Staging and frustrations

[DawnM]

Our realtor wants to stage our house.   We are casual people, she says our home is not formal enough for the price point we are looking at marketing this house for.

She wants us to rent staging furniture.   She said two sofas, two end tables for each, and a bench, and a headboard, will be $1,500 for the month.   $800 of that is just for delivery.   Then it is $700/mo after that.  

$1,500 for a few items?   She also wanted an executive desk for DH's office, but we had planned to buy that so we bought one, used, very nice, with her approval on the design, for $300 (new over $2000.)

I plan to look at PURCHASING the other items off FB marketplace if I can because that seems insane to me to rent for that much and just turn it in after our house sells within days.

Would you think $1,500 for just renting for a week is insane or am I being too sensitive?   THIS is why we have money, because we don't use it for these types of things as we find them to be throwing our $$ away.

I agree we need to stage a bit, but I firmly believe we can find quality items 2nd hand to stage the house.   Then we get to keep them for our new house

[DawnM]

If anyone is wondering, we have now spent a running total of:

$850 for pressure washing the driveway, sidewalk, and around the pool.

$4,800 for carpet

$1,500 for drywall repair and paint 

$500 for the packing crew help 

$500 A/C repair

 

I am POSITIVE there will be more......we need to spend about $500 for deep cleaning when we are ready, prob 10 more days.    And she wants the staging costs.

[Harriet Vane]

I wouldn’t rent staging furniture nor would I get new carpet. 

[DawnM]

6 minutes ago, Harriet Vane said:

I wouldn’t rent staging furniture nor would I get new carpet. 

Carpet needed replacing and the closet had nothing as we ripped the old out when we remodeled.   But the carpet has stains and A's room is really, really bad.  Like it smells like pee because we couldn't clean all the pee he put on it.

[Ting Tang]

I'm a licensed real estate broker with my license in holding as I am no longer active.  I am sure you were given some statistics, but in real life, I probably wouldn't rent the furniture, either. Smart buyers can look beyond furniture.  I do feel other things will pay off for you, such as cleanliness, nice carpet, etc.  

[Katy]

I’d say no to the staging. And frankly the whole country is moving towards more casual living. I understand the desire for gorgeous pictures, but I’ve always found I could give a better impression from packing up 80% of the personal items, 30% of the furniture, and putting fresh flowers, new towels, and new throw blankets around. Leave just enough furniture to show what each space is. 

[KSera]

20 minutes ago, DawnM said:

Would you think $1,500 for just renting for a week is insane or am I being too sensitive?  

It sounds crazy to pay so much, and we initially said no as well, but we kick ourselves for not having done it right away when we sold our house. It sat on the market for months and had two price reductions before we said go ahead and stage, and it sold within days of doing it. I think we would have came out ahead had we done it at the start instead of paying double mortgage a couple more months and reducing the price. It just looked much better staged than empty (that might be a difference though—ours was empty when we first listed it). 

[Carol in Cal.]

I would look at realtor.com and see how houses in your category are usually presented.  

[JennyD]

Do you like the sort of furniture that works for staging?  I would never buy a light gray (or beige, or cream) couch so I would expect to rent what was needed to sell the house, and then later purchase what I actually want to live with.  But if you like neutrals, perhaps it makes sense to just buy what is needed to stage.

My friend recently sold her house and I could not believe how different it looked after it was staged.

 

 

Edited July 7, 2023 by JennyD

[DawnM]

2 minutes ago, Carol in Cal. said:

I would look at realtor.com and see how houses in your category are usually presented.  

They are very nice with very nice furniture.   More formal/rich looking.   But my point was that we can find it used and purchase rather than pay for just a week and have to send it back.  

I still plan to stage better than we have it now.   

I am also trying to appease the realtor and my husband.   Realtor says, Stage, Stage, Stage!   DH says, "Nope, I am not paying that!"

[KungFuPanda]

In this market I would t spend one dime past safe and sanitary . . . maybe a cleaning service because I’d be tired from packing. If the house doesn’t move in two weeks THEN maybe consider staging. It costs your realtor nothing for you to sink money into staging. 
 

