Does staging a home for sale make the home sell
faster or at a higher price, and does that more than
offset the additional cost of the staging? This is
really the only question that needs answering.
Unfortunately I have not seen any scientific evidence
that helps home sellers answer this question.
Staging
involves a wide range of activities to prepare a home
for sale to look its best. To most, staging involves
engaging a design professional to, at a minimum,
consult and suggest changes like moving furniture
and displaying accessories, to a complete furnishing
and accessorizing a vacant home. In most cases the
cost will range from about $1,000 to $5,000
depending on the range of services and the amount
of furnishings used.
Logic would suggest that a home that looks better
than its competition will sell faster or at a higher
price. Still there remains skepticism on two fronts.
Sellers wonder if the higher cost will really produce a
higher price. They also worry that buyers may look
beyond the cosmetics and base their decision on the
fundamental merits of the house, which staging
cannot change. A three bedroom, one bath home
with a one-car garage is still a 3 bedroom 1 bath
home after staging. No amount of staging can
improve these fundamental obstacles.
If the staging of a home cost $2,000, the seller
wants to see a benefit in terms of higher sale price
of more than the $2,000 or the risk was not justified.
What the appropriate return should be is probably an
individual matter, but I would think the additional
price expected should be at least 2 or 3 times the
amount invested in staging to justify the risk.
For a number of years homes were selling so fast and
so easily that sellers didn’t really have to work very
hard to make their homes more competitive. That’s
all changed. Buyers now have choices and are taking
advantage of their new muscle. It does not require
scientific proof to know that making your home easy
to buy, by preparing it so potential buyers can better
visualize themselves living in it. Those who have an
eye for design may be able to achieve many of the
benefits from staging themselves. Others who
struggle more with color and design might benefit
from some minimal consulting, and possibly some
accessorizing. I am personally much more skeptical of
the staging that requires wholesale furnishing of a
home.
