Does Home Staging Help?

Staging has become a very popular marketing tool for selling homes. The objective of staging properties is to sell the property as quickly as possible at the highest possible price by increasing the appeal of the property to the buyers.  But does home staging help to sell homes faster at higher prices?

The assumption is that buyers will perceive more value if they imagine themselves living in the home. Potential buyers cannot ignore cluttered and overcrowded rooms, or rooms decorated in a garish style. They will not be able to see how they would furnish it and how they would use the rooms. They may also focus on the amount of work they will have to do after they take possession.

For vacant houses, buyers cannot imagine how rooms will be furnished and how they will function. It is difficult for buyers to see how furniture will fit and where the traffic will move.

Staging to Stimulate Buyers’ Dreams

When buyers view a house as a prospective new home they dream of what life will be like in the home.

Staging is the process of converting a home occupied by a seller into a home that buyer can see themselves living in. Sellers actually live in a home, with all the features, furniture, knick-knacks, and other personal possessions that make up their lives. Generally, buyers want to imagine themselves living in the home, not imagine living with the seller among all the seller’s possessions!

Buyers of new construction homes are familiar with staging. Marketing using staged model homes have been a necessity for many years. Ironically, one supposes this practice originated with builders attempting to combat the “lived-in” feeling of existing homes. However, as the competition among builders intensified, the staging of models became more upscale and created an idyllic setting for buyers. Indeed, visiting model homes is a popular pastime among homeowners as a source of decorating and design ideas.

Here in San Jose,  properties are coming to the market unoccupied as a result of renovation and flipping of the older home inventory. These homes compete directly, even side-by-side, with owner occupied houses for sale. Investors stage these renovated homes to improve the showing of a vacant property. This raises the expectation of buyers for the neighboring listed houses.

Therefore, the sellers of existing homes “stage” the home in order to provide a similar emotional response in the buyers. This staging may or may not be performed by a professional stager.

We also need to meet the buyers where they shop. Given most buyers see their homes for the first time through the Internet. An additional motivation to staging is to improve the marketing products for the house. Selling agents increasingly use professional photography, 3D virtual tours, and video tours posted on websites and in social media. The quality of the photography is significantly improved in staged homes.

What Do You Need to Stage?

The minimalist seller simply packs up the family photographs and thins out the cramped closets. At the other end of the spectrum, the seller vacates the property, paints the house, completes minor repairs, and installs rented furnishings and artwork. A complete staging is usually performed by a professional home stager who has a design background and inventory of furnishings.

Effective staging will help the buyer fill the house with their imagination. Therefore, sellers must remove any items that reference a lifestyle that may not align with the buyer’s idealized view of their life in the house. Also, seller’s must not over-stage the property to constrain the way the buyer imagines their life in the house. Notice you will rarely see a television in a staged house! Many sellers do not fully appreciate what should be done and get support by a staging consultant. The consultant, for a more modest fee, provides a checklist for the seller to follow in preparing the house for market.

Staging a home requires time, effort, and money. Prioritizing your efforts on the rooms in the house that more engage with buyers’ emotions is critical. Buyers imagine their lives as spending time with family and friends in the living room, parents having engaging conversation with their children over home work in the kitchen, and couples’ intimate moments in the master bedroom. These rooms require the most attention.

Does Staging Work?

So is the effort and expense of staging your home prior to listing worth the effort? Realtors were surveyed  regarding the impact of staging in 2015 by he National Association of Realtors (NAR). The results were reported in the 2015 Profile of Home Staging.

Buyer agents generally agree that the vast majority of buyers are at least somewhat affected by homes being staged. Buyer Agents reported more than 90% buyers are at least somewhat affected by staging. Only 4% of agents reported staging had no impact on buyers.

Not only is there an impact when showing the home. More buyers are willing to walk through a staged they have viewed on the Internet. Buyers are also reported to more likely overlook shortcomings in the home if it has been staged.

A majority of Selling and Buying agents surveyed reported that staging increased the price of the home. Some believed the impact was more than 10% of the sale price! There are agents who believe the impact on prices is small but the impact on average time on market is significant and justifies the investment.

What Does It Cost and Who Pays?

The price, especially here in California, is high. This needs to be justified by a return either in short turnaround on the sale or in higher prices. For a fully furnished vacant home, the median price for staging a home is in excess of $4000 per month. Nationwide, the median cost of staged homes was $675.

Seller agents often provide staging as part of their marketing service for the, especially for high priced, unique, or otherwise difficult-to-sell homes. According to NAR more than 60% of selling agents provide this service.

Other selling agents argue that preparing the house to be marketed is a seller’s responsibility. This is clearly a negotiating topic and will depend greatly on local practice and listing price.

In either case, the seller and the agent will discuss what the level of service will be. Usually, the seller will pay for any repairs, cleaning, packing, storage, and painting to be performed. In some cases, the agents will provide the service but only stage the highest impact rooms, living room, kitchen and master bedroom.

Will You Stage Your Home?

I think there is little doubt that some degree of staging helps. The seller should clean and declutter the home. The house needs to feel like home to prospective buyers. Seller should be provided with a checklist of staging activity. They sometimes need that little extra motivation to make the home enticing to buyers. It is also important to improve the quality of print flyers and websites. This may be professional help or support from a knowledgeable seller agent.

Full staging of higher priced homes is highly recommended. You may be competing with homes that are staged to magazine quality standards in this market.

Staged Family Room Photo Credit: Andwhatsnext Credit: Work completed by Steve Price/JesmondHomes.com. Original digital photograph, resized Photo copyright (c) 2006 by Nancy J Price