Anyone used a home staging company to try and help sell their property?

pinkpiglit

As the title says, has anyone on here used a home staging company to stage their home (furniture/accessories etc) prior to sale?  It seems fairly common in North America (that's based on TV and also comments from friends that live over there), but here not in the UK.

I am thinking way ahead (won't be selling for a couple of years) but when we do come to sell, it's most likely the place will be empty.  

Staging is NOT cheap from what I can find, although it's difficult to get pricing as most of the places want you to call them for quotes.  But I do wonder if it's worth it to try and sell quicker because we won't want to be paying a mortgage on an empty property for any longer than necessary.

Tried to search on here but can't really find much, so any thoughts appreciated. 

Temp_Username12563

I don't know if you need a 'home stager' as such, but you do need to stage the property so it looks it's best - sometimes that's easier for someone else to do as it's hard to see the house with a detached view yourself. 
The easiest thing to do is have a good clear out, get rid of clutter, clean it really well and make sure you don't have too many personal things. The key is about your home looking like it could be somebody else's home!

pinkpiglit

The_Secret_Landlord said:

I don't know if you need a 'home stager' as such, but you do need to stage the property so it looks it's best - sometimes that's easier for someone else to do as it's hard to see the house with a detached view yourself. 
The easiest thing to do is have a good clear out, get rid of clutter, clean it really well and make sure you don't have too many personal things. The key is about your home looking like it could be somebody else's home!

Thanks yes I agree.   The issue here is that the place will be completely empty, ie devoid of all furniture (we will be in another country by the time we get round to selling) so we'll either have the option of marketing it totally empty, or paying someone to stage it for us....

eddddy

As above, I know people who have 'staged' properties themselves - ex-BTL landlords who were selling their vacant properties.

They got rid of all the tatty furniture and contents, and usually replaced it with small, minimalist IKEA furniture. They specifically chose small sofas etc, to make the rooms seem bigger.

In one case, they 'faked' a bed by putting bed covers over cardboard boxes. I guess it would have been amusing if somebody viewing had sat on the bed!

The properties sold, but who knows if the staging helped.

pinkpiglit

eddddy said:

In one case, they 'faked' a bed by putting bed covers over cardboard boxes. I guess it would have been amusing if somebody viewing had sat on the bed!

Yes that might have raised a few eyebrows! 

Temp_Username12563

In one case, they 'faked' a bed by putting bed covers over cardboard boxes. I guess it would have been amusing if somebody viewing had sat on the bed!

*blushes* done that myself...and the property sold

lika_86

We have just offered on a property which is vacant and the sellers had strategically left pieces in situ so it was easier to gauge size - a headboard instead of a full bed (width more an issue than length in the bedroom), a sofa, a dining table, some storage units, and a sofa bed in the box room. We didn't need to see the whole place fully kitted out but it did help to see the main pieces for size so we had more of a sense of the place (combined with old listing photos we found online which showed the place fully furnished).

Temp_Username12563

Totally Lika_86 it's about showing the sizes, not trying to trick anyone. It's hard to get an idea on the size of a property and your stuff when there's nothing in a property. There's a reason why home builders have the 'show home' it's not just to show how lovely the space can be (although that's part of it) but there's a very practical logic behind it - people need to understand how their stuff will fit!

gwynlas

Whilst it is common in the USA it is normally arranged by the Real Estate broker and there are many companied doing it so prices are competitive. Here there are some companies offerring the service but their prices are quite high.as it is a niche market
If you have any family or friends here would it be possible for them to assist you? It is sometimes possible to pick things up cheaply or even free on Gumtree or at charity shops. Duvets,bedding  accent pieces etc in on trend colours can be purchased and  needn't be expensive then everything  can be donated to charity or freecycle at the end.
I've twice used the box thing to make fake beds and invested in some high end bedding to dress up bedrooms in rental flats

Slithery

eddddy said:

In one case, they 'faked' a bed by putting bed covers over cardboard boxes.

Yep. Done that a few times myself.

theoretica

I viewed a few empty homes when buying (and got outbid on the one I offered for) and found it easy to look round places with large squarish rooms. I don't usually share the seller's ideas of how to furnish a room anyway, there are hardly ever enough bookshelves. Small or oddshaped rooms were more likely to leave me squinting and wondering how they could be well used.