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Staging Without Rental Furniture
Concerns about anticipated costs and lack of control are the biggest roadblocks most have when talking about stagers, staging. So it’s both ironic and frustrating to see so much time and opportunity wasted when I see people go round and round, debating a definition they can’t let go of, or let themselves be open to expounding on.
Sure, what something looks like and what it costs are important factors when deciding if, and how to stage. But good staging is about anticipating and solving problems. But instead of dwelling on these sensitive and subjective metrics, better to expand the conversation. Make understanding the problems you need to solve the prerequisite for any tasks or expenditures you’re considering.
Preparing a property for sale is a highly individual process. For many, staging without rental furniture has proven to be highly effective, costing less, while giving sellers full control.
We’ve covered five reasons to stage with rental furniture. Now, 6 different scenarios where our Simple Staging technique-staging without rental furniture-was all that was needed.
1. We Touched Their Heart
No one buys a home from their head. They buy from their heart, and the head kicks in only after the heart has fallen. So you have some sense of who the buyer might be, but TRH urges you to go deep. How will buying this magic property make their life better?
Today’s buyers don’t have an easy time of things. We’ve found the most successful sellers are those who don’t forget what it’s like to be a nervous buyer. We counsel sellers to stop fantasizing about bidding wars. Instead, go past the basic demographics and imagine your buyers’ dreams. Then let’s do what we can to create a vibe or space that welcomes and delights them.
Top to bottom photos courtesy of Suzanne van der Wilden of BHHS, TRH archives, and Ann Marie Damashek of Compass Realty
Add/showcase a little personality. Paint an expansive vibe, find or create magic with some vignette listing photos. Here we’ve got sports (and order), a telescope for a child’s screenless curiosity, and industrious creativity! Point to aspirational things your buyer will finally be able to do when they buy your magic house.
Other easy, zero-to-low cost/high ROI ways we’ve made listings stand out by what’s owned, or can easily be brought in:
- Orderly closets and neat toys
- Gardens, workbenches, and meditation spaces all resonate
- Elements of sports, arts, and music are easy to incorporate, and 10/10 aspirational.
- Even something as simple as a dog’s bowl and a lead in the mudroom will strike a chord
2. The Joy of Average and Expected
No one clamors for an average brain surgeon. Or claims to have an average house. But sellers, check your egos, because subconsciously, ‘average’ properties with expected floor plans can be quite comforting to many buyers.
- Average here doesn’t mean dull. It means there are a lot of them, and lots of info about them, from floor plans to pricing. Seen and understood, the common, popular, and comfortable all reduce anxiety.
- Expected means fewer things buyers need to use their imagination to figure out. All the main rooms are easily found, located in expected places, and are shown as they’re named.
This DR was used as a playroom and homework space for this young family. But when time to sell, we staged this house by aligning what buyers saw with what they expected of a formal DR of this stately Irvington property.
We cleared it, leaving only the basic DR furniture: the fully extended table and sideboard. The ‘grown-up’ DR chairs were brought out of storage. Seller bought a new chandelier, then rented lamps, a mirror, and a centerpiece from TRH. In-contract within days, sold at full ask.
After photo courtesy of Debra Goodwin of Corcoran Legends
3. Multi-Family Properties (Empty and Furnished)
Did you know more than half of Westchester County’s housing units are multi-family properties?
Most rental, co-op, condo, and townhouse communities are modest-sized spaces with similar floor plans. Buyers can visit live listings, and view closed listings online, so usually little mystery about where the sofa goes.
If you’re looking to sell quickly and well, know the condition of the unit is top of mind, exponentially so for co-op buyers. If given cause, they will assume the worst: How old the stove is….when was the last time the place got painted, how much it will cost to replace the vanity, grout the tub, etc.
The approval process for buying and then updating is pretty protracted in most multi-family buildings. Sellers who do the most they can to make their property move-in ready see real ROI two ways: Serious, qualified buyers show up fast, and bring the big checkbook.
As modest spaces, it doesn’t take a lot to make a meaningful difference. Clean, pristine, and move-in-ready units stand out especially because so many others do nothing. This also bonds buyers to property, important so they don’t lose heart as they slog through the approval process. And of course, the shorter the process, seller saves by paying less in carrying costs, preserving equity.
An Emptied Co-op
Unfurnished is not fatal! This unoccupied Fleetwood co-op is a perfect example of our Simple Staging approach. Once emptied, we upped its presentation with fresh paint throughout, a deep clean that included windows and kitchen cabinets inside and out, about $500 in new lighting fixtures, plus rental art and other props from TRH’s warehouse.
