I've done some home staging for a few clients over the last few years, but more often in my area, sellers don't see the value and don't want to spend the money. And, honestly, it's always a bit of a crap shoot. I did one home a few years ago and it sold during the first weekend on the market in a bidding war. But another house I worked on, which was on the market for nearly $9M, is still on the market after several years and several price reductions. There are no guarantees.
Last week, I was condo shopping with a friend and client who is looking for a small pied a terre in Boston. He has a country house on the Cape and he's looking for a small city place so he doesn't have a long daily commute to and from work at Harvard. One of the buildings we checked out is a full service concierge type new building - lots of amenities including valet parking (which I would love!) We saw two basically identical units on different floors and with different views. The first unit we saw was empty, the second fully staged. The difference was amazing and I wanted to share just what a difference staging can make.
Condo 1 Living room - unstaged
Condo 2 Living Room - staged
Condo 1 Kitchen - unstaged
Condo 2 Kitchen - staged
Condo 1 Bathroom - unstaged
Condo 2 Bathroom - staged
Condo 1 Bedroom - unstaged
Condo 2 Bedroom - staged
For 500 sq. ft. these are nice little spaces. Now, clearly, there is little difference between the two units. And the staging is pretty basic and not at all upscale. However, the difference between the two units was like night and day. Both my client and I have pretty good imaginations when it comes to mentally placing furniture, but even for us, just seeing it laid out made all the difference. He even said the words "I could live here". Music to a seller and realtor's ears.
Still, staging remains a pretty uncommon thing here in New England. Sometimes Yankee frugality gets in our way.
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