The Allure of the Fruit Bowl

An article Sze-jun came across today on WSJ:

The Allure of the Fruit Bowl: Home Staging ‘Twiddles’ With a Buyer’s Mind

Looking to buy a house? Beware the allure of home staging. The marketing technique, in which a home’s interior and exterior is carefully prepped, sometimes by a paid professional — can trip-up unsuspecting or naïve house hunters, says Curtis Seltzer, a land consultant from Blue Grass, Va.

Staging techniques like “non-casually tossed toss pillows, items arranged in threes, cleared-off counter tops, furniture angles that draw you into a room, a bowl of limes and lemons and other focal points” fiddle with buyers’ minds by making them respond to a look that “home-style magazines and television shows teach us to aspire to,” he writes.

Home buyers impressed by such good looks, tend to overpay. According to home stagers, staged homes sell for 3% to 10% more than non-staged homes. Mr. Seltzer advises reading up on staging techniques to recognize them when you see them. And when touring homes — “imagine the house buck naked and completely empty,” he suggests. “That’s what you’re buying.”

Or, tell your real-estate agent not to show you any staged properties — if you decide you want to buy a staged home, you’d “be competing against stage-struck buyers who have fallen under the stager’s spell” and may end up paying more, he says. –Lauren Baier Kim

After reading this, we felt quite smug that we did *not* purchase a staged property. It was far from that. Allegedly, my first reaction to the house was, "Ewwwww"... "Is this safe to live in???"... "I want to go home now." But eventually I was able to see what Sze-jun saw - the potential behind the house.

So if you're in the market to buy a home, don't be turned off by lemons. Think of the value of the lot and if you have the budget to fix up the house (or even tear it down and build from scratch). It's a huge pain in the ass, don't get me wrong. Expect a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. And money. But if you're committed to it and feel strongly about being in your desired neighborhood like we were, then go for it!