Luxury homes have a much thinner pool of buyers and those buyers expect to have the best of everything in return for paying $1.5 or $2 or $3 million for homes. Staging is a vital and expected marketing technique for helping buyers envision that lifestyle in vacant homes. Staging is the much less-expensive version of a model home.
To give a richer look (no pun intended) to rooms, I often use a bit larger and higher-quality rental furniture, often paired with highly polished wood or metal and glass coffee tables, mirrored side tables and nightstands, metallic finishes especially in accessories, and luxury materials in pillows and bedding.
Staging is all about convincing buyers they will love their life in the high-end property by surrounding visitors with high style and classic but current looks in bedding, rugs, and accessories. (No oriental rugs or ornate window treatments, mostly transitional "painterly" area rugs, neutral colors, and silver and gold or bronze bedding and accessories instead.)
In the staging industry, the rule of thumb for figuring the 3 to 6-month cost (including a "3 months + 3 months free" promotional furniture rental lease and staging and accessory fees) of staging the main 5-6 rooms of a home over $1,000,000 is about 3/4 - 1% of the list price, depending on the size of the rooms and exactly how many rooms are done.
In the end, paying $7- 10k for staging expensive homes to impress buyers and make that all-important emotional connection is a relatively small price to get beautiful photos, more traffic, and sell the home faster!
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