Another Southern Californian here, I sold my previous house here early last year. I "staged" my own house; minimized the decor, repainted where it was needed, bought new towels and made sure it was spotless at all times. All our realtor had asked us to do was keep it clean and repaint my kid's playroom which was a green. I did replace some of my antiques decor items with Home Goods decor, it kept my items from being broken/stolen and did give the house a slightly more current bend. Received first offer the first showing, we had 4 offers out of 10 showings, and this was in a neighborhood with poor schools. We looked at over 40 houses in the hunt for a new home. Made offers on 4 homes before we were finally able to close a deal. None of the homes we made offers on were staged. I think it is highly overrated. From my experience I can tell you clean and decluttered will get you a long way, it is incredible the number of smelly, dirty and cluttered homes that toured in our hunt. However, if you agreed to use the Stager when you signed up with this realtor you probably should follow through. I do understand it is hard living without your things around you. It will likely be a short time and as soon as you accept an offer you can put it back the way you like. Wishing you a quick and painless sale.

Not upset with the realtor at all, she's great. Really. Been really helpful so far. Not upset with the stager too-that's her job, and that's how she does it, and some rooms are, at least partially, quite nice. I do have some quirky Craigslisted furniture, along the "normal" stuff-so she had to work around it, maybe temper it a bit, I understand that. Also for example I really appreciate that she left quite a few useful things in the kitchen, that I was afraid she'd put away, like the toaster and the coffee maker.

But I'm really, really upset with these huge hurricanes, candlesticks, table settings, and fake flowers. Especially the dining room one, the others are smaller. As much I love orchids-I have ten or more myself-this fake monster is totally overwhelming..it's wrong for my house, and I'd say-for any house..unless it's a mansion..but in a mansion, they'd have a real tree..:)

(meanwhile, I switched the bowl with bottle corks for real, very dark red, very yummy-looking pomegranate..)) We'll see-if the realtor asks me to put the cork bowl back, I will..I just put it away.

but something's telling me she'll like the pomegranate just fine)

I just don't like when things are very silly and very fake. The people in case are fine, which is already a great relief lol.

yep, I agreed to use the stager..since I wanted to work with the realtor. She said "she brings just a few accessories.."..I thought "okay, few is fine"

I just didn't picture 3 feet wide orchid..)))) Maybe it's four feet. I'm just too tired to measure this thing right now. Etcetera.

otherwise the thought of hiring a stager never even crossed my mind.

if i had to move out of this house before i move into a new one-then i'd stage it a bit myself, yes. empty houses seem smaller..and feel a bit lonely to me. Mine would:) I'd leave something here and there to cheer the house up:)

(I bought four houses in my life; the first one existed on the paper only-it was a new build...none of the others was staged. The current house was highly personalized by the way, with a big art collection..didn't bother me at all. I also was able to look at the art-and at the house, lol. And not finding that "that's too personal, too distracting". I think that's quite easy-I'm a lousy cook, especially now..but even I can make a soup, a salad, and bake a simple cake at the same time. With houses, you don't even do anything-you're just looking and thinking. Most people are able to look at several things at once. I'd think. )

Sorry for another essay..))

I want to see pictures, especially of the jumbo orchid. Good luck selling.

I would love to see pictures too!

Yes...this already highly interesting thread would be even more so with before and after photos!

Yes, I'd like to see a few photos too. A 3-foot wide orchid just screams fake. I'm not sure I've ever seen a 3-foot wide orchid except in a very well-tended orchid greenhouse in a botanical garden.

At a certain price level (come to think of it, probably all), I'd say fake flowers devalue a property. I'd ditch them. Now the hurricane lamps.....

I would also love to see pictures.

Also would love to see pics!!

One nice thing is you don't have to worry about your own accessories getting stolen or damaged. When we sell we're putting a majority of our stuff into storage. If professional staging is in the budget, it will probably help too. When I look at neighborhood home sales here, the beautifully staged homes with nice online pictures sell on the higher end of the scale, even if there is nothing else special (from what I can tell)

Okay..let me indulge you..but just with the orchid..:) My battery conveniently has to be immediately recharged-probably got a heart attack or smth.

