Sellers Turn to Pros to Dress Up Their Homes

"Debbie's house has a lot of charm and potential, but all the buyers can see is an empty house," Brown said. "They don't see rooms . . . just four walls, and the emptiness creates echoes when you walk.

"There is no size perspective or wow factor, and even savvy buyers can't begin to figure out how their furniture will lay out."

So Brown and her crew arrived to turn Yerger's empty spaces -- the kitchen, a family room, the master bedroom and a sitting room -- into something the affluent, older-but-with-kids-still-at-home Doylestown buyer expects: "upscale, formal [with] contemporary furnishings and accents."

In a downtown Philadelphia house, Brown would probably stage the space to attract singles or young couples without children, "the Crate & Barrel audience," she said. Consultations are free, she said, but it's hard to set a price range for her services because "every house is different."

For an average-size home (about 2,300 square feet), staging starts at about $500 and can go past $1,000, based on a 2007 survey of 400 agents by the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents. The prices generally included painting, carpet, accessories and labor.

Some high-end houses, listed at more than $1 million, can cost $25,000 or more to stage because the buyers being courted are wealthier and expect the best.

Agents responding to the association's survey, however, said that 82 percent of prospective buyers are likely to be distracted from important issues when they go through a staged home. About half said staged homes often cover up real defects, including structural damage.

Whether or not a house has been staged, buyers are almost universally encouraged to have the property inspected to uncover problems.

"Staging in no way takes the place of a home inspection and the accurate completion of the legally required seller's property disclosure statement . . . provided to a buyer prior to the agreement of sale," said David Krieger, senior vice president of Coldwell Banker Preferred in Philadelphia.

Exactly how many home stagers there are nationwide is difficult to say; some are interior designers or professional organizers, among other job descriptions.

More than 4,300 real estate professionals in the United States are accredited by StagedHomes.com, an organization founded by Barbara Schwarz, who also founded the International Association of Home Staging Professionals.

In October, David and Ruby Ann Bell searched for a real estate agent who also did staging. Ruby Ann's new job in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., meant they had to sell their two-story, 3,000-square-foot Colonial-contemporary in Ambler, Pa.