Home Staging Myths That Stop Homes From Selling

are you planning on selling your home and thinking that
yeah home staging isn’t worth it
or maybe you thought that
I need to fill every nook and cranny with furniture
or paint every wall beige
or spend thousands on decor
look those are all myths
and I wanna debunk those myths
hey there I’m Kasha
I’m a occupied home staging specialist
and I wanna talk about these home staging myths
that maybe you’ve heard of
and you’re probably thinking yeah
I’m not sure about that
so let me debunk this in this video
because if you stick around
you’ll learn what can save you time
stress and a lot of unnecessary spending
hey there home sellers welcome back
my name is Kasha and in today’s video
we are talking about home staging myths
and some of them that you may have heard
maybe you’ve heard from your friends
or other real estate agents or whoever
maybe you’ve seen them online
you’re like look
my house is perfectly fine
it doesn’t need it
well okay
not true so let me go through some of them with you
and explain why those aren’t necessarily true
and kind of
explain what would help you get your house sold faster
so let’s start with the first one
the first one is that home staging is expensive
yeah you’ve probably heard that
now you maybe heard it from a friend who had to do it
cause maybe they brought in rental furniture
oh my god that can get really expensive
I actually have a video about that
on how expensive it really can be
so that’s why I
you may have heard that it can be thousands of dollars
and rental furniture yes
can be thousands of dollars a month
and if you need it for two or three months
that can get really costly
so yes
that part of staging if you’re getting rental furniture
yes can be expensive
but if you’re just doing a consultation
which is what I do
and what I have home sellers do with me
is a home staging consultation
where I go through with you room by room
and talk about how to edit the room
meaning we may remove a couple of things
we may move things in one room to another
we may take it out we may add in a couple of things
right so that’s what we mean by home staging
I reuse the items that you actually have in your home
and go through and talk about
walk room by room in that
so you know exactly what happens in basically two hours
what needs to happen to get your house staged
and you do the work okay
um for me
I can’t personally come to your home
we do this online there may be staggers in your area
that can come to your home and do it for you
or you work together
that may be something you may take a look at
how do you wanna work with them
do you wanna just give them the keys and go
here you go have at it
I’ll see you later or do you wanna work with them
okay the consultations can vary
so definitely ask your questions
of the home stager that you’re working with
to get the information that you want
how do you want your house staged
do you want to do it do you want the home stager
do it each one’s gonna be a little bit different okay
some of you may live in an area
where there are no home stagers
so maybe you do need someone like me
to do an online consultation with you
and we walk room by room through a video chat
and talk about it okay
so just so you give an idea
home staging consultation can run about $300 to $600
depending on the area if you’re like
a bigger city like New York or something like that
or LA then yeah
that’s gonna be more expensive
but if you’re in a smaller town
it may only be a few hundred dollars
okay just to tell you exactly what the game plan is
what needs to be done and when I was there
in certain spots in North Carolina
I would actually
physically move the stuff with the homeowner
and say okay
this is where it needs to go
we’re gonna move this around
we’re gonna pack this out of this room
so they know exactly what it looks like
okay so a consult run from 300 to 600 dollars
okay and as I said
as an occupied home stager
I reuse what you have
and sometimes we may add a few new things
maybe we realize okay
well maybe we do need to add new bedding
or maybe we do need to you know
change a wall color okay
but these are all things
that get talked about during the consultation
and it’s really a working session
really is what it comes down to
if you can move it right then and there great
it’s so much easier
you don’t have to write it down and take notes right
you just go okay
let me take that plant out of here
or let me pull off the bedding right now
let me remove this extra desk out of here now right
lots of things that you can do during a consultation
to help you visualize and see the space
and go oh wow
that does look better okay
let’s move on right
so that’s why yes
you may think
it may be expensive for a few hundred dollars
