Is home staging worth it?

Question

Hi BP,

Yesterday I met with a client of mine that wants to list their mother's home. It's in a desirable area with limited inventory. The school districts are award-winning and within walking distance to elementary, middle, and high schools.  The home has a tremendous amount of character but it's all traditional, dating back to the '60s. The comparables in the area sold for $75k - $100k more than what I plan on listing it, but those homes have been renovated within a 5 year period.

My question is:

Would you stage the home?

What has your ROI been when staging compared to not staging?

What factors do you consider other than the comparables when deciding to stage?

Thank you

Irene Nash · Answer

Good staging is absolutely worth it, no matter what market you're in. Saying staging is only for slow markets is like saying you can 'get away with not doing it' in a hot market. Yes the home may sell fast even without staging if it's a hot market, but *good* staging (not crap, old fashioned staging or over-staging that hides the house and makes it look cluttered) always increases the market value, so why should we only strive for that in a slow market?

Case in point, I'm going to attach a before and after example from my real estate website, I would post the link to the page that contains all the other before and afters but pretty sure that is against terms of service.

RE pricing, if you wait for offers (offer review date, unless that would be weird for your market area) then you give the market a chance to correct the price point if you list it too low. There's no way to tell from the price range of other homes if your proposed list price is at the property's actual market value.

Sample before and after below is the same room. Second photo was staged by me and my husband and professionally photographed. The difference is not just for people with no imagination, one photo clearly shows more value to online viewers and the same staging makes the property present far better (aka higher value) in person as well.

Brandon Vukelich · Answer

Even a dated home you should consider staging. My stager tells me "that she can draw the eye from some of the dated architecture and show off its features." Plus every listing is an opportunity to show your level of professionalism, competency, marketing and all around efforts to have your listing show better than all of the competition.  When sellers are interviewing agents, they are doing their online recon, checking your last few listings.  I don't measure the ROI on staging, I see it as a measure to help with the pictures/video, promoting myself and the way I market a property. In full disclosure, some properties are occupied with less than tidy homeowners, horrible tenants or just are so rough it doesn't make sense to put "lipstick on a pig."  But those are rather rare. You could also consider virtual staging for your pics.  My vendor charges $50/room.  Best wishes on the listing!

Brandon Carlson · Answer

Thank you all for the feedback. I moved forward with the home staging.

The stagers did a fantastic job. They added their personal touch while using some of the existing furniture in the house to help keep costs down.

It was a cost I took on but well worth it. The home sold for $60k over ask!

Zachary McDonough · Answer

Second this as a realtor too. Good staging makes a huge difference. Data supports home staging as well.

Tyler Fontaine · Answer

Stage the home if you can. A good staging will garnish you better photos, attract more qualified buyers, and help to sell the property for you.

All the homes we remodel or flip get staged for this reason. Think about the frame that a buyer is operating in as they shop. Viewing a home is an experience in itself. We want that experience to come as close to "I could live here. I have to have it." as possible. We even use scented room sprays before showings so that ALL the buyers senses are attacked as they go through. Things like this will help the property stand out in the buyers mind when they viewed 4 other homes that random Saturday.

I know you said the property is slightly dated and you are listing below what the comps are, but in my experience you can bump up what a buyer is willing to pay if you utilize staging.

So, yes. If possible I would stage the home.

Our ROI has grown on the staged properties versus the non-staged. They also seem to sell quicker (I know most markets are hot right now as it is, but thats just my perspective)

Should you stage - try to use a professional that does it often. Ask how long the contract is for the staging. What if you need to extend that contract for some reason, is it an option. Make sure they showcase the rooms appropriately - for example we had a large room that lacked a closet in a flip soooo it wasn't a "true bedroom" - so that room was staged as an office.

Hope this helps.

Carini Rochester · Answer

I recently had a home staged and got several tens of thousands more than I thought the house would sell for. Did staging do that? I don't know and I don't care. Staging cost $750. I got about 30K more than I thought the house was worth. I don't know if staging had anything to do with it. It might just have been that the economy, the supply and demand, etc. increased the value of the house more than I thought it would. Just pay for the staging and I bet you'll never really care if the staging was the deciding factor.

Colleen F. · Answer

@Brandon Carlson as a seller I found it worthwhile in a limited way. The whole home wasn't staged but some difficult to visualize areas and the main common area.

Brandon Vukelich · Answer

@Kenny Smith I still cover it 100% as a value proposition for my sellers.  I don't do open houses.  I'm able to make that a non-issue if it comes up by showing the other benefits of working with me, such as staging on my dime.  I do make the sellers reimburse me if they change their minds about selling after we go live (not an expired listing).  Pretty rare but it has happened and the sellers were cooperative enough to reimburse all of my marketing expenses in that case.

Carlos Ptriawan · Answer

I think different brokerage has different offering , some covers staging 100%. some is only 50%, and some is none. It all depends on your commision at the end.

Kenny Smith · Answer

To piggy back off of this conversation..where are ya'll at with covering staging costs, splitting with owner, and having the owner pay for all of it?

Is home staging worth it?

Most Popular Reply