Staging Vacant Homes - Who are you really fooling?
It takes more than furniture, art pieces and a few carefully placed articles to sell a home. There are other senses that can give away the facts of the home when no one is living there. Our senses can easily alert us to the most obvious of circumstance. Smells, odors, and a lack of them can tell a lot about the home we are showing. Our eyes lead us to the most minute of details that may alert us the home is vacant or perhaps a divorce is taking place. Many in our industry believe that Staging is the cure all to sell a home. It may be, but you must pay attention to the details. Weekly cleaning, opening windows, getting an exchange of air in the home, flushing toilets, cleaning windows, and placing bleach in sinks may greatly improve your chances of selling a vacant home. Success is always in the details, and if you are going to stage a home please try to pay attention to even the subliminal. It works.
When showing vacant homes this weekend I became quickly aware that none of the homes I was showing were occupied in spite of wha the listing agents tried to imply. It was very obvious they were not occupied at all but rather they were all staged. The reason an experienced agent can advise their clients about the home is that they have been in the business for a number of years. Drawing on their past experience they can easily recognize when a home is lived in or the owners are just away for the weekend. How? By just being very observant and looking closely at the details that are available. There is no magic. A new agent or a novice to real estate may be easily fooled, but that is their own problem. The signals are all very obvious, and all you have to do is pay attention. Here is a partial list of items I would look for.
How to determine homes are not occupied:
- Air in home is stale, musty, or a mildew smell
- Cobwebs in areas that should be active areas of home
- Dust on counter-tops
- Stove and oven are just too clean
- Lack of any cooking odors
- Lack of heat or air conditioning
- Stale smells and odors in the the home - there has been no exchange of air in the home.
- Toilets flushed or rings in bowl.
- Lack of lawn and exterior care.
- Lack of clothes in a Master Suite Closet.
- Staged Clothes in Master Suite Closets are from another era.
- There is no garbage in the receptacles
- Lack of perishables in the refrigerator
- Leaves on walkways
- Noticeable insects or ants activity remains undisturbed - no one has tried to eradicate.
- Perishables in Refrigerator are all expired (Milk with an expiration date of August!)
- Most homes were staged very poorly with furniture that really did not even belong in a Goodwill store.
- Uncut lawn or weeds in landscaping.
- News papers on walkways - most especially a lot of wet soggy
- Debris on lawns
- Unattended water intrusions from storms
- Home maintenance that is not addresses - missing roof shingles, overflow from hot water heaters etc.
RE/MAX Paramount Properties 678-595-5283 Direct
Or 888-940-0074 Toll Free Office
Atlanta Real Estate Agents, Alpharetta GA Homes for Sale, Dunwoody GA Homes for Sale, Atlanta Real Estate & Atlanta Homes for Sale 
Gwinnett Homes for Sale
Atlanta Real Estate Blog, Cumming GA Homes 
Staging a vacant home is a personal issue by the seller, I would think. Perhaps they felt it might help move the property faster. It doesn't seem to work in our neck of the woods with all the competition from the foreclosures. Anything's possible though. Nice post.
Jim,
Home buyers are pretty savvy. Taking buyers through houses now, I'm hearing them say things like, "this house is staged." Never used to hear that before.
When they know its staged, I believe they discount that factor.
Location, price, condition...IMO, these remain the most important factors.
Rich
Hey Jim - you raise some great points. Unoccupied houses have a certain feel to them. Thanks for the tips. We do stage homes but we don't stage to give the impression someone is living there. We do it for the same reason home builders stage models. To give potential buyers ideas and to help their minds eye see them comfortably living in the home.
But price is still king.
Don Sabinske, Sabinske & Associates For years we have successfully sold homes, and many vacant homes. The success lies hidden in the details.
Richard Iarossi, Crofton MD Real Estate, Annapolis MD Real Estate (Long and Foster® Real Estate, Inc.) I agree, you are right. There are other factors to consider also, but when it is a poor staging - the price will be discounted.
While some may stage to give the impression of a lived in look, I think the real goal is to show furniture placement to those who have a hard time envisioning life in an empty room. Many times I have buyers viewing an empty house question, "Where will the furniture go in this room?" as they are standing in the empty den or bedroom. For that reason I feel staging often works.
