Numerous threads on this ? (2 in last month) if you want to search past responses.
The answer I appreciated from 6th realtor to weigh in (while others said zero to do in hot market) is that the staging allows a level of falling in love that can both spur on bidding war/level of bids (in hot market) and also see thru a negotiation that might have been bumpier.
But, it sounds more an issue of your market slowing down (compared to months ago). That could be the wrong conclusion. Good luck.
Yeah, I think our market is in a summer lull: hit weather is making inventory climb slightly while buyers are more inactive due to heat and summer activity.
We bought in May but weren't ready to sell due to moving timelines. Hindsight being 20/20 and all...
I haven't heard staging described in those terms, they are helpful!
Price is the most important feature in obtaining interest and action toward selling a house, and making it attractive to act on in making an offer.
After that, it follows in this order:
Price.
Price.
Price,
and Price.
All the rest is lipstick.
A lot depends on the staging itself and how good it is...
But for context, I was struggling to sell a Manhattan apartment for a few months. Staged it. Day 1 had a full price offer, day 2 had a backup just under it.
Regardless of what people say about wanting a fixer upper or having good vision, the reality is that most people suck at envisioning a space. Staging generally provides aspirational clean and nice "home".
REgardless of reddit constantly saying "price price price" I've seen so many other things rise or sink a home. Poor pictures, realtors who aren't responsive, cluttered homes, dirty, empty, etc. can all have a big impact too. Price matters in terms of perceived value. But staging can help raise the perceived value and justify the price. It isn't making you wildly outside of comps, but it is giving you integrity to your market competitive price by truly putting your best foot forward.
I'm a full time house flipper and real estate agent. I never used to stage my flips until recently. I showed 250 houses last year as a real estate agent, and learned quite a lot about buyers. I watched time and time again as buyers became obsessed with houses because the home owner did a good job decorating/furnishing it. This is especially true of younger (Millennial and Gen Z) buyers. In general, younger buyers are not handy. They want a house that needs 0 work. Additionally, they don't have much imagination. If they see an empty living room, they aren't bursting with ideas about how awesome its going to look after they put X Y Z in it. They need to be shown what it can look like. I had experiences where I showed buyers 2 houses that were the same exact model. One of them would be empty, and the buyer wouldn't be interested in the house. I'd show them the same exact model, well furnished and decorated, and they'd want to jump all over it. This is what made me decide to start staging all of my flips, and I think it has paid for itself. In fact in the past my model was always to use more premium materials (expensive tile, expensive flooring, little architectural details that you don't see in most flips etc) but I would save money by not staging. I am now experimenting with the opposite - using more basic bitch materials, but spending more money on killer staging.
\^This is so true. Buyers have no idea how to view an empty space. In particular, they can't visualize size/scale. I've seen sellers have the old large scale furniture that makes the space tiny get far less in a sales price due to not understanding how buyers just can't visualize anything that involves removeing furniture and replacing with their own stuff (removing in their mind's eye). Very few buyers have an eye for size and style if it's not already in place.
I agree with you that staging works but it is a bit different for more experienced people (real estate agents who see houses all the time, investors, even older people who have bought and sold many times) - I fucking hate staging personally. I find it distracting and all of them start to look the same.
I care the most about location and a good floor plan and couldn’t actually care less what furniture is in the room or what colour the walls are. It drives me a little nuts that people are fooled so easily.
Yes you are correct. Although I will say I find staging works even on investors (if they plan on using it as a rental). But yes, in my experience, older people care more about the technical aspects of a house and are more likely to want to do renovations/upgrades. Younger people look at houses almost purely aesthetically. Younger people are not handy, dont want to be, and dont have the cash to renovate anything.
Do you think this translates to there being some value in showing a home before moving out, where that isn't inconvenient for the seller? Or is that not a good idea since unlike with professional staging everything won't be neutral and curated?
I think if the home owner has the home well decorated and furnished, its almost always better to show it while furnished if possible. It doesn't HAVE to be professionally staged.
Offer was technically list minus a small sellers credit, and 1% Duediligence.
We just bought in the same geography and had to offer duediligence of 6.25% to win it, our offer of 3% DD on another property for hard countered. We don't feel 1% reflects a buyer being serious.
Our agent thinks the staging will help, and is paying for it to be done.
We did a soft counter: more like "I am not sure we're going to come together on this, but if we did I imagine it would be at $465k and $10k DD." No response yet.
