Happening Now
Three bed, 1970s ranch in Downers Grove, school district is genuinely the selling point here, and the photographer gave me five exterior shots before we even get inside, all of th…
Win
A 650-square-foot one-bed listed at 289k, highway visible and audible from the main living window, is a case worth studying. The stager quoted 2,200 and argued that full furniture…
Win
The seller had a well-furnished home, the agent had a staging contract in hand, and the staging company's position was that partial jobs on properties at that price point carry mo…
Story
Listed at 229k, staged vacant for eight weeks at 3,200 total, had decent traffic the first three weeks and then nothing. Property sat 94 days before I dropped to 221k and closed.…
Win
Bought a duplex in Columbus last fall, first unit turned over in March and I had zero idea whether to stage it for a tenant or just list it empty. Read a few threads here and deci…
Happening Now
Say a seller has a condo that will list at maybe 289k, and the stager will not start until the seller commits to a minimum 8 week term at 2,240. Is that a normal structure, or is…
Discussion
Take a building where unit 3 sold in 62 days staged and unit 4, an identical floor plan, sat 89 days with nothing in it. Hard to know how much of that gap was timing and how much…
Happening Now
The lease is 2,400 square feet at 1,900 a month, three year term, personal guarantee, plus about 400 a month in utilities and insurance based on what the landlord's other tenant t…
Discussion
General liability typically covers property damage at the house and slip and fall type claims, and commercial auto covers the truck, but neither of those usually extends to invent…
Happening Now
For a builder delivering several detached spec homes in pairs several months apart, staging decisions are worth underwriting the same way carry cost is. A full stage of a whole ho…
Poll
Two claims about staging get made side by side and they do not actually describe the same mechanism. One is a price story. Staged houses close higher, so a few thousand dollars in…
Happening Now
A staging agreement for a spec build finishing in about five weeks might include terms like a 9,800 dollar install fee for 11 spaces, a 90 day minimum term, 1,450 a month after th…
Discussion
Getting quotes for a friend's listing and the spread is wide. One stager said $3,900 for a vacant three bed, two bath, about 1,700 square feet, covering the main living room, dini…
Happening Now
This is the first thing I've ever sold and I don't know what staging actually is beyond furniture appearing in photos. The property is a 1970s three bed ranch, about 1,450 square…
Loss
Full gut on a 2,100 sf two story, 148k of scope, and I was chasing a listing date because the agent had a broker open on the calendar. Punch list was at maybe 30 items when I let…
Win
A case worth walking through for anyone selling small multifamily. A 1970s side by side duplex, both units 2/1, one tenant occupied on a lease with 8 months left and one vacant si…
Loss
Closed this out last month, still annoyed, so writing it down while the invoices are open. The deal: 3/2 ranch, 1,410 sf, bought at 168k off a wholesaler, 61k in renovation, all-i…
Happening Now
Say someone builds a sheet to answer whether staging is worth it on a house about to be listed, and pulls 11 listings in one submarket over 14 months, same general price band, 240…
Discussion
Staging inventory is worth modeling as a capital business rather than a service, and the whole picture tends to live or die on inventory turns. Consider a package for a 1,700 squa…
Poll
I do trim and cabinet work and lately two of my flipper clients have started asking me to "make it show ready" after punch list, which so far has meant me borrowing my sister in l…
Discussion
Worth pressure testing this arithmetic on a resale, because it comes out clean and a clean answer usually means something has been left out. List price $415,000. A stager quotes $…
Happening Now
Consider four flips a year in a fairly narrow band, 180k to 260k, mostly 1,300 to 1,700 sq ft. Staging quotes typically land between 3,200 and 3,900 all in, so call it 14,400 a ye…
Loss
First house I ever sold, small three bed, and I wanted to do it properly so I hired a stager. I told her my budget was around 2,000 and she asked which rooms mattered most. I said…
Discussion
A typical stager's agreement rewards a second reading, because the fee structure is stranger than most sellers expect. There is a design fee that is non refundable, then an instal…
Happening Now
Closing on my first flip in three weeks and staging is the one number in my sheet I keep changing every time I open it. House is 1,580 sq ft, three bed two bath, in a subdivision…
Poll
Take a 1,450 square foot ranch on an infill lot, held eight years for an assemblage that never came together and now going to market. Vacant, clean, 1968 kitchen, nothing wrong wi…
Poll
Small flippers tend to place the staging cost in different parts of their deal model, and the inconsistency matters more over many deals than on any single one. Some treat it as a…
Discussion
A seller is told her house needs staging, and what the agent actually does is have her box up half the family photos and move a bookcase to the garage. No furniture arrives. In th…
Happening Now
Take a small three bedroom house listed around $289,000, with a staging quote of $2,100 for the first eight weeks on a vacant stage, then $450 a month after, prorated in half mont…
Happening Now
A manager running a portfolio of small multifamily and single family doors will eventually run into this: an owner sells, the tenant moves out, and the owner asks the manager to g…
Discussion
Staging keeps coming up for people choosing a side of this business because it looks like the cheapest thing to start. In most markets the stagers advertising will show a mix of c…
Poll
Here is a question worth working through. A small 4 unit goes on the market in spring. Three units stay occupied through the sale, one tenant is out in March and that unit will be…
Loss
No deals of my own yet, so when a friend listed her place I offered to handle the staging as practice. Figured I'd learn something and end up with inventory for later. Spent 1,900…
Win
I stopped taking per-job staging quotes in the spring. Four flips since then on one flat arrangement with one stager, so I'll put the numbers down. Before: three houses in the 240…
Win
I've been poking at the service side for a while and kept getting stuck on the same wall: staging means owning furniture, owning furniture means a warehouse, and I have neither. S…
Happening Now
Here is a scenario worth working through. Say a paint and finish carpentry outfit, five years in with four guys, gets a call from an agent it has done punch out work for since yea…
Poll
Say you're getting a long held house ready to list and two staging proposals land on the table structured completely differently. First one: 1,100 design and install, 850 a month,…
Happening Now
A scenario that comes up for small service operators, worth working through with real numbers. Take a three person outfit doing turnover cleans and light handyman work for landlor…
Discussion
An inherited house is going on the market and the listing agent has used three phrases in two conversations. She said the place needs staging, then said we could do soft staging t…