Unless the staging is spot on with the person previewing the home, Yes, the over staging could easily be a turn off. Perfect is subjective.

I agree with Margo. The prospective buyers has to be able to see themselves living there, and if the staging is too modern or too traditional, they're going to be turned off by it.

Yes a home can be too staged. A buyer wants to see themselves living there so a home that is too staged will look stuffy. A house should look nice and clean but also have evidence it's lived in to make prospective buyers see the house as a home.

Most *model* homes come with all the bells and whistles in the upgrades. They usually are not over staged. They are also staged with the current trends.

i painted and primped exactly as my realtor suggested and sold the house in 9 days as the country fell of the cliff in the recession. so, i'd say no such thing as too perfect.

Not sure what "too staged" would be. To sell quickly for the largest amount of money, buyers like to see absolutely clean homes with no obvious projects to do. Further, most people cannot picture an empty room filled with their own furnishings. People NEED to see a king sized bed in the master or queen sized beds in the bedrooms. Especially in open concept spaces, they need to see where they could put the living room seat group and the dining area. Staging is very important -- especially as the asking price goes up.

Hi Lynn, would you consider tying a ribbon around the (fluffy, unused) towels in the guest bathroom a stage too far? I agree that many need help in visualizing how a room can be used...it's all the extra details that I'm curious about.

LOL - tying ribbons around things is new to me as a staging device, although I have seen towels folded into interesting shapes.

What does your real estate agent think about your staging?

If someone is living there, decluttered and clean is a nice level of staging. If the house is unoccupied, it's nice to have some furniture (especially beds) in place, so people can gauge room sizes.

However, I have been in some obviously empty but staged houses with bizarre touches fantasizing that the owner just left the room seconds before you entered the house: the casually tossed afghan with the open book on it. The cookbook open on the counter with the (nonperishable) ingredients out on the counter. Sometimes it's too much. Two of the houses obviously had problems with dampness and water. (common here), I would've rather had them spend a few hundred dollars on a good dehumidifier than "artistic" staging.

Proper staging works...there are many on-line, reliable sites which will tell you how much quicker properties sell often at over asking prices.

The most important thing to remember is potential buyers are using the internet to determine if they even want to bother seeing a property. If those photos are not showing the home to its best advantage, then buyers won't even bother contacting the listing agent.

Keep in mind the familiar expression that "less is more" and the cleaner the better. So, no, you can't over stage.

yes, that aspect was a bit distressing to me also. but i dont know what local custom is.

I'd take all the stuff off the tops of the kitchen cabinets & I have my doubts about their ability to hang pictures, but otherwise it isn't over the top awful (and what Depo SD said about the fake plants and flowers).

I have a feeling that the homeowner wanted to know what buyers were saying about the house.

My realtor used an app that showed me the scheduled showings & also showed me feedback from all the people who went to see the house, which was very interesting.

Trying too hard -- that is what over-staging looks like to me. And if I sense someone is trying too hard, I get turned off.

I will take clean, fresh, and empty over staged, and bad smells (cigarette smoke, mold) any day. When we were looking for a home in Fl, we looked at over 30 in 3 days. That was easy to do, because many smelt like mold, and a few I refused to even stay in because of the cigarette smoke. Several were stuffed to the gills with stuff, not junk, just way too much stuff, including the Toy House, 4 kids, toys on every surface, including bedrooms that we could not enter, because we couldn't walk for the toys on the floor. The master bedroom and bath also had toys everywhere. Looked like a Toys R Us had exploded. And the twin girls who followed our every move, because they said we were going to steal their toys. The home that was staged to perfection? We lost in a bidding war.

The funny thing is...the savvy buyer should know that the houses that show badly are the ones you can get for a better price. While I would avoid mold like the plague, a smoky house is fixable with sanding, stain kill primer and paint.

HI-- One of my big pet peeves is seeing the toilet seat left up . And I have seen this too many times in show homes and beautifully staged homes and the ad photos . A big mistake some stagers have done is filling the corners with fake plants and trees . So a good stager is worth gold .

I have to respectfully disagree with what @sunnydrew wrote, "I think that photos showing a view other than the front of the house first will attract buyers, because they stand out."

To me, that tells me that the house has no curb appeal, or that there is something undesirable about the front of the house, so much that you don't want it to make a first impression. For me, not showing the front of the house first is a turn off.

Being that I have worked on Models for many years all over the country I believe highly in the power of staging for sale. I offer staging services using the Client's own furniture or giving them a list of items to buy and store out of sight. The idea is that whom ever is coming to see the home needs to be able to both see themselves in the home and that there are (for lack of a better word) not to many "nicknacks" around that they cannot see all the wonderful features the home provides. A trained designer can open spaces, brighten rooms and enhance selling features in just an afternoon of time:)

If you used a designer to furnish your home and you keep it uncluttered; then you shouldn't need to stage. If your home is full of eclectic furnishings and clutter; perhaps staging will be best. I say, first unclutter your home; if you are 'over furnished' and cramped in with "stuff" - take some out and put it in storage since "less is more". If your furnishings are not worn and torn, they may be just fine and your realtor can make recommendations. Sometimes, just setting a pretty dining table is nice. Adding simple fresh floral (orchids) can be nice touch. Fresh paint in neutral colors is helpful. Many buyers get turned off by loud colors or wall paper even though paint is an easy and inexpensive fix. Make your bed, put on a pretty wood tray with a rose or orchid and empty coffee carafe, pretty mug and napkin. Bathroom and kitchen must be UNCLUTTERED. Have grout cleaned! Hiring a professional to stage can be helpful if in fact your furniture is worn, torn, eclectic, or too many pieces cluttering the rooms. Your realtor wants to sell your home and if he/she is a professional with lots of experience - ask the realtor for their opinion and go from there. Stagers should keep the 'style' of the neighborhood. Model homes that are done tastefully always sell homes for a builder. Model homes that are done "weird" can slow down new home sales since buyers turn off when they see weirdness in design. If you hire a stager, look at that persons portfolio and learn their style before you hire. Stagers can be very helpful.