(both pics taken by extremely unprofessional me. first, is long before decluttering, so a bit messy..I guess some of you saw it, I posted it in the thread about the favorite spot..and since I spend so much time in the dining-I figured that's my favorite spot lol...second, taken exclusively for you just now..the orchid overshadows some other fake plants, so not exactly a true representation here too..:)

To be fair-that's one of the worst spots. This, kids' bath, moth balls and strange naturemort with corks..

(ah, my son got a book nicely put on his desk, like he's been reading it..."Gardening"..lol!!!)

was:

is:

(the little orchid in a cup was sneaked back by me..it was in other spot before of course, but I sneaked it in there to have something alive..also they put in in the garage. great condition for a flower to thrive..)

okay..now i see both posts lol. tell me whether you see both, i'll just delete one.

yes i see both

I have to say I don't understand hiring a professional, but refusing to listen to them? I know it's not fun to sell a house, and it's not like it's your taste (or mine!), but if it sells your house, especially for a higher price point, then let it all happen as they suggest. It's just stuff and it's highly temporary. It'd be really great if you got a lot more for your house, enabling you to use funds for the new place's decorating :) Or try to think of it that way? I hope!

Think of staging as providing bland placeholders that the new buyers will WANT to replace, unless you are selling your furniture and art. Our house was obviously staged before we bought it, and I appreciated the fact that it had been depersonalized, although perhaps not quite enough, as there were still pink and purple organza curtains in the two daughters' bedrooms. Fortunately, the walls were no longer pink and purple. We looked at other houses that had not been staged, and they were just too personal, and I thought I would feel bad about replacing someone's personal objects/space, but I had no qualms about replacing staged objects. Staged objects are there for placement only, as if to say, "Here is where you can put your own beautiful vase and flowers" and you won't have to feel bad about removing something bland and generic.

Do you want to tell potential buyers that your taste is better than theirs? Or do you want to suggest that their taste will be better than what is staged, in which case they will feel better about replacing staged objects. Try to make it about the buyers instead of about you, if you are really interested in selling. If you want to sell your objects, leave them in; if you do not, they should not be there.

You should want people to say, "This is a nice house, but our stuff will look so much better here."

I do not understand the entire concept of "de-personalizing" or "staging" a home for sale. A house is personal because a set group of people have it as their home.

I love your "was" dining room. What did they do with the other two chairs in the "is" dining room? You should bring back the chairs; put your stuff back on the darling hutch, and then light the candles which will catch the silk orchid on fire. Problem solved in this corner.

I have a friend that does keep her table "set" with placemats,plates, and napkins as shown in "is." All I can imagine is the amount of dust and dog hair that would settle on them in the course of a day in my house.

A house is personal. I have no "public" vs. "private" areas. My house is my personal, private, just-for-me house.

I've been to open houses that were obviously staged, and I thought they look ridiculous. I've been to "real" homes' open houses where teenagers' sneakers were all over the laundry room, family photos were everywhere, and more than a hint of dog hair was showing. That looked like a house that was livable.

You said..."I don't believe people really need all this falseness, and ten hurricanes, and ugly candleholders that you can kill a person with each one, and thousand soaps, and fake flowers, and settings that hint to them that the table is for eating..." and you are correct!

People need to see the rooms and their spaces, not "stuff." They need to see how the rooms are orientated, where the electrical outlets are, etc. If they don't have enough imagination to think "I could make 'this' a dining room", or 'that' a den", perhaps they should stay in an apartment.

I went to one open house where the seller had a clipboard hung on a wall in each and every room. On the clipboards were papers showing the dimensions of each room, the "north/south/east/west" orientations of each room, the sizes of the windows and doors/doorways, the number of outlets and pointing out the "hidden" ones, the relevant repairs such as "carpet cleaned last month," "pull out step under bathroom sink cabinet," or "fridge bought June 2012 form XYZ company." It was so informative. They even had light bulb types and wattages posted in each room.

The house was clean, more than "clean enough;" the family was still living there. The bathrooms were spotless, the fridge was not overcrowded inside but had school schedules and photos on the front, and a load of laundry was still in the dryer.

That house worked. I can look at a room that has been painted purple, or one with green shag carpet and still "see" what it would look like if I removed the carpet, refinished the hardwood floor, and painted it my own favorite color.

Do you think far too many people watch HGTV thinking it reflects any form of real life? Does tons of Made-in-China, mass-produced items add any sense of warmth or hominess to a place?

