NOT GONNA DO IT....

Anne - All we can do is give the home sellers our professional advice and it is up to them to take it.  I do believe if the property is in really bad shape or so outdated it might be better not to actually stage the property but give an extensive consultation of your upgrade recommendations etc..

Anne: We also learned this lesson the hard way. We currently have a stage in a home that has been on the market for awhile. The home is not clean and the landscaping need lots of work. The owner felt all he had to do was stage the home and it would sell. The property still lingers. As part of our stage, we always replace any burned out light bulbs and clean any room we stage but we are not housekeepers, landscapers or windowwashers.  Some homeowners lack the motivation to actually SELL. Hopefullly we will all get better at identifying these sellers early. Good post!

As a home stager it is our job to recommend that ALL changes be made to the home. I agree that if the bones of the house are not great, then all the furniture and accessories in the world will not fool a buyer. They shouldn't. That is why I developed my own team of contractors and we paint, replace light fixture, flooring etc and THEN STAGE. It works everytime

Phyllis Pafumi

All the updates should have been performed before you staged the property with furniture. As what Phyllis said, staging is much more than just putting furniture in  and if it was a 1970s home, then there were probably many things to upgrade. Sounds like the clients were into fooling the public and that is something you never want to be involved with. Just remember that YOU are the professional asked to prepare the property for sale... it isn't their home anymore ;)

I hear you. Here is the thing. If clients do not want to invest in a new kitchen then what are you going to do. Hopefully, the they listen to the Realtor and price the home at the right price. This seems to be the bigger problem.  Clients are not listening to the market and pricing the property where it needs to be. Its very telling when the house is staged and shows beautifully and they have done everything to make it sell but then don't price it correctly and it sits on the market for months. I have one that has received two offers at 1.3 and it is still sitting there at 1.49 no amount of staging is going to help get 200,000 more than the market will bear. it's a tough one. Kym

Anne,

Give them your best shot then it is up to the Seller to take the next step.

I don't think it is any refletion on you, I just think some Seller's are penny wise and dollar foolish.

I've recently turned down a few vacant staging jobs because the sellers weren't willing to do basic things like painting, replacing outdated light fixtures and old toilets, cleaning windows, etc.  No amount of staging will help in a situation where the house isn't sparkling clean either.  I just tell them that their money would be better spent taking care of these necessary items, and then I'll be happy to stage the property afterwards if they want their property to appeal to the target buyer.  By the way, in one case where I turned down the staging job, the sellers took what I said seriously and did the recommended repairs, and then hired me for the staging job as well.

Anne - I feel it's important that the homeowners AND the Realtor hear from the stager up front that a successful sale is dependent on a trifecta:  pricing the house appropriately and marketing the heck out it (Realtor's role); great staging by a professional (stager's role) and homeowners who are 100% on board with both the stager's and the Realtor's recommendations and efforts (that is the homeowner's role).  If the homeowner resists pricing appropriately or following the recommendations by the stager or Realtor, then they're sabotaging their own sales efforts.  You get that a lot in divorce sales where the soon-to-be-exes can't agree on strategy.