SurvivingInfidelity.com^®

Our home was open plan and on TV shows they always seem to stage open plan homes...

This is probably just so buyers can see where in the home various parts of their life take place. My first house had a very minimal archway connecting the living room and dining room. Any less of an arch and it would have been one large room. Without staging it may be natural for a buyer to walk in and think it was an eat in kitchen, or that there was in fact nowhere to eat.

If I went into a home that was loaded with brand new furniture and pictures, my first reaction would be to want to move everything to see what flaws were being hidden.

Personally, I would not spend the money for someone to professionally stage it. If I felt the house would show better with staging, I would drag my own stuff over there before hiring someone.

AMEN.

The best RE agent I know ($12M in closings last year, most in the $200K-$500K range) believes staging makes a gigantic difference in cutting time on the market and increasing the price, when done cost-effectively.

She acts as the consultant and thinks most people can do the staging without spending a lot of money. She thinks an empty house won't sell as easily or for as much as a house that looks lived in but super-clean.

She prefers used furniture to allay the suspicions of folks like aesir. (She told me that when I said essentially what aesir wrote....)

She prefers used furniture to allay the suspicions of folks like aesir. (She told me that when I said essentially what aesir wrote....)

That's a good call. Count me among those suspicious of model home furniture in an old build.

My biggest concern would be concealing that it will be occupied. I always feel like I am intruding and never feel comfortable looking in a presently occupied home.