It is my understanding that the RE market in most areas is returning to a more normal state. Bidding wars and over list offers are a relic of 2021. So, unless your market is one of the outliers, that “almost full price” offer is likely a good one.
It may be worth reaching out to the buyers that made the offer. On the other hand, if you are willing to wait 30-60 days, by all means, stage the space. Sparse is better than empty which is better than cluttered/full. At your price point, it’s hard to say that staging will affect the price, but it might affect how quickly it sells. Obviously, the guy from Jersey has experience with this. I’d like to see his numbers too.
A good professional staging is well worth the money. I got multiple over-ask bids for my last sold home and the buyer was so enamored of the excellent staging design he bought some pieces from the stager. The previous home I staged with my own furniture and the buyer bought furniture from me also. Good luck!
As a buyer, I think it's nice to see a couple of chairs placed here and there to get a feel for the sizes of the rooms. A potted plant or two at the entrance is welcoming. However, when an agent fills the house with fake beds, dressers, artwork, pillows with cozy sayings on them, flowers, candles, etc. I become suspicious.
This happened with a home we bid on recently. The agent must have emptied a prop house and Yankee Candle factory and hid all sorts of things: unfinished baseboards, ripped carpet, cracks in the walls behind art, damaged vanities, water stains, etc. Our initial showing was only 30 minutes and doubled-up with other buyers, so we didn't notice all the issues. When we returned with our inspector and had time to kick the tires we realized how much the staging had distracted us from the problems.
Whether this is common or not, I'm now cautious of any listing with too much effort and money placed on staging.
Have you considered virtual staging? I have looked at properties online where for example, it will show a picture of a fully furnished living room and it states virtual staging at the top of the picture. Then the next picture will show the room empty. The pictures follow that pattern for every room in the house. I liked it, being able to see both views. The majority of people look at the listing pictures online before they make an appointment for a viewing.
It's a good idea. Our agent actually elected to contract the real life stager and pay for it himself, so we didn't have much agency over who staged and how-- but it's someone that he trusts and seemed to give good advice.
You received an offer, after a full week+, and chose to flat decline it and not counter?
this promised offer, why would they wait until their home closes?
Numerous threads on this ? (2 in last month) if you want to search past responses. The answer I appreciated from 6th realtor to weigh in (while others said zero to do in hot market) is that the staging allows a level of falling in love that can both spur on bidding war/level of bids (in hot market) and also see thru a negotiation that might have been bumpier. But, it sounds more an issue of your market slowing down (compared to months ago). That could be the wrong conclusion. Good luck.
Yeah, I think our market is in a summer lull: hit weather is making inventory climb slightly while buyers are more inactive due to heat and summer activity. We bought in May but weren't ready to sell due to moving timelines. Hindsight being 20/20 and all... I haven't heard staging described in those terms, they are helpful!
Price is the most important feature in obtaining interest and action toward selling a house, and making it attractive to act on in making an offer. After that, it follows in this order: Price. Price. Price, and Price. All the rest is lipstick.
A lot depends on the staging itself and how good it is... But for context, I was struggling to sell a Manhattan apartment for a few months. Staged it. Day 1 had a full price offer, day 2 had a backup just under it. Regardless of what people say about wanting a fixer upper or having good vision, the reality is that most people suck at envisioning a space. Staging generally provides aspirational clean and nice "home". REgardless of reddit constantly saying "price price price" I've seen so many other things rise or sink a home. Poor pictures, realtors who aren't responsive, cluttered homes, dirty, empty, etc. can all have a big impact too. Price matters in terms of perceived value. But staging can help raise the perceived value and justify the price. It isn't making you wildly outside of comps, but it is giving you integrity to your market competitive price by truly putting your best foot forward.
I'm a full time house flipper and real estate agent. I never used to stage my flips until recently. I showed 250 houses last year as a real estate agent, and learned quite a lot about buyers. I watched time and time again as buyers became obsessed with houses because the home owner did a good job decorating/furnishing it. This is especially true of younger (Millennial and Gen Z) buyers. In general, younger buyers are not handy. They want a house that needs 0 work. Additionally, they don't have much imagination. If they see an empty living room, they aren't bursting with ideas about how awesome its going to look after they put X Y Z in it. They need to be shown what it can look like. I had experiences where I showed buyers 2 houses that were the same exact model. One of them would be empty, and the buyer wouldn't be interested in the house. I'd show them the same exact model, well furnished and decorated, and they'd want to jump all over it. This is what made me decide to start staging all of my flips, and I think it has paid for itself. In fact in the past my model was always to use more premium materials (expensive tile, expensive flooring, little architectural details that you don't see in most flips etc) but I would save money by not staging. I am now experimenting with the opposite - using more basic bitch materials, but spending more money on killer staging.