We bought our house empty, we’re one of several offers, and paid over listing. The market today is even crazier. 

Edited July 7, 2023 by KungFuPanda

[DawnM]

Just now, KungFuPanda said:

In this market I would t spend one dime past safe and sanitary . . . maybe a cleaning service because I’d be tired from packing. If the house doesn’t move in two weeks THEN maybe consider staging. It costs your realtor nothing for you to sink money into staging. 

I do plan to hire cleaners.    

[DawnM]

33 minutes ago, JennyD said:

Do you like the sort of furniture that works for staging?  I would never buy a light gray (or beige, or cream) couch so I would expect to rent what was needed to sell the house, and then later purchase what I actually want to live with.  But if you like neutrals, perhaps it makes sense to just buy what is needed to stage.

My friend recently sold her house and I could not believe how different it looked after it was staged.

 

 

Well, you do have a point.   I cannot have those colors because of A.   He is very hard on furniture.

Do you know if your friend paid that much.

[matrips]

So it’s just those pieces of furniture and nothing else?  Or is that just the basis for everything else? I would ask for more details because that is not my experience with staging.

Our stager actually reused most of our very old and not fancy furniture (we put a lot in storage as well), but she had new bathroom lights put in, a new vanity, new mirrors, wall decor, bedspreads, pillows, vases, shower curtain, towels, and more. and painted two of our rooms.  She rearranged all our furniture in a completely different way and the house looked amazing! I would have never picked such linens/decor but wow. It made our stuff look stunning, lol. She said leave the kids rooms as is because they don’t matter so much.  The living room, family room, kitchen, and master bedroom/bath was what she focused on.

Btw, she owned all the linens, decor etc.  It was loaned to us for the staging, but then taken back to use again.

[lmrich]

put it  on  the market for a week or   ten days and see what happens

 

[Innisfree]

Our realtor (some years ago) owned her own furniture, etc for staging and brought it in. There wasn’t a charge for that. I didn’t realize how lucky we were. 

[itsheresomewhere]

I wouldn’t pay that much.  A lot here try to reuse a lot of that furniture you own and minimum out of pocket for staging. If I was already looking, I might buy a few pieces I was already planning to purchase to use for staging and for the new house.  
 

 

Edited July 7, 2023 by itsheresomewhere

[footballmom]

Do you need new furniture for your new house that you would buy anyway? Do you want to put time and energy into finding furniture that will work for staging and your new house?

Yes, $1500 is a lot of money. If it would up the odds considerably that my house would show better thus sell faster and with multiple offers, I would do it. My time and energy are limited resources too. 

[Faith-manor]

2 hours ago, Katy said:

I’d say no to the staging. And frankly the whole country is moving towards more casual living. I understand the desire for gorgeous pictures, but I’ve always found I could give a better impression from packing up 80% of the personal items, 30% of the furniture, and putting fresh flowers, new towels, and new throw blankets around. Leave just enough furniture to show what each space is. 

This. I also often baked bread, pies, or cookies right before a showing or openhouse, and left it out for the prospective buyers to sample. That smell works! It evokes a lot of good emotions.

We never staged. Ever. Just put stuff in storage, moved things out to make it look more spacious, tried to convince the kids that they didn't need all their toys at once.

Fresh flowers in the living and dining room, brownies on the kitchen counter, nice towels in the bathrooms, and if there is a fireplace, a nice neat stack of birch logs, some pine cones for fire starter. It leaves people with a homey, personal feel.

[Elizabeth86]

3 hours ago, KungFuPanda said:

In this market I would t spend one dime past safe and sanitary . . . maybe a cleaning service because I’d be tired from packing. If the house doesn’t move in two weeks THEN maybe consider staging. It costs your realtor nothing for you to sink money into staging. 
 

We bought our house empty, we’re one of several offers, and paid over listing. The market today is even crazier. 

I love this! I agree.

