Alby, you wouldn't believe what we see in homes on the market. Cleaning is on the staging list. De-cluttering is just as important. A little re-arranging goes a long way to making rooms look more spacious and inviting. Not several thousand dollars. A few hundred. And, all things being equal between two homes, the one with a little professional attention will sell first and the neighbor who didn't will be scratching their head and thinking about firing their agent. In this market, I am reluctant to sign with a potential client unless they agree to get the home in show condition. Or, take a real beating on price. And, my Visual Tours look awful when a home is full of stuff. In fact, I won't even do one and that is a disadvantage to selling when homes with VT's are viewed on-line first (sometimes only).

I'm holding the used car example for when all other reasoning has failed. :-)

Merv, Merv, Merv.... I will agree that making sure your home is clean, is an obvious requirement. Clean the bathroom, make the beds, sweep the floors, take the dirty dishes out of the sink, etc.. To me, all that would be common sense, unless common sense isn't that common. But to take that extra step and pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to have somebody start loading your home up with furniture, paintings, decorations, etc is a little bit extreme for the money. Don't you think? Or maybe I'm just assuming that a clean house is a given. But maybe out there in the real world, people would actually put their home on the market looking like they just had a new years party in it. lol

Alby, Alby, Alby, quite the contrarian! You are right, price is key. But, all things being equal, a well cleaned up, freshened, staged home will sell quicker. It is part of the competitive advantage. Not here say, my personal experience. Buyers are picky in this environment and will buy the one in the best shape and attractive. Spending a few hundred dollars on professional advice and service is a small but important cost of being competitive.

I was going to use a used car example but, I won't bore you with analogies. You can probably guess what I was going to say.

Why are Buyers sucked by staged homed? Its not as if the buyer is going to get the pretty curtains, furniture, or artwork hanging on the wall. When the buyer moves in, all they'll see is empty rooms and carpet prints from where the sofa used to be... So I don't understand people sinking money into staging a home. Back during the boom, to stage a house was a joke. Now that home sales stink, it seems like staging a home is more about throwing money at a hope and prayer it'll sell over the neighbor with the same model and same price.

Maybe its just me, but in this market of a housing glut, the number one way to sell a property is to drop the asking price
until it does sell. Not pump money into a staging service. Asking price is the key, not pretty pictures and flowers. If you can't sell and won't lower the asking price and decide to opt for a staging service. Then I'd say you are hoping to try and dup the buyer into thinking they are buying a more expensive property for the price you are asking.