<p>I am thinking of hiring one. How do they get paid? I would only hire one if I like her ideas, and if I like her ideas, I would know her ideas, so why would I need to pay her? :)</p>
<p>A friend of mine is using one, and except for the fact he is renting furniture based on what she told him…and he fixed a patio the way she suggested … He doesn’t have a clue what else she does…</p>
<p>So…what does a stager do and how does she get paid?</p>
<p>I couldn’t tell you how they get paid- they may even get a commission working with the selling agent?</p>
<p>The ones I have seen here- get rid of all your stuff ( oftentimes the owner has already moved- or renting an interim place)
They put in stuff that nobody would actually want- because it doesn’t go with the house- or is for lack of a better term- pretentious but crappy at the same time!. ( but I am sure there are better ones)</p>
<p>First I would rent a storage unit for a good portion of your stuff- get it down to the bare minimum- and then get rid of some more.
Paint the walls- fresh flowers- plants , add some attractive lighting- planters for the doorway & around patio etc.</p>
<p>if carpet is worn and you don’t want to replace it- rent some nice area rugs- you get the idea- pretend you have never met your mother in law & she is queen elizabeth.
;)</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>I know I have to replace some carpets. 
I just don’t know which color works best.</p>
<p>Stagers are very common here: You pay a certain amount and stagers come in and either put in their stuff and/or edit your stuff. Depending on the residence/area/cost of the home I’ve heard that it can range from $5,000 for a consult (work like painting is extra) and way up from there. There was a point that one particular stager was very popular in this neighborhood. I kept seeing the same oil painting, which was distinctive, in several homes each listed one after another. Finally, after house four I commented on how popular the artist and subject matter were.</p>
<p>There’s a show called “Sell this House” that gives you some idea of what they do. Taking half the stuff out of the house, rearranging the furniture, taking everything off the shelves but a few carefully-selected knick-knacks, adding uplighting, putting on new bedding…</p>
<p>They also ALWAYS remove (or paint over) the wallpaper.</p>
<p>Oh…I think I saw that show “Sell Your house”. </p>
<p>Luckily…I don’t have any wallpaper.</p>
<p>My friend is paying 3,000 a month for the stager’s furniture. I don’t want to do that because…that is a lot of money…and after 9 months…his place hasn’t sold.</p>
<p>I do need to know which countertops in the bathrooms need to be changed. What the bathroom floors should look like.</p>
<p>Personally unless your home is in the bracket for those who don’t consider cost- I would be very careful about spending the money to replace carpet.
You could rent some nice Oriental rugs and pass the savings onto the buyers who are probably going to have their own ideas ( or their designer will anyway)</p>
<p>For bathroom flooring it really depends what style your bathroom is- but as someone else on CC said- if it is worth fixing up, it is probably worth fixing up so you can enjoy it, not just to sell it.</p>
<p>I have to replace the carpet. It’s old. The bathroom floors have to be changed too. I have been putting it off because I don’t care…but I have a feeling any potential buyer will care.</p>
<p>I’m addicted to HGTV and there are lots of shows on staging. A lot of it is about removing clutter and personal touches and painting things neutral colors. How much you would want to spend on it would partly depend on how much you want to get for your house. The staging shows always look at comparable houses for sale in the neighborhood to see how realistic your asking price is. Sometimes they recommend bigger fixes, like tile floors and granite countertops or sometimes they do those vinyl tiles you can lay yourself to get a fresher look. Neutral, of course.</p>
<p>Have you moved all your furniture out already? $3,000 per month for 9 months is ridiculous for renting furniture. Your friend could have taken that much off the asking price and maybe sold the place by now.</p>
<p>All potential buyers will prob. be looking for some version of twelve inch tile on the bathroom floor. </p>
<p>go to [GardenWeb</a> - The Internet’s Garden Community](<a href=“http://www.gardenweb.com%5DGardenWeb”>http://www.gardenweb.com) for lots of tips on remodeling/fixing up. </p>
