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Post by librarylady on Aug 25, 2022 18:29:50 GMT
Staging a home was not a thing when I last purchased a home.
As I comprehend it, the homeowner's things are removed and pretty furniture and accessories brought in for the photos and viewing and remain there until the sale. Is that correct?
...and that would mean that a home that takes 90+ days to sell would have to keep everything as is until it sells?
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Post by christine58 on Aug 25, 2022 18:31:57 GMT
No. They use their own furniture. You just have someone come in and rearrange it, clean up all the clutter, and make it nicer.
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kibblesandbits
Pearl Clutcher
At the corner of Awesome and Bombdiggity
Posts: 3,305
Aug 13, 2016 13:47:39 GMT
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Post by kibblesandbits on Aug 25, 2022 18:33:09 GMT
A good portion of the owners things are removed - things that are personal in nature such as family photos, knick knacks, brick a brack, etc. Extra furniture that impedes movement through the house is removed. Carpets are cleaned, counters are cleared, window treatments are either removed or updated. It basically becomes a space open enough for potential buyers to envision their own things there.
Some homes are professionally staged, and by that I mean furniture, rugs, decor are brought in to stage each room appropriately. That often happens with new builds or homes that are already vacant.
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Post by myshelly on Aug 25, 2022 18:35:39 GMT
If you have a good realtor, staging the home is usually part of their services.
They advise you on what to remove and it gets packed up at stored somewhere. They advise you on small changes you can make to make the home more appealing to buyers.
Then, they often bring in things that make a big difference in a room. Sometimes it’s furniture. Sometimes art, flowers, accessories. Sometimes it’s just for an open house, sometimes they leave the home that way the whole time it’s on the market.
Frankly, your sister has a shitty realtor. There’s no way any good realtor would have used the photos in her listing.
Look at the Facebook Page Lindsay Wilcox Howard Realtor. She posts lots of examples of no cost staging that she does for her clients.
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Post by librarylady on Aug 25, 2022 18:38:09 GMT
Thanks for the information. Now, how to present this to my sister.....
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Post by myshelly on Aug 25, 2022 18:39:21 GMT
ETA to my prior post:
Some good examples are her posts from Aug 3, 2021 July 27, 2021 June 22, 2021
Again, this should be included in a realtor’s services and I would certainly expect it in a realtor for a house at that price point.
This is a realtor who is local to you, so this isn’t a varies by region thing. It’s a good realtor vs lazy realtor thing.
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Post by mom2jnk on Aug 25, 2022 18:41:14 GMT
In our area, stagers are closely affiliated with the major real estate companies and they will come in and advise clients on how best to work with their own furnishings, unless they are staging a home that is newly constructed or on display for a home show. A stager will help a seller to declutter and remove personal belongings, rearrange furniture for the best footprint, and help prepare for professional photographers. Typically, they won't provide other furnishing or accessories unless there is a need. Most people have plenty of stuff to work with; stagers just "clear the stage" so to speak. Some stagers around here also work with local furniture companies for larger or more prestigious gigs and then display small, tasteful signage indicating where one could go to purchase the furnishings.
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Post by CardBoxer on Aug 25, 2022 18:59:36 GMT
Staging a home was not a thing when I last purchased a home.
As I comprehend it, the homeowner's things are removed and pretty furniture and accessories brought in for the photos and viewing and remain there until the sale. Is that correct?
...and that would mean that a home that takes 90+ days to sell would have to keep everything as is until it sells?
It depends. A real estate broker used to hire a stager and me to look at each house she listed. The stager used the homeowners’ own furnishings to stage the house. The houses usually had too much in them so he’d store pieces and box up a lot of random stuff. He often rearranged furniture. (I’d do a quick color consultation to advise if painting was needed in all or part of the house.) It was a buyer’s market and the broker was smart. She spent her own money hiring us and if needed, painters. But it paid off. During a period when houses would go unsold for long time, or prices severely cut, her listings regularly sold very quickly—and weren’t underpriced.
