Home staging

[luv]

How effective do you think home staging is when selling a home? Would you bring in a home stager if you were selling your home? Just curious.

[T-post Tom]

I'm thinking of becoming a "relationship stager".

[Dave Lane]

Yes and it can be worth it...

[JOhn]

I'm thinking of becoming a "relationship stager".

ROFL

[DaFace]

As a recent home purchaser, I can tell you that overall look of the place makes a big difference. Places that looked cramped and cluttered weren't as appealing, even if the space itself wasn't that bad. We actually went back and looked at one a second time just to try and picture what it would look like without the giant, bulky furniture in there.

However, I think that most people can probably do most of it themselves just by 1) cleaning the place, 2) removing clutter, and 3) getting rid of stuff that makes the place look smaller. I'd probably only consider hiring a professional if I were selling a place that is well above the price we paid for this one.

[stlchiefs]

Huge. Very worth it. It's cheap and easy if you can find a close friend with a good eye that can offer some free advice.

[ChiefsLV]

Have you ever watched this show?

http://www.aetv.com/sell-this-house/

[Deberg_1990]

How effective do you think home staging is when selling a home? Would you bring in a home stager if you were selling your home? Just curious.

Very effective. Why wouldnt you stage it yourself??

[Mr. Krab]

The overall aesthetics of a home can make a huge difference.

[Groves]

If you're the kind of person that needs someone to tell you to pick up a hallway or that a toy room strewn with toys isn't the best way to showcase a room, then yes, please get a stager.

If you have any eye for style or cleanliness, skip paying someone and just make sure you're not overlooking obvious things.

I think the smell of frying bacon in the kitchen will sell just about any house.

[doomy3]

My wife does this, as well as other Interior Design work, as a living.

[Bugeater]

However, I think that most people can probably do most of it themselves just by 1) cleaning the place, 2) removing clutter, and 3) getting rid of stuff that makes the place look smaller. I'd probably only consider hiring a professional if I were selling a place that is well above the price we paid for this one.
Yep, de-cluttering is one of the most important things a home seller can do, and many don't bother doing it.

[Iowanian]

I've never done it, but it makes complete sense to me that for the right price it would be money well spent.

I know that when you look at an empty house, it doesn't feel as livable, you can see every ding in the drywall, stain on the carpet, bad corner on trim......and sometimes its hard to "see" how you might use a space.

I suppose its just as bad to be too far the opposite though, as I know real estate folks will tell you not to have too many "personal items" like photos and goofy trinkets around so the potential buyer can imagine their stuff in the house.

Get rid of extra crap, store stuff so a house doesn't look smaller than it really is, or cluttered as they said above.

Dust, even things like the ceiling fans...

[ChiefsCountry]

They do it all the time on HGTV.

[Buehler445]

I've never done it, but it makes complete sense to me that for the right price it would be money well spent.

I know that when you look at an empty house, it doesn't feel as livable, you can see every ding in the drywall, stain on the carpet, bad corner on trim......and sometimes its hard to "see" how you might use a space.

I suppose its just as bad to be too far the opposite though, as I know real estate folks will tell you not to have too many "personal items" like photos and goofy trinkets around so the potential buyer can imagine their stuff in the house.

Get rid of extra crap, store stuff so a house doesn't look smaller than it really is, or cluttered as they said above.

Dust, even things like the ceiling fans...


I toured a house and got incredibly turned off of one of the houses because it was dirty, and finally my wife said, "we can clean it you know..." She's right, but it still had a tremendous effect on me.

[KChiefs1]

What would sell better? An empty house or a staged house?

[ChiefsCountry]

What would sell better? An empty house or a staged house?

I would assume a staged house as most people have a hard time mentally picturing furniture in a spot.

[KChiefs1]

I would assume a staged house as most people have a hard time mentally picturing furniture in a spot.

How much would it cost to stage an empty house? That's a lot of furniture.

[ChiefsCountry]

How much would it cost to stage an empty house? That's a lot of furniture.

I have no clue I dated a chick who was going into this as a career, hey doomy whats the average cost? I would assume the furniture is rented.

[Bugeater]

How much would it cost to stage an empty house? That's a lot of furniture.
I'm pretty sure they just rent the furniture, but it still has to be fairly expensive. It wouldn't be cost effective on a lower end home.

[T-post Tom]

Just expanded my definition of "fluffer". As in "home fluffer."

