"They did a house for me that was on the market with another broker for six months. It went for over asking the first day we put it on the market," Morrison said.
"We help depersonalize a home and make it inviting for other people," she said. That may mean moving furniture around, buying items for the house, painting or simply getting rid of clutter.
Homes that have been "staged" generally sell twice as quickly as those that haven’t been re-designed and the average sale price is 7 percent higher than a home that hasn’t been staged, according to stagedhomes.com
"There are ways people live and ways people want to buy," said Nick Patsio, co-owner of Century 21 West Realty in Watertown, which offers every seller in the 87 towns and cities it serves complimentary staging services.
"We started in March to offer our clients value and because of the increase in inventory, we wanted to set ourselves apart," he said. "The results have been incredible beyond what we anticipated. We sold three properties after they were staged and one in Belmont, that was listed at $1 million and sat on the market for four months with another broker, sold within a week after staging. It works unbelievably well."
Consumers are demanding these kind of services, Patsio said, and "most don’t have a clue how to get their house ready for sale. What they see as beautiful is not what the buying population is looking for." The $3,000 to $5,000 a month the company pays for its staging specialists is well worth the cost, he said.
"Think about getting your home ready to be photographed for a national publication," he said. "We want to get our customers’ homes magazine ready."
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