When I work on my computer I face the office window and it has a view of the house next door. I recognize the house on the outside - it still is red brick with white trim. On the inside? A different world exists from just a few weeks ago. It has been "spruced up" - a coat of paint on the front of the house and the shutters are now black rather than the traditional dark green.
Inside is a new world. I checked out the real estate listing yesterday. The week before the house stagers came and brought the white, black and grey things that now populate the house. The next day, the photographers came and took the pictures, and poof! the house was listed on the market.
Here's the listing HERE. Look at that living room - white, black and grey. And so spacious and bright. Everything perfect. Now look at the second picture and see the wonky curve of the floor and the curved window railing. That's the wide-angle lens that makes it all look so big and spacious.
It works, though. Staging a house means listing for 1% to 10% more. A staged house is said to sell significantly faster. Some suggest the increase is up to 25% higher in value. And the Real Estate Staging Association says that staged homes spend 73% less time on the market. This has to be true - there's a Real Estate Staging Association - that means there's good business here.
So what does it all cost? A basic decor package is $200 to $400 per room - and a full-home staging is said to be between $2,500 and $7,000. I guess size of home and number of rooms are the key drivers. Pretty straight-forward.
So take the listed price of the house next door - almost $900,000 then it seems cheap to be investing in a little staging, don't you think?
Here's a multiple exposure view through the Rose of Sharon branches in winter - this is a partial office window view.
