Staging home for sale - what do you think?

[moneybags]

We're getting ready to list our home. The realtor brought in a stager who had a lot of recommendations. I am not interesting in putting a lot of money into the house. What do you think about staging? What are some of the "must do" things? Some of the feed back we got was to clean carpets, clean all windows inside & out, painting a few rooms, a few walls, doors, etc., adding artwork to several walls, updating light fixtures.

[Jluke]

Unless the things you noted are broken or in complete disarray I would show it as is.

I would do a thorough cleaning so that would include windows that I can reach. Touch up paint where you can.

when I sold our house we did the following ourselves (touched up paint if I had that color, thorough cleaning, sod where the dog had destroyed the yard, paint mailbox post, cleaned siding that had the green stuff on it).

If the realtor insists, suggest that part of their commission covers the costs. You’ll see how important it is at that point if they agree to it.

[disneysteve]

I'm very much a contrarian in this department and I recognize that my views place me in the minority.

I think everything should be clean and in working order and that's about it. And if something is broken, be totally upfront about it.

I don't think you should have to spend a bunch of time and money renovating your house to attract buyers in hopes of getting a few more dollars out of the place or selling it a couple of weeks faster. When we bought our house, we knew there were things we didn't like, wallpaper we'd want to remove, carpet we'd want to replace. But we would much rather be able to do those things to our taste rather than have the seller do them to his taste. As long as everything is clean and functional and move-in ready, that's good enough for me.

Now if you've had the place on the market for ages and it just isn't getting any attention, then it might be time to think about what is turning off potential buyers. But I'd try to sell the place as is first before jumping through a bunch of hoops.

[kork13]

I agree with Steve. I'll fix anything broken, patch paint, fill nail holes, etc., then get it thoroughly cleaned, and onto the market it goes.

When we sold my wife's house after we got married, we had to replace the water heater (actually swapped it from gas to electric) so that it would pass inspection, and repaired the doorbell (which turned out to have a very pretty chime). Those things I saw as necessary. We also went to the effort of tearing off old wallpaper, repainting the room, and a few other cosmetic things around the house. I'm convinced that those cosmetic items so had almost no influence on the house getting sold.

[Fishindude77]

There are a lot of cheap things you can do yourself to make a house much more presentable to get it sold quicker, hopefully for more money.

Thorough cleaning including shampoo carpets
Paint job
Remove all clutter so rooms look bigger
Get the yard and landscaping in good shape, trim hedges & plant flowers
Clean any leaves, sticks or debris off roof
Pressure wash exterior if it needs it
Get the pets and pet odor out
Clean linens on beds, towels and rugs in bathrooms
Etc., etc.

Presentation makes a big difference !

[Singuy]

You can go cheaper and use services which takes professional photos and then stage the house with computer graphics. Much cheaper than spending 2-3k having professionals staging an empty house for a few months. The point is to get people to come and look at the house so having the photos are probably what's most important. You can also just do this yourself without having to pay a company to super impose some furniture into the house. I did it myself when trying to stage what our backyard would look like with furniture.

[Thrif-t]

Another vote for just having it clean and doing simple cosmetic repairs and removing all the CLUTTER!!

[TexasHusker]

We're getting ready to list our home. The realtor brought in a stager who had a lot of recommendations. I am not interesting in putting a lot of money into the house. What do you think about staging? What are some of the "must do" things? Some of the feed back we got was to clean carpets, clean all windows inside & out, painting a few rooms, a few walls, doors, etc., adding artwork to several walls, updating light fixtures.

Hiring a stager and then asking for staging dos and dont's is like hiring a lawyer and then asking the board for legal advice. If the stager is professional, tell the stager your goals and your budget, then go with what they recommend.

Houses that are staged can sell for considerably more. The buyer of the house is the wife. Women have a nesting need, and she will look at the home to ascertain whether or not she can adequately nest there. Staging allows the wife to enter the house and see herself in the house without any imagination.

In my cabin business, we typically will stage our cabins for photographs. A couple of lemonades on the patio table, or the place settings on the dining table. And we hire a professional to take the photos. And not just any photographer. We hire a fellow who specializes in indoor residential photography.

Here is an example of a staged cabin that rents over 300 nights a year. The photos sell the cabin. I would estimate that the staging and photos are worth $8000 to $10,000 per year to us in rents.

https://cabinsneargatlinburg.com/BEARTRACKS.html. Click on the photo gallery.

[bjl584]

Could go either way. A lot of people want to envision a home how they want it, not how someone else has it. But, there are a lot of buyers who aren't that imaginative or interested in decorating, so they may see the "complete" picture of a home when they walk in if it is staged.

It is said that something like 75% of buyers decide if they like a home or not before they walk through the front door. That being said, some time and money put into curb appeal such as a manicured lawn, a clean front porch, and some landscaping might get you further than what's going on inside.