[Abby10]

Originally Posted by TrudyM

Those who have sold their homes recently I would like your opinions.
Did you use a stager. I am being told (maybe because my furniture is old) that I need to get a stager to stage my home before I list it. Now I have to pay for this and it is expensive. Between $3500 and $5000 for the first month and between $500 and $1000 for each additional month. It varies depending on how much of my stuff they use. But two of the 4 realtors I have interviewed have told all my things will have to go into storage and I should also move out of the house while it is listed. Now in the prime summer months houses were going to contract within a week. But now it is fall and it could be spring before it sells.

PS We have a rental and are coming down for Jan-March 2015 so will see you all in a while.

WOW - those prices sound pretty steep! I feel pretty lucky now, as my real estate agent says that she pays for the stager out of her commission. Of course, there may very well be extra fees if they need to bring in different furniture instead of using what I already have. In the meantime, I can tell you that my agent, who was also a former neighbor, had her house staged and used a professional photographer and ended up selling her house in less than 2 hours to the first person who saw the house. She got almost full asking price. She said the photographs also made a huge difference because the younger generation tends to weed out what houses they will even look at through internet pics alone. I have to admit the pics of her house were so beautiful it was almost unrecognizable to me. Good luck with the sale of your home and all the decisions involved in the process!