Syreeta Saunders-Keys, MBA - The Keys2Day Team (Keller Williams Realty Centre) These were homes the listing agents purposely gave the impression they were occupied. It was obvious to me they weren't.
Teresa King, Gulf Shores beaches to bayside Daphne (RE/MAX By the Bay in coastal Alabama) I agree, there is a spatial aspect to it that does work. However, these agents by their comments in the MLS want the other agents to think someone was living there.
Jim, staging does not work on vacant homes which are stage for that purpose. I did not see any mention of the utilities being turn off. Recently I was in a property with a truck load of furnishing but no power.
Marketing and proper pricing gets buyers in the door, condition sells the home, staging is the cherry on the top. Staging alone doesn't get the job done.
Calendars with two years ago still hanging a good sign or the last month showing is a piece of detective work on when the alien blue light sucked them skyward..out of the home. Talk to the neighbors...they know everything. Forensic real estate..."Dr Crawford, you're wanted in the kitchen stat. Paging Dr Crawford...(squawk sound PA of lady with incredibly annoying voice, monitors beeping)
Frank Rubi Kenner/Metairie LA Real Estate (Frank Rubi Real Estate Licensed in Louisiana) I really should have added the utilities to the list. LOL! Well yesterday fortunately the utilities were all on for a change.
Rich Cederberg- Northwest Albuquerque Real Estate Expert (RE/MAX Elite) I agree. Too many in our industry are placing all the emphasis on staging. That is only once piece of the puzzle.
A water intrusion from a storm would not be good to find! Even if the home is staged, the signs you listed would reveal the home is vacant...particularly the stale air!
Andrew Mooers | Northern Maine Real Estate / Aroostook County Broker (MOOERS REALTY) LOL! The neighbors home in this town is probably vacant too!
Colorado Springs Realty Patricia Beck (Re/Max Real Estate Group, GRI) You are right. The first thing you are greeted with as you enter the homes are the odors. An unpleasant odor can turn your buyers around 180 degrees in a moment. To avoid this, I usually visit our listings once a week to ensure everything is up to snuff. Or should I say..."Up to sniff?" I cary some Lysol air spray, some windex, a gallon of bleach, a vaccum, mops, a broom, and assorted counter and surface sprays.
Jim-
I'm not sure satging works on vacant homes, although it does hide the worn carpet spots etc.
Sometimes the vacant home serves as a broad pallet for the buyer, and appears larger.
IMHO.
JIM..It also does not have that lived in feeling..but sometimes it does help..The main thing I find is the clothes in the closet and the food in the fridge...But to be honest I have never had a problem selling a vacant house as long as it was clean..nice post..:0)
HELPFULHANNAH your friend in Philadelphia
I've never advised anyone to stage a home just to give the impression that it's being occupied. In my opinion, most buyers don't have a vision of how many spaces can work or be used. Staging can remove those questions about "what is this room for" and provide them with a jumping off place to decide if a house fits their lifestyle - that's difficult to do in many vacant homes, especially those with very open floorplans.
Jim Wood Nashville Real Estate (Crye-Leike Realtors, Inc.) You and I are reading on the same page.
Hannah Williams (Re/Max affiliates NE) Exactly. I've sold more homes because they were clean and uncluttered. If a home smells clean there is an assumption the owners kept the home up.
Lisa Heindel, New Orleans West Bank Real Estate (Keller Williams Realty Crescent City West Bank Partners) Some staging can assist, but many times, new paint, new carpets, and a fresh smell can do wonders.
The stagers I know are NOT out to fool people into thinking that homes are occupied when they're not. (That's why my partner and I don't use fake food - except for decorative fruit.) As Syreeta, Teresa and Lisa have said so well, staging helps give buyers ideas of how to use the space, and it can help get them excited about living there. Fresh paint, carpet and smells are an indispensible part of staging, and you're right - listing agents and owners need to make sure the home is always clean, whether it's furnished or not. BTW, it's not considered ethical in the staging world (at least not my staging world) to use staging to hide defects like worn carpet. The right thing to do is to remedy the defect, or at the very least, make sure the buyer has the chance to see that it is there. Staging alone can not make people buy a home. It's part of the whole marketing package.