Open Mike is a free speech platform. We lend our blog pulpit to anyone who wants to voice their real estate related opinions and ideas. We prefer you not have your own blog. We had not received a post for sometime. Perhaps the Mystery Blogger inspired a contribution. Here is our latest Open Mike post:
According to this ad by Property Image Consultants; it’s an “accepted fact that staged homes sell faster and for more money.” I assume they mean to say that staged homes sell faster and for more money than homes that are not staged. Problem is, I have NEVER seen a shred of statistically significant evidence that shows a positive correlation (much less causality) between staged homes and sale price or time on market.
So I say to all staging consultants that it’s neither a fact nor accepted that home staging does anything except maybe rip people off. If anyone can prove otherwise, let me know.
This Open Mike Post is by Evan Kane, Managing Broker of Endeavor Realty in Chicago.
Technorati Tags: real estate, home staging, open mike, seller, home sales, dom
Well I am dumbfounded by the challenge. Having sold numerous homes and having been in the industry for decades I just take it as a matter of fact the claim is accurate. Perhaps my problem is that my wife is both an accredited stager and a published interior designer. (interior design is not staging) I count on her work as part of my practice. I know the phrase making more money and selling quicker is real with us. I would not say all stagers are equal and especially dispute some of what I see others call staging. Larry Cragun
Property Image Consultant’s use of the word “accepted” rather than “proven” seems to imply that they don’t have indisputable statistical data. I don’t feel their ad is misleading. It’s impractical to think that anyone could provide accurate statistical data addressing the relation of home sales, pricing and staging. Larry brings up an excellent point that not all home stagers are equal. ‘Staging’ is too subjective. Providing a throw rug, a few bathroom towels and a few strategically placed candles does not constitute ’staging.’ I recommend that my clients consider staging because I’ve seen my staged listings sell when other unstaged listings haven’t. In an over-saturated market staging can make a difference. I ‘accept’ this fact.
Kelly,
I think your post may prove the point. Staged homes may sell when others do not. I can easily see that. But I see nothing that indicates they get more money from the staged sale. Staging can be a great tool to help sell a home but any further claims are just that CLAIMS.
I love this challenge!
The trouble with statistics, is the people that are putting them together! Some might pick and choose just which stats they are looking at to pull together.
I can share with you this, in the beginning of my business, most clients came to me because they had listings that would not sell. They had sat on the market for months.
Now this was during the height of the seller’s market. They would be desperate to get homes sold. After we staged them, they would sell 9 times out of 10 within the first two weeks, usually within the first 2 days.
After that, the agents were my new best friends. I just staged a 10th property for someone I met in just this way (which by the way, sold in the first two weeks, even in this market). Once someone sees for themselves the difference effective staging makes, they want to stage all of their listings.
Not every single house sells. And that doesn’t necessarily mean it wasn’t staged properly; there are a lot of factors in getting a home sold; staging is only one part.
If the house is so overpriced that no one is even coming to look at it, who cares what it looks like?
As far as getting more money, it can make a difference. I’ve staged units in buildings where multiple units have been for sale. Same square feet, same amenities, same everything except the way they were presented. The staged unit sold for the highest price in the building.
Was it just the staging alone? No, they had a good agent who knew what he was doing, but the staging definitely helped.
Even now in the current market, I have the same success stories. Staging makes a huge difference in getting homes sold quicker than an unstaged home. Combine good staging, a great agent and a smart seller and you have a powerful combination!
I help Nickie with her website, so I’ve watched her build her staging practice.
She wouldn’t post this link, but I will. If you want to know why agents work with a professional stager, read their own ideas about it.
http://www.getstaged2sell.com/html/sucessstories.html
These aren’t statistics, but all of the comments address the issue of DOM and final sales price.
Maybe it just seems like smoke and mirrors if you’ve never worked with a good stager!
Kathleen Allardyce
I use stagers but I think a point is being missed in this post. As an industry we like to say XYZ works yet we don’t seem to track hard data. I like data and I use it to make business decisions. Data is good
I agree, data is good!
I was submitting the stats from my projects to one of the large names in the staging industry, but I was frustrated that they do not take into consideration homes that do not sell.
So the stats that are published on these sites that come from this company are not accurate. Stats are only as good as the information gathered. If the people gathering information refuse to take into account the total picture, then the stats mean nothing.
Any number people wanna come over and help me put together some stats?
Teresa and Nickie,
I agree with both of you. I see way too many people continue to pay for marketing strategies when they have no way to test effectiveness.
But, I think creating stats for staging would be a challenge. How would you go about it?
The only truly accurate way would be to sell the same house staged and not staged. Then, track DOM and $s. I’m not sure anyone is going to want to do that just to create some stats.
Other than that, won’t there always be too many variables for a direct comparison? If you compare homes in the same neighborhood, one is going to have a better location or a better view. One might be greatly overpriced, another might have a listing agent who works overtime. Even condos in the same building have those types of differences.
Even if you got stats for all the homes in a zip code, and compared staged to non-staged, how will you know what other factors were at play?
Kathleen
Kathleen - great point. Not all houses, markets or stagers are the same and I was going to address that in my comment which was too long already. It would take a large amount of data to substantiate any claim that a properly staged house sells faster or for more money. It would have to involve a large enough data sample to be statistically significant. So I guess when we claim the staging sells homes faster and for more money we can only back it up with anecdotal evidence at this point. Nice for Realtors, I know in my case my clients trust my advice, and I advise them to get the home ready to put on the market and in some cases that includes staging, but not so nice for people trying to sell staging services by making claims with out backing them up with some facts.
Here is a stat for you. 100% of the homes we have sold since 2001 have been staged. Lar
100% of the homes of the homes that I have sold since 2001 have had lock boxes on them. My stat. I think it is the lock boxes because some of the homes were staged and others were not. Some were condos where I could not use for sale signs so I know it isn’t the signs.
Staged homes will sell for more money and there are legitimate stats that back this up. For example, the results of a poll carried out last year by Maritz Research stated that 63% of buyers are willing to pay more money for a house that is “move in ready”. Another poll of 15,000 people conducted last year by AOL Money & Finance found that home presentation makes a difference in most sales. And on my About Me page I have more stats to prove that home staging is not “snake oil”.