\^This is so true. Buyers have no idea how to view an empty space. In particular, they can't visualize size/scale. I've seen sellers have the old large scale furniture that makes the space tiny get far less in a sales price due to not understanding how buyers just can't visualize anything that involves removeing furniture and replacing with their own stuff (removing in their mind's eye). Very few buyers have an eye for size and style if it's not already in place.
I agree with you that staging works but it is a bit different for more experienced people (real estate agents who see houses all the time, investors, even older people who have bought and sold many times) - I fucking hate staging personally. I find it distracting and all of them start to look the same. I care the most about location and a good floor plan and couldn’t actually care less what furniture is in the room or what colour the walls are. It drives me a little nuts that people are fooled so easily.
Yes you are correct. Although I will say I find staging works even on investors (if they plan on using it as a rental). But yes, in my experience, older people care more about the technical aspects of a house and are more likely to want to do renovations/upgrades. Younger people look at houses almost purely aesthetically. Younger people are not handy, dont want to be, and dont have the cash to renovate anything.
Do you think this translates to there being some value in showing a home before moving out, where that isn't inconvenient for the seller? Or is that not a good idea since unlike with professional staging everything won't be neutral and curated?
I think if the home owner has the home well decorated and furnished, its almost always better to show it while furnished if possible. It doesn't HAVE to be professionally staged.
How much lower than list was the offer? Why not counter at list? If they had low due diligence, that sounds like a pretty good offer.
I came here to say this: I don't get it. That sounds like a mistake. The first offer is usually the best.
Offer was technically list minus a small sellers credit, and 1% Duediligence. We just bought in the same geography and had to offer duediligence of 6.25% to win it, our offer of 3% DD on another property for hard countered. We don't feel 1% reflects a buyer being serious. Our agent thinks the staging will help, and is paying for it to be done.
But you didn't even counter; you could have asked for more of everything. Baffling.
We did a soft counter: more like "I am not sure we're going to come together on this, but if we did I imagine it would be at $465k and $10k DD." No response yet.
It is my understanding that the RE market in most areas is returning to a more normal state. Bidding wars and over list offers are a relic of 2021. So, unless your market is one of the outliers, that “almost full price” offer is likely a good one. It may be worth reaching out to the buyers that made the offer. On the other hand, if you are willing to wait 30-60 days, by all means, stage the space. Sparse is better than empty which is better than cluttered/full. At your price point, it’s hard to say that staging will affect the price, but it might affect how quickly it sells. Obviously, the guy from Jersey has experience with this. I’d like to see his numbers too.
A good professional staging is well worth the money. I got multiple over-ask bids for my last sold home and the buyer was so enamored of the excellent staging design he bought some pieces from the stager. The previous home I staged with my own furniture and the buyer bought furniture from me also. Good luck!
As a buyer, I think it's nice to see a couple of chairs placed here and there to get a feel for the sizes of the rooms. A potted plant or two at the entrance is welcoming. However, when an agent fills the house with fake beds, dressers, artwork, pillows with cozy sayings on them, flowers, candles, etc. I become suspicious. This happened with a home we bid on recently. The agent must have emptied a prop house and Yankee Candle factory and hid all sorts of things: unfinished baseboards, ripped carpet, cracks in the walls behind art, damaged vanities, water stains, etc. Our initial showing was only 30 minutes and doubled-up with other buyers, so we didn't notice all the issues. When we returned with our inspector and had time to kick the tires we realized how much the staging had distracted us from the problems. Whether this is common or not, I'm now cautious of any listing with too much effort and money placed on staging.
Have you considered virtual staging? I have looked at properties online where for example, it will show a picture of a fully furnished living room and it states virtual staging at the top of the picture. Then the next picture will show the room empty. The pictures follow that pattern for every room in the house. I liked it, being able to see both views. The majority of people look at the listing pictures online before they make an appointment for a viewing.
It's a good idea. Our agent actually elected to contract the real life stager and pay for it himself, so we didn't have much agency over who staged and how-- but it's someone that he trusts and seemed to give good advice.
You received an offer, after a full week+, and chose to flat decline it and not counter? this promised offer, why would they wait until their home closes?
Promised buyer is apparently very apprehensive about putting offers out before her home closes. It's apparently a nonstarter.