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Post by calgaryscrapper on Aug 25, 2022 19:00:59 GMT
I have been thinking about the staging posts here at 2peas. People use them here. I also see items for sale that they have been used to stage a house. When you think about it a couple of thousand dollars can be money well spent to have a quicker sale of your home. A few years ago we tried to sell my Dad’s home with nothing in it. We had many showings but no offers. We had painted etc. We went with a new Realtor and she made recommendations such as removing the room air conditioner from the dining area (we set it in the garage) and staging the house. My Brother staged it with furniture he had. The new Realtor quickly brought two offers to the table. One at full asking price and one $10,000 less. We took the one with full asking price. Years ago my Brother and Sister in law were trying to sell their mobile home and had no offers. From information learned here and on television I suggested they could remove some furniture and depersonalize their home. No family pictures on view (you want them to imagine their family in the house, no Knick knacks or very few Knick knacks on the shelves and limited number of generic pictures on the walls. It then didn’t take long to sell.
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Post by ~summer~ on Aug 25, 2022 19:07:19 GMT
We had our home staged 20 years ago - it was 90% not our furniture.
We had 2 little kids and I was pregnant - we moved out of our house into a rental - stagers came in and completely redid interior and then house sold with multiple offers way over asking.
Basically every house for sale in Bay Area is completely staged it seems.
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Post by cadoodlebug on Aug 25, 2022 19:24:22 GMT
When we sold our home, the stager came and told us what pieces of ours she would use: our dining room set, sofas in the living room and family room, our king bed in our bedroom, etc. She had us leave some accessory pieces too. We used her a lot for DH's listings and usually the clients moved out and she brought in furniture and accessory pieces. She was amazing.
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Post by 950nancy on Aug 25, 2022 19:24:29 GMT
Our realtor had a company come in and give a booklet filled out for each room with what could stay. Thankfully we had already purchased a home before we put ours up for sale, so we had the weekend to move everything out of the house that needed to be moved prior to pictures and we sold right away, so we were lucky to only be without the few furniture pieces for a few days.
ETA: The home we purchased was staged by a company and I know they paid 5k to have it staged for a weekend. Kind of crazy. And the furniture they staged it with was pretty old and had a distinctive smell. The garage was still filled with the owner's stuff though.
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Post by silverlining on Aug 25, 2022 19:45:17 GMT
Thanks for the information. Now, how to present this to my sister..... Maybe you can talk about the commission the realtor will earn, and the work he/she is putting into selling it, and you can get a feel for how she feels about the job her realtor is doing. You can present it as wanting your sister to get the maximum value from the agent, and wanting her to get the best offer possible. Without mentioning clutter, you can talk about how buyers might not have good imaginations about how it will look with their own photos and artwork and furniture, and it helps them to have lots of open space and impersonal decorations. Reassure her that she's paying good money to the agent, and can ask for help getting the house ready, and can ask that photos be taken again which show the house at its very best. The best idea is to find some homes in her area that sold quickly and for the asking price or higher, and to look at the type of photos the agent used. That would help her to see the difference, and to appreciate the help that some agents provide the sellers.
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Post by workingclassdog on Aug 25, 2022 19:54:32 GMT
I also think it depends on your market and price point. In my market (at least months ago when the houses were selling as soon as they were listed) you didn't need to stage in our price range (which is around $250,000-$375,000, which now is almost a starting price point in our area)... my realtor friend said all her houses have sold 'as is' in this range. And basically you really just needed to declutter, get rid of personal items, clean, make it pretty on your own, common sense stuff)... Higher the price of the house then more staging if you wanted.
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rodeomom
Pearl Clutcher
Refupee # 380 "I don't have to run fast, I just have to run faster than you."
Posts: 3,670
Location: Chickasaw Nation, Oklahoma
Jun 25, 2014 23:34:38 GMT
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Post by rodeomom on Aug 25, 2022 20:21:47 GMT
I remember looking at your sisters property when you posted the link. (could you post again?) She's about two hours from me and closer to family. It's a nice place. It does need LOTS of decluttering.
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CeeScraps
Pearl Clutcher
~~occupied entertaining my brain~~
Posts: 3,894
Jun 26, 2014 12:56:40 GMT
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Post by CeeScraps on Aug 25, 2022 20:56:17 GMT
We just sold our home. The realtor had us remove as much as we could. We had 1 recliner, an end table, and tv on the main floor. This floor had a kitchen, family room, living room, and 3 season room.
Upstairs were 4 bedrooms. The master had a full sized bed and nightstand in it.
Basement had nothing and it was finished with 2 extra rooms in it.
My husband was still working and living in the home while it was up for sale. Our home sold in 2 hours of it being listed.
