Frequently Asked Questions About Home Staging

What is "staging," exactly?

Staging is anything you do to prepare your home for sale and to make it more attractive to a buyer’s eye. Staging helps present a home in its best possible light, and includes cleaning, de-cluttering, adding color and arranging furnishings. It’s a little bit of theater–your property is the "set" and furniture and accessories are "props." It’s different from decorating, which is personalizing a space. Staging is about neutralizing a home so that it will appeal to the greatest number of potential buyers. It’s selling your space, not your things. Buyers need to be able to "mentally move in"–to picture themselves living in your home–before they’ll make an offer. We always tell people that the way they live in their home and the way they sell it are two different things. Think of it this way: You wouldn’t sell your car without having it detailed first. Staging is the same idea–it’s detailing for your house.

How common is staging?

In certain markets in cities like San Francisco and Seattle, nearly every home is staged. Staging is also taking off in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta, Nashville, Houston, Dallas, and Chicago. Nationally, only about one in five properties on the market is staged, though that number is rising as the concept spreads.

How much does staging cost?

It varies, depending on where you live and the scope of the staging. A consultation with a professional stager, who’ll tour your home and then give you a punch list of things to do before putting it on the market, runs a few hundred dollars. Hands-on staging services can cost anywhere from $1,000 for a small condo where they’re mostly using items you already own to $10,000 or more for a high-end home in an expensive market where they’re bringing in all-new furnishings. But the average cost for home staging in most markets is about $1,500 to $3,000.

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