Home Staging FAQ for Sellers

Home staging can make the difference between selling your house – and selling your house for more money.

What is home staging? What’s involved?

The term ‘staging’ encompasses a lot of activities that help a home look its best. It might involve:

• Decluttering and depersonalizing
• Minor repairs and home improvements like painting or landscaping
• Deep cleaning
• Optimizing the use and flow of every  room
• Rearranging furniture or switching out furniture
• Partially or fully furnishing an entire home
• Adding or subtracting accessories, linens
• Enhancing lighting
• Adding greenery and colour

What are the benefits of home staging? 

1. Staged homes sell for more money. According to a 2017 National Association of REALTORS survey, 32% of agents believe that staged homes sell for 1-5% more; on a million dollar house – that’s $10,000-50,000 more money.  21% of agents believe staging adds 6-10% to the price of a home.
2. Staged homes sell faster. According to the 2015 Home Staging Report staged homes sell 87% faster than unstaged homes.
3. It’s easier for Buyers to picture themselves living in a staged home. When we optimize room use and flow, declutter, depersonalize and clean and make design a priority, homes look their best. 77% of Buyers believe that a staged home makes it easier to “visualize the property as their future home”
4. Staged homes look better in photos, which is how most Buyers first see the home they eventually buy.

Should I be home while the Stagers work?

No! It can be a chaotic time and professional stagers work best when they aren’t distracted by the homeowner.

How will I feel after it’s done?

Most of our Sellers, after seeing their homes staged, wish they’d always lived that way. It’s not unusual for the Buyers of our listings to try to buy our furniture or hire our designers. That said, it’s also hard to see your home stripped of everything that made it ‘yours’. Of course, that’s the point of it – to help everyone else see themselves living there…but it can be an emotional roller coaster for the Seller.

Is it better to sell a vacant house empty?  

While the answer depends on the home and circumstances, it’s been proven that staged homes sell faster and for more money than unstaged homes. Vacant homes make it hard for a Buyer to visualize themselves in. They wonder: where does the TV go? How big of a bed fits into the bedroom? How could I use that basement? Staging helps answer those questions for Buyers. If you can’t stage your entire vacant home, consider focusing on just the principal rooms. Exception: homes that are being sold as “fixer-uppers” are usually best left as a blank palette.