but your home is an investment right
you gotta think of it that way
and if you I think of it as an investment
you wanna get the most out of your investment right
you wanna get the biggest bang for your buck
kind of like when you’re selling your car right
when you sell a vehicle you’re gonna wash it
you’re gonna clean vacuum the inside of it
you’re gonna make it look nice and pretty
so that when buyers come looking going wow
that’s a really nice color blue
or look at that interior
looks so nice and clean
they’ll give you more money for it
right or they’re asking price for it right
same thing when it comes to a house
if you stage it
they will come and they will give you your asking price
sometimes even more depending on your
your price point okay
alright so that’s home staging is expensive
myth busted okay
totally not that expensive
especially if you can do it right
and get what you need out of it
with actually reusing your furniture
okay
myth No. 2 is that my wall colors are perfectly fine
there’s nothing wrong with them
uh you don’t know how many houses I’ve seen
in person and online where the dining room is painted
guess what color
red red
red red
I know
some of you love that red color in the dining room
I’m here to tell you I’m sorry
but that red color has got to go okay
it really does and again
when it comes time to selling your house
it is not meant to show off your personality
it’s supposed to be more of a neutral kind of a color
so that it appeals to the biggest amount of buyers
you want you know
50 people to come to your house
not one or two because I love that red color
yeah yeah
so not all wall colors are good
okay red and yellow
if you watch my videos before
you know
those two colors are the worst colors you could have
anywhere in a room whether it’s a yellow kitchen
you’re thinking oh
but a yellow kitchen
no no no
I’m sorry I’m sorry
no um
bright bold colors are also bad
I’ll show you a picture of that too
like a bright green in a living room or a
you know a neon green in a boy’s bedroom
we need to tone down the personality again
I know I know
and again I’m not saying it needs to be beige okay
it really doesn’t but a neutral color
it can be a greige beige gray
kind of a color
like review rever pewter is one of my favorite colors
that’s a greige color you can do white
I know you’re thinking you can do blues and greens okay
there’s nothing wrong with those nicer
lighter colors I’m not saying like
dark colors not dark blue
um or dark green okay
you can use those in certain rooms as well
okay so take a look at your wall colors
it shouldn’t be
that every single room is a different color
because when you put those pictures up online
you’re gonna see a red dining room
with a yellow kitchen and a green bedroom
and a purple bonus room or something like that
and you got rainbow colors going on here
and I’m like oh wow
that’s just too many colors
and buyers are not gonna like that
because then they’re gonna think
well I need to spend money now to repaint these walls
so what are they gonna do
they’re gonna offer less less for your um
house cause they’re gonna think
well I need to take out a chunk of money
just to repaint these walls right
yeah so do yourself a favor
in order to get the most out of your investment
get rid of those bold colors
get rid of that red dining room
and neutralize them to help sell your house faster
and for your asking price’cause a lot of the times
when they think about when the buyers offer less
they think oh
it’s gonna cost me I don’t know
let’s say $5,000 just to repaint a room
it doesn’t cost that much
but that’s what they’re gonna offer on your offer
they’re not gonna say oh well
you know a bucket of paint is gonna be a hundred bucks
I’m gonna offer you a hundred bucks less for your offer
well that’s just silly
they’re gonna offer you a couple thousand dollars less
and it doesn’t cost that much to paint a room
okay so take a look at that
take a look at your walls
and that myth is busted with
you’re not all wall colors
are fine
the next myth is that oh
I don’t need to clean it’s lived in
this is the way it is either take it or leave it
yeah no
it’s spoiler alert if you haven’t watched
the 15 things that turn off home buyers
number one is a dirty house
buyers won’t even walk into a house if it looks dirty
they’re like oh
my god no
because here’s the thing
if you can’t clean the house and haven’t maintained it
what else haven’t you maintained
is the heating heater you know
working the H back the
you know whatever else
what about the appliances
are they in good working order
is the water heater working
you know things like that
they’re like oh yeah
if you can’t maintain the look of the house
what else haven’t you taken care of
are there bugs in places you know
those kinds of things so that myth about oh