Fresh flowers are wonderful. Books, upon books, lined up like soldiers on bookcases are wonderful. Bar Mitzvah photos and Great-Great-Aunt Grace's wedding photos are wonderful. Barbecue-able orchids are not.

In all honesty, I like the as it is now picture. Drapes are open, room looks larger with fewer chairs. You want your house to look bright and spacious when showing it to perspective buyers. In this example, your stager did her job well.

The table setting is not good as it relates to the table. But the shelves behind look good. if she has a great sales record with this stager, I'd just move on. That tablescape won't kill a deal. A difficult relationship with your realtor isn't worth it.

I have to agree with maddielee. The room know looks less cluttered and more inviting. The changes are subtle, but they do brighten it up. In your first post you stated that the realtor has worked for years and has had huge success. I think you should trust her and let her do her job. The stager is trying to make your house more marketable to a larger group of people. We all like our homes to reflect our personalities, but when you are trying to sale you need to step back and look at it through other eyes. I hope you sale quickly!

The basic idea is to get rid of as much visual clutter without it being too stark. I agree that the second picture accomplishes that.

You want the potential buyer to move easily through the rooms, that the rooms spacious as possible and that it seems like there is have enough storage.

My comment didn't post. I love your furniture. I would have staged it with natural organic items like a wooden bowl full of lemons on the table with nothing else. The candles and orchid are horrid.

I don't have a problem with the open drapes-I knew the drapes will be opened, everywhere.

Two other chairs went to create a breakfast nook-look cute there. make sense-no problem with that

They changed the living-I didn't mention it here-mine was happier, cozier and all, but their staging does make it look bigger, so no problem, I get the "why"

But what this huge, obviously very very fake orchid has to do with anything? What exactly it is saying to the buyers, except "Hi guys! I'm a really big fake orchid in a huge cheap container"?

They want to show a buyer that the table can have a centerpiece? Great. Bring something that makes sense. And is proportional to the space.

I have another fake orchids all over-do you hear me complaining? No, they're at least proportional, and don't come in stupid hurricane.

If I put ALL my art away (and I had a lot believe me), patched the holes, repainted, re touched for the X time already-how am I not listening to them? I think I was very cooperative. My handyman can't see me anymore lol..since touch ups don't always look great. He had to fully repaint two rooms or so..just because I was "okay, I'll do everything you say, and remove the art".

I'm very cooperative right now too-I'm venting to you, not to them, lol.

The room was far less cluttered right before they came-I mentioned that's an old picture. Of course I cleaned up, what do you think.

The shelves behind look good because I subtly sneaked stuff in there to make it look better, lol

Right before they came-was better still. Books, couple bowls, the recorder or how it's called..that's it.

Overall, it looks nice after. But I agree to ditch that orchid.

Guys..I do have great relationship with my agent..the house is not even listed yet:)

Let this orchid be the biggest problem in my life, lol.

I understand they try to sell some dream.

But if it was me buying-my dream would include fresh flowers, instead of a fake orchid..

It's not about me. About me is this: I'm very very tired. I have two houses for two years now, paying two mortgages and extensive never ending remodel. Also rental for MIL. Also my daughter left for college and it should make me happy but I'm pretty sad, going through adjustment and all. And other things that are not interesting to anyone, but kinda rule my life much more that I'd like to.

I just want to claim my life back. This house was my heart and soul-but I'm counting days to move already. I'm exhausted. That's where I am. Not "my taste, your taste"...I wish.

So I do want to sell. To sell very fast . And I'm really afraid that people will be put off by these settings..

You know how many times I read on Houzz how people hate fake?

So do they, or they don't?

Or they usually do when it's about them, but the moment it's about some imaginary people-these imaginary people suddenly don't?

..just to add-I removed couple things off these shelves too..one was green jar full of shells, another-plastic vase painted green..the paint was coming off in several spots..

If you even partially like the shelves-I made them neater..

I prefer real. When I see staging, I think they are trying to distract me from something that is wrong with the house. But that is just me. I don't think it would impact my decision one way or the other besides wondering why they felt the need to do it. I think as a buyer I had a good imagination of trying to picture the furniture and accessories that we would like. I respected that what the current owner had was their taste and it may or may not be what I would like or would do and neither are right or wrong - just personal preference/individual differences. Even personal pics didn't bother me. People are still living there and having people going through your house is invasive enough. I don't expect that they should have to change their house for me to see it.