[BusyMom5]

If the higher price points in your area stage, then I would probably pay to have it professionally done.  $1500 isn't really that much IMO.  You are paying for the WORK of staging- the professional opinion of someone who is keen on what buyers at that price point expect-  not just the use of the items. 

It's also true it can sell without staging, but if it takes the house 60 days vs a week, that's just more time with stress of the unknown.   Your goal isn't just sell, it's sell quick and high.  Best of luck!!!!

[Ellie]

Holy cow. Seems like a lot to me.  Surely she can stage your house using your own furniture. I've seen that done many times.

[DawnM]

I agree with those of you who say if it guaranteed a higher and faster sale, do it!   The issue is, I don't know if it does.

However, DH and I discussed next steps last night and we are going to start putting a lot of furniture in storage today and tomorrow and then she will come out Sat or Sun to tell us what she thinks is still necessary and we can decide.   I will look for some items on marketplace in the meantime.

[matrips]

4 hours ago, DawnM said:

I agree with those of you who say if it guaranteed a higher and faster sale, do it!   The issue is, I don't know if it does.

However, DH and I discussed next steps last night and we are going to start putting a lot of furniture in storage today and tomorrow and then she will come out Sat or Sun to tell us what she thinks is still necessary and we can decide.   I will look for some items on marketplace in the meantime.

It depends on the market of course, but we staged and had multiple offers the first weekend.  It went well above what we priced it for.  
One realtor we interviewed (and didn’t go with), didn’t think it would sell for near as much because it wasn’t an upscale type home.  The staging really helped elevate the look imo.

[Bootsie]

Housing markets can vary quite a bit from location to location, but, on average, I think staging may result in a housing selling more quickly but not necessarily for a higher dollar amount.  Except for instances where I really needed to sell quickly or I needed to emphasize something about the house (and take attention away from something else), it would be difficult for me to justify spending that kind of money on renting furniture.  But, much depends upon the price tag.  If you are talking about listing a property for $1m, that would be a small investment.  If you are talking about listing a house for $200,000, the rental price of the furniture is relatively a much larger investment.

[Katy]

Oh, @Faith-manor is right, bake something with vanilla & cinnamon. And you can try putting a spacer at the bottom of every mirror you can to make it tilt out slightly at the bottom. It gives the optical illusion that anyone looking in it is slightly thinner, which usually means they like the way they look in your house. It’s subconscious, but people love it. 

[TechWife]

I might try it for a month if they don’t charge for pickup. We sold our last house empty and or asking price when the housing market was just starting to heat up. It sold within 48 hours. IIRC it went on the market Tues pm and we accepted an offer Thursday. 

[DawnM]

We do need this house to sell ASAP and for as much as we can.   If the house sits for weeks the other contract may fall out......that would be an issue.   

[KSera]

Could you propose some kind of cost sharing with the realtor? Like half that comes from her commission? If she really thinks it’s going to help it sell and sell higher, then it should be worth it to her to do that. 

[Jann in TX]

We opted to have our last home staged-- our realtor hired a professional 'stager' for this and we split the cost.  Houses were selling fast in our area and realtor thought our house was worth a lot more than we thought...

The style of the stager was NOT EVEN close to ours-- BUT she had an awesome track record so we took a leap of faith.

The photos after the staging were spectacular-- so much better than if we would have used our own things.

Our house sold after 2 viewings and for more $$$ than we thought possible. 

In other words we got our staging investment back and I'm a believer!

 

[JennyD]

16 hours ago, DawnM said:

 

Do you know if your friend paid that much.

Apparently the realtor picked up the cost of the staging.  My friend paid to refinish the floors, paint the kitchen cabinets, and spruce up the outside of the house.  Her DH hates to spend money and was very resistant to spending anything at all, but that house has some serious drawbacks and they needed it to sell fast and for as much as possible, as they want to buy a new house in the higher COL area to which they have moved.  It sold within 3-4 weeks.  Of course there's no knowing how much the staging and sprucing helped, but it all sure made the house look a lot bigger and brighter.