I don’t need to clean this is the lived in look
hmm no
take a look a look
dirty homes are the biggest turn off for buyers
so you do need to clean you need to clean the bathrooms
the tile
that mold remediation yeah
start working on that now
yep um
the stove all that kind of stuff
you definitely need to take care of that
so cleaning is a big deal
is part of the process of staging your house
it’s actually what the second thing that I work on
if you’re part of my um
home staging crew where I have a
a guide that you can take a look at
it’s free and also
I have it in my home staging basics course that
I definitely talk about that as well
okay another myth that I want to bust
is that you need to buy new furniture and decor
in order to stage your house
totally not true haha no
definitely not please don’t go do that now
if you’re moving into a house
that needs nicer furniture
or you want nicer furniture
maybe you got a promotion fantastic
that’s great but
you do not need to buy new furniture and decor
in order to stage it I’ve used um
things that the homeowner has
and most cases we reuse things
and sometimes we have to take things out
um but like
a bed you know
you definitely need a bed and a dresser right
you people are not buying the house
based on the furniture
unless you’re selling the furniture with the house
but that’s a different story okay
they’re not gonna necessarily look at it as much as
you know it’s there
it’s more of a does it fit a queen size bed
does it fit a sectional I have
you know a large family
is the living room big enough to fit like
you know two couches right
that’s what they’re looking at
they’re not necessarily looking at the furniture
you definitely don’t want ripped
and stained type things like furniture in there
but you can actually judge it up
and I talk about that in my home staging basics course
where you can reuse what you can do
what you can use accessory wise
in your home to help stage your house
but room by room I talk about in the living room
in the bedroom in the dining room
if you have one all the rooms in the house
I talk about in the Homes Agent Basics course
where you can take a look at that
and I’ll leave the link in the show notes
but it is not true
you do not need to buy all new furniture and decor
um
and sometimes you may need to get one or two new things
like I mentioned before
like maybe it’s new bedding or new towels
but you know what
those are types of things that then you can
once you buy it
you then take it with you to your new house
and use it there and then donate the old ones right
you use it you take it with you okay
that’s the whole idea
okay let me interrupt here real quick
I’ve mentioned this home staging guide before um
and I wanna kind of go over it
so what you can do right now
if you are selling your house sometime soon
I have a free guide called The
How to Start Staging your house now
and in there you’ll get practical home staging tips
10 of them along with recommended home improvements
and you may be surprised
what those home improvements are
um so take a look in there
I also talk about putting together a staging timeline
so that you can get ready
and plan ahead of what you need to do
so that you can get your house ready to sell
okay so I want you to take a look at this free guide
it’s called how to start staging your house now
you can totally download it for free
I’ll leave the link in the show notes
okay moving on to another myth that I want to bust
and that is I sold my house years ago
I know I don’t have to do much
I don’t have to do anything
yeah things have changed
even in the past couple of years
five years if it’s been longer than five years
since the last time you sold your house yeah
things are gonna change
especially for baby boomers and the older generation
you’re probably thinking ugh
I don’t need to do home staging
okay that’s fine
you can totally do that
you can totally leave your house the way it is
but don’t expect to get top dollar for it
okay and I know some of you are cringing going
but I should get most more of it
I spent so much money that
you know mortgage is paid off by now probably
you know if you don’t do much to it
you are not going to get as much as you would like
that’s the reality and I’m sorry to say
and I’m not trying to be the bearer of bad news
but it’s just the reality
I have my father in law my parents and everybody too
they’re like oh well
I don’t want I don’t have to do anything
oh you really
you don’t you don’t have to
and that’s fine but let’s put it this way
the rest of us who are staging our houses
our houses are gonna be sold faster than yours
that’s just the reality you may be looking at it going
but but
but that house the same size as mine
and it’s comparable but why did it sell faster