I'm with you on the place settings. Yes, while I'm taken in by a nicely staged place, it shouldn't be too obvious. So, place settings and baked cookies fall in that category.

I think the secret to successful staging is that you sell aspirations, that is, an idealized view of a "home." So it should be organized and devoid of items that suggest that actual people live in it and go about their business (razors, tooth brushes, and personal pictures).

Moreover, it should suggest "moving up", which is why model homes frequently are furnished with more expensive items than the target buyer could afford. Therefore, I'd include luxurious touches, which IMO, include fresh flowers, nice towels.

They used some of my real plants..and I was allowed to have a bouquet of fresh flowers..so I've got three now, lol. I didn't know which they would prefer to photograph..:)

They brought a great amount of white towels.

The good thing also is-the one pair of the new pillows for the master bed is really nice and soft..:) We don't sleep on them as not to mess with them too much, but I made a mental note..:)

They are probably chosen because they photograph well and are neutral.

At least they didn't add a cheesy wood sign

April,

Love your MCM furniture! I agree the decorations on your dining table in the 1st photo looks much more natural and harmonious. The arrangement in the 2nd photo makes me cringe, too.

But... While MCM style is popular with a certain group of people, it isn't a mainstream trend. There are lots of folks who, on the contrary, don't care for the style.

Looks like your realtor is trying to downplay the MCM pieces and inject some more on-trend contemporary styling. Hence the big orchid and silver candlesticks which seem to be a popular decor cliche. From her choice of colors it looks like she's trying to counter the "brown-ness" of the furniture since many younger people tend to dislike "brown" furniture. The popular palette is whites, grays, perhaps some beiges, with glamorous-looking pieces in gold or silver. It's perceived as current and upscale.

From Houzz:

Cheshire Foyer Navy Blue and White · More Info

The Oaks · More Info

Thank you guys..I made an inner peace with almost everything..changed back the shower curtain as per my realtor's permission..I put the orchid on the floor, temporarily, to apply some WATCO oil to refresh the table..if it stayed in that corner. I'd be close to after-staging nirvana I guess..:)

Your house is beautiful. I understand how concerned you are about making choices that reflect the authenticity of your home. I am sorry this has been such a long and stressful process carrying two homes, having your eldest go away to school and helping your in-laws. I look forward to hearing about how quickly and easily your house sold! Wishing you the best of luck!

I dislike the fake orchids too. Plants look nice but it always bugs me to see fake plants or ones that would never survive where they have been plopped down. Ah yes, beautiful now but will be dead unless they get some light. But most people wouldn't know that. I prefer fresh flowers as you do.

Trendy junk doesn't appeal to me at all and I wonder at all the people filling their homes with it. I'd prefer to see something nice not impersonal decor but if it gets you more money for your home then that's better. Sorry you have to live with it in the meantime.

lana_roma, I do have luxurious looking pieces in gold and silver, and not everything is brown..not everything is mcm even though yes, I dearly love it..:)

The thing is -my living has this huge antiqued- gold mirror..so of course when I was putting things together, I took hints from it

I decided on very warm floors, and walnut/teak wood, to make the space feel less "ballroom", more cozy..I, quite intentionally, wanted to bring it down to earth so to say.

Some other condos in our community often have very upscale feel..marble floors and all..columns...we have enough architectural details here, the ceilings are huge.. I wanted to avoid that too-upscale feel. And if I didn't-I'd go for the real stuff..:)

That's the living-across the dining..as in before, I mean. They've changed things a bit..I decluttered before of course, that's an old picture..the fig tree is several feet higher now too:)

they left the sofa's still on the angle, but on the other side of the room. They basically moved things more apart. I wasn't interested in it since I wanted it close enough to be able to hold conversation..but I get their point.

They also brought more gold pieces (end tables etc) from other spots of the house. Ditched some things, moved some things to other rooms. They did a nice job..even though it's not cozy at all, now. But the room does seem bigger.

So when I can understand why the stuff was done-it helps:) It's interesting, after all, how the staging works..and all the "whys" behind it.

But if they wanted to go more upscale-which could be-that orchid or whatever centerpiece they thought of, deserved to be much, much better quality..:) and more correct scale to the place.

