Every open house that I sat with an agent that was staged seems to generate a "buzz" about it as people walk through.  I'm helping on a vacant home and I sure wish it was staged.  REO though!

We have done staging before. It can be dangerous as one single young man hated the home decor in our new listing and said it looked like his mom's house! He was 26 and my stager is 50 yrs old. Yikes! Hopefully he is out of the demo and is in the minority.

Mark, That buzz is exciting for the Realtors, the Sellers and for the Buyers! It is a win-win-win situation!

Wolters, Hopefully your home stager is professional enough to stage to the general demographics rather than personal taste!

On this listing, it would probably be about a $20,000 difference in sales price.

Good blog, Angela.  I have a list of hints on how to make your house show better.  Lots of people will go step by step through it and the house looks so good.  Alas, if they live in the house it sometimes goes back to the original look quickly.  Do you go back and make sure they are keeping the house nicely?  : )

Ahem,

RE: 50 year old stagers.........

As a person who is careening towards his 50th birthday, I must take umbrage at the following post:

".....said it looked like his mom's house!

He was 26 and my stager is 50 yrs old. Yikes!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Whippersnappers:

Are we 'yikesing' about how marvelous it is that some decrepit 50 year old, is able to ween themselve from the Geritol for a few minutes to come place crocheted toilet tissue covers and call it a staging???

Possibly I see the situation in this light:  This 26 year old twit (no offense to the 26 year olds -and no offense to the twits for that matter), couldn't see what a marvelous job my mature, sensible, and experienced stager executed in this staging. 

Truly it is remarkable that I'm able to stay awake long enough during the day to run/shuffle off to the early bird special!   Truly it's remarkable that I'm able to coordinate my addled thoughts, so that a 4 bedroom home can be staged with only 4 days notice.  I'm incredulous that the withered edges of my Social Security card (written on parchment) still boast the original numbers and graphics (although due to the advanced age of the card it's written in hieroglyphics)!  Imagine my delight when the AARP (whom I thought provided road service......no that's AAA), anyway, imagine my delight when the AARP send me my membership card. 

So, please be kind to your 50 year old stagers.  Obviously (due to our advanced years, and decreptitude) we'll not be here much longer, to bother you, and it pleases us so much to be of some small value to the community!

Who, me sensitive about turning 50..........nah! Hehehe!

Happy Staging Y'all.......if you need me, I'll be napping!

Barbara, I commend you for helping your home owners with valuable ideas for preparing their home. It is most difficult to keep an occupied home in top showing condition - especially with kids! I do often follow-up with my clients to "check-in" with them and keep their excitement up about selling the home. This helps in motivating them to keep the house in it's best condition for showings. It also gives them the opportunity to ask questions and for me to build their confidence in their Realtor.  Also, most of my staging involves helping the home owners pack away and store many of their personal belongings, then to change the layout of the furnishings in the home and even paint some walls as needed. So things that I do in my stagings are not often "undone" but the home owners always need motivation to keep the house clean and uncluttered. Some of my clients have felt like they had a personal organizer help them straighten out their lives and don't ever want to go back. They see how efficiently they can live in their home and realize more potential for the storage spaces and room functionality. It may take time to keep in contact with your home owners, but by doing so you are keeping everyone optimistic and pleased with the level of attention you are giving them. Thanks for your comments!

Tom, your post was so entertaining! 50 is so young! And hey, experience is a very valuable asset! I do hope that you were not offended by Gary and Melynda Wolter's comment. As I stated before, a true professional will set aside personal taste (age being irrelavent) and stage to the demographics the Realtor is targeting. I am so glad you shared your wit and humor with us. I have laughed for days over it! :)

I think there are quite a few 50+ year old stagers on Active Rain.

When Realtors give advice there is a little flutter in that seller /Realtor relationship that doesn't happen when a staging professional is brought in.  The stager works and leaves and the other two are left with each other.  A stager gets very little in comparison to a Realtor and has no ulterior motive but to get the house in its best selling position.

Most agents I encounter only go as far as de-clutter and clean.  That is a good starting point, but there is so much more. 

This is why I laugh when agents advertise that they provide their own staging services.  There is something to be said about the credibility that a neutral, 3rd party professional can offer in support of whatever the agent has already told the seller. So many benefits. 

Realtors have a tough job.  They need to leave this part to the stagers.  Over all they will see their homes show better and sell faster.

Declutter and Clean is the first advice we give, but in this market we now advise hiring stagers and now even have Staging designations for agents.