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I detest a slovenly person trying to mask their lack of showering with a heavy does of cheap cologne sitting next to me on public transit in the heat...
If someone has cleaned their home prior to listing, gotten rid of all the things that clutter up the counters and such and then realizes that a nice bowl of flowers or some colorful linens are going to brighten up the photographs and help to catch the eye of potential buyers I give then points for working hard to maximize the visual appeal of their home.
Even if their furnishing are not to my taste I appreciate the care they have taken to find ways to harmonize what might otherwise be a bland /sterile presentation of an unrealistically empty stucture.
My personal tastes gravitate toward the sorts of homes built during the Craftsmen / Prarie Style era and I know that furnishing from that era are both quite pricey / rare, but if I am looking online and I see pictures of a home decorated instead with furnishings from a very differnent era but of similar size / configuration it helps me understand how large indivual rooms may be.
I don't think too many people are so naive as to think even a spa bathroom staged with candles and flower petals will guarantee endless nights of torrid romance, but it is a lot more classy than having a two quart bottle of "Ultra Lube" on the nightstand in a photograph, and frankly even if the big soak tub is more likely to be used to bathe infants I doubt harried young parents would be thrilled to think of a gallon sized jug of No-More Tears Baby Safe shampoo taking the place of the flickering candles.
Even the most RATIONAL buyer is ultimately swayed by not the "dollars per sq ft" of a place but by the emotional piece of mind that the home they are buying is the right place for them and their family. People that lead colorless lives rarely make any decision at all and more often than not grow old with piles of money in the bank while those that have a little more pizazz in their daily living have the riches of their joyfulled memories.
You don't need to have a disease to understand that when 96% of home buyers are using ONLINE PHOTOS to narrow their list of potential homes it is stupid not to get the best looking photos online. Anyone that says naked pictures of empty rooms with no way to judge scale or potential layout is perferable to having well staged photos is just too out of touch to be believed.
Similarly the thought of the OP "leaving behind" some sad sofa or rumpled old mattress "aiding the sale" is laughable -- if the home is not staged in a way that buyers will see its best qualities in person I agree EMPTY BEATS HALF HEARTED!
The folks that are so handicapped by the presence of well selected furnishings laid out in a tasteful and minimalist fashion that they cannot image how their own belongings might fit into the space might want to seek professional help...
Frankly, that you keep harping on the ridiculously expensive staging on people who have plainly said they prefer a clean empty house, tells me you are the one in need of professional help.
Frankly, that you keep harping on the ridiculously expensive staging on people who have plainly said they prefer a clean empty house, tells me you are the one in need of professional help.
I have said that if the choice is full of crummy stuff or even barely having any crummy stuff then EMPTY WINS, but if the choice is a pared down, well thought out choice of items choosen specifically to PHOTOGRAPH WELL and highlight the potential of a space, especially a oddly configured home with just two large bedrooms and a smaller living room as the OP has said they have, then HECK YEAH, stage the place to showcase what is possible!
I have yet to see any home, even BRAND SPANKING NEW LUXURY MANSIONS, that do not look a whole lot BETTER with well planned staging that allows photographs to lend a sense of scale and potential usage to the online presentation. When it comes to smaller homes, be they tract homes from the post WWII era or stuff built in the "Brady Bunch" era or even a lovely Arts & Crafts cottage the need to give the rooms appropriwte scale through careful staged photographs is even more pressing.
These folks that claim to magically be able to visualize how their own furniture works only in a vacant space but are oddly distracted by a well placed tea towel stike me as so far outside of the mainstream that I would not trust their advice on selling any home. It more likely that they have competing properties online and fear the well staged homes will make their empty shells sit unsold even longer...
I have said that if the choice is full of crummy stuff or even barely having any crummy stuff then EMPTY WINS, but if the choice is a pared down, well thought out choice of items choosen specifically to PHOTOGRAPH WELL and highlight the potential of a space, especially a oddly configured home with just two large bedrooms and a smaller living room as the OP has said they have, then HECK YEAH, stage the place to showcase what is possible!
I have yet to see any home, even BRAND SPANKING NEW LUXURY MANSIONS, that do not look a whole lot BETTER with well planned staging that allows photographs to lend a sense of scale and potential usage to the online presentation. When it comes to smaller homes, be they tract homes from the post WWII era or stuff built in the "Brady Bunch" era or even a lovely Arts & Crafts cottage the need to give the rooms appropriwte scale through careful staged photographs is even more pressing.
