Stage a flip home? How important is it? Do we do it ourselves?

[Trevor Baker]

My partner and I are nearing completion of our first flip property in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles.  It's a 4 bedroom, 2 bath, 1450 square foot, one-story house in a nice, quiet neighborhood.  It's not a trendy, up-and-coming area.  The buyers will most likely be a family with 2 or 3 kids.  We stayed fairly "safe" on the rehab... it's very white.  White walls, light grey, distressed wood-like laminate flooring, white shaker kitchen with charcoal quartz countertops, stainless steel appliances.

We aren't considering staging the bedrooms.  However, we are pondering the idea of staging the main living areas... living room, dining room & breakfast nook.  We could put a basic couch and rug in the living room and leave the rest alone.  We "could" do some basic staging ourselves with a cheap couch, dining table & breakfast table for roughly $1000 - $1200.  Or, we have an "okay" staging company who will do those areas for us for 3 months for $1650.

What we want to know is...  Are we better off letting a "professional" do it?  How much quicker will staging help sell the house?  Can we expect to recoup our staging investment and more?