Buying A Home
ECT2012
member
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Selling Your House - Staging Question
Hi all,
This is my first post on The Nest - just discovered this board, and hopefully this is the right place to post this Q.
We are getting ready to sell our house. Our realtor just brought in a professional stager (who we paid $125...!). The stager then made recommendations about what to do with our house, and said that we can rent all the items she suggested for a mere $400 on the day of the staging pics, and then only $200/week once the house is on the market. When we said that sounds like a lot of money, and we would have to decline, it seems as though our realtor has made numerous comments about other houses that have sold "that were professionally staged", etc.
Is this common practice, to charge so much money for this? It seems to me with the amount of money we are paying my realtor, this could have been included in her fees or something?
I guess just a major expense that we weren't at all prepared for, and now causing a lot of stress that our house isn't going to look nice enough because we aren't paying to rent "fancy towels" to go in our bathrooms.
Thanks for your advice/thoughts!
This is my first post on The Nest - just discovered this board, and hopefully this is the right place to post this Q.
We are getting ready to sell our house. Our realtor just brought in a professional stager (who we paid $125...!). The stager then made recommendations about what to do with our house, and said that we can rent all the items she suggested for a mere $400 on the day of the staging pics, and then only $200/week once the house is on the market. When we said that sounds like a lot of money, and we would have to decline, it seems as though our realtor has made numerous comments about other houses that have sold "that were professionally staged", etc.
Is this common practice, to charge so much money for this? It seems to me with the amount of money we are paying my realtor, this could have been included in her fees or something?
I guess just a major expense that we weren't at all prepared for, and now causing a lot of stress that our house isn't going to look nice enough because we aren't paying to rent "fancy towels" to go in our bathrooms.
Thanks for your advice/thoughts!
Re: Selling Your House - Staging Question
It all totally depends on your market and what buyers expect to see in your area.
But, I feel like overall many sellers just do their own staging and it comes out just fine. Where I would spend extra money is in hiring a professional real estate photographer to take your photos that get posted on the MLS! That's HUGE!!! If your pictures stink, buyers won't come.
In posts of the past on this board, sellers have posted pics of their homes to get helpful advice about what to do to stage their homes. You can also post the pics on the decorating and renovating board to get advice.
There are 2 major things that aid in staging your home...decluttering and deep cleaning. These you can do for free with some hard work!!!
Eliminate items from the countertops that are not essentials....it makes the space feel larger. Clear out closets by at least 1/2, (hide away off season clothing and shoes), get stuff off the floor. Invest in some matching hangers, even if they are the basic white plastic - make them all match. Get as many pet and kid things out of the way before a showing as possible as these things take up space too.
In the cleaning category...replace nasty shower curtains, scrub grout, clean stains out of sinks, etc. Also, if you have ugly, dated, worn faucets and handles, consider spending a few bucks to replace those.
You want a prospective buyer to feel at home in the house without them knowing it's your house. They need to think of it as their house! Get rid of personal names, university things, photographs, posters, etc. Remember that people viewing your home probably won't have the same interests as you, and if they think of you, they won't think of themselves living there.
If your carpets are dirty, get a professional cleaner. If they are really in poor shape, replace them. Make sure all lights are working. Sweep the garage. Declutter your drawers in the kitchen and bathrooms (they will be opened). Look for and fix any squeaks, rusts, cracks or anything that signals to a buyer that something is in poor shape.
Make the front of your home have "curb appeal." Cut back overgrown plants down from windows and doors. Remulch. Plant flowers. Make the entry welcoming with a mat and a wreath or some sort of other welcoming decorative feature.
As far as furniture, décor, paint and fabric is concerned...that's where posting pics here can help you. For some money at Target or Walmart, you can get a few new items (that you can keep when you're done selling) to spice up your spaces. Beyond this generic advice here, it's tough to help in this area without knowing what your home looks like.
The aim with staging is to make your home feel larger, cleaner and better than any other home.
We removed items from closets and kitchen cabinets for they were no more than 1/2 full.
All the removed furniture and items from closets/cabinets was stored in the garage (or you can rent a storage unit)
Make sure you wash the windows and all doors as well and make the entry attractive.
My house sold on the first day to the fist buyer at asking price.
Most houses in my area are not staged -- in fact it is surprising how bad some homes look while on the market. (I live in a small rural area)
You always hear statistics (some of them probably slanted) about how professional staging sells homes faster and for more money, but it has always seemed like a waste of money to me for the average home owner. Like the other PPs, the things that make the biggest impacts (decluttering and deep cleaning) are what you can do yourself. There are a lot of online resources to help you with DIY staging and designing. And if you are missing any furniture to define a space and/or your current furniture is in poor condition/too dated, it would be far cheaper to rent furniture from a place like Aaron's or Rent-A-Center than it would to use what your stager is recommending.
I'm sure it varies by region, but I used to hire firms to furnish corporate apartments. The prices quoted to you sound a little high to me, but not crazily so. Then again, I also wouldn't be surprised if there are different prices for corporate housing than for staging a house for sale...after all, corporate housing is usually going to be a longer period of time, at least one would hope!
Make sure the entry of your home inside and out is bright, neat, clean and welcoming (buy a new entry mat, paint the door if needed, etc.)
Remove some of your funiture.
Wash windows and make sure there is great lighting (daylight as well) at showings.
Severely limit item on the wall - and NO personal items out (Photos etc)
Basically you want a clean, neat, spacious appearing home.