well probably because they cleaned it
they did stuff to it they
you know yes yes
we had actually that same issue
well not for us
it was our neighbors down the street
we staged our house it was a colonial house in Virginia
we staged it we painted it
over the years we’ve done some enhancements to it
we’ve changed out the kitchen
we repainted we finished our basement
so over the years
we did lots of improvements and upgrades to it
right and in this neighborhood
there’s a lot of cookie cutter type houses right
if you’re familiar with the Virginia DC area
you know that there’s a in a cul de sac
there’s about four or five different styles of homes
and then they just kind of flip them around
one way or the other right yeah
so our colonial house you know
beautiful home three stories and then a base
actually yeah
three top
middle and so three stories total
with a basement right
so we sold our house we put our house up on the market
did all the changes and staging
it got sold in four days above asking price
in October yeah
I know this was years ago
and I’m not saying this is gonna happen to you
I know the market is different now
in 2026 than they were a couple years ago
right okay
but this other house similar house
similar style
they thought they can get the same like
oh well
Kasha sold her house for X amount of dollars
we should get the same thing
but if you look at their house
they had wallpaper they had older fixtures
they hadn’t done anything to update it or stage it
there was all old cabinets
things like that and I was like yeah
they’re not gonna they’re gonna ask for a surprise
they’re not gonna get as much as they want for it
and sure enough no
they actually had to take it off the market
cause they didn’t get what they wanted
they staged it they repainted it
they they painted the walls a nice light blue color
actually not beige
a nice light blue which I was like
oh well that
that looks really good they got a stager to go in there
cause we had moved out by then
and moved out of the state and um
yeah
they did a really good job of updating certain things
um which I’ll cover also later
um but yeah
but if you think you can just leave your house
well the neighbor down the street sold their house for
in this same amount you know
similar size similar everything
no except they staged it
and they didn’t
yeah so it does make a difference
they finally did get it sold
not as high as ours but they did get it sold okay
but it took longer
they actually had to have it off the market
for about a month or so longer um
to make all the changes
and then get it back on the market
so up to you you can totally leave your house as is
but don’t expect to get your house the same price
as the one down the street
that’s a similar style and
and everything like that okay
without it being staged all right
just the reality
okay home staging is only for expensive houses
totally not true such a myth
oh my gosh
um I’ve staged houses actually
from a range from $100,000 to over $1 million
and every single home
has needed some kind of staging help okay
some needed um
cleaning and decluttering
some needed rearranging we need to
take things out some needed
like full on furniture
because it was a a house that was being flipped
right so they needed rental furniture
when I did rental furniture staging back then
I don’t do that anymore but some needed new bedding
new new decor
some needed just decor on the walls
it was just plain furniture
it wasn’t anything there it was kind of like a plain
just plain Jane of just furniture
I’m like okay
number one there’s too much furniture
and number two we need to add some color
something some kind of warmth in here
right
so every single house needed some kind of staging help
not a lot but during our consultation
we took care of all those things
we’ve made it made a list of what things we needed
maybe we needed some throw pillows
maybe we needed a different rug
maybe we needed wall art whatever it was
it was something that would help stage the house
make it look presentable and appeal to buyers okay
uh another myth is
why should I update it
when the buyers are gonna change everything anyway
okay so I kind of touched on this a little bit before
um that buyers will see the changes that need to happen
maybe the walls need to be changed
of the color maybe there’s um
you know lighting fixtures that don’t
you know they’re outdated
right um
so I’ve had that where they
buyers will look at that and go okay
well I’m gonna bring my offer down lower
because I need to spend money to make these changes
so when it comes to maybe changing a bedroom color okay
maybe we it’s a bold green color or something like that
if you change it to more neutral color
like a greige a cream
a white you know
any of those kinds of colors
there’s lots of things um
