If you haven’t bought or sold a home in a few years, you may be unfamiliar with the concept of home staging and why staging is a necessity in today’s real estate market.

What is Staging?
Staging is the art and science of maximizing a home’s potential to sell quickly and at the highest possible price.  Professional home stagers have received training in interior decorating, buyer psychology and real estate marketing and are skilled in making your home appeal to today’s home buyer.

Stagers typically start with an initial assessment of the exterior and interior of the home then make recommendations for work that will improve the home’s appeal such as:

• Cleaning
• de-cluttering and organizing
• de-personalization
• painting, repairs and updates
• Interior redesign/decorating
• landscaping

Why should I consider home staging?
In the past, home sellers could get by with a little “spruce up” before listing a home.  Not anymore.  Today, the average home buyer wants a move-in ready home that shows like a model home.  Thus, the demand for home staging has grown as seller’s try to meet buyer’s high expectations and gain an advantage over the competition.

As home staging has become the norm, homes that have not been staged are at a distinct disadvantage.  Here’s why:

• Staged homes sell for an average of 6% - 10 % higher and are on the market for 30-50% fewer days.
• Real estate agents know staging works and prefer to show staged homes rather than un-staged ones. 
• Most buyers can’t visualize an unstaged home’s potential for them.
• Buyers usually know within 15-30 seconds if a home will make their “short list.” If the buyer isn’t immediately impressed when they walk in the door, they are on to the next prospect.
• The longer your home is on the market, the lower the price will be.  According to the National Association of Realtors, homes that sold after 4 weeks on the market sold for 6% less than ones within the first 4 weeks. 

Bottom line:  In most cases, not staging your home costs you money due to a lower sales price and longer time on market. The cost of home staging is usually much less than the cost of your first price reduction.

Why can’t I just stage my own home?
Most home sellers have a difficult time staging their own home because they cannot view it objectively or emotionally detach themselves to make the necessary changes. This also makes it difficult to see their home from the buyer’s perspective.

Professional home stagers” can objectively identify your home’s strengths and weakness and will know how to enhance the positive attributes and minimize any flaws.  They are trained to see with “buyer’s eyes” and know how to create spaces that will appeal to the buyers in your market.   

My home was professionally decorated.  So why should I have it staged?
The goal in decorating a home is to make it fit your lifestyle, personality and taste.  The goal in staging a home is the opposite. When you are selling your home, you need to create a neutral environment that appeals to the broadest market.  While your home may be beautifully decorated, it would still be beneficial to have an expert make recommendations on how you could de-personalize the home and appeal to a larger pool of potential buyers.

When to stage?
Ideally, a home should be staged before it is listed and before marketing photos are taken of the home. This is especially important in today’s market as 90% of home buyers begin their home search on the internet and decide which homes they will visit based on home photos.

The most critical time for home selling is the first two weeks on the market. This is when you have the most amount of interest in your home. This is also when the agent tour/broker open house takes place and realtors in your area are invited to tour your home.  You want to make sure your home looks its very best from the start so that buyers and their realtors can see your home’s potential.

My house is already on the market. Is it too late
to stage it?
It’s not unusual for homes to be staged after sitting on the market for a while.  Taking your home off the market for a period of time so that it can be professionally staged is usually much less expensive than a price reduction.  Then you can re-enter the market with a fresh look and a new broker/agent open house. 

What will staging cost? 
Actually, in most cases, staging your home will put money IN your pocket.  According to a 2009 HomeGain survey:
The average cost of home staging was $300 to $400 resulting in a home price INCREASE of $1,500 to $2,000.  That’s a 586% return on investment.