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Vacant and Empty...that's a good thing???

By Ginger Foust

Home Stager with Certified Staging Professional

July 09, 2008 01:15 PM

Often I hear agents say " it's vacant and easy to show". I wonder if they seriously, think that vacant and empty is a good thing? Visualizing what a room can be may be easy for them but for the majority of people it is not.

How do these spaces INSPIRE or make potential buyers want to purchase ? (see after photos below)

before by Dream Interior Redesign and Home Staging, Bass Lake California photo by Dream Interior Redesign and Staging, Coarsegold California

* Empty rooms leave potential buyers with an empty feeling.

* Empty rooms feel cold, and uninspiring.

* Empty rooms give off negative energy.

* Empty rooms usually feel smaller than rooms that are

professionally staged.

* Empty rooms often sound hollow and unappealing.

* Empty rooms do NOT photograph well and shown online there is

NO appeal and there's confusion about what room it is.

* Empty houses have no drama to grab the potential buyers

attention and make them want to live in that house.

Here are the only good things that I can say about an empty room:

* Traffic flow is might be easier when the room is completely empty, not better but easier.

* Empty is better if there was too much clutter in the house and the sellers will not do anything about it.

* Empty is better if the house's condition is not tip-top because staging is not meant to hide flaws and

defects in condition.

In this market every house needs to be the best that it can be AND home staging can help make that happen. Please REMEMBER, home staging is not just adding décor and the pretty stuff. It includes:

*Decluttering

*Neutralizing /Depersonalizing

*Repairing

*Updating

*Cleaning

*Dramatizing

before master master after

MASTER BEDROOM BEFORE MASTER BEDROOM AFTER

The dramatic décor is an important element but the others are also crucial. Call me. I can help your sellers get their house properly and professionally staged...ready to SELL.

HERE are the STAGED rooms from the first two vacant photos.

after by Dream Interior Redesign and Staging, Bass Lake, CA after bedroom by Dream Interior Redesign and Staging Coarsegold CA

Dream Interior Redesign & Staging by Ginger Foust is a full service professional staging and redesign company serving the California foothill and mountain communities of Oakhurst, North Fork, Coarsegold, Ahwahnee, Bass Lake, Wawona and Mariposa. Click here to see a short slideshow with examples of our staging work. Also, visit our website at www.dreamredesigns.com or www.oakhurststaging.com for more information or call 559-877-2442.

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Ginger Foust

Certified Staging Professional - Oakhurst, CA

Home Stager Oakhurst CA, Dream Interior Redesign & Staging

Cathy Lee, that's right. Agents and sellers simply have to get creative with their financing and paying for staging services or too often the house is gone...not sold gone! Thanks for commenting.

Jul 10, 2008 10:41 AM

Ginger Foust

Certified Staging Professional - Oakhurst, CA

Home Stager Oakhurst CA, Dream Interior Redesign & Staging

Kevin that's a very good point. I will have to revise this info. in my flyers that I give to seller's and agents with many of the great additions made here. Yeah AR members!

Kathy N. and Michelle, thanks to both of you I did a small revision of this post, made it into a flyer and included it in my sellers packet for a consult that I did this morning. Now it will go in all of my packets from this day forward. Sometimes the obvious just isn't as clear from this end.

Kathy P. you are so right. Like my before photo of the master bedroom. Do you get as tired as I do seeing these online....what is this EMPTY space. I have to revise my seller/agent flyer to include how empty rooms appear online. THANK YOU!

Jul 10, 2008 10:48 AM

Ginger Foust

Certified Staging Professional - Oakhurst, CA

Home Stager Oakhurst CA, Dream Interior Redesign & Staging

Cheryl, thank you. It does seem so obvious doesn't it. When an agent or seller HAS the ability to picture what it could be, it's surely a hard sell to get staging across. AND I don't think they get it that most people don't have that vision. Thanks for commenting.

