The Ultimate Guide to Home Staging

When you’re selling your home, you want it to look its absolute best for potential buyers. That’s where home staging comes in. Read our guide to home staging — learn what not to do, how to stage room by room, how to do it on the budget, whether it’s worth it to hire a professional home stager, and loads more!

What is home staging?

You’ve seen gorgeous images of impeccably decorated homes in magazines, on TV and on social media. They inspire envy, or maybe just inspire — and they are all staged. Home staging brings out your home’s most impressive assets so that the maximum number of potential buyers can imagine themselves living in it. Home staging is a marketing strategy (with a dash of psychology). It’s adding and rearranging furniture and decor. It’s doing whatever is necessary to dress up a house so it sells quickly and for the highest possible profit.

By minimizing the house’s flaws and highlighting its best features you are “packaging” your house in the most appealing way that would lead to more interest, higher offers and quicker sales. Home staging, if done right, creates a relaxing and inviting atmosphere, where potential buyers would want to linger. A well-staged home will draw the buyers to online listings and showings, and, hopefully, will end in generous offers.

The psychology behind home staging

A lot of effort goes into buying a home. Buyers look at countless home listings and make split-second decisions whether to move on or to see it in person. For your home to stand out, it has to feel like home to a potential buyer. Of course, all practical details come into play, but allowing a buyer to develop an emotional attachment to the house also has a big role.?

Home staging is an art, but also a science. A prospective buyer should be able to visualize how he or she would personalize their new home, so the stage you set should be neutral yet feel personal. Visualization is a key concept in home staging. If buyers can see themselves living there, they will develop a personal connection to the home and will feel good about investing in it.

Why is home staging important?

According to the 2021 Profile of Home Staging by the National Association of REALTORS (NAR), 82 percent of buyers’ agents said staging a home made it easier for a buyer to visualize the property as a future home. And consider these numbers that demonstrate home staging is a common and effective industry practice that professionals feel confident spending money on:

• Staging the living room was found to be very important for buyers (46%), followed by staging the master bedroom (43%), and staging the kitchen (35%).
• Among buyers’ agents, having photos (83%), videos (74%) and virtual tours (73%) available for their listings was more important since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• 23% of buyer’s agents said 23% of sellers’ agents reported that staging a home increased the dollar value offered by between one and five percent, compared to other similar homes on the market that are not staged.
• 31% of sellers’ agents said they staged all sellers’ homes prior to listing them for sale.
• 49% of sellers’ agents used a staging service.
• The most common rooms that were staged included the living room (90%), kitchen (80 %), master bedroom (78%) and dining room (69%).
• The median dollar value spent when using a staging service was $1,500, compared to $300 when the sellers’ agent personally staged the home.

Three Key Benefits of Staging a Home

1. Staging helps a prospective buyer visualize living in the home
2. Staging can increase the amount of the offer
3. Staging can lead to the house spending less time on the market

What are your home staging options?

There are three options, but you can also do a combination of all three. When looking to stage your home, you can do it yourself (DIY), get your real estate agent to do it or help you with some of it, or you can hire a professional home stager to do it all for you. Which type of staging is right for you depends on your specific situation and your budget.

How do I stage my house myself?

If you want to save money and have the time and the desire to do what it takes to present your property in the best way, the DIY option is the way to go. The tasks you might need to perform will be a medley of repairs and home design: rearranging furniture, decluttering, removing personal photos and decor, adding new curtains and throw pillows, repainting, touching up the walls, and a whole lot of cleaning. You can also add homey touches like cut flowers and houseplants, and make sure your house smells amazing (candles, a diffuser or even a plate of fresh-baked cookies will work).

Can I ask my real estate agent to stage my home?

It’s not your real estate agent’s job to professionally stage your home, but they also want to sell your home, quickly and profitably. Some might provide recommendations or help you find a professional home stager to either do a consultation or provide the home-staging service; others might do more to spruce up the property. Some real estate agents are certified home stagers themselves and can be very helpful (this scenario is not common). There are no cut-and-dry rules when it comes to enlisting the help of your real estate agent in staging your home, just as it’s not a given that you won’t end up footing the bill. It all really depends on your personal circumstances, your budget, and how much work your home needs.

Written by: Tatyana Meshcheryakova