Staged house

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kingdragonfly

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Topic # 236366 30-May-2018 08:01

My coworker is selling a house in Churton Park, Wellington.

She had a company "stage" the house with furniture.

The company takes an empty house, and brings in furniture to make it looked lived in (???).

I'm not sure I see the point. It's in Wellington's safest neighborhood, literally, 10 minutes from the CBD, and it has a decile 10 school.

Seems like she's wasting of money, reducing her net profit. It may even put off a buyer, who thinks someone will need to move out.

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a.aspx?id=164847668

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Reply # 2025311 30-May-2018 08:19

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According to the marketing talk the staging can increase your sale price by up to 10%. Apparently it's the first impression that usually sells the house and staging is supposed to make the house look like from a magazine. Also people can better visualise living in the house if it's furnished.

The best trick with staging is that the furniture is custom and is made to be tad smaller (at least in some cases) - so when you walk into the bedroom you are like wow lots of space here but it's the slightly smaller bed that makes the room look bigger.

It's just trick to lure the buyer similar to the real estate photos tricks - adding fake lights, blue skies in windows which never get any light, super wide lenses to make everything look bigger...

Cost of staging for your average 1mil house is less than 0.5%...

Jase2985

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Reply # 2025312 30-May-2018 08:19

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helps buyers visualise rooms, its a mental thing

scuwp

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Reply # 2025314 30-May-2018 08:27

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A few hundred dollars is chicken feed when talking about a house sale of several hundred thousands or even a million plus. As already mentioned it shows the house off in the best possible light so buyers can see what it 'could' look like rather than seeing a cold and unwelcome empty cave. Nothing to do with security.

Always be yourself, unless you can be Batman, then always be the Batman

chevrolux

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Reply # 2025322 30-May-2018 08:35

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A staged house looks FAR better than an empty house. Worth spending $1000 bucks to appeal to a buyer who falls in love and pays stupid money - highly likely in Wellington!

nas

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Reply # 2025323 30-May-2018 08:39

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As a buyer I'd prefer to see what the house looks like "lived in" even if its staged.

It helps you visualise how and where things can fit, especially in rooms and bed sizes.

chevrolux:

buyer who falls in love and pays stupid money - highly likely in Wellington!

We're currently looking in Wellington, some of the offers people are putting on houses is beyond ridiculous

MileHighKiwi

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Reply # 2025326 30-May-2018 08:46

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As a potential buyer, you could just use your imagination. We bought a new home recently, looked for around 6 months at dozens of places, you soon start to see the same furniture being used, there's only a couple of staging companies in Wellington. Staged homes don't do it for me, it doesn't look 'real'. And half the stuff they use is cheap cra*.

cshwone

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Reply # 2025328 30-May-2018 08:50

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We ruthlessly decluttered into a storage unit. Same effect as staging and worked for us. Looked lived in but not artificial.

MurrayM

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Reply # 2025374 30-May-2018 09:36

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MileHighKiwi:

As a potential buyer, you could just use your imagination. We bought a new home recently, looked for around 6 months at dozens of places, you soon start to see the same furniture being used, there's only a couple of staging companies in Wellington. Staged homes don't do it for me, it doesn't look 'real'. And half the stuff they use is cheap cra*.

I agree. I looked at a house last year and straight away I could tell it was staged. I prefer to see a blank canvas and visualize where my stuff will go.

wellygary

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Reply # 2025399 30-May-2018 10:00

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MileHighKiwi:

As a potential buyer, you could just use your imagination. We bought a new home recently, looked for around 6 months at dozens of places, you soon start to see the same furniture being used, there's only a couple of staging companies in Wellington. Staged homes don't do it for me, it doesn't look 'real'. And half the stuff they use is cheap cra*.

You aren't buying the furniture, so why do you care if its cheap or not...

Its basically just like going to IKEA, you find the products "in use" in fake setups, and get an idea about how something will go with other stuff same here, you get an idea about what will fit in a space....

itxtme

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Reply # 2025730 30-May-2018 15:57

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I think some of you are understating the effectiveness of the impression. Its hard for anyone to say that they dont like staged unless they stated there preference is that they like looking at an empty or cluttered house (the only 2 alternatives), and I find that hard to believe. If you think about it on a psychological level staging helps visualisation, whereas having nothing or clutter will have the opposite effect with at leas some of your buyers.

Also staging assists with photos for advertising, empty houses don't have the same psychological appeal online, and if its an area you are ho hum about things like this get more people there. A friend used a staging company when selling and he had a great outcome, was it soley because of this? Porbably not, but it was a small flat and staged well. It made it more appealing online and in the flesh. When we sold year before last we considered it, but instead just borrowed and removed a lot of things so the house was staged but without the big $$.

kingdragonfly

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Reply # 2042121 22-Jun-2018 08:15

I guess staging a house only gets you so far.

The tinder process obviously failed, so the owner is asking for $600,000.

It nice, safe neighborhood, good schools, easy commute, but too rich for my blood.

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Senecio

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Reply # 2042166 22-Jun-2018 09:40

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We bought our house last year. It had been staged as the previous owners had already moved on. I was grateful for the staging as our house is a little unusual multi split level and it would have been difficult to see how each space could be used if it were empty.

sxz

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Reply # 2042300 22-Jun-2018 10:46

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I think the staging looks good. But at photos 12-13, is the outdoor furniture photoshoped??

trig42

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Reply # 2042305 22-Jun-2018 10:57

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Staging is basically the same as de-cluttering.

They only bring is enough stuff to make it look 'lived in', but not enough to make it look full. It makes the house look bigger.

I think it definitely has value, and I'd prefer a house to have furniture in it when viewing than a cold empty cave.

Batwing

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Reply # 2042319 22-Jun-2018 11:51

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As a relatively recent house buyer I hate staging. I've seen them use fake furniture of smaller than standard size but proprotioned to trick the eye, thus making rooms look bigger than they are. Read, cardboard boxes covered in sheets or upholstered to look like real furniture.

I would much rather see the rooms empty to better guage the condition of the property. Unfortunately we found we were often up against people for whom condition was not as important as they were not intending to live in it themselves.

Also if staging do they paint? If so don't let them it's not always prepped first and requires remediation soon after.

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