Home Staging: One Leg of a Three-Legged Stool

Earlier this month I met with the owner of an empty apartment with 180 degree views of Central Park, upper Manhattan and the Hudson River, to give her an estimate on staging it with furniture and decorative accessories. She had temporarily taken it off the market.

The other day I sent a follow-up email and received a response back telling me that, since the time she had met with me, she had decided to change real estate agents. She said she had been unhappy with the progress made by the original agent in selling her home and...

... "that [emphasis added] was the reason [she] had considered staging at all."

I responded by saying...

... "reading between the lines, it sounds like you may have decided not to proceed with the staging".

She wrote back...

... "getting a new agent will probably make all [emphasis added] the difference."

So I responded by telling her that successfully selling a home is like a three-legged stool:

1. It must be priced right

2. It must have outstanding "outside" marketing by you and/or your agent

3. It must have outstanding "inside" marketing and positioning of the home, a.k.a. staging or showcasing

All three are the keys to selling a home. The new agent will not make all the difference.

• If the owner insists on a price that's unrealistically high, all of the marketing and promotion in the world by the agent won't help.
• If the price is realistic and the agent is promoting the property, it still may not sell because prospective buyers can't see beyond the empty rooms and envision their furniture being there and themselves living there.
• If the apartment is staged and looks wonderful, but the price is too high and the agent isn't doing his or her job marketing the property, it won't sell.

You get the point. Don't let the stool collapse when selling your home.