To Stage or Not To Stage - It's No Brainer

In today's real estate market, every advantage counts.  When selling your home, the most important factor is, of course, price.  If a house is priced above the market value, even by just a few thousand dollars, it is very possible that the best buyer for that house will not even look at it because there are so many properties available in so many price ranges.  One of the very best seller advanatages you can use, and it is not very costly, is to have your house staged by a professional stager. 

As an example, in Clearwater, FL in Pinellas County, in the $200,000 to $25,000 price range there are 86 houses for sale.  According to the statistics published by the Pinellas Realtor Organization, in this price range county wide the absorption rate is 7.5%.  This means that for Clearwater, of the 86 houses for sale, 7 will sell in the next 30 days.  If you assume that the house is priced right, one of the next best advantages is to have the house staged by a professional stager.  Some interesting statistics, from houses in the greater Tampa Bay area, show that of 9 properties that recently sold, the average days on market was 150.  Of these, 6 were not staged for over 100 or more days.  Three were listed and staged at the outset.  The three that were staged from the beginning sold in 29, 3 and 28 days.  All told, the 9 houses averaged 150+ days on market, however the time to contract after each was staged by a professional stager was 20 days on market.  Even one house that had been on the market for 9 months went under contract in 21 days after being staged.

The bottom line is price your house right for the market and then to have an almost unfair advantage, have it staged by a professional stager.