How Much Does it Cost?

Usually the first question I get when a home owner or realtor calls about home staging is “How much does it cost?”

To get the best possible results from home staging, it is worth spending the money to hire a professional home stager with experience and great reviews. See my interview on Helpful Tips for Finding a Great Home Stager to learn what to look for.

Benefits of Home Staging

The benefits include getting the highest possible price for your home in the price range of similar houses, and selling fast so you save money by reducing owner expenses while on the market and losses from price reductions. Home staging always costs less than your first price reduction.

The Cost of Taking Shortcuts

Taking shortcuts such as hiring untrained stagers or realtors to stage your home because it is cheaper, listing first and staging later if it does not sell, using “Lite” or “Vignette” staging of minimal rooms or areas, or not staging at all will cost you more money in a lower final sales price or losses from price reductions as your home is on the market longer.

A better question might be, “How much does it cost not to professionally stage my home?” The higher initial investment will pay off and put more money in your pocket in the end.

What if You Can’t Invest in Home Staging?

Sometimes, however, a home seller is unable to make the full investment in home staging. What is the cheapest way to get results that can pay off in a higher sales price when the budget is tight? Here is my advice if you are going to be living in the home while it is on the market.

Get a home staging consultation with a professional stager, follow their advice, do the staging yourself, and have them do a final check-up before taking photos.

Every home, no matter how big or small, regardless of the price range or condition can benefit from a professional consultation.

What is involved in a professional home staging consultation?

The home stager will come to your house and walk through the interior and exterior. They will give you expert objective advice on:

• • How buyers will see your home and what changes you can make to get the highest final sales price. It is impossible for home sellers to see their own home objectively as a buyer seeing it for the first time will see it.
  • The most cost effective ways to market your property to your target buyer.
  • What things to repair, paint, update, remove, add, keep and re-arrange to highlight the best features of the home and downplay the flaws.
  • Paint and décor colors that appeal to buyers.
  • Working with the décor you have to highlight the homes features and will give you recommendations for purchases if needed for bedding, art, accessories, furniture rentals, etc.
  •  Prioritizing the most important things to do if time or budget constraints exist.
  • Improving your curb appeal.
  • Trusted resources such as contractors, painters, and cleaners etc. to use.
  • How to live in your staged home and keep things looking great while it is on the market.

Most consultations last about 2 hours and cost an average of $300 providing a huge amount of value in just a few hours. Your home stager can come back for a check-up after you have done the work to do final adjustments before photos for an hourly fee. The check-up can add great value to make sure your furniture is properly arranged to highlight space, your bookshelves and accessories are styled to look great, your bedding is arranged perfectly, art is hung correctly and all the little things that will make the photos look wonderful and have buyers loving your house are done.

What if your house is Vacant?

A consultation can still provide great value in prioritizing the things to do to get the most bang for your buck. And it will be important….since there will be no furniture etc. to look at, buyers will be focusing on the flaws which will be more obvious. You are better off investing in a consultation or full staging than trying to do ”vignette” or “Lite staging”. These silly staging tricks where a couple rooms have minimal furniture or have small areas staged in an otherwise empty house look weird and distracting. Better to not waste money on that and leave it empty. During the home staging consultation, the stager can tell you what the most important things are you can do to get the best return on your investment with the money you have available to spend.

A great home stager will make all the difference in a successful home sale for you. Pick their brains! They want to help you!

Ready for your Home Staging Consultation?

Start with a home staging consultation, either in person or online. From there, you can take the information and stage it yourself, or we can work together or I can do it all for you. Whether you will be living in the home while it is for sale or it will be a vacant property that needs everything, I can help.

Some other services you may find helpful are a color consultation if your staging consultation highlights the need for re-painting the interior or exterior. Virtual staging is an option if in person staging will not work for your vacant property. And vacation rental staging can help you increase your income, bookings and attract your ideal customer.

Get Your Free Report

The right paint colors can help you sell for more. The wrong colors can decrease your sales price.  Get this report, normally valued at $5 for free when you sign up to receive monthly color, design and staging tips.

 

Terms of Service  |  Privacy Policy  |  Disclaimer

Prices subject to change without notice.

