Myself, I’d be more interested in a home that has been tastefully “staged” for (re)sale, especially if it doesn’t look staged. I might be able to picture myself living there. Also, you can get a sense of room size with furniture in it as opposed to an empty room (which, in my opinion, always appear smaller). So, for me, staging works.
How about you? Are you put off or more interested by a staged home?
Secondly, I’m considering a career in home staging but the course costs $1000 in my area…a considerable expense for me. The company who offers the course says it will guarantee me a job upon completion of the course. Sounds too good to be true (we all know what they say about that!).
I’d love to hear from anyone with experience in home staging, or general thoughts and opinions.
TIA!
For me personally it is worthless. Our house was built in 1760 and when we bought it 7 years ago, it was almost uninhabital. We spent 7 years restoring ours and the results are spectacular. I am probably not a typical buyer for your purposes though.
I still don’t see the need for it. I don’t understand why people can’t just walk into a room and build a mental image of what they can do right away whether it is paint or furniture placement. It seems obvious to me right away. I don’t think staging is bad per say if it were free but it isn’t so it is a waste of money for me as a buyer.
However, I know some people aren’t like that. They may get freaked out by the color of the trim or the color of the electrical outlets. Those are so easy to fix it is ridiculous once they buy the place but some people don’t seem to have the ability to imagine except what is directly in front of them right now.
If you are selling a house, some amount of staging is usually necessary. People, me included, like to have a lot of stuff in their house when they live there that isn’t consistent with the idea of “house as product.” In real life, imagine that this is a lot more about turning a disaster (17 curio cabinets full of porcelain dolls and 8 cages of parakeets…) into something palatable than turning something blah into house beautiful.
As far as making a living at this, personally I am very skeptical. Especially if you are not in a large residential real estate market. If you are interested in a part-time, self-employed situation, maybe. If you want to add the skills to something related, like real-estate agent, professional organizer, or home decorator, then maybe it makes a little more sense. But my impression is that you would need the connections of one or more of these other occupations to be anyone’s first choice to stage their home. Before you shell out the money, ask some hard questions about the employment opportunity. The three more established occupations I named above generally depend on self-employment and/or commissions, so I wouldn’t expect home staging to be any more stable.
I think a lot of what passes for “staging” a house amounts to decluttering it and furnishing and decorating it properly. So I think someone really needs to have good skills as a decorator, and I doubt that’s something that can be acquired in a single thousand-dollar course. Also, the companies that actually do this work actually own warehouses of furniture and accessories to use for that purpose, and that’s not something you’re going to have.
As for whether it works, I’ve heard anecdotally about people seeing their homes after being staged and changing their minds about selling it. I also saw a UK program called the House Doctor featuring an American woman staging British homes for sale. The results shown on the show indicate that it does work.
IMO, staging really works. I was looking at houses last year (bought in Dec) and saw many house with no staging or poorly staged and it was hard to picture myself in those houses. If you see a place tastefully staged it’s much easier to picture yourself living there, and that’s the important hurdle to clear when house shopping.
Another thing. The promise of a job on completion of the course sounds suspicious. What sort of job are they promising? What about previous graduates of the course? Have you spoken to anyone who has gone through this?
Since the OP is asking about personal experiences, I think this is more appropriate for IMHO than GQ.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Thanks for all your opinions!
Dewey, the promise of a job sounds suspicious to me as well, which is why I’m hesitating about it. They are promising a job as a stager in my local market at $31.45 per hour with health benefits. I spoke with a representative who says they are “crying for people” in my area. Sounds like a pitch to me. (If you watch HGTV regularly you’ll likely have seen their pitch).
Besides, why not just hire people and train them? I’m the one taking a risk by spending $1000, there’s really no risk for them at all. I’m not sure I want to work for an “employer” who hires people in this fashion.
Having said that, I think I will seek out some previous graduates and find out what gives.