I know most would answer ‘no’ here but hear me out. I have a good friend who is an interior decorator. She brought to my attention that staged homes would probably sell faster and she is willing to do this for me for really cheap. I also have another friend who owns and operates a thrift store here in Cincinnati so I could prob get most of the staging items from him on like a borrow type deal. So I imagine after the initial rehab, I could stage the home for next to nothing. But in a short sale is it worth it in your humble opinions?
I would say NO for two reasons… And yes for two reasons.
NO
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You need the house to look as Ugly as possible during the negotiation period with the lender. Especially if their BPOs are not complete.
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A lot of vacant houses get broken into to.
YES
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If the deal doesn’t go through you may argue Cash for keys since it appears occupied.
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A lot of vacant houses get broken into and one that looks occupied may not.
Good Luck
Michael
What harm would it be to stage the property if the bank has already approved the shortsale and you have rehabbed the property.
I’d assume no before the short sale approval and yes after.
Although, I suppose you could do some staging before the BPO: put water in the basement; bring dirt in from outside; get in the attic and put something up there that will drip water in a certain sport for a night leaving a nice watermark; stick some cats in a kennel with some clothes until they pee on them then put those clothes somewhere in the house to make it smell, add some kitty litter boxes; write on the wall with washable markers; buy a clunker for $300 and put it up on blocks.
P.S. - I’m kidding.
Do yourself a favor and buy inflatable couches and chairs and beds they are easy to move and people can move them around to see what looks good where!
And its only $25.00
If the BPO is already done is may be ok, but only if that was an interior BPO. Find out by asking. Usually I won’t list a property for sale until I know that the interior BPO is complete and I was able to at least have “some” influence on the agent. I think that you should start out by not staging and see that action you get on the property. If you are getting walk-thoughts but no action then you may want to stage. At some point in the process if you are confident that the SS will be approved you may even want to put some money into the property like carpet cleaning or paint. I would not recommend this however until you’ll got 4-5 of these under your belt.