit bowl or such in kitchen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here… we have an offer. Working on contingencies…very grateful because of the niche market our home caters to.

We accepted an offer lower than list price, so glad we saved $ on staging.

Realtor’s feedback was that everyone who saw it loved the home and thought it looked staged. Very clean.

Not that anyone else has asked, but I would get the free staging consult if your realtor offers one. Paint your house neutral colors. If you can spend a few hundred bucks, white fluffy bedding, white fluffy towels (make baths spa-like), a few fake plants if you need. Declutter and clean - nothing on counter tops except towels (bath) and fruit bowl or such in kitchen.

This is all great advice. But it's also something all realtors used to do for free just 20 years ago. We were told to buy new towels and bathmats, remove family photos, declutter, paint, maybe put really ugly furniture in your friend's basement, and replace a few light fixtures. It's not exactly rocket science, it's just common sense, and nobody gave it a special name like "staging."

I'm not criticizing you, pp, for passing on this advice. In fact, sellers who read your post will now know what they need to do without paying a realtor extra.

I'm asking, why is this basic info now considered a premium service that's available for extra $$$? Especially in this world where I can find open houses on my own just by looking at redfin or realtor.com.

[Anonymous]

I agree it’s all basic advice. This is the fifth home we are selling so I felt like I had some experience. But they do make you feel like you might be missing out and a home is the biggest investment for most people. We want to sell, sell quick and sell at a great price.

Staging is just a business. My guess is it started when people got the idea to flip homes. They had to put in some furniture to show what the rooms could look like. And somehow they connected with realtors to stage homes that would be empty when listed.

I remember a realtor or two telling me it’s harder to sell an empty home. Staging makes sense if someone has to move their furniture before listing or they have terrible furniture. But the rest of us get FOMO. I was worried my home wouldn’t sell if I didn’t pay for staging and “make buyers fall in love with it” but I also questioned her price given that all the big pieces were mine and I was decluttering and getting the place painted! I suppose she has nothing to lose by trying to sell her services as my realtor pays her for the consult.

[Anonymous]

Sometimes a realtor brings in a stager -- and pays for their time -- to avoid having detailed or uncomfortable presentation/design conversations. Realtors may not want to get into it about paint colors or debate about your ugly bedroom recliner. By bringing in a stager, realtors can keep their relationship with clients positively focused on pricing, marketing and negotiations. Also, while a lot of property layouts are straightforward; others not so much. And many people have off-scale furniture in various rooms and a stager has the design background to figure out how to re-arrange things so there is better flow. Notice I said re-arrange --not add furniture from the stagers collection. A good stager is always looking to work with the sellers furniture and make sure any pre-listing efforts (rearranging or otherwise) will generate an ROI. A stager does a lot more in a consult then say "buy white towels." And for everyone who disagrees with me then feel free to fly solo because my listings are selling and I see how different my clients houses look after my stager comes in for a consult.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here… we have an offer. Working on contingencies…very grateful because of the niche market our home caters to.

We accepted an offer lower than list price, so glad we saved $ on staging.

Realtor’s feedback was that everyone who saw it loved the home and thought it looked staged. Very clean.

Not that anyone else has asked, but I would get the free staging consult if your realtor offers one. Paint your house neutral colors. If you can spend a few hundred bucks, white fluffy bedding, white fluffy towels (make baths spa-like), a few fake plants if you need. Declutter and clean - nothing on counter tops except towels (bath) and fruit bowl or such in kitchen.

This is all great advice. But it's also something all realtors used to do for free just 20 years ago. We were told to buy new towels and bathmats, remove family photos, declutter, paint, maybe put really ugly furniture in your friend's basement, and replace a few light fixtures. It's not exactly rocket science, it's just common sense, and nobody gave it a special name like "staging."

I'm not criticizing you, pp, for passing on this advice. In fact, sellers who read your post will now know what they need to do without paying a realtor extra.

I'm asking, why is this basic info now considered a premium service that's available for extra $$$? Especially in this world where I can find open houses on my own just by looking at redfin or realtor.com.

I know realtors feel that their services are undervalued. I understand and relate to that because I have felt the same in my profession, but the terrible realtors who do nothing or don't know their market have given realtors a bad reputation.

[Anonymous]

When I think of home staging I always remember the old episodes on HGTV of flip or flop where after Christine and Tarek finish flipping a house they always staged it prior to holding an open house.

The show would say that they spent thousands on staging depending on area as well as how large a house was.

At the end though the staging made the houses look so beautiful, stunning even.
Like the houses you see in Architectural Digest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It helps to sell your home quicker imo.

Because having it furnished by a professional stager (or real estate agent) defines all the important spaces in the home which is the first thing buyers consider when looking at a prospective property.

What does "defines all the important spaces in the home" even mean? For 99% of homes, it's already obvious where "important spaces" like the kitchen, living room, bedrooms, and basement are, what their function is, and what these "important spaces" are contributing to family life. If the problem is that a living room is so messy that it distracts from the fact that it's a living room, well then, the realtor just needs to tell the seller to declutter and hire one of those portable pink storage units. If "define important spaces" is some sort of stager-speak for "pay for something that has a vague purpose," that's not really an overall vibe or design goal I'd trust to sell my home anyway.

I watch a lot of real estate programs on HGTV and when someone will refer to a staged home and what benefit the staging achieves, this is usually how the staging reasoning is spoken.

Like that old show, Flip Or Flop…..Tarek and Christina always staged their homes for sale (and according to their show paid between $1,500-$5,000 for it!) and commented that they noticed it defined the space(s) in the home.

Was it ever clear what “define the spaces” means?

Anyone who cannot figure out on their own what a defined space means doesn’t really know enough about real estate to market it.

[Anonymous]

No home, occupied or empty, looks better staged. But I know people have made this s as career, so they are going to say otherwise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I think of home staging I always remember the old episodes on HGTV of flip or flop where after Christine and Tarek finish flipping a house they always staged it prior to holding an open house.

The show would say that they spent thousands on staging depending on area as well as how large a house was.

At the end though the staging made the houses look so beautiful, stunning even.
Like the houses you see in Architectural Digest.

I think their staging was ugly. Tastes differ.

[Anonymous]

Another con to staging is if your house sits longer than a month then you have to start paying for staging on a monthly basis. Might be additional cost you need to factor. I would not stage the home.