How Much Does it Cost to Stage a House and Is It Worth It?

Table of Content

• Stage only key rooms in vacant homes
• Why is it important to stage your home?
• What can increase the cost of staging a house?
• Build-To-Rent Homes: What You Need to Know About the Future of Single-Family Rentals
• Eichler Homes: Bringing Mid-Century Modern to the Masses
• What's your property worth in today's market?
• How to Save Money on Home Staging

They already know what to do to make your home appealing to appeal to your targeted clientele. They know what sells a house, where to position everything and what to use to showcase your home at its best and appeal to as many potential buyers as possible. When selling a home, you also need to consider hiring a moving service to transport all your furniture and other items to the new property or into storage. This costs between $4,000 and $8,600 when talking about long distance moving. When staging a home, extra items must be removed so buyers can focus on the basics.

When you put your home on the market, you desire to sell it off as soon as possible. According to a survey report by the National Association of Realtors, the initial price of your home will keep on dropping the longer it stays on the market. Sometimes, the seller pays for staging, but there are cases when your real estate agent may cover some of the costs. Many realtors today pay for a consultation, but others also pay for part or all of the staging services. One of the main factors influencing the cost to stage a house is whether the house is occupied at the time.

Stage only key rooms in vacant homes

Then, you’ll need to pay staging fees, which fall somewhere between $400 and $700 per room for the first month. You’ll also need furniture to bring those rooms to life, which can cost $500 to $600 per room per month for all those beds, a couch, tables and other design touches. DIY home staging could cost next to nothing if you already have furniture and decor that’s suitable to present to potential buyers.

The primary drawback is that the home itself is not actually staged, so potential buyers who walk through will not get the full experience. You may want to ask your real estate agent if she thinks your home would benefit from home staging. Your agent may also recommend a home staging service or even offer other cost-saving tips besides staging, based on her experience showing real estate to buyers. Another way to cut down the cost is not staging every room in your home.

Why is it important to stage your home?

Additionally, don’t forgo the entryway since it often makes the first impression on a buyer when touring your home. That means you don’t necessarily have to stage basements, all the bedrooms, attics, or any extra spaces. Although highlighting a spare bedroom as a home office may be a great selling point.

They can choose to change the wattage, upgrade the lighting fixtures and add the number of lighting fixtures in a room. But generally, lighting changes a room and can affect the way a particular room looks. The cost of upgrading lighting throughout your home can cost you anywhere between $200 to $750 depending on the size of your home and the number of lighting fixtures needed. An empty house photo or one whose rooms a well-furnished and accessorized? It will make you picture yourself taking residence in that particular home. In fact, a vacant house may appear smaller, and they might not have a focal point which is usually the “wow” factor.

What can increase the cost of staging a house?

It’s because the living room is the first impression when walking into a home. Most apartment complexes and subdivisions maintain a “model home.” This acts as a showroom for potential buyers to represent what their actual home would look like. It’s handy when you’re selling in bulk, but most homeowners don’t own enough property to keep an empty model on hand for buyers.

But the cost can vary greatly depending on the size of the room and the height. If you are planning to put your home on the market for sale, listing it and putting a “for sale” sign is not enough. The real estate market can be sluggish, not to be mention fiercely competitive. As a home seller, you have to employ an extra step to make your home sell faster.

Build-To-Rent Homes: What You Need to Know About the Future of Single-Family Rentals

If your stager decides to use your current furniture and decor, the cost can be significantly less, about an $800 flat fee. This cost covers decluttering personal belongings and rearranging furniture to make your space more appealing. If you’re willing to declutter your home yourself, this rate can be even less. This arrangement is more common in high-end homes or for vacation properties, where the seller lives too far away to do all the work related to keeping a house showing-ready. The tenant typically pays reduced rent in exchange for their work, and the staging company coordinating the process takes a cut of the sale price.

For example, they can simply consult on changes the seller should make, rearrange furniture and decorative items, or stage a single room. In this situation, the seller may still be living in the home but is moved out or in the process of decluttering and packing. Is the process of physically preparing a house before listing it for sale, with the goal of making it appeal to the widest pool of buyers. The cost of home staging can start at $500 and go as high as $5,500 with most spending between $1,600 and $2,400 per month. Prices will vary depending on the level of service you require, if your home is vacant, and how many rooms that need staging.

Selling their home faster, at a better price, and without months of carrying costs—because their house was properly staged and buyer-ready. The layout of your home could also add a cha-ching to the home staging costs. Home stagers often use lightweight versions of basic furniture pieces. However, a home staging job that requires heavy lifting in a multistory house still usually means hiring additional help to move furniture, says Schostok. “Therefore, staging a 2,000-square-foot home would cost around $2,000 to $2,400 a month,” explains real estate professionalCrystal Leigh Hemphill. Most professional home stagers also require a three-month minimum staging contract, “even if you sell the home in 24 hours.” That could bring your final staging bill to $7,200.

To encourage people through the door to see the stager’s work, the outside of your home needs to look nice too. Some people are very proud and happy with how they decorated their homes, and they may not like the idea of someone else coming in and changing everything. Even if you are selling the property and moving on, it might be difficult to see all your decoration and design efforts covered up or changed. Staging also does a great job of decluttering untidy homes and organizing spaces that might not be used to the best of their ability. It is also a terrific choice for people who do not want to do all the hard work themselves or worry that their home’s style will not bring in buyers.

Once the home has been fully staged, you will be charged a rental fee of about $200 per month. Should you do the staging yourself or should you hire a professional to stage the home? Before you finalize on the decision to put your house on the market, you need to be aware of the three key factors that potential home buyers consider. They include the location of the home, the price and the condition of the house.

Some homeowners only need to remove personal touches to help prospective buyers envision the space as their own, while others need to rent or rearrange furniture. Let’s break down the cost factors to help you determine your total project cost. Discuss logistics for your furniture, the complete staging fees and the specific return on your investment in your market. Home staging might sound expensive, but if you own a vacant home, for example, you’re already paying lots of bills every month that your unstaged house sits empty. One way to bring down the overall cost of the professional staging fees is to only stage a few of the larger main rooms like the living room, kitchen, and master bedroom. Home staging furniture rental costs $500 to $600 per month for each room on average.

Bankrate.com does not include all companies or all available products. By investing 1.3 percent of a home’s value in staging, 73 percent of sellers saw a return of over 7.1 percent, according to RESA. Some homes with random rooms or funky floor plans can be improved with creative staging and furniture placement. Discussing how best to furnish a space and recommending which furniture should be removed or added, along with accessories, art and styling items.

Expect to pay anywhere from $20 to $50 for bulbs for the whole house, or up to $600 for lamps or fixtures. With older homes, it may be necessary to replace lighting fixtures in some of the rooms as well as add some lamps to brighten the home. The chart below is a set of examples in six locations around the house showing the different total wattage required by three different types of bulb technology.