I read a post this afternoon that got me to thinking - Yes, I know, that could be dangerous. Broker Bryant wrote a great post in which he put out a few questions trying to wrap his mind around the value proposition of home staging. If you haven't read it, click on over and check it out. As usual, it's a great discussion.
We build homes as well as sell existing homes and I do see some value in staging our new construction and vacant homes. I don't stage every project but have staged a few in the past for various reasons. When I think staging, it's to turn a blank canvas, so to speak, into a picture of a "home" the buyer can envision living in. That involves furniture and accent pieces as appropriate, at least to me.
In reading Bryant's post I read several comments from stagers that just amazed me. First, many are calling cleaning, decluttering, painting, replacing carpet, filling in grout, etc. as staging. I'm not quite sure why I would recommend a client pay a stager to tell them to do the things I can and often do recommend they do before putting the house on the market. One actually mentioned decluttering and painting one room for a client for $800. $800?! I can have the entire interior of a 1,500 sq. ft. ranch pained for $1,100. I guess my first thought is what in the world is the listing agent doing while the stager is giving all this sage advice? Sitting in the living room chowing down on Cheetos while ocassionally nodding and saying "yep, yep, that's good."
Granted, I'm not a professional stager but helping the seller prep the house for the market is part of my job. I suppose some agents would appreciate having someone else talk to the seller about his/her cleanliness... or lack thereof; sort of a way to establish the validity of the agent’s opinion about condition. The challenge there is the agent that falls to that tack probably doesn't have what it takes to tell the seller what he needs to hear about price, so all the staging in the world won't help when "they" overprice the property.
Then there's the argument that staging increases the intrinsic value of a property - some have even relayed tales of market withered homes that after being professionally staged went under contract in record time. What we don't always get is the whole story. House sits on the market for two years at $450,000 (i.e. it's vastly overpriced to begin with) with two listing agents. The third brings in a stager and BOOM - the house sells. The magic question here is... at what price? $315,000? In that case the lamps and fresh towels didn't sell it; they could have staged the house with a new Porsche in the living room with a big red bow and it wouldn't have sold without the price reduction.
We know a couple of professionals that truly set a beautiful stage (pardon the pun) but when we're talking about actually selling the property, it's still all about price. All the staging in the world will not overcome an absurdly overpriced listing. Staging, at least as it's being described as an agent of decluttering, seems to be an industry trying to cash in on the failings of lazy or incompetent agents.
Heck, I help clients with "market prep" every day - can I tack on an additional $800 at closing for my staging services? :)
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Jesse & Kathy Clifton, better known as 'The Spouses' are full time Realtors serving Fairbanks Alaska buyers and sellers. They specialize in residential real estate; new and existing construction as well as undeveloped land in Fairbanks, North Pole, Ft. Wainwright, Eielson Air Force Base and Interior Alaska. Visit their website to review the fee market reports designed to keep you updated on the local Fairbanks Alaska real estate market. Have specific questions? Feel free to contact them anytime. They would love to hear from you.
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