What Do You Think About Home Staging?

Hi Justin,

I understand it seems high, however,please consider this very realistic scenario if you wanted to stage a house: Let's say you see that you have a simple staging and you do not want to pay those absurd staging fees. You actually happen to have a bunch of furniture and accessories, in storage, enough to complete a whole 3bdrm, 2 ba house, so you are just going to use that furniture. 

Just to move it from point A to point B is going to cost you $332.43,  to rent the U-Haul to get it there. That is just you a truck, and furniture pads and dollies, putting only 50 miles on the odometer.

Now, you know you need help, to load it in, and load it out. So you found one guy, super cheap, for $80 a day plus a burger for lunch, for both load in and load out at the site, is $90.

You originally paid $25,000 for your furniture and accessories. It's nice and new stuff, but not super-nice, and you have no definitive time when you will have it back. Could be two weeks, could be four months. And some of it may not come back in the shape it went in. So what is that worth to you to loan it out?  You are a nice guy,  so you intend to charge 2% of the cost of your stuff per month to rent. That's only $500 a month, a full 18% below the fees of a real furniture rental place.

You and you alone pack up all the bedding, art, vases, plants, pillows and decorative items the night before, carefully, so the cheap labor guy doesn't break them in transition. This takes you three hours to package and label. Remember, we are talking a full house 3bdrm 2 ba, so that's about 20 pieces of art, 100 decorative items (vases, plants, lamps, candles, etc), 30 pillows, 4 area rugs, AT LEAST.

At 7 am you go get the truck, and the guy meets you back at the house. You both load the truck. That takes another 2 hours.

You arrive on-site, and unload. That takes two more hours.

Then, you arrange the furniture and erect the beds. Two more hours down. Your helper has put in his 8 hours, and he goes home to his wife and kids.

Then, you hang the art and accessorize. That's three more hours.

Then you return the truck.

You personally have put in 14 hours of hard labor once the truck is finally returned.

And don't forget....you have to do it all again when the house sells. Your costs will be far, are over about $825 no gas, no tax.

But the furniture rental will SAVE you, right? You didn't enforce the industry-wide three month minimum, and the house sold in two months. So it took you $25,000 in inventory 14 hours of your physical labor initially, and about 8 more hours to get the truck again and the guy, to retrieve and re-store your items, $825.00 in moving costs, to warrant $1824.86  in fees.

And that is if everything runs perfectly smooth, the furniture fits well, and you had no shopping to do for specific pieces, and absolutely not one second of design or planning time.

That seems like an awful lot of work, risk, capital, and waiting for your stuff to come back to you in good condition, for $1000. If you paid yourself a ultra-crummy $15 an hour, you get to pull yourself $330. That gives you a whopping $570 in profit. And if a piece or two shows up ruined, you are not a professional stager and have no insurance to cover the damages, no legal contract to seek a remedy, and it will cost you every cent you made to replace that dining room table.

So, like I said, if you have someone who is charging you $1000 per month flat fee to stage, jump on it.  They might not be in business much longer!!!!!

Thanks for bearing with me through all of that. But that is the reality of staging one house in one day, and de-staging on another day. 

And staging does sell houses faster, the statistics bear that out, or major markets wouldn't be using it. Click Here and scroll to the bottom of the page for the latest 2008 statistics.

Best of luck to you!
~Michelle

I looked at the statistics published by the "Real Estate Staging Association".  I believe that they are a fig newton of someone's imagination.  In fact they are so out of balance that they crossed the border into hyperbole land. 

Fundamental to pricing and selling real estate is value.  Value is added by good maintenance, condition, accessibility, style, construction, floorplan flow, etc.  All things that are going to remain with the property in which the buyer can see value. 

Staging adds not one penny of value to a listing.  Everything that catches and moves the eye and catches attention is going to be removed. 

Someone please stop me. 

What about foreclosure type homes-do we stage them?  Is it worth it?

Okay guys, wading in here....I think that most people have NO imagination. If a home is staged, it just helps the person take that one mental step closer to feeling that they could "live" in the space. That's what staging does.

I have also seen staging where the seller just stages the main living areas, and leaves the bedrooms vacant. If this is done well (and I mean- it needs to knock your socks off) that can be another budget-minded choice.

In the best case scenario, what staging does is illicit an emotional response in your buyer. In my experience, every home I've ever staged has received a full-price, or close to full-price, offer. Is that worth a thousand bucks?

Hi Lenn,

Actually, it is pretty hard to remove the built-ins and upgrades I suggest as a stager.

When I tell someone they to replace an existing metal awning with something more in line with the price point of a house & neighborhood to increase curb appeal, I assure you the structure is not portable.

Or upgraded staircase railings on the interior.

Or Silestone counter tops.

It is a common misconception that all we do is paint things and add pillows and art. Staging is not all foof. A lot of it is bring a house out of the 70's or 80's. You can't do that without suggesting and choosing the PROPER upgrades, which comprises a fair portion of a stager's work.

Some stagers, I am sure, never venture into the land of upgrades, but not many. We have to have that knowledge of what buyers truly desire, and get the house up to snuff in that regard.

We most certainly do add actual value. As a stager, one of my clients recently added $45,000 worth of suggested upgrades, renovating a kitchen and 3 bathrooms, all in preparation for sale. I don't see any way that is not going to get them a better actual appraisal.

~Michelle

Whoops... almost forgot...

Regarding stats. I personally staged a house, previously on the market for 6 months, no offers, which sold to the first buyer who saw it after staging, at full asking price.

I call that a hole in one. The staging MAY POSSIBLY have had some influence there, I do believe.

Another custom home, on the market for TWO YEARS, sold within one week of simply staging the  the exterior only, again, full asking price.

The stats may be astounding, but we specialize in astounding people with faster sales resulting in more equity, than the "It will sell when it the price gets low enough" plan. The way sellers present the home is a HUGE factor.

Investors may love ugly houses, but buyers prefer to buy move-in ready property.

~Michelle

Len, Your comment here is contradictory...You mention price..."Or, promoting a property in the best light in the MLS to get showings" sells.  A blank wall, an empty house is NOT mesmerizing, and don't they honestly pretty much all look alike online?  How may I ask is that meant to be inviting traffic to the property?  Staging, though I agree with you not cutsy overdone staging, is VERY successful in increasing the level of traffic to a property.  

Justin,

I posted my first response somewhere else than Active Rain, but I see it didn't show up on AR.  So, I am placing it here as well.  You hit the nail on the head. The professionally staged properties FELT better to you. They feel better to buyers as well. Keep in mind buyers buy emotionally, not intellectually. That’s why staging is worth it. I even go so far as to shoot and produce a complimentary virtual tour of properties I stage so I’m sure the romance gets online intact. Look at some on my AR profile. One of my repeat Realtors calls them my Romantic Tours, and she’s right. That’s exactly my intention, and it works, big time. Worth every dime. Check ‘em out!

In addition, to support what Michelle Molinari put forth, several of my tours are of homes that were in dreadfully ugly, worn out, outdated shape when I was brought in on the scene.  My advice taken to improve them as cost effectively as possible, hundreds OR thousands of dollars spent on changes, and then Staged, they SOLD.  Some had sat on the market in disrepair for months.  Others would have if not addressed.  We stagers  can be very valuable indeed.

If you wanna sell your home in today's market, YOU BETTER HAVE IT STAGED!!!