Gift Cards

Give a home staging gift card.

Download my Brochure

Pin These

As a professional home stager, I often see home owners and realtors make three home staging mistakes that can cost the home seller more time on the market and lower offers on their home sale. These home staging mistakes can be easily avoided!

Listing before staging the home

Home sellers often do not want to spend money on staging and list first, assuming they will stage it later if it does not sell.  In other cases, in a rush to get the house on the market, the staging happens after the home is listed.  Sometimes realtors tell their clients they do not need to stage the property.  Later, the home sellers contact me to stage it after it has been on the market for a while without receiving any offers.

Why is this a home staging mistake?

Buyers look for a house online before they ever visit it in person. If the original photos are not appealing, staging later and then updating the photos will not attract buyers that have previously viewed the listing. You have essentially lost that part of the market that could have been interested in your home sale. The longer the listing has been up, the more likely buyers are going to wonder what is wrong with the house or submit a lower offer, thinking the sellers may be getting desperate for a sale.

Staging after listing is better than not staging at all, but statistics show that the time on the market will be longer than if had been staged prior to listing. The longer a house is on the market, the more price reductions you will likely have, causing you to lose money on your bottom line as well as costing you money in mortgage payments, utilities etc.

Not using professional photos for the listing

Professional photos of a beautifully staged home are critical to attracting buyers and making your property outshine the competition so buyers will come to view the property in person. Then, they can make an emotional connection with the house, which is what causes them to make an offer!

Home owners or realtors that post unprofessional photos online will not generate the same interest that professional photos will.

Altering the home staging

If you have paid for professional home staging, trust your stager!  Decorating a home for sale is very different than decorating it to live in. Home owners or realtors at times want to modify the staging by adding, removing or re-arranging things. Well-meaning as this may be, it can undo key aspects of the staging that the home stager had good reasons for doing.

Staging is not about the personal tastes of the home owner or realtor, which of course are all different. It is about appealing to the greatest number of buyers, making an emotional connection with the target market and highlighting key features of the home.

As an example, I had a client who was concerned with my staging plan which included red sofas because they were not to their personal taste. We stayed with my plan which was meant to appeal to a younger target market. The house sold the first day on the market for full asking price.

Do it Right the First Time

Stage before listing, trust your home stager and do not modify the staging, and get professional photos to show off your beautiful house! Happy Selling!

Are you Ready to Sell Fast and for More?

Try one of my online home staging services below. Feel free to call if you have questions and would like to discuss what would be best for you.

For in person consultations or staging, call for a custom quote.

Home Staging Consultation- In Person or Online- Learn More

 

• Get your Free Report

Interested in becoming a home stager? I recommend the Staging Diva Home Staging Training program!

Download my Brochure

Terms of Service  |  Privacy Policy  |  Disclaimer

Prices subject to change without notice.

Call 907-362-0065 today

 info@northernlightsstaging.com

Pin These

Low Cost Home Staging Can Cost You Money

We have all experienced a time when we were “penny wise but pound foolish” and regretted buying something because it had the lowest price, only to find out the item broke too soon, was not the quality we were looking for, had maintenance problems or other issues. I know I have with a few vehicles I have purchased!

If we had just purchased a higher quality item, it would have saved us money in the long run and we would have been much happier with our purchase. It is easy to make decisions quickly based on cost rather than stepping back and considering the “bigger picture”.

As a home stager, color consultant and designer,  one thing I do is help home sellers sell their house as fast as possible and for the highest possible price. I know your home is probably your biggest financial asset and that selling a house is stressful. Helping you get through the process fast and with great results is my success story too!

How Cutting Costs can Hurt Your Bottom Line

I have seen many cases where a home seller has been “penny wise but pound foolish.”  It makes me sad to think of how things might have been different for them. They try to save as much as possible during the sale by cutting “costs” but it hurt them in the end with a much lower sale price. Home staging is an investment, rather than a “cost” that can give you a great return on your money.