Jul 10, 2008 10:52 AM

Ginger Foust

Certified Staging Professional - Oakhurst, CA

Home Stager Oakhurst CA, Dream Interior Redesign & Staging

Betty, I'm so happy to have you comment. Thought you were really gone out playing golf or what have you. Regarding consulting (from another post) why couldn't you consult/advise with agents and sellers and NOT do the physical staging??? Would that be an option? Did you sell the company and sign an agreement not to compete...hope not!

Jul 10, 2008 10:56 AM

Trish Edmonds

Ad Vantage Virtual Tours, LLC - Jacksonville, FL

Ginger,

I absolutely agree that an empty house leaves a very empty feeling for a potential home buyer. As a real estate photographer, I dread photographing empty houses as it is really hard to capture/inspire any emotion and have the impact to entice a viewer to visit/purchase the home. If there are significant architectural details, you can focus on those aspects but still it is suboptimal. However, if no unique details, you're out of luck -- left to boring, blank walls. Even minimal staging can have a huge impact. But, I also agree that I prefer empty to significant clutter that a potential homebuyer can't see past.

Jul 10, 2008 01:53 PM

Ginger Foust

Certified Staging Professional - Oakhurst, CA

Home Stager Oakhurst CA, Dream Interior Redesign & Staging

Trish thanks so much for commenting, it's nice to hear from a pro. photographer. So I guess that I should add to the list; An empty house is difficult for even a professional photographer to make inviting. What do you think?

Keep those comments coming my flyer is becoming better with each!

Jul 10, 2008 03:08 PM

Donna Schoby

Liberty Bank of Arkansas - Bentonville, AR

Ginger, great post, congrats on the feature! You are so right, I have seen empty rooms online and often wonder what room it is. Before and afters really prove the point. I had a Realtor tell me he enjoyed showing new construction vacates, that he felt like it was the same as a new car smell. Fresh and new. Some get it , some don't!

Jul 10, 2008 03:12 PM

Penny Florence

Midvale, UT

So many empty homes stay on the market for soooo long, and the seller wonders why. I have clients that have looked at sooo many homes and most are new builds and vacant, and every time we go in one they always say, I don't know if our furniture will fit, I just can't tell. With homes that are staged you have no question and the home shows sooo much better.

Jul 10, 2008 06:07 PM

Ginger Foust

Certified Staging Professional - Oakhurst, CA

Home Stager Oakhurst CA, Dream Interior Redesign & Staging

Hi Donna, thanks for your comments. We have very little new construction here but many vacants and the smell....how you describe an empty old house smell. You're right and most in my area just don't get it.....YET. (-:

Penny, it's so true. My very first staging in this area was for an agent/seller who kept getting the "this bedroom is too small for a master" comment for all of the showings. SO, I staged primarily that bedroom and it sold after just two more showings. Working on another one right now which is an elegant new home but the master layout is confusing and shows small as a vacant. Fingers crossed that I get it! Thanks for stopping in and comments. LOVE hearing from agents.

Jul 11, 2008 04:35 AM

Pam Faulkner

Faulkner House Interior Redesign - Herndon, VA

Room Transformations Fairfax & Loudoun Counties VA

Ginger, I recently did a restaging for a client whose previous "stager" told her that in large homes like hers, people wanted to hear echoes!!!!! What????? Talk about bizarre! Obviously that had to be corrected. You did a wonderful job on the room above.

Jul 11, 2008 04:36 AM

Ginger Foust

Certified Staging Professional - Oakhurst, CA

Home Stager Oakhurst CA, Dream Interior Redesign & Staging

Hi Pam, echos that's just crazy. The only time I want to hear an echo is when I'm standing in the Grand Canyon. Had to be a lame excuse to not spend the money on staging. I'm sure that you set her right.

Thanks for the comment on the photo...it's actually our condo in Hawaii but it is "staged" for renting, so why not. Will you be going to the conference in October?

Jul 11, 2008 04:41 AM

C. Bartch

Newark, OH

Hi Ginger,

Great blog! My specialty is owner occupied homes but I agree a vacant home gives me a cold feeling. If I'm in an occupied w/ a vacant room, I give it a purpose so clients aren't wondering what to do w/ this room.

