What company do you all recommend for staging a flip (preferably in northern jersey)?

[Alissa Vasquez]

Also any advice for staging and for how long to lease the furniture vs purchasing furniture, etc. thank you!!

[J Scott]

First, I'm a huge fan of staging. But, I'm not a huge fan of spending lots of money on staging. If you have the ability to do it yourself, and if you think you'll continue to buy houses, I highly recommend doing some bargain shopping and buying a house full of furniture. You can fully furnish a 3 BR/2 BA with all the furniture, art work and accessories you need for about $4000 if you're a good shopper, and that furniture will pay for itself after just one or two projects.

If you can't do it yourself, interview all the local staging companies and find one that owns their own furniture. They'll tend to be less expensive, and more flexible with their pricing. A good staging company who owns their own furniture can generally cost less than just renting the furniture yourself without the staging part.

When we hire stagers in areas where we don't have furniture, we try to negotiate a flat 2 month rate, with additional months at an additional monthly charge. The 2 months is generally enough to get the house under contract and get to closing -- you'll likely want to keep the house staged until the very last minute, as the buyers may be walking through just before closing, and it's nice to ensure that they always get to walk through the furnished house, never an empty house.

A good stager will provide flowers, may stop by once/week to sweep the floors, may hold a co-broker open (one of my stagers will host a hot buffet lunch in the house for agents, and can pull in 30+ agents in a day), etc. Shop around and don't be afraid to negotiate -- especially if the stager owns their own furniture.