Having looked at hundreds of thousands of listings over the past 20 years on the prowl for a true modern home, all online listings should include:

1. At least one photo of each the front and rear of the home, including as much yard as is attractive and practical to include.
2. At least one photo of each room (including bathrooms)
3. A couple of detail photos of kitchen and to highlight any particular element of the home that sets it apart from other homes (fireplaces, outdoor features, balconies, decks, etc.)

The photos don't need to be in a particular order. The cover photo should be the best possible feature of the home. If the home is on a lake, making the lake view the cover photo is almost better for me than showing the front of the house. There HAS to be a picture of the front of the house, but I don't feel it has to be the first photo.

The first thing that rings warning bells for me on a listing is missing pictures. Most often left off? Bathrooms. If I see a listing with 2.5 baths and no bathroom pix, I assume I'm going to have to do $25,000 in bathroom renovations.

The listing description should ALWAYS mention the age of the roof and major mechanical systems. If it has been left off, I assume that they will have to be replaced on my dime.

I'll take it even further. If you're selling a house that needs a lot of work, take as many pictures as you can and price it right.

I watch 'Selling New York' it is all about real estate and selling some extremely expensive homes, and they do a lot of staging homes and where they can't they show slides of photos on the wall of the home showing its potential as a home.

One time they were trying to sell this house that was customized to its owner's taste and the doors and handles where all made of hammers and tools etc. .etc.. so, that definitely would have been a difficult house to sell, it was meant for a carpenter or workman who really would have had to love his job like crazy to live in such a house. I never found out if they sold it--but they had to do staging for a specific group of people I think in the form of a party at the home and showing anyone interested in the home, around the place.

In some cases homes may need it but in some cases, I think it better not to stage a home. Sometimes a empty home let's a home buyer visualize their own touch there too.

So, Arlene...did it sell?

Hi Lynne. In answer to your question...not yet. Thanks for all your thoughtful comments about photos, staging etc. As you've learned over time, a lack of photos can indicate a potential problem, but sometimes it's just because you can't really get a good photo (even using professional photographers)! But with over 90% of people looking at properties on line before enlisting the help of realtor, good photos are becoming more and more important. Let me ask you this -- what do you think of the videos that are created? Some are just the photographs that zoom in/out with a voice over and some go all the way to 360 degree looks that you control. Do you have a preference?

So sorry to hear that it has not sold.

Am not sure what to say about a professional photographer who doesn't move ANYTHING. If I were that photographer, I would look at the setup, recognize the orgy of flower arrangements, and take one set of photos with everything in place. THEN, I'd call my assistant and the realtor into service & move stuff around.

In my home, there were furniture pieces that were not needed for the photos -- we simply shoved them out of camera range to take the photos -- the idea is to showcase the features of the room, NOT my furniture. As the photographer, my second set of photos would have taken out distracting items and move furniture to give a clear view of the home's features.

As far as 360 degree home tours are concerned, I have to admit that I almost NEVER look at them -- I really dislike the fisheye quality of them -- the distortion in the photos is so distracting to me. The slideshows or straight videos with music and captions that describe what I am seeing/or voice over tours are MUCH better -- so long as the tours focus on the home and the features that will stay with the home.

This house is a challenge -- it is priced at a steep discount relative to the trulia and zillow estimates. It's sitting between million dollar homes and is probably the best investment to make in that neighborhood. If I had a million dollar budget, I could buy this home and use the extra dollars to add my personality and zing to the house. Maybe you need some pix of the neighborhood to show that a person is going to be buying into an exclusive area?

Arlene Nichols - First, thank you for your post, what a great question to ask.I believe their a is a simple answer to that. When you hire us, a Professional Staging Company, Home Staging Works Inc, you will see in the homes we stage that we do not keep the same furniture for everything we do, each home is unique and we treat is as such. We have a brand new 6,500 sq. ft. warehouse full of furniture and home decor, and we stage homes from $200,000.00 to 3 Million according to their price point and floor plans, and have interior designers come in and stage the home differently each home.

When you look at the numbers and you can stage a home fro less than 1% and get a 8-10% return then you see that yes it works and if you hire the right company to do it then you will have the success you are looking for. I hope that helps some of you. Just some of what we have done.

To me, over staging a house would be putting a ribbon around ur bath towels, or setting the dining room table like it's a big holiday. That's fine if it's a new house but looks like ur desperate if it's a old home newly listed on the market. But still, I'd rather see that than come into a home to find clothes on the bedroom floor or dishes piled up on the kitchen counter (yep this has happened to me). Some people have no shame. Lol.

This is a relatively old thread, but still really useful... one note - I got three offers on my house -- two from people from out of state who fell in love with the photos on the listing...

Never! Everyone loves a picture perfect look whether they admit it or not :)