that you can use just red
not red and not yellow please
blues and greens are a nice color
that you can use in a bedroom
okay so
and I actually bring that up
in my home staging basics course
what colors or what paint colors
should you use in the different rooms in your house
okay there’s a checklist that I have in there
there’s workbooks there’s um
videos for you to watch
in my home staging basics course
about each and every single room and how to stage it
okay so if you’re worried about well
what do I update do I
you know update the whole kitchen
no I’m not saying that
you’re not gonna get your return on investment
because there’s just no way you could
you could spend $1,000 $100,000 sorry
$1,000 $100,000 on a kitchen
and not get your money back on that
even though you’ve heard
the kitchens and bathrooms sell
that’s the old you know
I’ve heard real estate agents say that many
many years ago I don’t know if they still say that now
but you can do certain things to a kitchen to update it
maybe it’s repainting the kitchen cabinets
maybe it’s changing out the hardware
maybe it’s changing out the light fixture
those are gonna be definitely a lot less than $100,000
to remodel a kitchen or to redo a bathroom
you know so upgrades yeah
you’ll have to think about what things you do
because here’s the domino effect that’s gonna happen
if you change one room then you look at
you know oh
this beautiful kitchen
and the rest of the house is outdated
maybe it’s got wood paneling on the walls
ooh I know
I know some of you are like oh
but that’s so yeah
no no
um so yeah
so if you’re gonna be updating things
think about light fixtures
wall colors door handles
um things like that
flooring it really depends
I’ve gotten that kind of question before
you know should I replace the flooring or the carpeting
it really depends on how old it is
okay if the carpet is
you know stained and things like that
you can replace it um
or you can give a certain amount of money towards the
to the buyer for them to replace it
in whatever color and style they want
okay that’s some
that’s an option okay
but you don’t want to leave it all to them
all right certain things you’ll want to update
and paint and change or update okay
so why would you do that it’s because
if the buyers have to spend the money themselves
to do it they’re gonna think
it’s gonna cost more than it really does
so that’s why I say just make the changes yourself
just don’t spend a hundred thousand dollars
on a bathroom or a kitchen remodel
spend a couple of hundred dollars
maybe up to a thousand depending
maybe you need a light fixture in the bathroom
maybe you need to change those out
maybe you need to change out the countertop
um it just
you know in the
in the bathroom I’m not saying the kitchen
you know sometimes the kitchens
the countertops can get expensive
yes I know
unless you’re lucky you can get
like a slab or something like that
that’s a remnant you know
leftover from another project that they worked on
great um
but the bathrooms normally
those are easier to kind of replace
and get from a big box store
if that’s something that you need to look at
maybe it’s the faucet that needs to be replaced
okay that’s gonna be a whole lot
less than a whole kitchen remodel
just enough to kind of jazz it up a little bit
to help sell the house okay
because basically
they’re gonna be moving into the house
and then thinking okay
the new buyers can still live in the house
they can still live and work in the kitchen right
we moved into our house it was a good
had a good bones in this colonial house in Virginia
and we knew that things need to be updated
the first thing that had to be updated was the kitchen
it really did um
but we knew that going in
so yes
we did lowball
or offer less for what the asking price was
because we knew some things had to be updated again
up to you as a home seller
how do you wanna you know what
how much money do you wanna get from your home
do you wanna get enough for it
or are you happy with people
you know offering less
really up to you
so let’s talk about some practical tips
on what you can do to sell your house
okay so
one of the biggest things
is just minimizing furniture in each room
now if you look around a room
say you walk into a bedroom okay
basically there should be a bed
a nightstand or two a dresser
a chest of drawers
there shouldn’t be a desk with a computer
and a Shay’s Lounge and a bench and more
yeah that’s a lot of furniture
especially if the room is not very big anyway
I know but
those are types of things that would need to move out
when it comes time to staging your house
so definitely
minimize the amount of furniture in each of the rooms
to help make the rooms feel bigger
more spacious okay
um decluttering is a big one
