Home Staging Gone Bad

by Jay Thompson on July 7, 2006

Just when I thought I’d heard of everything…. this may be the single most rediculous idea I’ve heard yet….

Extreme Home Staging
By Les Christie, CNNMoney.com staff writer

Home sellers long ago discovered that small touches could boost selling prices – fresh flowers, the smell of freshly baked cookies. Now a real estate developer, Centex of Dallas, is adding in beautiful people.

The experiment in what’s called “staging” is simple: Home buyers enter a home and see not just furniture but real people – actors – playing out the life they might lead there.

The Centex program, which its creators call HomeLife, has been used twice so far at Milestone, a 166-house development in Santa Clarita, about 25 miles north of Hollywood.

In one performance, the ‘model’ family spent about three hours pretending it was Mom’s birthday. They baked a cake, sang happy birthday and the children drew and framed a picture – of a Centex house. The original cast included a former Baywatch hunk, Jaason Simmons, in the role of Dad.

There’s more, if you can stand it…

Hat tip to Becky Troutt for finding this article. She commented on her blog:

……Ok, so picture this: You are walking through a model home and come across a “family” acting like they live there while they bake a cake, play cards or want to “show you around in their home.” How un-comfortable or weird would this be? It’s like having a seller at home during a showing. The purpose of viewing a home is in hopes that no one is there so you feel comfortable opening cabinets and looking in closets. If you have a “family” there, don’t you think more people are going to be watching what the family is doing or talking to them versus really looking at the house? GIVE ME A BREAK!

A note to builders: Spend your money on something useful like buyer incentives or paying their closing costs OR better yet how about cutting the price off the home instead of paying people to “pretend to be a family” in a model home???

I must say that I concur with Becky. Is it just us, or is this not the dumbest idea ever?

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Holly White

Just when I thought I had seen it all. Only you Jay. Too funny!

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Hunter Jackson

So, i thought I had heard it all. I agree with Rachel. How much farther can staging go? Having a dog have an accident on the floor, just to show the carpet will come clean?

william

It's relatively inexpensive to rent anything you need, and these finishing touches help ensure you make the profit you deserve for all those costly renovations.

rachel

For what it's worth, I meant "bitter," not biter. I can't imgagine what a biter divorce would be all about and hope I never find out. ;)

I have thought about some pretty drastic measures for fresh-baked cookies (chocolate chip, of course) but buying a house for some was not on the list.

I enjoy your blog too. It's cool to have a friend on the "inside," so to speak.

The AZ Real Estate G

Great point Rachel! And I've showed homes to both types you mention. The last thing they would want to see is a bunch of actors playing "happy family"...

Given a choice, I prefer to show vacant homes. It's usually easier for people to visualize their stuff in an empty home as opposed to one full of someone elses belongings.

And really, do you think someone is going to buy a home because it smells like fresh-baked cookies or has a nice flower arrangement on the table? Or God forbid, because there are people in it celbrating a fake birthday for Mom? I think not...

That said, I could tell you some horror stories about BAD smells, or crap lying around that will (and has) killed a sale. Hmmm, sounds like a future blog post!!

Thanks for commenting. Love your blog Rachel!!

Could you imagine if you were showing the home to someone who had just lost a member of their immediate family or someone looking for a place to live while experiencing a biter divorce?

Egads

Jay - The Phoenix Re

Hunter - lets not give anyone any ideas.... ;)

shurn

I don know but why i don find such informative and profitable blogs so often,I suspect blogging world is becoming so small that we cant find such lucrative blogs like this one.