Beyond White Walls and Empty Rooms

Burger estimates that only 10 to 15 percent of vacant houses in the District are staged because so many of the homes in the city are small. Agents usually turn to stagers when their vacant properties are larger and more opulent, he said.

In addition, many people looking at houses in the city have purchased homes before, he said. They already know how to see how an empty home would look with furniture.

Burger does recommend that owners of vacant condominiums stage their properties before putting them on the market. Condo buyers are more often first-timers who may not have the same ability to visualize themselves in bedrooms and kitchens that are empty of furniture, tables and chairs, he said.

Burger also recommends staging when homes have odd-sized rooms. Perhaps there's a small room in the corner that may seem to have no real function. But if a stager puts a small desk and chair in that tiny space, the odd room now has a purpose that buyers can identify, Burger said.

Burger also stressed that sellers must take extra care to maintain the outside of their vacant homes, whether they have staged the property or not.

"If buyers pull up and see weeds outside, that immediately creates a feeling that the home isn't being cared for," Burger said. "If you leave a property behind, it has to be even more spotless than when you were living there. That maintenance starts at the front lawn and goes all the way to the back lawn."

While others may worry about selling vacant homes, Lydell is more concerned about houses that aren't empty. He is struggling to sell an owner-occupied townhouse in Woodbridge. That's because its price tag -- which started at $160,000 and is now $139,000 -- is too high to compete with the seven other vacant homes on the block, the result of foreclosures. Buyers can purchase those empty houses for $100,000 to $120,000, Lydell said.

"They may have to change some things if they buy those houses," Lydell said. "They have to paint blue or pink walls, but a lot of buyers would rather do that than pay $30,000 more for what is basically the same type of property."

As an example, Lydell points to a vacant home he sold in late October in Woodbridge. The single-family house, which had sold two years ago for $500,000, had fallen into foreclosure. Lydell received eight offers on the property, and sold it for $260,000.

"That's the market here now. The vacant homes are selling well because people love the deals they can get on them," Lydell said.

Diane Piper hopes the condo in Alexandria that she is trying to sell will move soon. She and her husband are now living in a single-family house in Fairfax County, a residence with more space for visiting grandchildren.

The Pipers put their condo on the market in April and moved out in July -- taking all their furniture, photos and art with them. About two months ago, they decided to have the home professionally staged.

"Every time we went back to the condo and saw it without any furniture, it just looked so bare," Piper said.

As of mid-November, the staging hadn't resulted in a sale. But Piper is optimistic that this will soon change.

"Now that the election is over, and things are settling down, I think sales will pick up," she said.