kind of the same along the same lines as the furniture
if there’s too much furniture
that’s clutter if there’s too many things
on the surface of countertops
that’s clutter okay
so decluttering is a big thing
so easy to do to either you know
if you want to keep it and
this is one of the things I talk about
in my home staging basics course
I talk about what to declutter
what is considered clutter
you know what you can do with it
and all that kind of information
I put that in my home staging basics course
um but decluttering is a big thing
to help you sell your house
okay
cleaning we talked about cleaning
please clean those bathrooms
those kitchens the stove
the fridge
those types of things really need to be sparkling
clean the floors
yes yep
um and so
more of these tips
can be found in my free home staging guide
or if you want to move into
my home staging Basics course
is an online course where I talk about
all the different rooms in the house
when I go through the four main ones
along with kids bedrooms bathrooms
bonus rooms the garage
um curb appeal
I talk about all that kind of stuff in this course
they’re pre recorded videos
that you can binge watch as fast as you want
or as slow as you want um
most of the courses are about 20 minutes
each type of thing but there’s workbooks in there
lots of pictures to share with you and explain
hey these are some of the color palettes
that you should think about
these are some of the questions you should think about
when you’re staging your living room
your bedroom the bonus room
the kids room the bathroom
all these things are in this course
basically I’ve kind of dumped my brain
my home staging brain into this course
that you know exactly what you need to do
if you can’t hire me to come do an online consultation
can you do that online staging course
that you can take at your own time
without having to you know
do a consultation with me
but you do have the option to add on to there
if you want but
of the 30 minute one on one
hey Kasha
I made all these changes are these okay
you can do that totally um
so yes
so take a look at that I hope these myths
are something that will help you understand
why it’s important to stage your house
because if you want to get more money
home staging does help you with that
if you’re not concerned okay
then
hopefully I didn’t just waste your time on this video
because you’re probably going well
it’s not worth it then this
this this video is more for
you know maybe the spouse
that’s not sure but the other spouse is rare
into go I’ve had that too
I’ve had couples where the
the wife is in and the husband’s not
and I was just like I don’t know what to tell you
but ma’am this is what I would recommend
the how
husband was actually standing there going
we were in one room in the foyer area
and I remember the story
this is just too funny not to share
um
but we were in the foyer area and it was kind of dark
and they had little lights
and there was opening up into
it was not really an open concept
it had um
doorways going into three different
four different areas cause you had the front door
a library a living room
and then into a basement so like a split type of home
the husband um
I walk in the foyer I’m like
the first thing I see I’m like
it’s just kind of dark in here
let’s see what we can do
just to brighten this up a little bit right
and so I’m okay
well number one
this rug here is really dark um
so let’s roll this up
and we’re gonna remove those little lamps
he’s like wait
wait a second you just said it was too dark
and you’re removing the lamps
I said wait
hold on just hold on
work with me here for a second
okay so we rolled up the rug
cause it was like a dark blue kind of rug
but I noticed
that they have really beautiful wooden floors
like medium colored wooden floors
they also had recessed lighting
so when we remove the rug
the recess lighting bounced on those wooden floors
made it go bright and you’re like
kind of like the ah
the light shone oh my gosh
it is brighter in here without the lamps too
and he’s like
okay I’m convinced
alright let’s go
let’s move on what else can we do
so once he got on to that
then it’s like okay well
and he was all into is OK
let’s move this let’s move that out
should we move this out and he was all involved with
in it with me and helping me move things around
which is fantastic
I love working with homeowners that are rare in a go
ready to move on
so that they can get to their next house
that’s what we’re trying to do
so hopefully these myths that I busted
maybe you’ve heard some of them
maybe you’re kind of like
well hopefully this is enough to convince you that yeah
you probably could use just a little bit of help
just to get your house sold faster
okay I hope you guys have a fantastic week
and we’ll talk to you later bye