The Cost of Not Staging

The cost of not staging is a topic that I love and hate to think about.  I love to think about it because I am super competitive and when I stage a house in a neighborhood or on a street when there are other houses listed, I want my house to sell first because my clients chose to invest in staging with me (I will have a future blog post about that exact situation!).  I want them to know that it was a wise choice to stage their house–and wiser, still, for hiring me ; ).

What I hate to think about are those same houses that aren't selling, knowing that most likely the lack of a sale is causing stress for that seller and that in some of those cases, I could actually be doing something about it.  That's the part that eats at me.

But, I think it is important to share because I hear that many people choose not to stage because staging is expensive or people don't want to spend the fill in the blank…(time, money, energy)…to fix up a place that they are leaving.  I also hear from those people who made that choice and then hire me because their house hasn't sold and they feel stuck in an endless cycle of showings and no sales.

I was recently hired by a young family to stage their unoccupied house.  When I spoke to the owner for the first time, she was so distressed.  You could literally hear the desperation in her voice as it quivered while she talked about her experience.  They had the house on the market for 4 years without any offers–except for the note that someone slipped into their mailbox saying that they would like to place an offer, but never did.  They had actually moved their young family in with her parents because they wanted to relocate out of their neighborhood and thought that it would be a temporary arrangement.

There was a real cost of not staging her home.

Think about that.  Four years of mortgage payments.  Four years of taxes. Four years of maintenance. Four years of utilities.  Those are REAL COSTS.

They finally hired their 4th Realtor who recommended staging.  They had some furniture so we used what they had and filled in with bedding, art, accessories and window treatments.  In the morning, we staged their house and it went back up on the market. They had an offer in 19 days!

Can you imagine what staging could have done for them financially had they made that choice 4 years ago?  Here's how we helped them to change that momentum….I will add that their previous Realtors had done them a complete disservice by taking their listing photos when the house was not neat or picked up at all.  The “before” photos I will share with you today are a HUGE improvement over the original “befores” from their first Realtor but, the improved “befores” totally illustrate my point that “neat” is not “STAGED”.

Here the entry is not too bad.  It is neat'ish but hard to see in the dimly lit photo. Definitely not something that will jump out in a positive way to an online shopper.  Also, notice that the front door opens onto a decorative fireplace.  Unfortunately, it is surrounded by toys which now become the new focal point.

Just a note…I took this on my iPhone–which I don't recommend you do for your listing photos–at the end of our staging day.  Crazy how much better it is than Realtor #3's photo!

Here is the dining room.  Again, it is neat but not staged.

Next, the master bedroom.  Neatly made bed, very organized, a little dark but not staged to make a buyer swoon.

In this small house, every room needed to look great.  This room has fantastic light and really cute bedding, but things like the vacuum probably didn't need to find their way into the listing photo.

So, over to you my dears…Am I being overly dramatic?  Do you agree or disagree that the cost of not staging can outweigh the cost to stage?