What Is a Home Stager? How Proper Staging Boosts Sales
If you’re selling your home, you’re probably going to consider investing some money in a sprucing-up that the pros call home staging. Staging can be a cost-effective way to get a quick sale. If you don’t fancy yourself a design-minded individual, fear not; there are professional home stagers for that. But what is a home stager and how can they help you?
A home stager is responsible for preparing a home for sale. The goal of staging a home is to make it more appealing while still allowing the potential buyers to envision putting their own personal touch on the property. Home stagers will bring in furniture, art, and accessories to ensure the decor is on-trend and aspirational.
The pricier the home, the more it costs to stage. As a general rule of thumb, most stagers charge $300 to $600 for an initial design consultation, and $500 to $600 per month per room.
Why stage a house?
“Buyers can only imagine what they see, not what it’s going to be,” says Barb Schwarz, a broker who now focuses entirely on staging homes with her International Association of
Home Staging Professionals. “If you don’t clean the carpet or don’t take down the flocked wallpaper or the teenager’s walls are painted bright purple, the buyer can’t envision it any other way.”
The impact of home staging
If done well, staging makes a remarkable difference.
“We took over a house that was on the market for six months, didn’t change the price, staged it, and it sold in 18 days,” says Realtor® Paul Conti of San Jose, CA. Schwarz, who says she invented the concept and term of home staging, claims that 95% of homes staged by her accredited students sell in an average of 11 days, versus an unstaged home’s 90 days, and with an average increase in sales price of 17%. The
National Association of Realtors® has also touted the benefits of staging.
Home staging how-to’s
Follow these 11 tips from professional stagers to give your house an amazing new look:
1. Start at the street
Curb appeal isn’t just a catchy phrase created to boost landscapers’ income. It’s a crucial first impression that can make buyers either wary of stopping to look or else eager to step inside. Make sure that your lawn and garden look great, trash cans and bikes are put away, house numbers are attractive and easy to see, the front door is spectacular (because you’ve replaced or painted it and perhaps updated the hardware), and you have attractive potted plants by the door.