Affordable Staging Tips for Any Listing: Your Questions Answered

We had a great webinar last Thursday on how you can stage your listings without breaking the bank. In case you missed it, you can playback a recording and download the slides at REALTOR® Magazine.

Our speakers—staging pros Terrylynn Fisher and Christine Rae—provided attendees with dozens of staging tips and even provided ideas on how you can spice up those REOs. During the webinar, we ran out of time for questions but our speakers offered to answer your questions here.

Many real estate professionals and stagers have furniture they use from listing to listing. A lot of that furniture may be cheaper and is fine for many of their listings. But how about your high-end listings? Should you use the cheaper furniture in those listings or will that do more harm than good?

CHRISTINE: Absolutely not, cheap looks cheap and sends a message of cheap. The whole essence of staging today is to target the buyer who is likely to purchase—they don’t want to see cheap anything. People buy aspirationally whether it’s a $100,000 or several million $$ property they want to fall in love with—feel special and attempts to skim/slough speaks volumes….not just about the house but also about you.

The biggest challenge we face as an industry is lack of complete understanding of the craft. Staging started as a clean and fluff sort of thing, but it is way more refined now…before it would be like painting walls with primer and not finishing the job.

TERRYLYNN: I agree with Christine.  If you use cheap items what kind of buyers are you attracting?  The buyer who can qualify for a high-end home has high-end furnishings and won’t relate to cheap décor.  It will diminish the home you are “showcasing” and you aren’t really “showcasing” it.

For ANY property you need to be sure the furnishings you use match the décor and style of the property.  Like a Victorian or country farmhouse vs. modern or traditional.  The curb appeal we spoke of needs to be stellar, but the insides have to match as well so that when they walk through the door they get what they expected—only better.  Congruity is important.

Who traditionally pays for staging: Seller or the real estate agent? Read more