At last weekend's Real Estate Staging Association's National Conference (RESA), Showhomes released the following stats based on a survey of almost 500 Realtors from all over the county:

You are welcome to use these stats as long as you credit them to Showhomes.

We've begun using these stats in our pitches to homeowners and Realtors and they are really getting people to slow down. Everyone knows that a fully staged home is more attractive, sells much faster and sells faster but when this many professional give their industry input, it presents the need for staging in a whole new way.

It also raises some good questions that those who represent sellers should think about:

If 96% of Realtors say buyers react better to staged homes and 94% of them say staged homes sell faster and 94% say vacant homes sell for far less money than staged homes, is it really professional not to educate your owner about all staging options available to them and do a good job of illustrating the implications of not staging the home?

I know and work with a lot of Realtors. In my job at Showhomes, I get to work with Realtors from all over the country and few of the professional  Realtors I know would hesitate to be open and honest to a homeowner about how their vacant home is going to show. Unfortunately, these Realtors do not make up the majority and the real estate industry has been very slow to fully educate Realtors on the issues surrounding vacant homes and sale times / prices. As a result, some very well intentioned Realtors give stunningly bad advice or simply do nothing.

I beleive the real estate market will take a long time to get to 'normal' and that staging is going to play an increasingly important role in how quickly a home sells and how high it sells for in the decade ahead.

What do you think?

Thomas Scott

www.showhomes.com

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