<p>I got lots of good idea from gw when we were building our new house this year. They have forums where people exchange ideas, opinions on everything related to home fix-up.</p>
<p>Bethievt, my friend’s house is an expensive house…so it makes a little more sense for him to spend a few bucks on rented furniture than most. Having said this…he does waste a lot of money. Plus…he overpriced the house. He thought people would lowball him and he would negotiate and get the price he wanted. He should have priced the house correctly from the beginning. </p>
<p>I am just starting the selling process. I haven’t done anything with the furniture. </p>
<p>I am glad to read that 3,000 a month for furniture rental sounds ridiculous. </p>
<p>I think it is going to take months before the house is ready.</p>
<p>Packmom…thanks for the link. Looks interesting.</p>
<p>If you can keep your furniture in there, that’s good. Just pare it way down. A storage unit doesn’t cost that much. Most of us (including me!) have too much furniture in every room. One thing they keep saying on these staging shows is people like an eat-in kitchen. If there’s a spot for even a small table and 2 chairs (without crowding), that can be a plus. Basic sprucing up of the yard and front entrance is good. There is even an eco-friendly (they say) spray that makes your grass look greener and covers up the brown spots. Of course, those of us in VT do not have grass that we are aware of at this time of year, but maybe you do. A really good carpet cleaning might make them look acceptable. The carpets, not the grass.</p>
<p>Yes, your friend should have priced the house correctly from the beginning. Or at least closer to the correct price. Depends on how quickly you want/need to sell.</p>
<p>I have had three houses that were staged sell successfully. In fact, we sold one in the middle of the recession–in seven weeks. The stagers were all hired by the listing agent.</p>
<p>After you’ve cleaned up the house and put all but the best stuff into storage, the stagers come in and rearrange and edit what you have. In the last house we sold, the stagers added a throw across the bed, an imaginary tea party in another room, children’s games in the basement, brand new towels in the bathrooms, that kind of thing. No actual family photos, but each room had innocuous art that would appeal to just about everyone. It created a whole imaginary world of perfect living in the house. “We” had 2.3 perfect children, no dog, no cat… </p>
<p>We had moved out by the time the house was listed, but when I saw the staging my first reaction was horror. The house had become so tasteful that it could have belonged to anyone, and every bit of our choices was gone. That was, of course, the point: anyone who saw it could imagine what THEY would do to the house to make it theirs. </p>
<p>(Before we even listed the house, knowing what a difficult market it was, we had cleaners in (3 people spent four days cleaning), paid a yard cleanup crew to get everything neat and trimmed, put half the stuff in storage (some in neatly stacked boxes in the garage, some in remote storage), emptied the closets, and had the windows washed. We even pressure-washed the driveway and the front steps. We also paid a house inspector to do an inspection, repaired everything he found, and then had a second inspection done. The final inspection report was available to anyone looking at the house.)</p>
<p>Many stagers are professional designers or decorators so unless you have a true decorating knack, it’s best to pay the professional. It’s very common where we live. Most realtors will pay for a consultation with the stager they use, and then if you decide to use their services, you pay for the staging. Cost can vary tremendously and I’ve never heard of furniture rental being $3000/month even for very large homes. In most cases, having the expertise of a stager is worth the money. However, if you’re going to make the mistake of overpricing your home, even a staging won’t help. Finding the proper price point these days is vital.</p>
<p>I’ve heard of stagers charging $2000 a month or so. I think if you are determined you can do it yourself. I don’t believe in spending a lot to remodel bathrooms and kitchens that the new owners will just go ahead and remodel again. But things should look presentable. If your carpets are disgusting they should be removed. Whether you need area rugs or something else depends on what the floors underneath look like. Paint and some serious cleaning can work wonders. When we sold our last house (while we were still living in it) we put about half our stuff in storage. </p>
