There are a lot of different degrees of staging. The number one rule is to stage to your target market.
As an example, I recently worked on a nice home in Richfield that had been abandoned when the 93 year old Owner was placed in a nursing home. We came in after it had been locked up for 8 months. There was a lot of clutter in the home. We were asked by the Family to clean it out and then we were going to upgrade a few things and stage it with furniture.
However, when we finished the cleaning process and the home was empty, 
Sharlene and I looked at it and decided it didn't make sense to invest any more money in the home…..it could go on the market "as is". Our reasoning was the target market. This home was great for a first time home buyer and was in excellent structural shape. It may have needed updating, but that updating wasn't going to increase the value of the home enough to justify the cost. I would have never said to leave a home vacant, but it was the right thing to do in this case. The home sold within one week and had 6 offers!!
On the flip side of that, I staged a home in Minnetonka. The Owner had moved out and left a few items of furniture. I recommended a "full" stage because of the target market. This is a more expensive home and anyone purchasing it will need to be able to visualize the rooms. The lower level had also been painted dark red/dark green (The Wild colors) and dark blue/dark orange (The Bears colors). Again, I recommended spending the money painting these rooms. Well worth the investment.
Some people think that staging means spending a lot of money and doing a lot of upgrading. But it really means to work with your Realtor and Stager to determine who is going to buy the home. Then you can decide what, if anything, needs to be done.
