From Potemkin villages to entire cities staged for visiting dignitaries, the use of carefully curated façades is nothing new. Countries such as North Korea have long invested in such displays, including its so-called “Peace Village,” with largely unoccupied buildings, while Turkmenistan lines its capital with gleaming white-marble veneers designed strictly for show.
The real estate market’s use of house staging operates on the same psychological principle, albeit on a far smaller and more commercial scale: presenting an idealized version of a home to shape buyers’ perceptions and influence their decisions.
It is an industry Mendy Dubinsky has watched grow “exponentially.” When the 34-year-old founder of Fortune Stagers first entered the frum tri-state market, he faced only a single competitor. Today the field is busy, as more sellers have come to realize that an investment of a few thousand dollars can add many times that amount to the final sale price.
Dubinsky does not shy away from discussing the cost of his efforts. In fact, he makes a point of highlighting it. “If your first question is about price, we’re probably not for you,” he declares. “If it’s about ROI, let’s talk.”
But first: house staging. Like placing a fruit bowl on a table to make it more inviting, or arranging sefarim neatly on a bookshelf to give it warmth and character, staging adds small touches—an artwork here, a piece of furniture there, a well-placed accent—to make a home appear more polished and lived-in. The goal is to help potential buyers imagine the house as their future home.
According to a study conducted last year by the National Association of Realtors, staging does appear to influence buyer perception, though there is limited evidence that it significantly increases sale prices. Still, 83 percent of buyers’ agents said staging helps buyers envision a property as their future home.
Breaking that down further, 29 percent of agents for sellers reported that staging increased offers by up to ten percent, while half said staged homes spent less time on the market. However, when it comes to higher sale prices, only 17 percent of buyers’ agents reported that staging increased offers by up to five percent.
When it comes to the specific spaces inside the home, the study found that the living room is considered the most critical to stage, according to 37 percent of respondents, followed by the primary bedroom at 34 percent and the kitchen at 23 percent. In practice, most projects tackle multiple spaces at once, with 91 percent of staged homes featuring a staged living room, 83 percent including the bedroom and 69 percent covering the dining room.
Fortune Stagers report having staged more than 4,000 homes. I spoke to Mendy about how he began and what makes a successful staging.
—Yochonon
I’m from a little town called Morristown, New Jersey. Many people may have heard of it because there’s a big Lubavitcher yeshivah there. My father works there; he ran the baal teshuvah division of the yeshivah for many years, while my mother was a stay-at-home mother. I have 11 siblings, bli ayin hara.
I went through the Lubavitcher yeshivah system, learning in Morristown, Tzfas and California, and then I got smichah. In Chabad, many people go on to become shluchim—most of my siblings did; I’m one of the few in my family who went to work. There’s an interesting story here.
I wanted to go on shlichus because my father always encouraged it, telling us how special it is. He worked with baalei teshuvah, and I enjoyed growing up in that atmosphere—we always had 20 to 30 people at our Shabbos table, and I wanted to replicate that. But I also grew up without a lot of money, and I didn’t want to replicate that. So when someone offered me a job, I decided to go work and see where that would take me.
I began working for Modway, a very big furniture wholesaler in New Jersey owned by frum people. It didn’t end up working out; it was very hard for me to work for someone else, so I decided to join a very good friend of mine who was in the flipping industry.
This meant buying old properties, developing them into housing units and selling them as quickly as possible. I tried, but that also wasn’t very successful. But I noticed that my friend, who’s very good at what he does, was very into staging. He was careful to stage every home he was selling.
I offered to take over the staging for him. People saw what I did, appreciated it and asked me to stage for them as well. Eventually, I opened an official company with my brother-in-law as a partner, though I bought him out when he moved to Pennsylvania.
That’s where it started. People liked my work, I built a good reputation, and I was affordable. I realized after a while that might have been a bit of a mistake. Sometimes when you’re too affordable, you’re not so profitable. But that’s how I began in this business.