Good for you! I am a realtor and am in the midst of a hot market currently. However, a listing I have that has been on since Nov (unstaged/untouched) finally brought a stager in, re-painted and staged. Within one week, 3 offers and she got full list.

I think the big advantage of using a stager is they bring that "fresh eye" to a home. Many people are just too emotionally wrapped up in their home to stand back and objectively see it "as it really is".

My MIL thought her home looked absolutely fine and couldn't understand why anyone might object to cluttered corners, overstuffed closets, dingy dark curtains, mismatched patterns clashing, French provincial wallpaper, etc. etc.

It was a beautiful CA Spanish Mediterranean, but it looked a whole lot better and bigger when we emptied it out completely, repainted every room and let a pro bring in their handsome traditional furnishings, in deliberately minimalist groupings so the rooms looked twice as large as before.

There were two other similar houses on the market at the same time. MIL's was priced right in the middle but was the only one staged. Hers sold in less than a month - the RE market was already slowing then - while the other two languished for more than six months before selling at a considerable discount to what her home brought in.

We used a full service RE broker and have to say, he was worth every penny he cost us and then some. The service referrals he gave us were great and all the pre-sale work got done ASAP.

We insisted she give him a bonus, in fact, because he went out of his way to do a great job for her - a lot of hand-holding, as she was leaving her long-time, when-I-was-married-and-happy-together, home. It was invaluable because we couldn't be there every day, and she really needed the extra support he gave.

I am not really a fan of intensive staging, unless the floorplan is so unique that buyers need help in understanding how it could work.
Decluttering, neutralizing, cleaning, repairing and landscaping are, IMO, basic necessities to maximize your sales price.
Good for your agents for getting you to realize this. Congrats on your quick sales.

I wouldn't think most people would require extensive staging. However, I can see where it can be helpful. Most people are so in love with their own taste that they can't seem to edit their home when marketing it. They also miss many opportunities such as staging a deck or patio (we've seen countless outdoor areas that instead of just being 'cute', could be stunning) but there's nothing there (or sometimes it appears to be more of a storage area for Little Tykes toys) to show it off to buyers. That being said, I love articles and portfolios about staging and most stagers I've seen are pretty middle of the road, talent wise. Most buyers would be better off taking the advice almost all those sites give (neutral colors, clean thoroughly, don't block windows etc.) and following it to a T.

After selling our house I've come to look at the process as a kind of wonky three legged stool.

Decluttering/Cleaning/ Staging is the first leg. And yes, I think a fresh eye is absolutely necessary. We'd thought we had everything minimized to the essentials when we brought our Realtor in. She suggested removing a couple more things and placing a few other pieces in optimal position. Then I came here, and wow, there was so much still to do that neither the Realtor or I had noticed.

The second leg is photos. These days you're crazy not to make sure your internet presentation is as good as you can get it. This was not our Realtor's forte but thanks to great advice I got on this forum (and home deco) we were finally able to get the right pics up and the wrong pics down.

The last leg, and here's where the stool gets wonky, is price. Even after decluttering, cleaning, staging and getting photos that showed our home in its best light, we STILL didn't have much traffic. We didn't have any offers either. We'd thought our Realtor had listed the house too high for the neighborhood and the available inventory but, you know, she was the professional ...

And then, when the owners of the house we wanted to buy made us an offer we couldn't refuse, we put our collective foots down and demanded that the Realtor lower the price of our house.

We only dropped by 5% from the original price but within a week we had as many showings as we'd had in the previous five months. And a couple of days later we had two offers and another buyer showing interest. We closed a few days ago.

Good photos get buyers in to look. Proper cleaning, decluttering and staging make sure they are not disappointed when they see the property in person. But, like I've read on here a hundred times -- PRICE TRUMPS EVERYTHING!

Edeevee - you bring up a great point about pricing. We are getting ready to list and I recently interviewed a few different realtors. During the interview process I realized how important it is to have a realtor who knows your market. So I decided on the realtor who predominantly lists houses in my price range in my town. She didn't have to go out and do a market analysis to give me a listing price. She had a print out of every house for sale in our town, and she new the ins and out of every house in my price range. She pointed out the pros and cons of each listing - hideous wall paper, brand new kitchen, busy street, near power lines, electric heat, etc.

My point being - just because a realtor is a professional - do they know your particular market?

Well, I'd say it depends. In my market, many realtors are most interested in a quick sale and will lowball the asking price. Very recently, friends of ours sold their house within 2 days at slightly above asking price (7 offers, 2 cash offers, no contingencies, other than inspection). They had insisted on an asking price that was 15% above what the realtor had suggested. Who knows, maybe there would have been a bidding war that may have driven the price even higher, but I doubt it.

I would look carefully at comparables and ask the realtor how she arrives at the price.

pixie-lou, Our Realtor sells more homes in our town than anyone else. I think she really thought she could sell our house for that price. And maybe she could have -- if we'd been willing to wait longer. The possibility of paying TWO mortgages, plus utilities and taxes in both places was a powerful motivator to drop the price and move the property quickly.

We staged and our house never looked more fabulous! I highly recommend it. We sold when the market was still sluggish and had an offer in two weeks.