If you’ve ever wondered what’s involved in staging an empty home for sale or even if it’s worth it to stage it, you’re not alone. Many people often don’t understand what’s involved in the process or how much it costs. While the process might seem daunting, we’ll walk you through it, so you know what to expect and why it’s so important to the successful sale of your home.
Let’s Get Started …
Staging your home always starts with a consultation and it’s never too early to bring in a stager to help you create an actionable plan for getting your home ready for sale. During the vacant home consult, your stager will tour your home and create a custom staging plan for your property. This staging plan will include both recommendations for updates & repairs to add value to the home as well as a staging proposal with pricing and a basic outline of what that will include.
In most cases, there will be a fee for this consultation (price ranges from $150 – $300) which you will need to budget for. Some staging companies refund the consult fee, either in part or in full, if the home staging proposal is accepted. For example, we charge $175 + tax for vacant property consultations but will fully refund that fee if our team is then hired to stage your home.
When staged effectively, properties sell up to 90% faster than un-staged homes and get an average of 8 – 10% ROI. In today’s local real estate market, many sellers are seeing extraordinary returns far above and beyond this for their investment.
Shauna Lynn Simon
Stage in Full or in Part?
Once you have the staging plan & proposal, it’s time to decide if you’re going to stage your home fully or partially. The more fully you stage your property, the more perceived value you add for prospective home buyers and the more marketable and sellable it becomes. This is because buyers are inherently visual and approximately 90% of them cannot envision the purpose of rooms without furniture and décor. The more that buyers can see themselves living in a home and using each and every space, the more value the property holds for them – and the more willing they are to buy it. Home staging creates an experience for the buyer and sells the lifestyle that would come with the purchase of the home.
Staging a vacant property helps to clearly define each space and is most effective when the house is staged in full, however, if your budget won’t allow for this, a partial staging can still be extremely impactful by staging key rooms of the home.
How Much Does it Cost?
The truth is, the cost of staging can vary depending on how many rooms are being staged, the size of the rooms, the style of the home and the type of building. The initial investment will range between $2,500 – $10,000 to stage properly and will usually cover 30-60 days of staging.
That can seem like a lot of money but keep in mind that staging an empty home is about more than just bringing in a few pieces of furniture, it’s about creating a highly marketable home through the strategic placement of furnishings and decor. An effective staging plan combines the best use of colour, texture, and proper scale furniture to showcase the home’s greatest features. In addition to the rental fees for the items provided, your staging investment includes the entire process of creating the custom staging plan, selecting, and packing all the furnishings and decor, installing them into a home and then removing everything once the property has sold.
The whole process takes many hours from start to finish and involves a team of experienced professionals to execute properly.
The payoff? When staged effectively, properties sell up to 90% faster than un-staged homes and get an average of 8 – 10% ROI. In today’s local real estate market, many sellers are seeing extraordinary returns far above and beyond this for their investment.
Once your house is staged, it’s ready for its closeup. You home will show great both in-person, and in photos, and will stand out in buyers’ minds from the other properties that they view.
Set Yourself up for Success
When it comes to staging your vacant home, our #1 tip is to make sure you work with an experienced home staging company that specializes in staging vacant homes. Not all home stagers do. And while it’s tempting to make your decision on pricing alone, it can result in ineffective staging that doesn’t get you the SOLD solution you wanted. The most important factors to consider include the quality of staging designs in their portfolio, their experience & professionalism, the quality of their inventory and the results they get for their clients.
Voted Top 75 Most Influential People In Real Estate Staging by the Real Estate Staging Association, Beyond The Stage Homes CEO Shauna Lynn Simon is an award-winning entrepreneur, home staging industry influencer, residential designer, business coach and author.