All that basically to ask the question-if the buyers don't buy the decor(which is very true, and I'm partially happy mine is 90 percent hidden lol), why would they care about the color of my furniture? In the very first place?

It's an honest question. Because you made a very interesting point. A very sensible one too. And I continued to think about it.

The furniture of the previous owners was the style I didn't care for that much..it was bulky and heavy..

But I wasn't buying their furniture. Or their vast art collection:)

I loved the bones of the place, the layout, the feel. The layout was perfect for us. I loved all the round details(not seen here)..little windows as you walk up the stairs..palms and flowers around..

They had a little dog..the carpet was all stained and all..even the steaming didn't help.

Well, okay. They lived there, and they had a dog. When we started living there, we changed the carpet.

You can't buy a dream anyway. You can dream a dream..make it come alive, at some point.

But it's not like you need the whole new collection for (insert any store here), to know whether it can be your dream, or not.

You don't need a lot, at all.

Sometimes you need to take away stuff, yes. Sometimes you need to add on stuff, yes. Depends on the room. No problem with that.

But you can't just bring a lot of useless things of questionable quality, and think it will be better for getting people to dream, than a simple rose in a vase. It won't.

A rose will always win.

Simply because it's alive.

If I think so mistakenly-what is my mistake?

I really love homes (not only mine lol..I love them as a concept)..that's why I woke up from my nap -and found myself still thinking about all that..:)

It's also relaxing I must admit. I'd rather think about it, than other things. The other things, I'll think about them tomorrow(c)

(Before I fall sleep again or something-sorry, really tiresome day today..I want to say big thank you..for support, for making me think about things that are quite interesting, to me at least..for the discussion itself...and just so:)

(((april))) I hope it gets sold, and gets sold fast! My best wishes for you. If I could wave a magic wand, I would.

I feel for you. Our house has been listed for almost 2 weeks and I'm already so over keeping it staged and show ready at all times. (Vacuuming and cleaning every morning before work and before each showing and open house is really tiring.)

Our stager brought in a few things (including some small potted silk plants) and some furniture for a few rooms, but mostly it was a matter of paring down and moving around our own things, removing almost all personal pictures, etc.

Some things we just said no to, like moving DH's big heavy safe into the garage and a heavy clock that was hanging in the kitchen into the great room. We ended up working around those and the end result actually looks nice.

Our dining table and peninsula in the kitchen now have place settings that have to be moved out of the way when we sit down to eat and that's been a bit of a pain to keep up. I think they do look nice though.

I hope your house sells quickly!!

I don't understand the concept of staging. Unless prospective buyer plans to buy CONTENTS of house, staging makes no sense to me. I think it is a subtle ploy by realtors to clean up and rearrange the interiors that are, simply stated, totally devoid of taste. Problem is some of the stagers are themselves totally devoid of good taste so totally pointless.

People do crazy things when selling houses and some people hate personalization (see the 2016 design trends thread and how many hate personal photos, in a regular home!). The orchid is oversized but honestly the live plant was oversized too. In the photo it makes it look like the chandelier is squatting on top of the red flowers. The worst "staging" I have seen was a home here in Chicagoland, in February, with snow that had fake daffodils planted in the flowerbeds around the entire perimeter of the house.

Hang in there and think "SOLD!" Thoughts.

It wasn't a plant lol..it was a bouquet of gladioli..the fresh flowers are always different, since every season brings its flowers, I usually have a couple of different bouquets each week. .right now I have purple gladioli (but they're close to their end), roses, and hydrangeas..

..and an amazing husband LOL

Yeah I knew it was a flower but since I didn't know the exact name I figured red plant would lead you to know which one I was talking about. Fresh flowers are lovely and I also have hydrangeas that I like to cut and bring in but my sentiment was the same, too tall.

tnfarmhousefixing, i so understand..mine it's not even listed yet, but i'm already afraid to watch Netflix because the sofa's full of it lol, watch like a hawk when family's cooking (grease! horrors!), cleaning constantly, and generally loosing my mind...smeared my hair lotion on my face instead of the face cream, opened a package-and cut a hole through the blouse that was there..in short whatever i touch turns to gold right now, so i'm taking a little coffee break, as not to touch anything for a while..

wishing you a quick and nice sale, and getting back to normal soon!

