Is Home Staging Worth It?

When selling a home, how it looks is key. Both inside and out, everything from how the furniture is arranged to the color of paint impacts what buyers think of the home. For homeowners who want to help give their home an edge on the housing market, staging is an option that can help homeowners make their home as appealing as possible to buyers. Here are the advantages and disadvantages of home staging homeowners should keep in mind when planning to stage their home or hire someone to stage their home.

Disadvantages of Home Staging

One of the biggest disadvantages home staging has is that it can potentially cost a lot of money and be time-consuming. Home stagers will charge just to meet with potential clients, and that can cost anywhere from $150-400. If the homeowner decides to work with the stager, they will then have to cover the cost of furniture, which will vary depending on how much furniture is needed and how long it’s needed for, and they’ll still have to pay for any repairs that the home may need before it’s shown to buyers.

However, homeowners are under no obligation to hire a professional stager when showing their homes. Ambitious home sellers can DIY the process and potentially save the cost of the professional stager. There is always the risk, however, that a homeowner would not be able to perform the task as well as a professional.

While homes that are staged on average sell for about 3 percent more than unstaged homes, there’s still a chance that the home’s value won’t increase even after investing money in staging. This means sellers can end up losing money in the long run, even if they’ve invested a few thousand dollars in staging. 

Advantages of Home Staging

Home staging has many advantages that interested homeowners should take into account. For instance, the average staged home can sell up to 88 percent faster than an unstaged home, and a staged home will typically sell for about 3 percent more than an unstaged one.

Having a staged home also helps potential buyers see its size properly. Empty homes can appear much smaller than they actually are, so having furniture in a home can help show off the home’s best features by accentuating them. Having a furnished home also helps buyers imagine themselves living in the home as well as how they can potentially decorate the space with their own furniture. 

Home staging can be especially useful for homeowners who have already moved all the furniture from their homes. Rather than buy all new furniture or move some back into the home, a home stager can bring their own furniture to decorate, meaning less stress for the homeowner. 

Taking the time to stage a home can also help homeowners discover things that need to be fixed, whether they’re little things like scuffs on the walls and floors or bigger projects like cracked drywall or light fixture replacements. Taking care of these sorts of things before allowing buyers to come to view the home is another way to show them that the homeowner cares about the state of the home.

Is staging worth the money? It depends on the situation the homeowner is living in and where the Lakeway home is located, but it usually is. Homeowners who have moved all their furniture from the home are the most likely to benefit from home staging, but they aren’t the only homes that have the potential to gain from staging. Weigh the options carefully before deciding, and contact a real estate agent who can provide professional advice on any situation.