Staging can help sellers in an unexpected way

$5.65 million penthouse staged by Jill Vegas.

Rare is the prospective buyer who isn’t tuned into staging.

Approximately 25 percent of homes for sale are staged, up from fewer than 5 percent in 2007, according to Barb Schwarz, CEO of StagedHomes.com in a SmartMoney post related to open houses. 

She puts the average cost at $1,800 for a professionally staged property in the U.S.  In New York City, you can be sure that barely pays for painting a living room alone.

Although staging can make a buyer suspicious that something is wrong, something perhaps concealed, respected staging consultant Jill Vegas maintains that

Do buyer representatives look out only for No. 1?

Patrick Healy

Patrick Healy, who heads Lucky Strikers Social Media Club (LSSMC), sounded a favorite theme of his at one of our recent monthly meetings.  So taken with his ideas was this social media guru that he followed up with a long blog post.  Alas, I am moved to rebut him.

In a nutshell, Patrick maintains that those of us who represent buyers don’t actually represent buyers.

Patrick — founder of Phacient management, marketing and technology firm — contends that we work only for the sellers.  Why?