When to de-stage a flip?

Question

I'm tossing this idea around.  The first two months were included in my staging fee that I paid upfront and every month after that they charge me 15% of the staging fee per month.  I already have pictures on the MLS with staging done, it would just be for people coming to showings at this point.  What have some of you done in the past when you have had a home sit on the market for a little while?

Dave Vogt · Answer

Hey Simon,

It is wordpress. We used the free wallbase theme to make the site. We are currently siting down with a local designer to come up with a single site design for real estate agents. It will be a complete from the bottom up theme so we can add in all the extras we want and make it super responsive. Wallbase works ok on an iphone or android, but it needs to be better. Not bad for a free theme.

I could write an entire BP post about this stuff. It's been something I have been working on to make better. We will be offering this service to agents in the very near future once we get our theme designed. There are other companies out there building single sites, but they really suck IMHO.

Professional photos is the trick. I think a lot of people under estimate the importance of presentation. It means a lot in real estate. We have a saying for Steph's real estate business that you only get one chance to make a first impression.

Simon Lloyd · Answer

@Dave Vogt by the way, do you mind sharing which program you used for that website? Is that a Wordpress plugin?  Do you do that yourself?

Simon Lloyd · Answer

@Dave Vogt:  Creating your own art??  You're a true Renaissance Man!! :)

I looked at your flip house at 442barrick.com, it looks really great. I'm doing a flip right now myself so I could certainly learn a lot from you!  Not planning to become an artist though...

Dave Vogt · Answer

We still need to buy more artwork. We have made a few of our own with canvases from the local craft store and used the paint leftover from the house to make an abstract.

Jacob A. · Answer

@Dave Vogt

That's a great idea.  The only caveat I potentially see with that is you having to design the house yourself as opposed to the staging company doing that for you as part of their services.  Still I can see after doing a few houses and getting a feel for what people like that this could be a much more cost effective route.  Thanks for the advice.

Dave Vogt · Answer

I would certainly leave it in. We stage all of our homes and yes a staged home can affect the appraisal.

We currently rent furniture from Aaron's in Canada where we are. I know they are big in the states. We furnish the living room, dining room, and the rest we keep a few end table etc. and use portable blow up beds and comforter sets we buy from the local liquidation store. Pick up a few inexpensive pieces of art for the walls and your all set.

I think for us the beauty of this is we don't have to store the furniture and they deliver and set it up. We were upfront with our intentions of using the furniture for staging and they had no problem with this. We only had the last house up for 8 days when it sold and we called them and had it picked up right after the appraisal. Cost us $239 for the month.

Ophelia Nicholson · Answer

I agree with @J  Scott I don't remove my furniture until the day of closing or the day before closing usually when I'm 100% sure we are closing. I've had loans that fell apart and I had already moved out all the furniture and had to bring it all back and set it up again... I was not very happy.

The difference I think is that I own all my staging furniture -J Scott and his wife own their stuff as well so there is no cost to us to have the furniture sit in the house. In your case the house is just sitting, no contract etc. so it is just costing you every month. I think you have to weigh if the cost is something you can continue to carry as the house sits on the market.

Questions I would ask in your case would be-Will removing the furniture hurt your chances of getting a contract at this point? Are your buyers coming expecting to see everything just like your MLS pictures? How much longer will you have to carry the expense of staging furniture?

Justin S. · Answer

I'm with Jscott.  Don't de-stage until all contigencies are met and final walk thru is done.

When to de-stage a flip?

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