Will a potential buyer stay closer to the asking price if they see little wrong and love the property from the moment they approach it? Set the tone for competition for the property between potential buyers?

What is an agent's worst nightmare as far as trying to sell?

What is an agent's dream come true, besides a big price tag?

I've shown a lot of nicely presented houses and the buyers said "too high."

No matter WHAT a "professional stager" tells you, NOTHING will sell an overpriced house unless the particular buyer has no clue about the actual market price and is paying cash and doesn't want an appraisal...

Staging can help make the house the most attractive to buyers and it may sell for more than a less attractive home - BUT - it's really hard (actually impossible!) to prove that it was the STAGING that sold the house at that price. It may just as well have sold at the same price in an unstaged or even vacant state. But there's no way to know.

Overpriced homes that are drop dead gorgeous are still, at the end of the day, overpriced. Most buyers are savvy enough to know that as well.

Buyers always want the nicest product at the BEST price. They don't want the nicest product and the HIGHEST price no matter what's done to it.

Staging if done correctly might help the home sell faster. A downside is if they love the furniture etc. and it won't be going with the house.

Find a cheap stager if you use one. The ones that charge thousands are just ridiculous. Putting nice furniture in an old home that needs work will not help it sell for more money.

I actually have not seen staging help at all. In fact I have found it to be pretty neutral. Doesn’t hurt doesn’t help. It’s more important to get the buyer to start to see the property with their furniture in it not someone else.

Now a good cleaning and deodorizing yes that helps. Even on lower end properties the property just has to look and smell clean. I have even paid for a maid I have found it to help that much. The $300-$500 for a maid is usually much better than even an ad.

I am not being sexist here only stating a fact. Nothing will turn the wife off more than a dirt and a smell.

Also making sure the pool is blue. I always try to get the seller to pay to make sure the pool is sparking. No toys no green etc.

I look at that more then staging or actually anything else.

Staging is an asset to selling as is "move in" condition.

However as Perky Realtor pointed out above; nothing is going to sell an overpriced house and there is no house that the right price will not sell.

Of course staging helps. If I didn't believe that, I'd never bother to put on make-up or fix my hair before going out in the morning. Staging will not, however, change the base value of the house anymore than make-up adds to my basic value as a REALTOR. Savvy buyers can look beyond staging just as surely as they can look beyond clutter. It's just not every buyer who is savvy, though. Staging helps get a house into the running for more buyers, and may, therefore, cut down days on market.