Do you have questions about Home Staging and how/if it will work for you? Please read the questions below. You can also contact any of our Featured Members and we are sure they will be happy to answer any questions that you have.
Home staging, real estate staging, house fluffing, or simply “staging”, as it is commonly known is anything that helps a home seller make their home more attractive and appealing to potential buyers.
The exact definition of what staging encompasses does vary, but typically, a professional home stager brings in furniture, artwork, plants, rugs and accessories to make a house look it’s best while on the market. Some “full service” stagers also offer contractor consulting services which may include choosing paints, tiles, carpets, etc, and working with the contractors to get the house ready.
Sometimes the seller will want to use their own furnishings, and the stager can consult with them on how to reduce clutter, open up rooms more, etc. This specialty of making the most of what you have is often called “Redesign”, and there are many home stagers who do both Home Staging and interior redesign.
Sometimes house stagers will also help reduce the negative impact of some challenge the house has. For example, if there is traffic noise from a busy street nearby, they might put a fountain in the yard to create a more pleasant atmosphere. One may think that buyers make logical decisions, but often emotions guide buyers to what just “feels right”. Creating a warm, inviting and attractive atmosphere can make a huge difference to the seller of a home.
A new world of home staging is also emerging with the advent of Virtual Home Staging. This is basically digitally placing 3D models into a photograph to help Vacant Properties sell faster. Virtual Home Staging requires both a 3D artist (or someone skilled in 3D modeling) and a professional home stager. Vacant Room Staging is typically used to boost the appeal of online imagery or to help prospective buyers visualize the potential of a room or space.
Staging can range from a simple consultation with the sellers about how to reduce clutter, to completely running a project, including painting, landscaping, flooring and, of course, staging the interior of the home with furniture, plants, artwork accessories and more For more details.
If you are selling a home, you may be wondering about house staging. Here is a partial list of the benefits that home staging provides:
- Staged Homes sell faster.
- Staged homes get higher offers
- Staged houses look better in the MLS pictures, getting more potential buyers to actually come see the house in the first place.
- Staged houses have an edge over competing properties, and the staging can often sway the final decision.
Depending on what part of the country (or even which country) you are in, the cost of home staging can range quite a bit. In the San Francisco Bay Area, some stagers report that the average is around $2,500 per house. As every job is different, we encourage you to try out our Home Staging Pricing Calculator that helps you figure out the Cost of Home Staging.
While to some $2500 (or more) may seem like a lot of money for house staging, but many sellers report that they got at least $25,000 more for the house because they staged. That would be a 10- fold return on their investment, usually within a few months. There aren’t many options like that available to a seller that provide that kind of return.
In addition, there is the benefit of the home selling more quickly. It is often hard to put an exact value on that aspect, but ask anyone who has been transferred across the country, and sold a house in the process, and they will likely tell you that the speed of sale was very important. House staging can have a big impact, and often lead to a faster sale.
Time and time again, it has been proven that home staging works and will boost the final sales price. Absolutely.
Why? Because it has also been proven that home buyers buy on emotion, and for them, the more likely they can imagine living there, they are more likely to make an offer. And once you get the emotive hooks into Home Buyers, they are more likely to pay a premium to have that which they desire.
With a well staged home, it is not uncommon to get multiple offers as multiple buyers feel that your home is “just right for them”. And when you get multiple offers, the price increases and you make more money.
Added on top of this is the speed at which a staged home can sell vs either an cluttered home or a vacant property. If a property remains on the market for a longer period of time, there is a capital carrying cost associated with this, especially if you are trying to time market movement… and in today’s housing market, with some significant swings, you can make a lot of money if you can time things well with a fast sale to a motivated buyer.
Also, the longer that a property remains on the market Home Buyers have been trained to think that a seller must be “motivated” (as is their Realtor), and when a Home Buyer thinks that a seller is motivated, lower offers are often the result.
Let’s say that you are like many and attempt to got it alone without staging your home. Your house has been on a market for a while, and while you have gotten some offers, nothing has made you move. You pull your house off of the market temporarily while speaking with a Home Stager who advises on some minor modifications, and redesigns the buying experience.
Can you modify your listing price after home staging? Absolutely, there are countless stories of people who have invested anywhere from $3k to $10k in pre-sale improvements and staging only to get that back 10-fold with a higher listing price.
For the most part, these terms mean exactly the same thing. If you are reading over our Directory of Home Stagers, you will find that some call themselves “Stagers” while others “Designers”, and still others “Redesigners”.
The term used is as much a question of geography as it is difference. We have been told that “Property Styling” is a term used frequently to describe the profession of home staging in Australia.
There is a difference, however, in “Redesign” and “Staging” where the former should be considered a type of home staging. Redesign tends to rely more on existing furniture and things that a homeowner already has and is not involved in vacant room staging.
Because having 10 bidders on a property is better than 2. And when you stage your home, you allow prospective buyers to create an emotional attachment with your property. And when they are attached, they are more likely to move to a higher price point. And if you can get more bidders, you will make more money.
This is often what Professional Home Stagers hear after giving a quote for staging… “But I am selling my house anyway. Why should I spend money on it?”
This is a simple answer. Because the Home Stager who suggested these improvements believes that by spending the money, you will be able to get a better return on your investment: 2x, 3x 5x even 10x your initial expense. If you could make an additional $50k after spending only $5k, wouldn’t you do this every day?
There are few investments in the world that have been able to deliver such significant returns in such a short period as pre-sale staging.
There is nothing stopping you from trying to stage your own home; however, professional home stagers have something that you never will have: objectivity.
It is very difficult to assess your own home with objective eyes. You are too emotionally attached and think that the antique vase that you picked up antiquing that you absolutely adore would be loved by all who come and shop.
And face it, after living in your home for multiple years, you have grown blinders on the warts of your home: smudges on walls, furniture just the way it is, because that is how it has always been, etc.
If you are unsure, contact a few professional home stagers and ask for a consultation.
Selling a home is often filled with enough stress and is time consuming, often it is best to leave certain tasks to the professionals..
HomeStaging.com is a joint venture between the HomeStaging.com domain service and Left of the Dot Media Inc who got together to build out a website that connects home stagers with those looking to obtain home staging services. It is our goal to ensure that every house sold sells for its optimal value while furthering the profession of home staging. Should you have more questions about the management of HomeStaging.com, please contact us.