[Abba-Dabba]

To the average home buyer it can mean something. However, those that want to buy a home that are looking at the quality of home rather than what somebody else's furniture looks like in it, it doesn't mean squat. Any realtor or property manager I have met that is looking to buy or manage a property would prefer that the home is not staged. It has been my experience that it raises a red flag with them. A seller can hide many problems with a couple coats of paint, when you add furniture into the mix, well, you get the jist of it.

Myself, I prefer a home not to be staged. I want to see the cracks and crevices. I want to see that there aren't any signs of water damage. I want to see that previous repairs, if any, have been properly done. I prefer an empty house. Any foul smells or noticeable signs of abuse that would require extensive attention with money, or time, I'm moving on from in heartbeat. When looking at a home I can tell within the first 10mins if I'm interested or not.

[luv]

Very effective. Why wouldnt you stage it yourself??

I would. I was thinking about making a career out of it. Just getting an idea on how people around the midwest felt about it.

[MahiMike]

Imperitive these days.

[Skip Towne]

Only if Veronica Monteongo did the staging. I like looking at her.

[Stewie]

A colleague of mine had trouble selling his house last year. He hired an interior designer to stage his house and when she was done his wife was reallly impressed and joked about not moving. They sold the house shortly thereafter (it had been on the market four months).

[RINGLEADER]

Doesn't do anything for me -- but I'm sure some find it has a value.

I was blown away how expensive it is though (at least out here in California). You could almost buy the furniture for what they charge!

[Brock]

To me it makes no sense. You're paying somebody to make your home seem like someplace people would like to live. What have you been doing the whole time you've been living there?

[luv]

To me it makes no sense. You're paying somebody to make your home seem like someplace people would like to live. What have you been doing the whole time you've been living there?

Painting walls odd colors, putting up personal pictures, arranging furniture to suit your life, and collecting clutter. Sometimes it takes a fresh set of eyes to see past what you're used to.

[Kerberos]

I would think if you are selling a $200,000+ house then home staging would be a worth wile investment. If you have a $50,000 shanty then staging probably wouldn't make or break you. IMO

[Brock]

Painting walls odd colors, putting up personal pictures, arranging furniture to suit your life, and collecting clutter. Sometimes it takes a fresh set of eyes to see past what you're used to.

Okay, so don't paint your walls odd colors, take down your personal pictures, re-arrange your furniture, and stow the clutter, and pocket the 10 grand.

[Kerberos]

Only if Veronica Montelongo did the staging. I like looking at her.

Armando doesn't mind as long as you pay for the service. ;)

[Donger]

We sold our house in Colorado in 22 days, which is stunning. The wife stages as a side job/hobby and she staged ours perfectly. Just remember: it isn't what you like, it's what the buyer likes.

[luv]

Okay, so don't paint your walls odd colors, take down your personal pictures, re-arrange your furniture, and stow the clutter, and pocket the 10 grand.

Exactly, but people are either too lazy to do that, or they're insane. They may think that something is "cool" or "normal" that doesn't appeal to anyone besides themselves. Stagers also keep up on latest trends and what's selling, where some home owners are clueless.

[luv]

We sold our house in Colorado in 22 days, which is stunning. The wife stages as a side job/hobby and she staged ours perfectly. Just remember: it isn't what you like, it's what the buyer likes.

Exactly. People get so attached to their homes that they think other people should like it for the same reasons they do.

[Bugeater]

Exactly, but people are either too lazy to do that, or they're insane. They may think that something is "cool" or "normal" that doesn't appeal to anyone besides themselves. Stagers also keep up on latest trends and what's selling, where some home owners are clueless.
Many of them are just that, you wouldn't believe some of the colors I put in people's homes. I recently painted an entire upper level of a nice home an electric yellow-orange with two green accent walls. WTF.

[DaFace]

We sold our house in Colorado in 22 days, which is stunning. The wife stages as a side job/hobby and she staged ours perfectly. Just remember: it isn't what you like, it's what the buyer likes.

I've got you beat. The house we bought had only been on the market 4 days when we had a contract in place.

[underEJ]

I spent forever looking all three times I've bought, and I can always tell in less than a minute if I'll make an offer. This time, 5 months ago, was the first time I made an offer on a home that was not empty. I always prefer an empty and clean house to imagine my occupation. Other people's crap is a distraction, especially if other people have funky smells. This time the house was still occupied by the owner, but I had looked at it empty 2 years ago and not made an offer, only because it was overpriced.

