It was early on Friday morning. The designer we had hired to stage an upcoming listing was just in the process of choosing the right pieces to show off the great space in the place when we received a text from the owner of the unit. Was the effectiveness of staging trackable, the seller wanted to know. Could I run a report on properties that were professionally staged when they came to market versus those that were not?

For a second, I felt irritated. We had been there. We knew staging sells. Empty houses look smaller than they are, and many buyers have a hard time envisioning where their couches or beds would fit. We’ve seen many homes that were shown vacant or in a beat-up, sad shape and didn’t sell until they came back on the market freshly painted or furnished. Or both.

But then I realized our seller had a point. Perhaps it’s all in our minds and not worth the effort? We needed some data.

So I ran some. The results were fascinating on many levels.

We used a set of basic criteria that resembled the listing we were preparing: all 2-bedroom, 2-bath condos closed in 2018 within the 20010 zip code. The first thing that was remarkable was that of the 90 listings that closed last year, only 3 (!) were shown completely vacant. Another 3 or 4 were either occupied or staged with existing furniture. There was a handful that were hard to judge–either the occupant had gotten rid of clutter or the realtors had done some “light staging” themselves the way we used to frequently handle condos as well. But the vast majority – by far! – had been staged professionally.

We then compared them to the expired or withdrawn listings from roughly the same period (listed 11/1/17 to 11/1/18 to make up for average marketing and escrow periods which I assumed to be about 2 months for this experiment). Of the 44 listings that didn’t sell, at least the first time around (some of them listed multiple times), about half were vacant. The actual percentage likely was even higher because, at closer inspection, some of the units were in new construction or rehab buildings and showed tour photos from a staged model unit on a different floor.

There were hardly any differences in average square footage (a little under 1,100 sf) or average condo fees (around $310) for the sold versus unsold 2 bedroom/2 bath units. The difference was all in the presentation — and ultimately in the price: The average list price of the expired or withdrawn condos was higher than that of the sold ones but NOT higher than the actual sold price as many of the well-positioned units were bid up in price. Obviously, if you ask more money for a less appealing property it will backfire.

As a check, I looked at the same setup in a different downtown zip code, as well as for single family houses in a suburban Chevy Chase neighborhood, and the results very similar.

Another interesting observation was that virtual staging — something I had secretly been flirting with, nerd that I am — actually didn’t do too well. One unit was listed several times with different cool-looking and very realistic digital furniture. It sat on the market. Obviously, the cool factor didn’t translate to reality when the people it attracted walked in the front door.

The takeaway: Whether we like it not, staging has become a reality. There’s no judgment. Not to play along can cost you a lot of time and money, especially if your property has some challenges such as an odd floor plan, poor light or awkward architectural features. Great stagers will help us overcome the flaws, emphasize the positives and add that little something that will make a buyer want to live there, no matter how different his or her own style would be once they’d moved in.

Staging sells. We knew this from experience, but now it felt good to have the numbers to back it up.

P.S.: Feel free to drop us a line or reach out by phone if you want to know how staged homes have fared in your DMV neighborhood. Happy to help!