In our survey of 186 home staging businesses, Home Stagers were asked their opinion as to whether Staging tended to benefit clients most in terms of having a faster sale, or a higher price.
Respondents were not allowed to say both.
They were also asked the same question for three different time frames:
- their entire career
- past six months
- projections for the future
The clear majority respondents overwhelmingly felt that the primary benefit was faster sales in all three time frames, but especially so for the past six month time frame.
While still predominantly picking faster sales, noticeably more people picked higher prices as their projections for the future.
Realtors were particularly strong in seeing the benefit as faster sales.
The "top dogs" were among those most likely to predict home staging generating higher prices in the future, although the majority of the "top dogs" also thought quicker sales the primary benefit.
The next most bullish group for higher prices were those with less than 2 years experience.
Conjecture: The nuances of this question suggest that newbies may be reflecting the optimism they bring from their classrooms and fresh positive attitudes.
The fact that those with 2-4 years experience were among those strongest to suggest quicker sales may reflect more practical experience in the recent market downturn, while the Top Dogs may be delivering a stronger product in the marketplace, resulting in more higher prices.
There is clear overall consensus that quicker sales is the dominant benefit. This suggests that this it the point that Home Stagers should then be emphasizing in their marketing. For many of today's markets that is just the message many homeowners want to hear.
To see what some of the people who have read my survey reports have to say about them, go to http://www.squidoo.com/house-staging
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