For those of us sitting in the New Jersey suburbs of Metro New York, on the Midtown Direct train line, location was the one and only thing that really mattered when selling a home. Price was always high, and if you didn't buy today then by tomorrow, a similar home would cost even more. Location was a secondary factor for most, once you got past main roads and corners. As to condition? The majority of buyers expected to redo kitchens and baths.

This climate is no more. Prices are still inching up, though at a much slower pace, and location is still a significant factor. What has changed most is the emphasis on the condition of a home. Here, if a home is in poor condition, more than an outcome that the house gets no offers, mostly, it simply doesn't get shown. At all. By anyone.

Enter home staging services. Here, in North Central New Jersey, staging homes for sale got started as a trend to defend price. Sometimes it was used to temper a poor location, but now, it is an imperative to buff up and illustrate condition. In our part of the world, staging your home when you go to market is no longer a choice, it's a MUST.

Reason # 1 The NORMS have changed.

Exactly like when a couple of kids get coaching for the SATs: very soon everyone else HAS to. Once some homes are staged, show well and fly off the market, others pale by comparison. Your un-staged, comfy homestead looks worn, drab and dreary - not the slightest bit enticing, inviting or desirable. You get shown as the one that closes the sparkling, spare, angled-furniture thing up the street.

Because one does, anyone else who wants the same success has to follow suit.