 

 

 

 

[Lecka]

I think maybe ask for a discount, but then do it?

A lot of people do not look at bones, a lot of people can’t visualize well.  

[Scarlett]

I think staging costs should be paid for by the realtor.

[Lecka]

I think it can depend, we have sold 3 houses and every one has been different as far as what the realtor paid for.  It is apparently also usually one way or another (for various things) by region or in a town.  
 

But I don’t think it hurts to negotiate or see what she says if you do say you think it’s too expensive etc.  

I also think sometimes anybody could have a cash flow problem and then just keep their mouth shut, not have cash to pay now, and take the lower commission.  Like — even if it is a “should” on some level.  But that same realtor might be eager for a sale and a high price, I don’t think it would mean it was a low-quality realtor.  I don’t know why but I think about things like this!

[KSera]

14 minutes ago, Lecka said:

A lot of people do not look at bones, a lot of people can’t visualize well.  

It’s amazing how often on house hunting shows someone will be commenting on interior paint color as a problem. 

[footballmom]

I would not ask the realtor to negotiate on the staging costs or ask her to absorb it out of her commission. She is offering an option to her clients that could help their home show better leading to a faster sale and potentially more money.  Just like she can counsel her clients on what offer to make that has the best chance of being accepted, but ultimately submits whatever offer the client chooses to make.

From following along, this realtor also found the obscure listing that lead to Dawn finding a fantastic house.  Because the people only included 2-3 pictures in their listing, it sat on the market for an extended time.  

She is offering a service and her clients can choose that off the sushi menu, or not.

[AmandaVT]

I'm terrible with staging/furniture placement stuff, but one thing that seemed to be very much appreciated was the jar of chocolate we left out before every showing. We had a lot of thank-you notes, and a lot of candy was eaten! We also had a candle lit and fresh flowers. 

[KSera]

36 minutes ago, footballmom said:

I would not ask the realtor to negotiate on the staging costs or ask her to absorb it out of her commission. She is offering an option to her clients that could help their home show better leading to a faster sale and potentially more money.  Just like she can counsel her clients on what offer to make that has the best chance of being accepted, but ultimately submits whatever offer the client chooses to make.

From following along, this realtor also found the obscure listing that lead to Dawn finding a fantastic house.  Because the people only included 2-3 pictures in their listing, it sat on the market for an extended time.  

She is offering a service and her clients can choose that off the sushi menu, or not.

Well, to be fair, the staging benefits the Realtor as well--the idea is higher selling price and faster sale, which means higher commission for less time put in. It's not an uncommon arrangement for the Realtor to pay some or all the costs of staging. Certainly Dawn can just decline to do it, but it's not strange to negotiate a compromise.

[DawnM]

13 hours ago, footballmom said:

I would not ask the realtor to negotiate on the staging costs or ask her to absorb it out of her commission. She is offering an option to her clients that could help their home show better leading to a faster sale and potentially more money.  Just like she can counsel her clients on what offer to make that has the best chance of being accepted, but ultimately submits whatever offer the client chooses to make.

From following along, this realtor also found the obscure listing that lead to Dawn finding a fantastic house.  Because the people only included 2-3 pictures in their listing, it sat on the market for an extended time.  

She is offering a service and her clients can choose that off the sushi menu, or not.

Yes, that is a good way to look at it.   

She is also only taking 4.5% commission.   2.5 to the buying agent and 2 for her.

[heartlikealion]

Oh my gosh. My cheap self has sticker shock. 

is there a way to do something else like try without the staging items and only resort to that if things don’t go well? 

New throw pillows or other more affordable touches? 

[lmrich]

Most home buyers make up their mind if they like your house in the first 10 seconds. Make  sure the front door, where they spend a lot  of time while the  realtor tries to  get the door  open, is pristine with a fresh coat of paint if needed, beautiful potted plants, a new welcome mat, and a nice wreath. Then the foyer where they step in needs to be lovely - fresh flowers,  a clean scent, and plenty of light - clean your windows and light bulbs, and put in bright but soft  lighting.  Do you have a lamp  and table by  your front entry  - put a bowl there with a set  of keys in  it and if possible, a picture of your house  covered  in snow. 

