Claudine- The truth is that when you add creativity to a Realtor’s practiced and proven model you will always have a much greater chance of achieving your highest possible results. A cluttered, sloppy, unkempt home is certainly less appealing to most people than a home that has been professionally staged. Realtors may be more inclined to show a staged home rather than a home that does not show well.

In this market we recommend that motivated sellers prepare their home so that it shows well, price the home aggressively, and if you are looking for a competitive edge you may consider, "Financial Home Staging". In addition to your Realtor’s marketing plan, open houses, newspaper ads… 321ADVANTAGE provides a value-added service that infuses energy and excitement into the marketing of your property. We team up with Sellers, Realtors & Builders and act as “Financial Home Stagers” - we make homes more attractive, interesting and appealing FINANCIALLY. We represent Motivated Sellers and our system helps Sellers Sell & Buyers Buy!

Staging your home is the single most important thing you can do to help sell your home . Think how you would feel going to buy a car and the ash trays are full, mud all over the exterior, and bald tires~ would you buy it ? Same thought four home, Make it a "show place" everytime there is a showing~Bill

Staging the property has definitely helped us when trying to sell a difficult property, be it price, location or difficult floor plan.

As a company with a Real Estate Broker who not only knows design, but has studied it since 1991, I am a true living testimony that helping sellers utilize what furniture, accessories or items that they have and a little paint consultation and saving them as much money as possible, has help me make it a win win for everyone.

So staging is a must even on a zero to low budget!

Hi Claudine, Jeannie back - agree with posters who make the point that because staging causes homes to sell faster, you will sell for more than if your home sits and you chase the market. I see this played out time and time again - homes selling for 1-5% of their asking price WHEN that asking price hits the proper strike price. For homes that go through several price reductions getting there, it begs the question of whether the seller would have done better, ie, sold for more, had they priced realistically right out of the gate - I believe the answer is yes.

Pricing is #1 - Staging is a great way to move a properly priced home quickly.

Good luck and thank you for inspiring such a good discussion.

Best,
Jeannie Feenick
Search and connect at http://www.feenick.com

I have seen the statistics that Darlene White posted and have found them to be personally true as well.

We are long time investors and started staging our homes when people couldn't visualize the room sizes or how to use the vacant spaces. This led realtors to also ask us to work with them on their homes and changed the course of our business as staging is in such demand and needed. You nkow there are fewer home buyers than in the past - and can't afford not to entice and woo each and every one of them! As Steve Norris described in his answer - over and over again we stage homes that have been on the market for a long time and they sell quickly.
Don't forget staging is also clean and decluttered -- also important factors.

As an agent, I was curious about this as well. I had a very nice vacant home for sale. Dead certain it was price right. We had 28 showings and no offers. We staged the living room, family room, kitchen, dining room and the bathrooms and had offers from each of our next two showings. We accepted a solid, market price offer. This is only anecdotal evidence, but I'm staging another vacant house this week.

Hello Claudine,

You have received some terrific answers already, but I just want to elaborate that Staging will get you more money BECAUSE your home sells faster. A property will not warrant a higher list price simply due to the fact that it shows better once it is Staged. However, your home will often appraise higher as Stagers recommend
repairing those deferred maintenance items that homeowners overlook. Since 95% of all homes Staged by an Accredited Staging Professional sell in 33 days or less, this will save you in mortgage and insurance costs by having the home sell quicker. It was also impact your overall equity as the cost of Staging will ALWAYS be less than your first price reduction.

Best of luck!

Leigh Newport, ASP
Staged by Design

Hi.

I just wanted to share these statistics:

SOME HOME STAGING FACTS

A typical home buyer decides if they are attracted to a home within 8 to 10 seconds.
Only 10% of home buyers can actually visualize thepotential of a home.
U.S. Housing and Urban Development reports a staged home sells 17% higher than an un-staged home, on average.
Staged homes sell on average 6.32% over the listed price, un-staged homes only average at 1.6%.
The New York Village Voice reported that the average number of days on the market for a staged house was 13.9 days versus 30.9 for an un-staged house.

Darlene

Staging is great within reason. However i have seen homes that are so overdone that people just walk out. i particularly dislike the ones with over the top table settings. In a small room this is a disaster--it makes the room look smaller. And i remember a very high end(1.5 million--very high end price in this area) where the seller who was an amateur interior decorator had so much crystal on the dining room table that it looked like a department store--and everyone was afraid to walk into the room for fear of bumping the table & breaking something.that house was so overdone that nobody could remember anything about the house(this was an agents tour) but just the stuff.

Hi Claudine, getting the price right is the single most important factor to success. Staging will help sell your home quickly and may be a reason your home sells while others sit. But make no mistake, as commented before, nothing - no amount of staging or marketing - will cause an overpriced home to sell.

Good luck!

Jeannie Feenick
Search and connect at http://www.feenick.com

Hey Claudine:

The correct answer is neither! Staging is a tactic. Pricing is a tactic. Open houses are a tactic. Newspaper ads are a tactic! Will any one of then sell or expedite your sale? Nope! Each sale is dependant on several things. While staging MAY be one of them, you can't tell until the buyer shows up, completes the sale and then confesses (If they can remember and care to quantify) what was the deciding factor.

Staging costs money, in most cases. How good are your own skills in artistic presentation? How good are your Realtor’s? How much can you afford in professional services? How good are they?

OOOps! I've just asked more questions than you did.

Best of luck!

I only stage my ultra luxury home lisitngs. Buyers are experienced and they know what they are looking for. I have not found that staging helps increase offer price. And if you think about it...how would we really know?

Hi Claudine.

I'm a Realtor and a professional stager. In my experience, my staged homes have sold faster and in some cases for more money. The thing to keep in mind is that staging alone will not sell your home. It's a combination of staging, correct pricing. location, and market conditions. Of course, you can't control location and the market but if something is staged well and correctly priced, you should see more traffic than your non-staged competitions. People have a hard time visualizing the potential of a home and they will often buy into the furnishings and design as a direct reflection of the price point.

Best Wishes in your sale. I'm not sure if you are located in Randolph, NJ or MA based on your profile. If you are in NJ and would like a free estimate, please feel free to call me at 973-418-3427 if you are not already working with a stager.

Darlene White
Realtor/Accredited Staging Professional
Simplicity Home Staging & Design
862-268-0514

When your home is free of clutter and there is a free flow to your home, whether professionally staged or done on your own, your home will have a more lived in a warm feeling to it. It is definitely better to have a furnished home as this enables a buyer to envision how a home will actually look - they like a live in feeling. The bottom line is to have a home furnished - not overly furnished - and free of clutter.

Claudine,

The reality is "staging" improves the way your property is percieved by potential buyers. With this said, it has the potential for positively impacting BOTH the selling price and amount of time on the market.

Many owners find themselves wrestling with the decision of paying for the cost of staging or discounting their home price. Others will attempt to stage the home themselves.

The bottom line is appearance and price are major home selling factors.

GREAT QUESTION:

Staging will usually get POTENTIAL MORE MONEY, homes dances with furniture miscell. items than a vacate homes. Home "slightly furnished" main rooms will sale faster than an unfurnished home. Most home buyers cant visualize empty rooms.

I am a realtor, and investor. All of the homes we place on market we stage living, dining, kitchen, baths, master bedroom , pool furniture. We maintain a warehouse of items.

EXAMPLE: I had not completed staging a home just had bathrooms complete, needless state the buyer fall in love with all bath items, house sold in less than 24 hours !

Many homes we have completed buyer also wanted to purchase furniture loved how it looked ! additional way to make money we rolled those items into sales offer.