Staging Your Home as a Seller

Staging your home can benefit sellers who want to sell it quickly and seek a fast sale. “Staging homes” is frequently used in residential real estate – but what does it mean? If you’re looking to sell your home, knowing how you should stage your home is essential. In this guide, learn the basics of staging your home to sell and tips and tricks to make the process easier.

Staging Your Home: What Does it Mean?

The concept of “staging” refers to a variety of efforts that prepare your home for prospective buyers. You can think of it as “setting the stage,” which can include cleaning, redecorating, reorganizing, decluttering, depersonalizing, and other changes to make the home more attractive to buyers.

Home staging can include various tasks, depending on the status of your home before selling. Some examples include:

Rearranging furniture to enhance the flow of a room
Removing personal items such as photos or knick-knacks
Decluttering and reorganizing areas to show a room better
Cleaning tasks such as power washing siding or washing windows

Why Staging Homes Matters

Staging your home can be challenging, as it often involves removing personalized touches like photos that make the house feel like your home. Homelight conducted a recent study that found 81% of buyers’ agents agreed that staging a home is vital to help prospective buyers visualize the property as their future home. Additionally, 89% of buyers’ agents agreed that home staging impacts how buyers view homes.

Professional Home Staging Cost

The price of staging homes varies. However, it averages around $1,000 to $3,000 nationwide. The price depends on how large your home is and the complexity of the services needed to prepare it to show buyers. Typically, this home staging cost includes a consultation, design, and staging for each room.

Staged room in a home for sale

Tips for Staging Your Home to Sell

Professional home staging is a great idea for large homes or homes that need a sizable amount of work before showing to buyers. On the other hand, some homeowners can also choose to stage their homes independently. Before you attempt to DIY stage your home, consider the following tips.

Start with an Evaluation

Staging every room in your home quickly becomes overwhelming if you don’t take it room-by-room. To make the process more manageable, start with a comprehensive evaluation of each room with an “unbiased” look. If you’re working with a real estate agent experienced in selling, they may be able to offer helpful suggestions based on their experience.

An evaluation includes examining the areas that need improvements or identifying decor upgrades that could improve the space. Keep a list of improvements and upgrades needed for each room in the home. Here, you can determine which parts of staging you can tackle yourself and which rooms you may need professional help staging.

Removing Personal Items

Removing personal items such as photos or souvenirs from your home can help prospective buyers see the home in a better light. In addition to personal photos, consider removing items from your pets or children or hobby-type items such as baseball bats, trophies, or other memorabilia displays.