<p>We got a great deal on our current house because buyers couldn’t see past the pink walls (every room!), the pink stained carpets (also every room!), the pink curtains (also every room!) and the cheap 1950s wall paneling in the few rooms that weren’t painted pink. It’s really quite a nice house now.</p>
<p>so you’re thinking about pulling the cord.</p>
<p>Talk to prima at the other site.</p>
<p>We didn’t have a stager, but we replaced the bathrooms’ fixtures, grouted tiles, and painted most of the house in neutral color. We put the house on the market in April this year and we closed the deal in June. The house was sold below 10% of highest estimate we had few years back. I think we spend around 10k in fixing up everything.</p>
<p>I used to do some staging and it can help, it depends on the situation. I find in our area stagers are called in after the house has been on the market for a while and hasn’t sold, so they are trying to do something. The problem with that is that most of the realtors and current buyers have already seen the house, same thing happens when the house is over priced, you’ve missed that first big push.</p>
<p>Most people become “house blind” and get so used to the way things look they don’t see the downside to their houses. A stager will come in with fresh eyes and see things the way buyers will.</p>
<p>Buyers tend to have a hard time seeing past the personalization of a house, you may love a certain style or color and wouldn’t live without it, which is fine, but if it is unusual or perhaps cluttered many folks can’t see past it.</p>
<p>I found that when we came in after the house had been on the market a while it didn’t appreciatively help. When we came in before the house went on the market it was amazing how fast the house sold.</p>
<p>We would do all sorts of fun things like hang an evening dress and tuxedo in the master closet. Really doll up one or two rooms for children, set up a gift wrap station in a utility room, stuff like that. It was important to not crowd the rooms, everything had to be clean, clean and clean and there should be a certain amount of charm, except in a severely modern house. Also the front yard and the front door area should be wonderful, tidy, trimmed and with some sort of welcoming tableau at the front door, say a wicker chair with a cushion and huge pot of flowers, nothing small scale.</p>
<p>That’s my 2 cents.</p>
<p>There is even an eco-friendly (they say) spray that makes your grass look greener and covers up the brown spots. Of course, those of us in VT do not have grass that we are aware of at this time of year, but maybe you do.</p>
<p>You could buy miracle gro crystals that mix in water and I think Costco even sells a huge container that has something you just screw on your hose- The nitrogen burst will green the grass- not something you would do all the time, cause it will just make it grow faster- but if you have grass you might try it.
( this is assuming your lawn is fairly healthy and not full of quack grass, because it will make the weeds grow too)
[How</a> Often to Apply Miracle-Gro to Grass | eHow.com](<a href=“http://www.ehow.com/about_4902639_how-often-apply-miraclegro-grass.html]How”>http://www.ehow.com/about_4902639_how-often-apply-miraclegro-grass.html)</p>
<p>We had a stager come in, paid for by the listing agent. She basically edited some bookshelves, lowered every painting in the house, and told us to ditch anything that was even remotely ‘country style’. </p>
<p>I had watched plenty of ‘staging’ shows and already knew what to do. I replaced cabinet handles to match faucets, scrubbed the bathroom’s grout until it was white again (Oxy-Clean and a grout brush…mixed up the powder with hot, hot water…looked like new!) and replaced a shower door. Mopped the hardwood with some stuff called ‘Rejuvenate Floor Renewer’ and had the carpets cleaned. Made sure every curtain was open and that the windows were clean. A few flowers and we were in business!</p>
<p>My 15 year old house sold in 5 days in a bad market. My realtor couldn’t believe it…he thought we’d overpriced it. </p>
<p>Taking half my clothes out of the closet and completely organizing it so that it looked like a magazine was the number one thing that made people want that house…and changing out the white laminate counters in the kitchen. But I did that for me a couple of years earlier. </p>
<p>I think if you had your most honest friend come by and she told you the complete truth about what she saw, smelled, or felt, you could save yourself a lot of money.</p>