Why It Pays to Stage Your Home

Staged homes sell over eighty percent faster than homes that are not staged.  After having lived in one of the hottest home markets in America – Los Angeles – and working in home staging in that same city, I can say from personal experience that the difference staging a home makes in the sale of that home is significant.  That said, the numbers speak for themselves. It’s estimated that for every hundred dollars invested in staging, the potential return is four hundred.  So how do you stage a home, what might it cost and why should you do it?

What is home staging?

Home staging is the process of adding furniture and decorative accessories to a house to make it look lived in, or present it as it might look if it were lived in.  It not only makes a home more beautiful, but it allows your buyers to imagine what life in the house might look like. Rather than presenting empty rooms, adding furniture, magazines, plants, and art creates a live, dynamic space that can excite and inspire your buyers.  In addition, you have the opportunity to highlight the features of your home, such as that dramatic high ceiling or cute, cozy nook. In addition, you can make the not-so-great spaces present better, changing the focus of a room with an awkward layout, for example, from its faults to instead how the space can flow and function.  

How much does home staging cost?

Home stagers’ rates will vary largely depending on your location.  In a large city like Los Angeles, a complete home staging can easily reach over $5000, while the national average for a complete staging is closer to $2000.  Staging costs will also vary according to how large your home is, how many rooms you want to stage, and whether or not your home is vacant.  As you might imagine, the larger the staging space is, the higher the cost will be. If your home is vacant, furniture rental will be required.  If your home is not vacant and you don’t want to do a full staging replacing your existing furniture, you can also consult with a stager to decide how to simply work with your existing arrangement for a much lower cost.  The level of staging is up to you, and a consultation with a stager is usually a good place to start to get ideas about your options. Consultations usually cost a couple to a few hundred dollars for a walk-through to decide how to best present your home.

Why should you stage your home?

As mentioned, the statistics don’t lie.  Staged homes on average sell much faster than empty homes – in some cases more than twice as fast – with the average staged home staying on the market less than a month.  Meanwhile, depending on which survey you reference, the sale price of staged homes ranges anywhere from six percent to seventeen or even twenty percent higher than non-staged homes.  Especially in today’s day and age, where the majority of potential buyers look at homes on the internet before even deciding which ones to visit in person, having great photos of your beautifully staged home alongside your listing can help you get more buyers through your door.  

Home staging can be a great tool for helping to sell your home in any market.  While you don’t want to depend on it as a last resort to sell your house or use it as an excuse to overprice your home, home staging can reinvent your house as a new and enticing option for potential buyers, and offer a great return on investment when you do decide to sell.