I agree. And, you have all the old photos to show.

I have noticed that some agents are doing virtual decorating. The home is empty and they show the room as is. Then they virtually put in furniture to show how the room would look in relation to it furnished. Interesting idea.

This is what you would be doing when sharing your photos.

Clean and empty, with any leaks and squeaks fixed.

Thank you for the replies! Much appreciated.

I spoke with our agent again this morning, and he echoed the same......he told me to make sure things are clean and tidy and not to worry about trying to stage it as it was. His main recommendation was to get the moving boxes out of the living areas, which we plan to do. We have new-ish wood floors and freshly painted rooms throughout, so the empty rooms should still show nicely.

It is nice to hear from others on here that this approach shouldn't hurt us. Weight off my shoulders, too!

Our issue was a bit different but still a bit similar.

We sold a prior home a couple of years ago. We had the ability to move out prior to listing (didn't want to have to deal with showing, especially in light of our high maintenance pets).

What we did was pretty the place up before we moved - we then took a ton of pictures while it was still furnished. We then moved out and listed the house using the pictures. But the house was empty when people came to see it.

I am sure that there are reasons NOT to do this, but honestly, it worked great for us.

Perhaps you could use the old pictures to help show people how it looked all prettied up?

Using some of the Before pictures is a good idea.

There are professional photographers that can "virtually stage" your photos if you don't have good photographs from before. I agree with your Realtor and the others here: take the boxes out but have it cleaned and repaired. If you find that people can't see the dimensions of the room, use the virtual staging photos.

Flippers, who are all about getting the maximum return on their $ spent, almost always stage a home. So consider that when you are evaluating purchasing the services of a staging company.