City Living: Can staging a house go too far, asks Edel Morgan

Has the mania to groom property for sale gone a "stage" too far? Viewing a staged property can be like walking onto a set. Nothing is quite as it seems and there are a number of props in place of the vendor's own furniture which is invariably locked away in storage.

The props might come in the shape of a hired chaise longue or gilt mirror or strategically strewn coffee table books and pristine bedding, all against a neutral backdrop. The more impressive pieces of furniture have probably been brought in by the stager for the duration of the sales campaign. Home staging, originally a north American concept, provides a vendor with furniture and accessories. You can have all or part of a property staged and some companies claim that a staged property will fetch on average of between five and 10 per cent more than its unkempt counterpart. Staging has apparently become so common that an estate agent felt it necessary to explain apologetically to a friend of mine at a recent viewing that all pleas to the vendor - an elderly man - to have his place revamped fell, quite literally, on deaf ears.

Whatever happened to prospective buyers being able to "look past" a property's flaws to see the potential? "The problem with that," says Sighle Creagh, who runs a home staging and presentation business, "is that maybe 50 per cent of the people coming to view the house can see past its faults, whereas the other 50 per cent won't."

An estate agent told me recently that he showed a staged property "that looked as if Lady Bracknell had taken up residence" with antique furniture arranged in the lounge in the manner of a genteel 19th century livingroom. "Some go overboard," says Sighle Creagh, "but the problem with that is that it might not be to everyone's taste . You have to leave a bit for the buyer to do and let them incorporate their own taste."

Creagh believes that a few simple touches can make all the difference. She revamped the home of a 92-year-old smoker by ditching the carpet, polishing the original floorboards and putting fresh carpet on the stairs and landing. A conservatory, which was cluttered with shelves and old clothes, was returned to its original use and dressed with a table and chairs. The property also needed some repainting to cover smoker's stains on the wall. The job cost €6,000 and she says the property sold for well in excess of the asking price of €350,000. Her fee is currently 20 per cent of the overall cost.

Simon Ensor of Sherry FitzGerald agrees that some go over-the-top. "The trick if you're staging a house is to do it as tastefully as possible but not to the point where even the candles are placed in a schematic way. It can lack a homeliness and have no atmosphere. It might be that the owners are living overseas and get someone in to do it but, because it's not lived in, it might not necessarily work."

There are still plenty of househunters out there who will still take on a house in rag order, says Ensor. There are two types of property that do particularly well. "Those in superb walk-in condition and those in lousy condition. Often people can't wait to get their hands on a property needing work, so they can do it up themselves."

A house needing work on Upper Erne Street, Dublin 2 was chased by several bidders at auction recently and sold for €635,000 - €135,000 over the reserve. "But if you take the price you pay for a house needing work and add on the what you pay to get it in superb condition, it is often more than if you'd paid for it in superb condition in the first place. The advantage is that, if you are paying €635,000 for a house, you are paying stamp duty at rate of 7.5 per cent whereas if you paid €750,000 for a house that's beautifully done, you are paying stamp duty at 9 per cent."

One person who opted to stage told me that while the company did a great job, he felt like a virtual interloper in his own home before it was sold at auction. His family had to walk around on tippy toes for fear of dirtying the newly cleaned carpets. Going to bed at night was a rigorous process of carefully removing and folding away the "show" bedlinen and replacing it with their own less presentable bedding. The upside was that it saved him a lot of time. Within a day, the staging company had transformed several key rooms, with a few borrowed expensive-looking and dramatic pieces of furniture while other gaps were filled by assembled flat pack furniture and accessories from IKEA. But if you stage you have to be prepared for the suddenness with which you are catapulted back to reality. The day his house was sold, the designer called, not to congratulate him on the sale but to ask if he could have the ottoman back quick smart because it was needed it for another house.

Sighle Creagh can be contacted at 01 2849657