Last week I was showing property to a couple from Oakland CA, and was asked if we had seen the home staging business go mad like they have?  They told me that is was standard practice for all Sellers to have their home professionally staged prior to being put on the market.  The typical cost…$10,000-$12,000.!  This included paint and the use of their decorating talent and inventory of home furnishings if yours were unacceptable (only the paint was permanent).  This fee was paid up front to the design company and Real Estate Agents were pushing hard to get Sellers to comply.   When I asked how they looked after the work was done, they said “they all look exactly the same, another page out of a Pottery Barn catalog”.  “It didn’t matter if the house was brand new or a 100 years old”.

Needless to say, we here in Portland still have a brain and the design industry offers valuable services at a fraction of the cost.  I love to show a well put together house as much as the next gal, but no one wants to have a home that looks like everyone else’s.