After photos courtesy of Ann Marie Damashek, Compass Realty
The art warmed and defined the space, anchoring future furniture placement for buyers. Our GREAT PHOTOGRAPHER had something to shoot, resulting in photos that had depth, context, and personality. Serious buyers showed up, the heirs accepted a full-ask cash offer the first week.
A Furnished Condo
This bright Rye Brook condo was furnished, but little attention was paid to it the first time it was listed. A great space, but it read as flat and underwhelming; the agents’ phone photos didn’t help. It sat for months with little traffic and no offers.
After photos courtesy of Marcia Rogull, Julia B Fee Sothebys
TRH got the call just as the first listing expired. Pieces not making the move anyway were removed, others were re-positioned. I added punctuation-color and life- with about $300 for slipcovers and bright pillows in LR, plus a few pieces of bright rental art from TRH’s warehouse.
Again, a professional photographer created photos that gave this townhouse new life, catching buyers’ eyes. And after a disappointing first run, these owners had signed contracts in a month.
4. What They Want, What They Really Really Want
No expense was spared in decorating this Winged Foot center hall colonial. Beautifully done, and in perfect condition, when they decided to sell, changing the LR wall color was the only recommendation I had for this nearly 4000 s/f house. The sellers took great pride in their design choices and were not pleased by this.
Buyers can see past furniture they know will be going. Paint, though, is almost like forever. It was recent, but the color read as harsh and dated. And in the world of snap assumptions, where everything turns on listing photos, out-of-date colors or decor in photos stigmatize, making buyers instantly wonder what else might be old/untouched in the house.
In the end, it was math that got it done. The sellers got that as the biggest surface in the main room, walls make an immediate and large statement. And because the house had been so well maintained, all it took was 2 coats of a new color on the walls (that is, no trim/moldings/ceiling). Cost less than $1000, got it done in a day, and netted $85K over ask.
Photos from TRH archives
5. Tech, Social Media, and the Media
Our love/hate affair with tech continues. The trajectory had been one of expanding acceptance, then the AI boom gave us pause. At this writing, it remains to be seen if the recent bunnies on trampoline debacle may have pushed many back into just not believing what they don’t see or can’t touch.
Regardless, the appropriate and successful use of tech and social media will always, always come down to who will be consuming it. But because everyone has different comfort levels with tech and all the platforms, it is with gentle font I remind agents and sellers put their own personal preferences aside, and keep the focus on what the likely buyer will respond to.
Buyers expect images. In our market, professional photos, floor plans, videos/virtual tours are standard. Virtual staging still elicits a mixed response. Understandable, as there are a lot of moving parts:
- Our MLS requires virtual staging to be noted in the listing description; the reality is buyers don’t read. At least not til after they’ve formed opinions on the photos they see.
- Also, most people who do the actual virtual staging work are just working off the photos. If it’s a standard floor plan, that usually works out.
But if its a funky unicorn type of house like this one was, and rental furniture wasn’t even Plan B, you’ve got to roll with it.
Set in the woods of northern Westchester, it took some time to understand it during my first walk-through. Empty, the main level was an open floor plan, with one set of finishes throughout. The buyer pool was already narrow for this unusual house; we needed to further engage the intrigued and the curious.
Rental furniture was Plan B. Plan A was virtual staging, styled by The Refreshed Home, as shown above. Virtual staging techs don’t ever see the actual space. OK for an expected floor plan, but they’d have no clue what to do here.
Photos courtesy of Mark Boyland Keller Williams Realty
TRH doesn’t do actual virtual staging. But if you’ve got an unusual or unexpected space that needs to function or furniture placement defined for you or your tech, give us a call!
Working directly with techs, we ensure placement, scale, function, flow, aesthetics, and vibe all line up with both interior and exterior of these unicorn-type properties. Several other factors still made this house a tough sell, but we got it done. Happy buyers, happy sellers, and everyone got on with the rest of their lives.
6. Market, Price, and Competition
Real estate is local. Loosely that means from hyper-local to national, even global- there are a gazillion inter-connected things that affect how buyers will see your house and perceive its value.
Real estate can be part sport, part entertainment. It can quickly also be as scary as hell with enormous financial implications. Sellers trust me, you don’t know what you don’t know. Having a smart and trusted local agent on your side to translate, prioritize, run interference, put everything in perspective and just get it done supersedes any other recommendation.
Good market or bad, demand has always outstripped inventory here in Westchester County. This, plus easy access to lots of data can fuel all sorts of buyer and seller, ummm…fantasies.
If you’re serious about buying or selling, the knowledge and expertise of a local, committed agent tops all your home finder apps, what worked for you last time, what your neighbor did last year, and what your sister thinks, combined. Just sayin’.