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Post by librarylady on Aug 25, 2022 21:34:14 GMT
I remember looking at your sisters property when you posted the link. (could you post again?) She's about two hours from me and closer to family. It's a nice place. It does need LOTS of decluttering. I remember when I first looked at her listing I thought on some rooms, "Why didn't they straighten that up?"
After the information on this thread, I can see MANY things that need to be done. And, I agree, her agent is not knowledgeable or thinks the market will make it sell itself. Even when I last sold a home, there were no rooms that looked like her office (which presents as a junk room in the photos). She should have known better and that agent should have informed her that "you can't have a room looking like this and expect a buyer to come."
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Post by epeanymous on Aug 25, 2022 21:47:37 GMT
I've had stagers for both the homes I owned. In addition to removing clutter, neutralizing decor, bringing in furniture/decor, etc, sometimes they will do things like painting a room that isn't an updated color or putting an updated area rug over a floor that isn't updated. It helps a lot both to get people into the house and to get them seeing themselves in your home once they are in. It can be hard sometimes not to take it personally -- I like my decor! I don't think that room is cluttered! -- but the goal is to sell.
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Post by leannec on Aug 25, 2022 21:51:48 GMT
I'm sure you have seen my staged house on the other thread. The stager has used my dining table, beds and artwork on the walls ... that's it ... everything else (which isn't a lot as I am downsizing and got rid of a lot of things) is in a cargo trailer elsewhere ... Ex, who owns the house with me, is the realtor so we are both paying the stager ... it's worth it to me because we have gotten really great feedback ... no sale yet though. I'm not a packrat and I still needed to throw away and donate so much stuff! Selling is hard!
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Post by Scrapper100 on Aug 25, 2022 22:14:58 GMT
We didn’t have a stager but got a storage unit and moved a lot of stuff out. It makes the house look larger. We also repainted several rooms to freshen them. You don’t want any clutter as you want people to be able to see past your stuff snd envision their things in your home. I think moving stuff into storage also helps when you actually move as a lot of your stuff is already packed. I loved having almost nothing on any surfaces to it made cleaning so much easier. It also made leaving so the house could be shown with only a few minutes notice easy to.
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Post by gar on Aug 25, 2022 22:19:03 GMT
The big thing I remember about your sister’s property was that all the photos were focused too high and showed lots of ceiling but I couldn’t see the floor space enough.
I hope you figure out how to put it to her without upsetting her 😊
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Post by kamper on Aug 26, 2022 0:06:25 GMT
No. They use their own furniture. You just have someone come in and rearrange it, clean up all the clutter, and make it nicer. This was our experience and the realtor paid for the service.
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Post by melanell on Aug 26, 2022 0:30:45 GMT
In cases of an empty house stagers can definitely bring in furniture to put in the rooms. Many houses in our area are still sold without staging. Some could use some---especially the empty ones. And some look over staged to me. They kind of scream "We purposely chose items to make these rooms look larger and to make the storage look adequate, when neither are actually the case." I like a house to look like it has someone living in it and loving it. I like there to be personality. But I don't like them to be cluttered. So I tend to think a good clean and removal of extra stuff can be just as good as staging a home, and I know many realtors will offer great advice on doing that-----but whether the sellers will listen is an entirely different matter.
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Post by Crack-a-lackin on Aug 26, 2022 1:16:02 GMT
It probably feels overwhelming and maybe unnecessary to your sister to clear out everything and rent a storage unit for her items but she’s moving and needs to start packing anyway. In the end it’s not much extra work, she’s just doing it earlier than she planned.
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Post by librarylady on Aug 26, 2022 1:23:35 GMT
After all that I have learned here--I wonder if this realtor has sold many homes or is just getting started.
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Post by Lexica on Aug 26, 2022 1:32:17 GMT
My realtor paid for the staging of my house. They used a mix of my furniture and they brought some in. The girl came to my house with the realtor and they walked through it, the realtor telling her what he liked of my stuff and what he wanted done. Then I packed the majority of my things into pods. The stagers then came and brought in living room and family room furniture and accessories for the other rooms. They hung pictures, put pillows and a comforter on my bed, and they even hung drapes in the living room and dining room. That part surprised me. They were very efficient. It was two girls that have done this for about 6 years together.
To be honest, I wasn't sure staging the house was necessary. I knew I was going to have most of my stuff out of the house anyway. But seeing it after they staged it, I was impressed. It did make a big difference over just the empty rooms.
