[paxys]

Exactly. Staged apartments are supposed to be dull. Prospective buyers should see a blank canvas, something as neutral and inoffensive as possible. And this applies to all sales, not just new apartments. There's a reason your realtor wants you to move all your stuff out before starting showings, no matter how much you think looking "homely" will help.

[LimaBearz]

I can’t speak for the artist but I find these places quite drab because of the material choice and color. Grey/white marble, satin paint, light flooring, etc all make it dull to me. The problem I see though is to sell a unit at that those asking prices it’s not Home Depot marble or $2/f flooring it’s the crap Davis was sculpted from or whatever. That’s cool and all but yawn…

[JumpCrisscross]

> material choice and color

If you’re buying a $70mm apartment and living in it, you’re renovating it before moving in.

[LimaBearz]

You’d think right?! So why the hell is the same marble used to craft David already in the unit? Why spend so much on finishings if it’s just gonna be redone. That’s part of the 70 million. Feels like rentseeking and waste to me

[JumpCrisscross]

> Why spend so much on finishings if it’s just gonna be redone. That’s part of the 70 million.

Sales.

> Feels like rentseeking and waste to me

It’s wasteful. But it’s not rent seeking [1]. If it makes you feel better, there is a healthy secondary market in New York for these materials.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking

[Scene_Cast2]

A counterpoint - if having style increases the variance of liking the property, then with increased variance, there will be more people who really like the property (and thus be willing to pay more).

[lesdeuxmagots]

in such a niche market, you're better off creating competition among a few bidders, rather than putting off a significant % of the demand and relying on a person really liking the property to bid up the price.

Put another way, 4 people moderately interested in the property will probably yield a higher price than 2 people that are very interested in the property.

This is especially true in luxury real estate, where buyers go in looking to substantially change the property. They expect to bring in their own architects and designers. The staging is just a canvas.