Deborah Pearce - Living Spaces -'s Blog

Deborah, don't you just love good news?  I don't think staging is as new as it was even a few months ago and it sure makes the vacants sell faster!  Thanks for sharing the post.

Deborah, I forgot all about his post!

Yes Carole - good news is happy news - I always look for it first!

Yeah it's a good one Marci! Words& statements mean a lot more when spoken by someone That uses, but is not dorectly involved in the industry. What's better?!

Deborah,
I have been reading about staging here on AR but it is not done in our area so I have some questions:

1.  As a stager, do you provide all the "props" and what would that include?

2.  How long do you leave the house staged if it does not sell quickly?

3.  What is average price (I know that's a difficult question) to price a new, approx. 2800 sq. ft. house?
3 BR, 2 1/2 bath, family room, dining room, breakfast room

4.  Which rooms do you stage?  

I'm just trying to get a handle on this--thank you. 

Cynthia - costs vary per area & individual. Some price ridiculously low to high $450 - $2500 per day. Rentals are additional.

Stagers can provide everything.

All things in order - realtor, staging, marketing, location, etc., average selling time for a staged home is 13 days. I have staged properties that sold in 1-3 days - the longest 45 days, but that was unusual.

It is best to stage all rooms especially an occupied, or at least main areas.

If a staged house is not selling, then the various factors need to be looked at.  

Cheers!

Deborah, that is great. I am all over it! I have been really prepping my sellers to do just this.

  

That's so terrific Terry!

I am at such a loss right now about staging.  Do the realtors pay for it or the sellers?  I have a vacant house that is driving me nuts, there is just something about that house that feels so devoid. I've been in empty/vacant houses before and they didn't feel like this one -- it just "feels" bad -- I am going to do something about that house today!  Great read.

Sondra there is plenty of information available on staging.

A good place to start is getting educated on the statistics first of all - then you will understand the value & why it is essential to stage right by staging first instead of after all the potential problems. When you understand that staging sells on 13 days average, at minimum 3% more, the cost of staging in the final analysis is really paid by the buyer.

It seems that people tend to be afraid of the intitial cost without considering that it is nothing compared to what is possible to gain, avoiding all the end losses of a sale that doesn't happen! Take for example, a $500,000 house with a minimum increase of 3% = $15,000!! Wouldn't you happily spend $1,000 or so on staging to gain this & even more? 

Realtors who 'get' this, are becoming happy to pay for staging. Otherwise you must educate your seller in the benefits.

When you get those 'feelings' that you've described, it's a very good indication that somthing is amiss - so trust your intuition! There are certainly all the other factors of selling involved- all have to be taken care of.

Good luck with the house!

Deborah,  Great post and thanks for the extra name recognition.  It's nice to know that one's thoughts and feelings are appreciated.  Keep up the great work!  And yes I am a blogaholic.

David! You blogaholic!

Thanks for checking in - this blog I posted to Localism & got featured there! So You're in Localism also! The credit is all yours -thanks again very much welcome & appreciated!!

Cheers ^ have a great week!

 

Staging is here to stay I believe. It's only since I joined AR and started reading the posts on staging that I opened my eyes to the possibilities.  Not big yet in Halifax, but I believe it's time has come.

Thanks Paul from across Canada! The possibilities are profitability statistics. One day I hope to get to Halifax & the Maritimes - it's very beautiful part of our country & a terrific area of the world!

Cheers - thanks again for stopping in & have a great week!

In the St Louis area, sellers are carrying the cost of staging. Realtors often cover the cost of the intial consultation but our sellers pay the actual staging cost. We are still working to educate our realtors on the great advantage of staging to their bottom line. One of the services our realtors like best is that we "refresh" the house weekly so it is always show ready, especially empty houses. We also include an open house service where we go before an open house and refresh, add or update flowers, cookies etc so the realtor can show up, turn on the lights and open the door. Our realtors love how much time it saves them.

Thanks for your comment Cheri - it's gppd tp know how it's being done in different ares.

Have a great week!

Hi Deborah it only takes one staged home and one astute realtor to finally get the word out.  I still don't understand what 99% of them are waiting for.

Terry Haugen - STAGE it RIGHT!

Hi Terry - It seems we've all shifted a bit - I guess that's the way it goes!

You are so correct, which is why I found it so important to not let David Slaven's very significant post not go by the wayside!

Thanks for stopping by &  for your wise observation. I think there are a lot of factors, so we need to keep plugging in wherever possible.