Do I NEED to Use a Home Stager?
When I look at a property online or go to an open house, I can tell right away if it’s been professionally staged. Granted, I’m probably uniquely sensitive to that, but some of the DIY Staging I’ve seen is just distracting. As in, it probably would have been better if you had just emptied out the house and called it a day. I’ve seen a lot of homes that I can tell have been staged by a Realtor or an owner because of a few key things.
You clear everything off of all the surfaces. I went to an open house once where a stager had been consulted but hadn’t been hired to do the actual staging. I was really impressed by how great it looked overall, especially when I was told more about the family that currently owned it. As far as being able to profile them, I absolutely could not. The house was beautiful, the furniture was properly arranged and everything looked great until I got into the bathroom. There was absolutely nothing on the counters. Not a soap dispenser, not a plant, NOTHING. It’s probably not something that would consciously make a buyer run from the house, but the place definitely did not feel like a home. People buy homes, not houses and very few people can imagine what a place could be (watch any decorating show ever). A home stager can help you depersonalize the space (as this one clearly did) but they can also make it feel comfortably lived in. The key is that you don’t want it to look like no one lives in the house, you want to make it seem as if no one profileable person or family lives in the house so that prospective buyers can imagine themselves living there.
You don’t depersonalize your space. There were two open houses recently that were perfect examples of this. The first was generally pretty good until I got to the back hall and noticed what may have been a picture of one of the home owners (it also could have been a poster I suppose). Either way it was distracting. In all of the other rooms they had great neutral art that could have reasonably fit into any home. Upon seeing this poster I automatically started picturing who currently lived here and stopped imagining myself living there. Another house I only looked at online, but I really, really want to meet the owner. She had absolutely beautiful taste. Her whole house looked like a decorating magazine and was a perfect eclectic mix of everything she loved. I think she was also a traveler because there seemed to be a lot of world influences in the house. What I could not tell you is what the house looked like. I remember the basics of it, but mostly I remember that I thought she seemed like an awesome person. It was a condo that could potentially have worked for a bachelor, an older couple or a family but unless they really had vision, they probably would have passed it by because it was only showcased to appeal to one demographic.
You ignore the closets. At another open house I noticed that all of the closets were absolutely packed to the gills. I couldn’t even tell you how big the closets were because all I could really tell was that these people had a ton of stuff. This made it seem like there probably wasn’t much useable storage space in the rest of the house. You don’t need to empty the closets completely but paring them down is always recommended. Take out all of your off season clothes and anything that you don’t anticipate needing in the next 3-6 months.  Seasonal decorations, family mementos and valuable items should all be taken out of the house and stored somewhere safe (whether that is a storage unit or a friend or family member’s basement is up to you). Think of it as getting a head start on packing. With your new, pared down closet buyers will be able to easily assess that there is enough space for them to move in all of their junk.
You make some questionable decorating choices. I’ve walked into two open houses recently where there was sparse, oddly arranged furniture and really weird décor. You don’t have to have a lot of furniture in the home, but how it is arranged and the finishing touches do matter. In one house a couch was shoved in a corner next to a dining table when it could have been showcasing a gorgeous fireplace at the other end of the room. At another house the décor was so dated that it overshadowed the beautiful hardwood floors, bright rooms and plentiful closets. You want people to look at the house, not what’s in it, so if your furniture or decorating choices are dominating your home it will be a problem. A potential buyer whose style is drastically different may fit perfectly in your home, but if all they can see is what you have, they may well not notice it, meaning your house stays on the market longer. Home stagers can help overcome this problem by showcasing the house, not what’s in it. We know how to arrange furniture, what the most neutral décor is and how to emphasize all the great things about your house while downplaying the negative ones.
You think it’s good enough. My husband and I were actually looking to buy this particular house and are generally speaking able to imagine the potential of a house. There really wasn’t much storage room and a lot of work needed to be done so we passed on it, but the other thing that we noticed was that it really stunk.  I was honestly a little concerned as to what might have been under the carpets if we ever pulled them up. This seems like a little thing, but subconsciously people do take things like smell into consideration. Buyers pick a house based on how it makes them feel as much as if it fits their needs. If the entire house smells like cats it probably isn’t going to make them feel very good so unless you knock them out with the rest of the house they may not be back. A stager’s job is to politely tell you that the scent of your home needs to be neutralized and provide you with ways that this can be done. Often times such a suggestion is less offensive coming from us because our job is to get the house showroom ready for sale.
You have a lot on your plate right now and don’t have time to notice whether there are cobwebs out your kitchen window or the baseboards all need to be wiped. The same thing goes for you, Realtors. You are definitely getting better at staging your own properties, but sometimes it would be more time-saving and cost-effective to hire someone else to worry about that part of preparing the house for sale (you already have enough on your plate as well). At the end of the day, no, you don’t NEED a home stager. Your house will sell eventually. However if you want to sell your home quickly and get every penny out of it I highly recommend using a stager. The cost of staging will be less than your first price reduction!   Stagers evaluate the market and then objectively prepare the home to appeal to the greatest number of buyers so that your home flies off the market and you don’t have to sell it for less than it’s worth.
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