Question: Should We Stage Our Living Room or Leave the House Empty?

A reader asks: "Is it better to show our home empty or should we try home staging? I think our living room looks a little bare and doesn't really convey how wonderful the space could be, but my husband thinks home staging is too expensive." Answer: In most home selling situations, a home shows better with furniture. Staring at a ceiling, floor and four empty walls make it hard for buyers to visualize their own belongings in the home. If buyers can't picture themselves living there, they are not likely to buy it.

Home staging can mean the difference between a sold or expired listing. Staging often brings a higher price for the home; some stagers estimate sellers make 7 to 10% more when a home is staged. It doesn't really cost to stage, it pays.

Staging a living room, as with any other room in the house, is done to evoke emotions because buyers need to fall in love with the home. They buy on emotion, not logic.

The photos on this page show what a living room in a Land Park home in Sacramento when it was vacant and the amazing transformation after it was staged. This is a home that was on the market for two years as a vacant home and had not sold until it was staged.