Where are you looking to sell? (email me directly)

Frank

Yes we are absolutely in full agreement ;)

BTW, your mother’s rental looked worlds better after the staging- go figure.

doesn’t your #2 make the point that staging works as far as prospects overlooking the flaws of a home?

FRANK

While I absolutely agree with you about decluttering your home, removing excess furniture and improving the curb appeal, I personally will never buy a home that has been staged for the following reasons:

1. Unlike most buyers, I actually can envison a space and the potential it has. A bedroom that has a desk and a bed is not going to make me wonder if the room is a bedroom or an office.

2. Just because a house has mass produced curtains from Pottery Barn or home accents from the clearance section at Home Goods, does not make me want to put in a full price offer on the property.
In fact staging can also distract potential buyers from serious problems with the house. As you said in your own post, buyers shouldn’t be concentrating on the decor of house.

3. Staging will only bring out more annoying staging shows on HGTV and the make the ever irritating plus-sized Donna and Shannon Freeman stick around even longer. (Yeah this is really relevant)

Overall, I agree that when you sell a house, it should be decluttered, neutral and a clean and presentable condition.
But as soon as I walk into a home and don’t see a TV in the living room, more than one appliance on the counters or matching coat hangers in the closet, I’m moving on to the next property. Hopefully a dump that I can fix up on my own.

I agree that staging is a no brainer and that it is worth it when done right. Since you are such a strong believer that you get your money back from staging and upgrading your company’s next move will have to be to pay for all the staging/renovation costs! That would be putting your money where your mouth is :)

Another example that points to why staging makes sense: developers spend thousands sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars decorating models. Of course, they have the economies of scale to do this, but if scaled down appropriately for the individual seller it definitely makes sense.