I'm a buyer that always knows what I want, and that's an uncomplicated transaction. People still in the house, especially if there is clutter that isn't moving boxes, says "We're not ready yet."

[luv]

I spent forever looking all three times I've bought, and I can always tell in less than a minute if I'll make an offer. This time, 5 months ago, was the first time I made an offer on a home that was not empty. I always prefer an empty and clean house to imagine my occupation. Other people's crap is a distraction, especially if other people have funky smells. This time the house was still occupied by the owner, but I had looked at it empty 2 years ago and not made an offer, only because it was overpriced.

I'm a buyer that always knows what I want, and that's an uncomplicated transaction. People still in the house, especially if there is clutter that isn't moving boxes, says "We're not ready yet."

I know that the average buyer makes his first impression within 8 seconds of walking in the door.

[Stewie]

I know that the average buyer makes his first impression within 8 seconds of walking in the door.

When I was house hunting I'd only inquire about a particular house about 5% of the time due to poor curb appeal. Curb appeal is more than landscaping; it's neighborhood, traffic, location, etc., and it's a big deal. The houses I liked from the street would be followed through with a call to the realtor/homeowner to see inside. Most of them were just messed up and it would have cost $1000s to get it up to date, or in working order. Not worth it unless they were willing to deal.

As for staging, there are different levels of involvement. My friend had an interior designer/stager come over for a couple of hours and tell them what needed to be done. It cost him about $300 and he did all the things she told him to do with great success (as I mentioned in the previous post). If you want to be hands-off and have the interior designer hire Moe and Curly to move stuff around, etc., it will cost significantly more. Changing colors, etc. will add to the bill even more. At that point it may be better to negotiate the sale price because the new owners will probably want their own colors, wallpaper, carpet, when they move in.

[Stewie]

BTW Luv, if you're serious about getting into this stuff take interior design classes at your local JUCO. There's lots of money to be made in stuff as simple as window dressings. As a professional designer you get wholesale pricing on goods and make you're money on the markup plus your time. It's a good deal, but you need to be creative and up on the latest trends.

[luv]

This is something I enjoy talking about doing, thinking about doing, etc. I'm saying that less and less about my current job. I'm researching certifications to see how much they cost to get, and then I'm going to see if there's a firm or whatever that hires people and makes teams (designers, painters, movers, etc). Here I am over 30 and looking to make a career change.

[Simplex3]

When my wife and I were buying we toured a house that the people had naked pics of their kids in the bathtub on the fridge in the kitchen. They also had a GIANT photo of them on their wedding day hanging up in the entrance of the house. Total turn-off. If you're that dumb, hire a person to stage your home. Nobody will be able to imagine themselves in your house if there are pictures of you all over the place.

[Simplex3]

On the flip side, we paid an interior decorator to pick colors when we repainted the entire interior of the house and that was worth every penny. Cost me about $400 for the consult and I didn't have to look at paint chips and have long, drawn out discussions with my wife where I pretended I gave a shit about the slight shade difference between two colors.

[Stewie]

On the flip side, we paid an interior decorator to pick colors when we repainted the entire interior of the house and that was worth every penny. Cost me about $400 for the consult and I didn't have to look at paint chips and have long, drawn out discussions with my wife where I pretended I gave a shit about the slight shade difference between two colors.

After my parents moved from a large house for all us kids to a new down-sizer, I thought they were going to divorce over shades of drapes, carpets, wood stain, etc. It was ridiculous to us kids and amazing that things so trivial were so important to them.

[Buehler445]

After my parents moved from a large house for all us kids to a new down-sizer, I thought they were going to divorce over shades of drapes, carpets, wood stain, etc. It was ridiculous to us kids and amazing that things so trivial were so important to them.

Mine too dude. Except theirs was over some remodeling.

They'd make a decision and then my dad would change his mind and want it a different way or challenge mom's design and holy fuuuuuuck.

What the fuck ever. Just freaking decide on shit upfront and get the shit done.
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[Buehler445]

This is something I enjoy talking about doing, thinking about doing, etc. I'm saying that less and less about my current job. I'm researching certifications to see how much they cost to get, and then I'm going to see if there's a firm or whatever that hires people and makes teams (designers, painters, movers, etc). Here I am over 30 and looking to make a career change.

If I were you I'd do it on the side, after work, in a consulting set up. That way you'll at least be able to gauge if there is enough demand for you to sustain yourself.

And then there won't be much sunk cost if you can't make it work.
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