September 30, 2007
Reader's Comment: Staging is A Complete Waste of Time
In my previous blog (Reader’s Question: Staging is Used to Hide Problems?), I mentioned my new friend Pamela, a real estate agent in Saint Louis, Missouri had asked me to pitch in on her blog There’s No Place Like Home to answer her readers’ questions in regards to staging.
(photo courtesy of Pamela’s Blog: There is No Place Like Home)
- Her reader,
- Bob said…
- Home staging is a complete waste of time. Its ridiculous. It’s just another useless profession trying to make money off of someone who’s got enough on their plate already.
-
Pamela said…
- Hi James and Bob. I appreciate your feedback and would like to post these questions on a larger platform for other agents and stagers alike to also answer your questions. No judgement here. I think stagers are great and do help sell a home and faster than if it was empty. Please email me and let me know if that would be ok. Thanks.
- Bob said…
- Hi Pamela. Thanks for sending me the link to your AR blog and though I think you made some good points I am not surprised that home stagers couldn’t defend themselves and prove me wrong.
Well, here is what I said:
Bob, as a stager, I would love to defend myself and my profession! Prior to becoming a full time stager, I was working as a buyer’s agent. Needless to say, I had seen a lot of homes, staged and unstaged, good staged homes and bad staged homes. I work in San Francisco bay area, where the market is very competitive, and sellers definitely need that extra edge to shine through the pile of listings.
There are definitely merits to my job, or I wouldn’t be able to stay in business for almost 2 years and investing more money and time on continue education and building a community. Real estate is also a harsh and high turnover industry, people are in it for the money are quickly washed out. You have to truly love what you do to be able to sustain yourself in this business. Also if I were a quick money schemer, I would’ve picked online gambling.
Earlier this year, in San Francisco bay area, it took about 62 days for a home to move off the market. Using my own staged homes (about 40 under my belt), I moved my sellers’ listings off the market in average of 30 days. That’s 1 month worth of difference in mental stress, mortgage payments, advertisements, bills, insurance payments and more!
Other than the proven fact that staged homes can move the homes off the market faster no matter in a hot or cold market, staged homes can also potentially help sellers to yield for money. Essentially, staging is NOT just about plopping furniture and accessories down. It’s really about MARKETING & PACKAGING a product for sale. It’s like before going on a hot date, I assume you would shower, lay out your best outfit that can make you feel and look fabulous & sexy, and you would probably bring some flowers and bring your date to a nice restaurant, right? You wouldn’t showed up with greasy hair, without shower for 3 days, and bring your date to your neighborhood Burger King, correct? Same with staging, it helps to put the home’s best foot forward and transforms the space into a buyer-ready, show-ready listing that appeals to a broader range of buyers than non-staged, or over-decorated homes.
Staging also helps buyers to see the potential of the home. I have dealt with some tricky floor plan before, where people had no idea what to do with unusual rooms. I staged a historical home (100+ years old in SF) last Friday and the home had a butler’s pantry. The realtor actually had no clue what it was for, he just thought it was odd there is a giant closet in between the dining room and the kitchen. I explained that it was the butler’s pantry. He still didn’t understand. After staging, he was like “Ah, I get it now.”
There are also many great benefits of staging, which I don’t want to overcrowd Pamela’s blog here ;) I do write and talk about staging regularly, because I love staging and I believe in it. My company is named Staged4more and it’s really about my belief that I want sellers to get more (whether it is the quality of life, equity, less days on market, whatever) when they staged their home for sale. You are more than welcome to visit my blog at www.staged4more.com/blog and browse through the blogs that I wrote about staging and what it can do for sellers. You are also more than welcome to browse through my gallery where you can see some of my work and how staged homes look vs. non-staged homes.
And I certainly welcome your feedback! ;)
Cheers,
Cindy
ps. For my blog’s readers… And in case you are wondering about that pantry.. Here is the before & after photos:
(after photo courtesy of agent’s website)
Looks much better, no? ;)
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