People looking at houses are weird. Some come through an open house specifically to steal things. They split up and one keeps the realtor busy with questions while the other pockets what they can carry. I have even heard of a situation where they stuck a larger item into the bushes in the back yard and returned to get it after dark.
Also, parents don't really monitor their children. I had kids jumping on my bed, climbing into the closets, opening drawers, etc. My neighbors were here and told me what was going on during the open house. I had a friend have some expensive necklaces stolen from her home, another had medication taken. I made sure all of my personal things were either locked up or I put them in the car with me when I left for a showing. She is going to be packing up anyway, so she may as well get it done now so that the house is devoid of personal things. You want the buyer to picture their stuff in the house. If you have too much stuff in there, it is harder for them to do.
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Post by Spongemom Scrappants on Aug 26, 2022 1:59:20 GMT
The most recent home I sold (2020) was basically empty at our realtor's request. we moved to our new home and then put the old home on the market. There were only a few random pieces of furniture that we did not take left at that house. Enough for someone to sit for a moment or pause at a table to sign a paper. No bedroom furniture and no accessories at all. It didn't seem to hurt the sale at all. But admittedly, our market may be quite a bit different from others and it was in the early stages of the pandemic.
I have bought and sold seven-eight homes throughout the years. I have often preferred seeing empty homes - blank slates. I have no trouble visualizing what a home can be for me with my own furniture and my own touches. I'm more often distracted by seeing the evidence of others' living there. It's entirely possible though that I may be a minority in this view.
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Post by bc2ca on Aug 26, 2022 2:09:18 GMT
Frankly, your sister has a shitty realtor. There’s no way any good realtor would have used the photos in her listing. After all that I have learned here--I wonder if this realtor has sold many homes or is just getting started. It could be, or it could be an older realtor who hasn't bought into the modern way of staging to sell. Or do you think your sister might have resisted the idea of staging the house and clearing things out? But that still doesn't excuse the cluttered rooms. Clutter never reads as well-maintained to a buyer. FWIW, it bugs me that the realtor's information isn't on the listing linked. I was curious to see what other listing she has and if they are staged. As others have said, staging can be with your own furniture but really needs to be dramatically edited so show the space. Is your sister looking at properties for her move yet? Any way you could talk through what looks appealing to her in those listing as I doubt she will be drawn to a cluttered house. Or take a serious look at the photos of her comps and gently lead her to the idea of boxing up half her things. FWIW, we had 2 properties in our neighborhood for sale. The first was empty and looked tired (carpet/paint) and sat for four weeks before dropping their price. The second listing came on the market more than $100,000 higher, beautifully staged with a major renovation flaw. I told DH the second would sell first because of the staging (despite the flaw) and it did. The first house ended up with a second price drop and another couple weeks on the market.
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Post by crimsoncat05 on Aug 26, 2022 2:16:07 GMT
It probably feels overwhelming and maybe unnecessary to your sister to clear out everything and rent a storage unit for her items but she’s moving and needs to start packing anyway. In the end it’s not much extra work, she’s just doing it earlier than she planned. You kind of have to look at it like, “this isn’t *my* house anymore— I’m moving on…” so mentally, you can think about it from the potential buyer’s perspective. Too many of your photos, knickknacks, clutter, etc. and it becomes harder for that potential buyer to say “I can picture us living here with our stuff” because there’s too much of the *old* stuff still around. When we were getting ready to list our house, my DH was reluctant to start packing ANYthing. I continually reminded him “this is NOT *our* home any more; we need to let someone else be able to visualize what they’ll do with it!” (Plus, I knew it would take a LOT longer than he thought it would to pack up all of our crap, lol!) we sort of “staged” our house with our own furniture after consulting with our realtor. They suggested removing ALL of our personal pictures and all the decorative clutter, and leaving only the main furniture pieces. (We put the rest of it in the garage, waiting for moving day.) Our realtors took the pics themselves, making sure to have really bright sunshine, all the lights, on, etc., and we even had them come back and retake a couple of them after we looked at them.
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Post by mikklynn on Aug 26, 2022 12:06:56 GMT
I would point out the staged houses often sell for more than unstaged houses.
I know my previous neighbors got way less than they should have because they had a realtor that didn't know the area and the house needed staging desperately. It had way too much stuff in it. It didn't sell until they moved out and it was empty.
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