These folks that claim to magically be able to visualize how their own furniture works only in a vacant space but are oddly distracted by a well placed tea towel stike me as so far outside of the mainstream that I would not trust their advice on selling any home. It more likely that they have competing properties online and fear the well staged homes will make their empty shells sit unsold even longer...
You must be in staging sales, because just like any other salesman, you simply don't get it. WE DON'T WANT IT STAGED. PERIOD. END OF STORY.
Here's where your customer walks out and tells everyone they know (that does want staging), what a high-pressure salesman you were and to use another company instead.
I'd love for some of the professionals to weigh in with an estimate on the percentage for how many homes are sold empty? At least in the circles I move in, the vast majority of people need to sell an existing home in order to purchase a new one and they need somewhere to live during the process. So at least in my experience, emptying out a home simply is not an option for most people, regardless of those whose preference is to view an empty house if they are buying.
I personally prefer a decluttered but furnished home in terms of shopping. I like seeing the scale of the furniture in the room. I can easily substitute my own furniture and decor in my head, but the spatial relationships are a bit tougher. And I have no compunction about lifting up an area rug or bathmat if I want to verify the condition of flooring underneath, esp. if something seems oddly placed and raises a red flag that it's there to cover up a problem and not just as decor.
There seems to be a lot of contention in this topic. That is to be expected because there are many ways of looking at it, and there will never be any agreement which is best, nor is there any way to prove it without a scientific experiment, which would be difficult to conduct.
I think this topic has examined the issue from every angle, and all the answers and points of view have been adequately discussed and rediscussed.'
My last word: I'd rather see an immaculately clean totally empty house. However I have the ability that some have while others do not, to be able to mentally stage the house with my imagination. YMMV
You must be in staging sales, because just like any other salesman, you simply don't get it. WE DON'T WANT IT STAGED. PERIOD. END OF STORY.
Here's where your customer walks out and tells everyone they know (that does want staging), what a high-pressure salesman you were and to use another company instead.
...show me a listing where the photos of an EMPTY house give any idea of how big the rooms truly are, which wall is longer, where the pathways between rooms might be and other things that will be useful to buyers.
Until then I will continue to say that anyone opposed to staging for the photographs is just being over dramatic and / or hopelessly backward in their lack of common sense. Believe me, if you could sell a home quicker and more profitably by photographing it EMPTY there would be a whole industry dedicated to "one day empty and reloading" to get homes all clean as a whistle for the photos to be shot and then piled full of junk for the sellers to keep leaving in the mess. No such service exists becuase it is of course idiotic to thing that anyone has magically powers to only envision how their stuff might be look in an empty house.
A lot of perspective here is based on the difference between visualizing a house or a home.
Some people like the warm fuzzy feeling of a home when viewing and some have active imaginations that allow them to visualize what it will take to manifest their final vision.
Me being a fit, form, and function person with a General Contractors license and a construction background prefer a blank artist's palate as a platform that I can use to achieve the look I'm visualizing.
But, to every person to have their own freedom to pursue their dreams before everything is under control of a H.O.A.
Personally I do not think FSBO works unless a seller in a very hot market but that is another subject.
My last sale (using a realtor) was of an empty house as we had relocated. We had it professionally cleaned, carpets cleaned, etc. We had a cleaning service come in every two weeks plus a landscaper weekly. We also had a realtor that stayed on top of how it looked. The least little issue was taken care of as soon as it was noticed.
Our buyer said one of the main reasons they bought it was because the place was so clean, well kept, and they could look/see in every nook and cranny. Nothing hidden. No surprises.
ADDITION
As someone said an empty house might photograph poorly.
While our house was empty the last few months, the MLS pictures had been taken while there was furniture in the house. We did move quite a bit around while taking pics so one could say it was "staged". It took the realtor and two helpers to do so.
Be nervous when they show up and take as is pics uising their cell phone.
I had a prior experience where I changed realtors and the prior realtor refused to let the new realtor use their pics. I learned. Have the realtor agree that the MLS pics are yours to use. They are more amenable to your requests when they want the listing........LOL
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Anyone that says naked pictures of empty rooms with no way to judge scale or potential layout is perferable to having well staged photos is just too out of touch to be believed.
Maybe a do...