(no..I don't like our place settings..they're also let's say-not a fine china..:)

I still don't understand why they have to be here..oh well

Ah..and my husband told me to put back the corks filled bowl back. He told me:

-do you see they're trying to create Provence and/or Napa? let them do their corks.

Yes, I see that. Hard not to see that lol

Your realtor is not trying to insult your decorating, she is trying to sell your house. That's what you want, isn't it? A good stager knows what buyers look for, which is not necessarily going to be the same as your style. Let them do their job, they are only doing what you are paying them to do - trying to sell the house.

I can see rearranging furniture that blocks beautiful windows/views but incurring expenses on furniture and doodads rental? I know it is not recommended, but personally I'd like to see house empty.

April, sounds like it's a very stressful time for you. Hugs! I don't get the point of staging either, as I prefer to see how people really live in a space to get a feel for the house. But my realtor made it clear that I'm a minority in looking for the soundness of a house and not the appearances, and by now I have enough reason to believe him. BTW, when looking at houses I did see a home that appeared out of the pages of HGTV magazine and I told my realtor it was staged. He said it wasn't, so who knows? It had no soul though, and that was off-putting. The house itself was not that old but it was of questionable building quality, so it wasn't a contender anyway.

And don't watch House Hunter shows! You might get a sudden urge to hide behind a door and pelt prospective buyers with oranges. Instead, watch Four Houses. I watched the Canadian version on HGTV, but I see there is a US version on TLC, which I hope is equally fun.

>>But if it was me buying-my dream would include fresh flowers, instead of a fake orchid..>>

When my house is for sale and being staged, it may or may not have real flowers. The fact is, I don't want any of our personal property inside. There is a real problem in the Bay Area of thieves making note of "open house" notices and burglarizing them. I want nothing of mine around that can be broken/damaged/stolen.

We do have an easier situation than yours. Our home is paid for, so it can be emptied out and staged without our having to live in it. Trying to balance the "sales-ready" and "hey, I'm still living here" is very, very difficult. You have all my sympathy and then some!

But here's the thing. It's NOT you being the buyer. Staging is just that - strictly temporary; a placeholder as has been noted by other posters. We live in the SF Bay Area, and the fact is that a staged house, whether pro done or by the homeowner, sells faster and for more $$$$ than empty houses.

We will be selling our home within the next 5-7 yrs and I expect it will look vastly different when staged.

I don't care if my buyer lacks imagination. I don't care if the buyer intends to paint the house purple with green stripes inside, and hang bright orange curtains in all the windows. It will be theirs, not mine, and I'll be concentrating on our new digs, anyway.

What I want is for the independent appraisal to come in at what I want to ask for, and the buyer is approved by a bank for the full sales price. Those two things are ALL that is important to me, as the seller.

We used a pro stager for my MIL's home. I didn't care for everything they did, but overall it was a vast improvement over my MIL's 36 yrs of a clean but very cluttered, highly personal interior. I mean, she wanted to sell her home with my DH's 18x24" gigantic framed baby pictures lining the hallway! Okay, he was a cute baby, but that was sooooo not a good selling point for her $1.2M home.

Her staged home sold very quickly in a declining market, for more $$$ than two competing similar homes in the area. One home was being sold empty, the other wasn't staged in any manner (it looked like my MIL's; clean but too full of "personal" clutter).

It showed us that illustrating 'potential' and taking out emotional possessiveness were important aspects for what is simply, and essentially, a straightforward business transaction.

After all, if you were selling your car and had yellow and green plaid seatcovers emblazoned with your favorite NFL team's logo, wouldn't you take them off before snapping a photo for Craigslist or Auto Trader? (Especially if your potential buyer's favorite colors were blue and silver, LOL)

Always remember: the buyer is not thinking in terms of buying "Your" home. The buyer is looking to buy "His/Her" home. You want to sell them "Their" home, not "Your" home.

I'm with you April. I've been looking at condos and they are all the same gray walls, with the same bar with the same bottles with colored water and the dining room table at an angle and no stuff! There's almost no stuff and it makes me wonder how I'd fit my stuff in there. I can understand removing extreme decor, like a zebra skin on the wall or the gigantic fish aquarium that fills half a room but I'd way rather see a clean de cluttered place that looks like real people live there. Does it offend buyers to know that you like to read? I can look past one room that happens to be a color I don't like.