what is your opinion on home staging?

Answer 1

There are several things that are critical if you want to sell your home. Pricing is first. Your house must be competetively priced if you have any hope of selling. Don't try to price your house on your own. EVERYONE thinks their house is worth more than it is. Get a real estate professional to do a comparative market analysis to place a fair market value on the home AND don't necessarily go with the one who is promising you the most money for your home. He is just trying to 'buy' your listing.

Staging (or appearance) is second. Contrary to what another writer wrote, this is not making your home something that it isn't. It is taking what you've got and enhancing it. It's like putting a shine on a dull pair of shoes to make them look good.

Curb appearance is important. I've driven up to houses with customers and never made it inside the door because the house looked bad from the outside. Colorful flowers and a freshly painted front door will help to at least get the customer inside the house.

When it was a seller's market last year you used to be able to get away with things like offering a carpet allowance to replace the carpeting or a paint allowance to have the house painted after the sale. You can't do that in a buyer's market. There is too much good looking inventory available and if your house needs too much work the buyer will just move on to another house.

How much work should you do? That depends. You can do a lot of things that will cost you nothing. Clear up clutter. Get rid of over sized furniture to make a room look larger. Leave the bare essentials in the closets and pack up the rest to make it look like the closets are large. Don't put computer desks in bedrooms etc. You are selling SPACE and clutter makes a place look small.

Take personal items such as personal pictures off the walls. Take down cultural or religious items. The idea is to let a potential buyer envision himself in the house. It's hard to do if your have 3 generations of family pictures hanging on the wall.

If your house needs painting then paint it. If plumbing needs repairing, fix it. Don't go replacing whole kitchens or doing expensive upgrades on bathrooms. You won't get your money back in the short term.

And yes, some of the HGTV shows mentioned are a good source to watch for some inexpensive fix-up ideas. As a realtor, I watch it frequently.

I hope you find this information useful. If you have any other questions, please feel free to go to my website, www.flwaterhomes.com and contact me. Good luck on the sale of your home.

Jim Reske, Realtor
ERA Advantage Realty, Inc
Port Charlotte, FL

Answer 2

I think you should research and watch the shows "sell this house" and "designed to sell" and even "flip this and flip that house" (same show different network). These shows will teach you what buyers are looking for in purchasing their new home.

In order to give you an opinion, I really need more info about you. It depends on you finances, and if you have already moved out of the home. You can use staging firms, that will design the look for the home for sale. That is expensive to lease those products, so if you are on a budget, its best to use what you have access to. So, a fresh paint, of neutral colors in the home, re-arrange your current furniture, in order to maximize the space you will need to clean out the house---no clutter! Also, the pro's recommend that you take down anything very personal (like wedding photos). The potential buyers tend to gravitate on those items, rather than admire the house.

Answer 3

The best I can advise you, instead of going out and buying furniture to stage a home, work with what you have.....Rearrange your furniture, remove some if you have to, to make the spaces look larger.......

Take all the pictures off the walls and have a only a few. Clean up all the clutter, scrub the floors and kitchen and bathrooms......

Fresh paint does wonders and it is very cheap considering the impact it makes....Good luck and hope this helps..

Answer 4

It can definitely result in a quicker sale or better profits-- just watch "designed to sell" in which they spend under $500 on paint and rearranging furniture-- sometimes homes that were on the market for months sell a week later.

Answer 5

i recommend with all my hart. buyers don't want to see your personal staff like pictures of your family or your clutter in the living room and kitchen counter taps full of mail e.t.c.
when they came to look at your house, they want to see their stuff there and their furniture. staging the house helps the buyers to see house potential not style or luck of style of the owner.

Answer 6

what do you mean by staging?

Not sure

Answer 7

You missed the boat. The housing spec market is dying (or dead) all across the US.

Answer 8

staging representing something that is not???