What a wonderful difference you made in that room!

Jul 11, 2008 06:10 AM

Zachry Feuer

eXp Realty - Denver, CO

We are in a business filled with emotion...an empty home is tough to get emotional about. Even investors get emotional. You are right...need to get a vacant home staged here in Queen Creek....Well said.

Jul 11, 2008 06:13 AM

Ginger Foust

Certified Staging Professional - Oakhurst, CA

Home Stager Oakhurst CA, Dream Interior Redesign & Staging

Cynthia, interesting comment. Do you even do a vacant extra bedroom? Due to budget constraints I will often not stage ordinary bedrooms in vacants and I always qualify that with, "everyone will know what to do with a bedroom." Now a master bedroom is a different story entirely. If I hear myself saying (in my head) "now what is this room?" , then I think it needs staging and a purpose. Thanks for the compliment and the comments.

Zachary, do you have a professional stager that you work with? I'm so happy that you recognize the emotional aspect of home buying. All agents make that statement yet they too often leave out the emotional appeal of a well staged house. Get it staged and make the sale! Thanks for commenting, I love hearing from realtors.

Cynthia...I just reread my comment to you AND had a ah-ha moment. Why should any room be ordinary when staging can make it extraordinary. I have to work on getting those extra bedrooms done too! Thanks again!

Jul 11, 2008 06:54 AM

Jim Crawford

Long & Foster - Fredericksburg, VA

Jim Crawford Broker Associate Fredericksburg VA

If the home is clean and priced right it will sell. I am seeing a lot of homes staged today that look like a joke, and are way out of line pricewise. Bad staging is very counter productive also.

Jul 11, 2008 06:56 AM

C. Bartch

Newark, OH

Well Ginger,

So far I haven't come across an empty bedroom yet! Sorry I didn't make that clear. I do see a few vacant lower level rooms or maybe one of those lower level rooms has six pieces of furniture that do not relate to one other and your left wondering what the heck is this room supposed to be?

I usually shop the home and make into a room w/ a definite purpose. If the home owner doesn't have the times to complete it like every one else I'll make suggestions or shop the item for them.

Jul 11, 2008 07:10 AM

Ginger Foust

Certified Staging Professional - Oakhurst, CA

Home Stager Oakhurst CA, Dream Interior Redesign & Staging

Cynthia, I hear you and further understand. If you do primarily occupieds then yes I have never come across empty bedrooms either. Thanks for coming back.

Jul 11, 2008 07:31 AM

Ginger Foust

Certified Staging Professional - Oakhurst, CA

Home Stager Oakhurst CA, Dream Interior Redesign & Staging

Jim first of all thank you for commenting. I appreciate all points of view.

Simply clean and priced right isn't cutting it in my area. There are also the issues of updating, repairs, decluttering and so much more that enters into selling a house in my locale. Having owned a RE brokerage we had 12 full-time agents and only one really had the ability to visualize and communicate to potential buyers what "could be" in a vacant house. He did very well and the others struggled unless they got help.

Now, as a stager and real estate affiliate, I constantly hear agents say, "it's clean, it's priced right and still NOTHING" and then they plead for someone to help them but they do not call and if I contact them they brush me aside.

I'm happy that your market is different. Good selling to you.

Jul 11, 2008 07:43 AM

Ginger Foust

Certified Staging Professional - Oakhurst, CA

Home Stager Oakhurst CA, Dream Interior Redesign & Staging

Jim first of all thank you for commenting. I appreciate all points of view.

I'm happy that your market is different. Good selling to you.

Jul 11, 2008 07:43 AM

Wendy Casey

A-List Home Staging & Decor - Surrey, BC

If a buyer is shopping by square footage, as in a condo, having it staged is an opportunity to show what can be done in a smaller space...very important to educate boomers who are downsizing. I have had clients tell me that their place looks so much bigger staged than vacant.

Wendy Casey - Surrey, BC

Jul 11, 2008 07:53 AM