When is home staging a good idea? When is it a waste of money? Well, first of all, if you look around at home staging resources and learn how to be effective at staging a home for yourself, it might not cost you anything! If that’s the case, there are some different considerations. Let’s look at the pros and cons of home staging.
Home stagers do their best to present a home in its best light. They do charge for their services, anywhere from a few hundred dollars per month to a few hundred dollars per room, according to information from Realtor.com. But, that home that is staged is said to sell for 20% more and up to 88% faster than non-staged homes.
The goal with staging is to make it appealing to potential buyers. You want people to be able to “see” themselves and their own furniture in the home. Buyers can more easily do this is if they are walking through a home that has some furniture in it, but not the typical clutter of a regular lived-in home. For home staging, you want an artful display of sofas, rugs, lamps and chairs, with some artwork on the walls and a few knickknacks around the home to draw the eye. It can also be helpful in allowing potential buyers to visualize how to use an awkward space.
The consideration of cost involved with staging a home yourself is, do you have the furniture to stage each room? If you do have some “spare” furniture, does it fit the home? Will you store it afterwards? Do you have a storage spot? Do you have to buy nice furniture just for the purpose of staging?
If the answer is no to most or all of these questions, then it might be best to hire a professional stager. The benefit of hiring a professional stager is that they typically have access to a warehouse of furniture in different styles and sizes that they can access to find the look that is right for your home. They set it all up for you, so you don’t have to, and they take it away when the home sells.
If you do have access to nice-looking furniture that fits the home, consider hiring a stager for a consultation. He or she will be able to see what you have, look at the home, and give you their expert advice on making the best staging choices on your own.
If you are able to add in a few hundred dollars up to what might potentially be a couple thousand into your profit-cost margins, professional staging could be a way to increase interest in your home so it sells faster.
At Gorilla Capital we rarely stage homes. And usually, the homes we do stage are larger and higher end. Larger, higher-end homes appear very empty without furniture, and the buyers tend to have higher expectations than with homes at lower price points.
Posted by 
