Is home staging worth the money?

Staging involves altering the look of your home to make it more attractive to potential buyers. Is it worth paying for? The short answer is, it depends.

How much does it cost?
The extent of the staging will largely determine how much it costs. A minimal staging involving a deep clean and a fresh coat of paint will be less expensive than one involving renting chic furniture and installing new light fixtures.

What are the advantages?
A 2017 report by the National Association of Realtors cites that 29 percent of seller’s agents believe that home staging can increase the dollar value of a home by one to five percent.

Staging can also prevent sellers from having to accept lowball offers or drop their asking price. Realtors may insist that the price of staging a home is offset by the (potentially) gained profits, but this strongly depends on a number of hard-to-predict factors such as how strong the market is. There’s no universal rule that can be applied in every scenario.

What’s the bottom line?
How effective staging is varies from case to case. The most important thing to do is have an open discussion about it so that you can define your budget, timeline and expectations.

Finally, remember that anyone can call themselves a home stager. If you decide to stage your home, make sure to check the stager or staging firm’s references.