Is Professional Home Staging Worth the Extra Effort and Cost?

is-professional-home-staging-worth-the-extra-effort-and-cost

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to save some cash whenever you can, especially when it comes to operating your home. In fact, you’d be foolish not to take advantage of money-saving tactics if they’re simple and don’t come with consequences. But when it comes to staging your home for sale, skimping in this department in an effort to save a few bucks can actually cost you more in the long run.

There are certain tasks that are best left to the pros, and that includes home staging. Of course, your home stager will have to be paid for the services provided in furnishing and decorating your home in such as way that it successfully showcases its best traits. This is an upfront cost that will come out of your own pocket. In order to save some money, you might be tempted to forgo this service altogether.

But when you’re selling your house, your decision not to hire a professional home stager in order to save money on this cost may come back to bite you.

Here are some reasons why hiring a professional to stage your home for the market is worth every penny.

Your Home Will Stand Out From the Crowd

Most likely, your home will not be the only one up for sale in the area. While it may be a seller’s market with low inventory, homeowners are still finding themselves competing against neighboring properties, including new builds. One of the best ways to differentiate your home from the other nearby listings is to stage it.

Think about it – if there’s another similar home on the block that’s listed around the same price point, which one will buyers choose over the other? The home that’s decorated in poor taste, has an unkempt front lawn, and is cluttered? Or the home that has been professionally staged in such a way as to “sell” the potential lifestyle that buyers could enjoy if they purchased the property?

Common sense would suggest that buyers would go for the latter.

You’ll Be Able to Offer a Move-In Ready Home

A lot of buyers out there want a turn-key home that only requires their belongings to be moved into it. Unless they’re looking to make a profit by building equity and selling for a profit over the short term, today’s buyers don’t really want to have to invest a lot of time or effort into updating a home that they purchase. As such, buyers want a move-in ready home that they can enjoy right out of the gates.

In fact, about two-thirds of buyers are willing to pay more for homes that require no work. Given this statistic, it would make a lot of sense to get your home ready for the next owner, and home staging can help you prepare and showcase your property for sale so prospective buyers have the impression that they can just move right in.

Your Home Will Be Easier to Market

According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), 92% of buyers look online when they start their search for a new home, so those photos that you’ve taken need to be top notch. If your home is professionally staged, it will look a lot better in pictures. Not only will photos of your newly staged home spark an interest among buyers to learn more about your home, they’ll be more inclined to want to book an actual showing.

You’ll Be Able to Sell Faster

Nobody wants to have their home sit on the market longer than necessary. It can be very taxing to have to constantly keep your home clean, tidy and in pristine condition in order to accommodate short-notice showings, especially if you’ve got little kids or pets running around.

Then, of course, there are the carrying costs that will keep adding up the longer your home sits on the market. From the time that your home is listed to the time it sells and closes, you’ll be stuck with paying your mortgage, property taxes, insurance, utilities, and any maintenance and repairs that might be needed before you sell. If you’ve already purchased another property that’s closing soon, you could wind up having two properties to carry at once. That can get pretty pricey.

The sooner you can sell, the sooner you can stop these additional costs, and home staging can be instrumental in helping you sell quickly. In fact, professionally staged homes sell 88% faster than non-staged homes on average. A staged home is better able to generate more buyer interest, and with that comes more offers.

You’ll Be Able to Sell For More Money

If none of the other reasons enticed you enough to hire a professional home stager, perhaps the real possibility of selling for a lot more money will. According to NAR, most realtors believe that buyers offer more money for homes that are professionally staged compared to those that are not. In fact, buyers often offer anywhere between a 1% to 5% increase in the value of staged homes.

The Bottom Line

It can be tough to spend even more money on staging when there are already so many other expenses associated with selling your home. But done right, having a professional furnish and decorate your home to attract the specific pool of buyers who are looking in your area can actually help you make even more money when you sell. Not only that, staging can make the selling process a lot easier and quicker. If staging can generate the kind of interest that draws in offers at or even above asking price, that’s money well spent.