Before staging her house, one of my clients was surprised to find out that the listing realtor was not present at all showings. She said, “The buyer’s realtor doesn’t even know my house. How can she point things out to the person looking to buy it?”

I replied, “That’s one reason why staging is so important. The buyer’s agent may be entering the house for the first time and be entirely unfamiliar with its features. With staging, the house shows itself! ”

“How do you stand out? By going above and beyond. The details make all the difference in the world.”
(Talking about staging a vacant home after being on the market for seven months. An offer was made at the next open house.)

“I must be honest and tell you that most people do not like to buy homes that appear to be someone else's. Houses that sell the quickest and for the highest price are those homes that do not look as though they are someone else’s, instead they almost look like a store display.”

“The idea is to create just enough theater for the potential buyers to see how they could live in the house, whether or not you’ve ever lived that way.”

"Good staging is effective because when potential buyers walk into a house, they carry with them all their hopes for their new life in the new place... how they feel in the home ultimately gets reflected in the sales price and number of offers. Prestige, love, dreams, all the common denominators that we all have as human beings, are at work in the home purchase... the staging maximizes, intensifies all of those feelings."

"The practice of 'staging' homes is taking off in the Bay Area, Southern California, New York and other regions, as home sellers and their realty agents realize that creating an atmosphere of spaciousness and homeyness in a house can add to the final sales price as surely as a big lot and a nice view."