I believe in staging a house  - but not spending  or wasting money. I have staged several homes for friends just using their own furniture and gettting rid of 1/3 to 1/2 of all  things in a house. I only 'made' them buy new bedspreads or  duvet  covers and pillows  if  theirs were dirty and worn. I like to stage by drawing attention to the amazing features.  I put a pitcher  of  lemonade and glasses on a tray on the back deck table. For a night showing, I   put floating candles in the hot tub  and turned on the lights by the  fire  pit, etc... 

[DawnM]

4 minutes ago, lmrich said:

Most home buyers make up their mind if they like your house in the first 10 seconds. Make  sure the front door, where they spend a lot  of time while the  realtor tries to  get the door  open, is pristine with a fresh coat of paint if needed, beautiful potted plants, a new welcome mat, and a nice wreath. Then the foyer where they step in needs to be lovely - fresh flowers,  a clean scent, and plenty of light - clean your windows and light bulbs, and put in bright but soft  lighting.  Do you have a lamp  and table by  your front entry  - put a bowl there with a set  of keys in  it and if possible, a picture of your house  covered  in snow. 

That is all taken care of.   

4 minutes ago, lmrich said:

I believe in staging a house  - but not spending  or wasting money. I have staged several homes for friends just using their own furniture and gettting rid of 1/3 to 1/2 of all  things in a house. I only 'made' them buy new bedspreads or  duvet  covers and pillows  if  theirs were dirty and worn. I like to stage by drawing attention to the amazing features.  I put a pitcher  of  lemonade and glasses on a tray on the back deck table. For a night showing, I   put floating candles in the hot tub  and turned on the lights by the  fire  pit, etc... 

I think it depends on the value of the house and the type of furniture.

And I am not doing floating candles, but not sure if there will be any night showings.   But we will be out of town during the first several days of showings, so we won't be here to do any of that stuff.

I actually do not like some of the "bake cookies" smell or any of that gimmicky stuff, I always wonder what they are hiding.   But that may just be me.

[TexasProud]

Things have definitely changed.  We sold our first house in 3 days.  The second house we sold to the person who we were buying their house (swapped houses)  so never put it on the market. ( And that was in 1998)  That's it. I cannot imagine paying for staging, but I am obviously out of the loop.  LOL  I remember going house hunting for that 2nd house with my husband's grandmother.  We wanted something in the 95,000-100,000 range that would be easy to sell.  She just kept saying, "That is not a $100,000 dollar house!"  Of course, she built hers for $10,000.  Yeah, feeling the same way. 

Good luck!  Hope it sells quickly!

[Lecka]

I think it’s worth listening to the realtor, they can get feedback from the realtors doing the showings, and hear what comments are.  
 

But they are also doing showings at other homes, and can see how things go.  
 

I have been surprised because…. Okay, it’s hard to know if some of this is effected by the shortage of houses on the market right now, or being a sellers market, or a buyers market….

 

But it was a given here that the realtor would pay for photos, and that has not been the case for our previous two houses!  And one it was like — we were suggested to pay more for a higher-end photographer because it would be more likely our kitchen would look good in a photo.  But other things that realtor said “don’t bother.”  

There have been other things like that.  I think it can just depend.  
 

The percentage is pretty significant I think.  
 

[heartlikealion]

30 minutes ago, DawnM said:

That is all taken care of.   

I think it depends on the value of the house and the type of furniture.

And I am not doing floating candles, but not sure if there will be any night showings.   But we will be out of town during the first several days of showings, so we won't be here to do any of that stuff.

I actually do not like some of the "bake cookies" smell or any of that gimmicky stuff, I always wonder what they are hiding.   But that may just be me.

It feels gimmicky to me, too! I'm like ok you know I have been watching HGTV for years. And rolling my eyes at people karate chopping pillows. They look STUPID lol 

[Pawz4me]

56 minutes ago, DawnM said:

 

I actually do not like some of the "bake cookies" smell or any of that gimmicky stuff, I always wonder what they are hiding.   But that may just be me.

