Yeah, I think staging is kinda funny sometimes.

When we were house-hunting, we often saw staged houses that were pretty obviously done in a "fake" way. We thought this sort of staging made it even more obvious that the rooms were too small, because no-one really lives with minimal (or miniature) furniture like that, no dressers in the bedrooms, etc.

On the other hand, we also saw many houses that were overwhelmingly cluttered with so much personal stuff we definitely were scared away, and often couldn't even see the forest for the trees.

If we were selling our house we would definitely consider "staging" it, or at least seriously de-cluttering it + doing as many of the other things recommended on those HGTV sort of shows.

But I do think perhaps "professionally staging" especially an empty house might not necessarily be worth such high fees.

Anyway, Tenzo, I too am interested in seeing your before/after pictures, and most importantly -- I wish you good luck with selling your house!

Pictures were taken last night after dark so they blow. I will have to take them again.

Here is a before and after of my wife's office


Before After


In the back bedroom here is a picture of the uplights. You can see one behind the bed and another behind the dresser. Now, no one could possible live with uplights in the room.



Bathroom with sculpture. For scale, the sculpture is about 2 feet high.




I understand the frustration with 'busy bee' (lousy name for anything put a nersery). One of the hardest things to get through for me is, once my house is on the market, it's no longer mine. There are now some areas that are just not as livable. No booze, no paperback books, no reading light, no place for my work boots.
I mean, who's bathroom looks like this?


One time I was showing the place and someone wanted to knock down the patio for parking.

I love that patio! And who would need parking for more than 4 cars anyway?
That patio was built by hand by my 72 year old father and I. We have about 6 parties there a year. At night the neighboorhood kids sit on the wall and play kissy face.

Then after they left I realized, hey, it's not mine. If people want to buy the place and raze it, they can. It will no longer be mine.

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Peace Out, Philly!

I went through a couple of partially staged empty houses. They looked great!

I was amazed at some houses I looked at -- total mess, toys and junk all over, dirty; one had a hole in a wall showing mold. It's a buyer's market and unless homes like that are priced very low, they're not gonna move.

I agree that when they put a double bed in a room with only one dresser, or no night tables, it shows off the lack of space.

Decluttering is a good idea, but hard to do. Good idea to throw stuff out at that time so that it's gone for good, rather than unpacking it at the new place!

Good lord! What did they do with Tenzo!?

Ha. Yeah, here's what I did just before we put our co-op in NJ up for sale... I packed up piles of our accumulated junk, which being the pack-rat I am, there was plenty. I then rented a van, and carted it all off to Lambertville on Shad Fest day, where my friend's brother was having a garage sale. Brilliant, right? Well, maybe not. The garage wasn't exactly in the thick of things, so I ended up selling just a few $ worth of stuff, not even enough to pay for the van rental + gas. Oh well, at least I removed all that useless stuff from our apartment. (I never brought it back home, instead I just dropped it all off at a local church where they always accept donations to be sold at their fundraisers.)

Yes, I do think, in an empty house, placing a table here & a plant stand there can really make a difference. I just don't think you have to go overboard paying professionals & renting furniture to completely fill up & totally "stage" an empty place.

Yeah, that's hard. We spent many hours maintaining the property of out last home. I drive by once in a while and am saddened by how overgrown everything is...and that the new owners like to keep their multiple trash cans on the front porch. But hey, it's not ours. I feel kind of bad for the neighbors though--it's a very well-maintained neighborhood.

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"If you think you're too small to be effective, you have never been in bed with a mosquito."

--Bette Reese

I understand the concept of staging. Put your best foot forward and all that. I'm just mystified that buyers are so easily fooled by it.

You're buying a house, not moving into a hotel room. The difference is that a house gives you the opportunity to arrange things however you want them. So, I just look past all the owner's junk and focus on the bones of the house. The question isn't, "Is it what I want?", but "Can it be what I want?"

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"The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected." G.K. Chesterton

When I was looking for a house three years ago we saw lots of staged houses. Some even had fake plastic computers and flat screen televisions on the wall. One thing I thought was dishonest is that most of the house were staged wil slighly smaller than normal furniture. For example, I saw lots of bedrooms with wierd short beds in them.

I also saw lots of places where the owners had put no effort into even straightening the place up or taking care of very minor maintenance issues. Our realtor usually comented that the owners were probably getting a divorce.

I agree. I would much rather see a empty room than some furniture arranged 'just so' to give the room a look. Most of the time it isn't a style/color that I am interested in anyway and it takes away from me trying to see the room and the bones of it. Decluttered is a my next best option because I don't need to see all your knick-knacks and crap. I can get a better sense of the space in the room if it isn't filled.

I kinda think staging is a racket made up by those who wanted to suck extra $ out of the Real Estate market when it was at it's peak. But that's just me.

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For the good that I wish I do not do, but for bad that I do not wish is what I practice.