Staging = good ROI?

Question

I am planning to sell my house in Northern California. The agent said I should stage it. I am skeptical...does staging have a good ROI? Or is it really for the agent to get his commission sooner?

Jason Lee · Answer

Yes, in general, if it's done well it will get more/longer views online and it should attract more buyers to your home, which should lead to a quicker sale at a higher sales price. I'm a real estate agent in NYC and I've had listings that I could not stage that sat on the market for awhile. Once I was able to stage them they received offers immediately. It works particularly well for unusual or odd shaped rooms where the use and/or furniture arrangement isn't immediately apparent.

Janet Voss · Answer

I sold my property in San Francisco in 2012, and my realtor advised me to move out, and allow them to stage the property completely from scratch.  It was a considerable cost, but I definitely feel that it increased the eventual selling price by much more than what it cost.  When I was buying my house in Oakland, I would say everything that I looked at was staged.  I saw so many houses that were staged by one particular person that I came to recognize his style (and props).  I could walk in a house, and know that he staged it.

I'd owned two other properties in other areas of the country, back in the '80s and '90s and staging wasn't a big thing on the buying end or selling end.  When I bought my San Francisco house in 2003, we viewed it empty, but I remember some properties were staged back then.  It's a big business in CA now, and pretty much expected.

Justin Spaulding · Answer

The only advice I can give on this is when I have taken picutres of one of my rental units while a neat, tenant who has good looking furniture in there, and I post it for rent, I get a much higher rate of inquiry and can actually raise the rent. @Matt Smith, if i were in your shoes I would do it!

Jimmy Mills · Answer

My experience is that staging helps especially when you have an awkward or undefined space/layout.

Jo-Ann Lapin · Answer

I am all in with staging as long as it done right!

Ryan Landis · Answer

@Matt Smith staging should in theory help with the sale price and days on market (both of which are correlated). As @Janet Voss mentioned it really can help if done right - but it is also important that the staging is done in a manner that will not detract buyers as well. In terms of thinking about it from an ROI, consider it in terms of dollars - that usually helps someone contextualize it. You mentioned Northern California, so depending on where that is, the dollar benefit of doing it may not be as great as in the heart of the Bay Area.

Also, it usually does help to have the place vacant when selling if you can do it/afford the downtime.

Brent Coombs · Answer

@Matt Smith, how about using an either-or negotiating tactic (with Agents who regularly use staging). Decide your payable commission on what a top (staged) dollar sale price would be, vs. how much they think the property would sell for without staging (and what would their commission be then)?

So, if they recommend Staging - THEY could put their money where their mouth is - only payable by you IF that top dollar is achieved - otherwise, their commission will only be what it would have been without THEIR staging cost (even though it WAS staged)!

(Did that make sense? I need a coffee)...

Stephen Hundley · Answer

depends on the competing properties. If you price it right you won't need staging

Sterling White · Answer

Great question @Matt Smith. Have you checked the recent sold homes in your area? Certain locations in my market the homes sell at the same rate as the ones with staging.

Usually your agent should be aware of this matter and recommend the staging based upon their knowledge of what buyers are looking for.

Hope that helps

Staging = good ROI?

Most Popular Reply