As an example, I had a call from a seller that said “Our vacant home has been on the market over a year with no interest. We have to do something! I would like you to come and do a consultation and then stage it for us”.  Great! We made plans for a consultation in a few days. At the last minute, they called and cancelled. They said their spouse had decided not  to spend money on staging as they were already strapped paying a second mortgage and would just leave it on the market vacant.  I noticed a few weeks later on the MLS that they dropped their price $35,000.00.  Staging the home would have cost less than 1% of that cost and they would have had a great chance of selling it quickly for their asking price. A loss of $35,000 is a lot of money!!! See how staging could have made a difference in this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzkF3bccgmI

Stage it Before You List

Another example was a call from a realtor a few weeks ago wanting to know the cost of staging for a couple that had had their occupied home on the market eleven months without interest. They got back to me that the couple did not want to spend the money on staging because they could not afford it since they were paying two mortgages. I feel their pain and wonder why their realtor did not suggest staging to them a year ago before listing? Here is an example of professional staging of an occupied home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAqW37LSkRI&feature=emb_title

Hire a Pro to do Your Home Staging

Other common examples are sellers who have realtors willing to pay for a consultation (bravo to those realtors!) but the sellers do not want to invest in the actual staging and decide to do it themselves. They often do not want to pay for a final visit from me to check on or help polish their final product. I always follow up to see how these properties look when listed. In all cases, the property looks much better BUT it does not have the same appeal for buyers as if it was professionally staged. Home owners do not have the ability to be objective about their own property, or “see what the buyer sees” and are not professionally trained in the art and science of home staging. This will definitely affect the final sales price. Saving a hundred or a couple thousand dollars may have cost them tens of thousands of dollars at closing.

Light Staging is a Waste of a Home Sellers Money

I sometimes get calls from realtors looking for “light staging”, where only one room is done or a few rooms only partially done. I do not accept these jobs because I think it is a waste of the home seller’s money. The end result looks odd, as if the movers forgot to take all the furniture and left a few pieces, and it certainly does not create the effect that buyers will fall in love with! Sellers, using this method will cost you more in the end!

How Much of a Difference will Home Staging Make?

You are probably wondering, how much of a difference will professional home staging really make in my sales price or in how fast I can sell my home? Information is often published by the Real Estate Staging Association and National Association of Realtors and other publishers every year or two. The numbers vary each year, and there are no guarantees, as every home sale is different and a variety of factors can affect your sale (such as location, condition, realtor marketing, asking price etc.) but here are some guidelines.

• • The majority of Realtors think staging increases the amount buyers are willing to offer between 1-20%
  • Staging usually costs 0.5%-1% of the home’s value (my experience)
  • Staged homes spend 72% less time on the market.
  • Home staging costs vary by the area of the country you live in, the size of the home, time on the market etc. and generally range from approximately $400 for a consultation to $5000 to stage a vacant home.

Let’s Do the Math

Say the median home price in your area is $350.000

1% increase is $3500

5% increase is $17,500

10% increase is $35,000

15% increase is $52,500

20% increase is $70,000

Much of the cost of this can likely be written off on the seller’s taxes as advertising fees on the sale of the home.

Pretty good investment!

Don’t Forget about Price Reductions and Holding Costs

And remember, if your house is on the market a while, each price reduction will likely be $5000-$15000.  Will you also be paying a mortgage and taxes too? You could end up losing 1-20% from your starting price as your house sits on the market. See this recent info-graphic from the Real Estate Staging Association that summarizes some of the benefits and costs of home staging.

At the end of the day, you as the home seller, have the potential to make the most profit (or take the greatest loss) from your home sale, not your realtor or stager. Step back, look at the big picture, and consider the benefits of making an investment in professional home staging for a higher sales price!

References

The Consumers Guide to Real Estate Staging, Real Estate Staging Association (RESA)

RESA Home Staging Statisics InfoGraphic

National Association of Realtors 2019 Profile of Home Staging

Get a Professional Home Staging Consultation Today

The best way to make sure your home sells fast and for more is to start with a professional home staging consultation. Find out everything you can do to prepare your house for market, and steps you can take to get the best return on your investment. During this time of social distancing, virtual staging is also a great option.

Terms of Service  |  Privacy Policy  |  Disclaimer

Prices subject to change without notice.

Call 907-362-0065 today

 info@northernlightsstaging.com

Pin This