 

25 minutes ago, heartlikealion said:

It feels gimmicky to me, too! I'm like ok you know I have been watching HGTV for years. And rolling my eyes at people karate chopping pillows. They look STUPID lol 

Yeah, it always surprises me that there are people who are tricked by some of these gimmicks, all of which (to me) are pretty silly. I've bought four houses and sold three. All we ever did for selling was tidy things up (keep trash cans emptied, toys picked up, etc.) and make sure the house was really clean. Two sold within a few days and one took six weeks 'cause it was a fairly bad market at the time. When we bought this house absolutely nobody had done anything for a very long time.There were cobwebs everywhere. But it was really easy, at least for us, to see that it had very good bones and all it really needed immediately was a thorough cleaning (which we would have done before moving in anyway).

[DawnM]

1 hour ago, TexasProud said:

Things have definitely changed.  We sold our first house in 3 days.  The second house we sold to the person who we were buying their house (swapped houses)  so never put it on the market. ( And that was in 1998)  That's it. I cannot imagine paying for staging, but I am obviously out of the loop.  LOL  I remember going house hunting for that 2nd house with my husband's grandmother.  We wanted something in the 95,000-100,000 range that would be easy to sell.  She just kept saying, "That is not a $100,000 dollar house!"  Of course, she built hers for $10,000.  Yeah, feeling the same way. 

Good luck!  Hope it sells quickly!

10,000!   DH's parents built their initial house for like $20,000.   His dad literally built the entire thing, with the help of the kids digging, etc.....they later added 2 more bedrooms on the end and I don't know how much that was, they only talked about how their house was $20,000 to build in 1971.

And yes, our CA homes didn't need as much in terms of staging, etc....but that was not only a hot market, but it was  before HGTV got too crazy.   We sold our last house in a market that was steady but not booming or hot.   It took 30 days.   

We have sold 4 houses and bought 5.   This will be our 5th one to sell.   I am hoping to stay in the next one for 9-13 years.   Why the range?   DH and I hope to be retired in 7 or 8 years, then Andrew will finish 8th grade in 9 years.   If he loves it there, we may agree to stay until he finishes high school, which will be 13 years.

Then we will sell and truly downsize.   But I hope to give ourselves a couple of years to go through everything, downsize our stuff first, and pack slowly to get it all tidied up first.

[teachermom2834]

We’ve looked at houses where they have done the fresh cookies and it is nice Yum! Cookies! And we have seen the houses that are professionally staged and it really is lovely. But those are never the houses we have bought. It’s nice but I can’t see buying a house because of the cookie smell. But I can see the staging making a difference when you are talking about a high end property. I don’t have that experience. 

One thing I did decide after our last house sale is that I would never try to sell it empty. When the movers came and took all our stuff I looked around and the house looked awful. You could see every imperfection. It was bad. But again- opposite of high end house. 

[stephanier.1765]

I think I would stage if you had an odd shaped room. I know when I look at houses I try to figure where the couch would go. What about the TV? Will the sun put a glare on the TV if it goes there? If I see how someone else has set it up, it puts my mind at ease. Other than that I say skip spending the money renting furniture.

[TexasProud]

3 hours ago, DawnM said:

10,000!   DH's parents built their initial house for like $20,000.   His dad literally built the entire thing, with the help of the kids digging, etc.....they later added 2 more bedrooms on the end and I don't know how much that was, they only talked about how their house was $20,000 to build in 1971.

LOL, his grandmother's house was built in the 30's with an addition later on.  I want to say the initial house cost 3 or 4,000 dollars but the additional room in the 50's  cost them 5,000 for a total of 10,000,

She lived there until 2012 when she had to go to memory care. She died at the age of 102 in 2014.  We live in our houses a long time in this family 🙂  She was sharp as a tack until her late 90's

Edited July 8, 2023 by TexasProud