Staging is the process of furnishing and decorating a house to appeal to current retail buyers.
One mistake people make when they sell their homes, in my opinion, is selling it vacant or with furnishings/decor that won’t appeal to buyers.
Sometimes people think that moving all of their furniture/decor out & selling it vacant is best because the buyer will see it as a blank slate. In most cases, this isn’t true. Or people think that they have great taste & just leaving their stuff in there should be fine. This can also be untrue.
Most buyers will pay more for a house that is professionally furnished & decorated, also known as being “staged.”
A seller in my neighborhood, who is also a real estate agent, recently had an updated rental property he wanted to sell. The tenant had just moved out, so the house was vacant. He also believed it was not ideal to sell it vacant. He told me he paid $5,000 for a professional stager to come in and stage his house to sell.
How did this seller do? He sold the home at the highest price per foot I’d ever seen in this neighborhood. His ROI on the money he spent for staging was through the roof.
I have a builder friend who pays $2,000 for staging each time he sells one of his new builds.
The cost could also just be a few hundred dollars if the stager can use some of your own furniture/decorations.
These “stagers” can do everything from a simple consult to fully furnishing and decorating your house.
Most real estate agents & home builders know the value of staging but homeowners often discount its importance. Homeowners think it’s not worth the money to have it done. If your home is updated, I’d say it’s almost always worth the investment.
Now if you or someone in your family has experience with selling homes at top dollar with the proper staging, you can forgo hiring a professional and just do it yourself.
But most homeowners probably shouldn’t go this route. This is often hard for them to understand, though, because they think they've got great taste & surely the way they have it currently furnished & decorated would appeal to retail buyers. They wonder why they should pay for professional staging. The problem is that unless you do this for a living or have significant experience, you may not realize that your taste could actually be off-putting to a buyer.
Next time you’re ready to sell, pay for a consult with a stager (they may even do one for free). They can tell you whether your furniture/decor is consistent with what appeals to buyers or what they would do/change. Perhaps some rooms are appealing but they’d recommend changes in others. Perhaps they’d recommend you move everything out and let them start from scratch. They could tell you what would be best.
My recommendation would be to try not to sell your house vacant. And don’t assume your furniture/decorations would appeal to a buyer. Hire a stager and let them help you get top dollar for your home.
