What is Home Staging?
Home staging is the process of decorating a home to sell it quickly and for top dollar on the real estate market. The objective behind staging a home is to set the stage for potential home buyers to imagine their lives living in a space that they can call home.
Home staging can be as simple as rearranging furniture, or it can be as elaborate as bringing in the new furniture, accessories and expertly dressing it up to make it look stunning for listing photos and walkthroughs. It’s a marketing tactic used to make a dark, drab, and outdated place feel warm, vibrant, and beautiful.
What Are The Benefits Of Home Staging?
We judge a book by its cover. We are all guilty of it. When we are online, buying a product, we often buy products that have nicer pictures because we inherently trust those listings more. Home staging works on the same principle, and its benefits include:
- Better first impressions
You might have a functional house, but if it is not packaged well, it won’t matter. A cluttered and dirty home fails to make a good first impression. To create a strong and positive first impressions, home staging helps.
- Take the appeal a notch higher
One of the benefits of home staging is that it makes the home look more clean, comfortable, and luxurious. It tricks potential buyers into imagining that their lives will be clean, comfortable, and luxurious if they buy the home. - Makes it easier to envision a better life
When the home is staged, considering how the space will be utilized, it gets easy for the potential buyers to envision a perfect life in the house. - Get more and higher offers
Home staging helps highlight the best features of a home, making the potential buyers see the home as more valuable. This increases the chances of getting offers over the asking price.
- Helps online viewing
According to the National Association of REALTORS® and Google, 90% of buyers begin their search on the Internet. This means your house should be prepared to shine online. Staging the home for pictures makes your home look beautiful online, inviting more people to your listing.
- Less time on the market
If you have not been getting offers on the home, home staging might be a perfect makeover your home needs. Home staging makes it easier for people to imagine themselves living in your home, helping you to sell it faster.
What Are Different Home Staging Options?
When looking to stage a home, you can choose to do it yourself (DIY), or you can use the help of a professional staging company. You can also combine both of these options.
- DIY: If you have the skills to design and present a property, or you want to save some money, DIY home staging is a good option. If you are taking the DIY route, some of the things you might want to consider include: rearranging the furniture, repainting and touching up the walls, removing personal décor or photos, adding new throw pillows and placing fresh flowers to add a warm touch.
- Professional Stagers: If you can afford it, you can hire a professional stager to do the job for you. These experts are experienced in interior design, decorating, and even in real estate. They know how to stage a home to make a quick sale.
Who Pays For Home Staging?
Typically, sellers are responsible for covering the expenses of home staging, but they have the option to negotiate with their real estate agent to share the costs in a specific ratio, and agents often agree if they believe it will lead to selling the house at a higher price, thereby increasing their overall profit.
Home Staging Tips
In this section, we’ll cover the home staging tips to help you get your home ready for a sale.
- Clean Thoroughly
This is the most important rule of staging a home. The cleaning should be so thorough that there should be no sign of dirt anywhere. A thorough cleaning should include:
- Replacing shower curtains
- Scrubbing the bathroom
- Cleaning under countertops
- Steam-cleaning the carpets,
- Cleaning the dirt between tiles
- Washing the windows
- Dusting ceiling fans and crown molding
- Polishing all fixtures
- Wiping down all appliances
- Declutter the Space
While home staging, keep in mind that the buyers need to picture themselves in the space. Flaunting your personal taste or momentos is a big mistake. Present a neutral, well-organized home that allows potential buyers to imagine how they would personalize the space and get a clearer picture of the home’s design. Some tips for decluttering the space include:
- Get rid of appliances from the kitchen counters.
- Depersonalize bathrooms by removing personal hygiene items and replacing them with pottery or plants.
- Arrange furniture in such a way that it’s easy for potential buyers to navigate a room. Typically, it involves removing excess furniture and décor.
- Whatever you choose to decorate the space with, group the objects in 3s, 5s, and 7s and place them at varying heights so that they please the eyes and not distract the buyers.
- Embrace the Light
When potential buyers enter the home, they should notice the light in the home. Natural light enhances the look of the space. Some tips to bring in more light include:
- Maximize natural light into the house by opening shades and curtains.
- If the weather permits, it’s a good idea to open windows and let the fresh air in.
- Consider turning on the lights to make the rooms look bigger and brighter.
How Much Does Home Staging Cost?
According to Realtor.com, home staging, on average, can cost from $300 to $600 for an initial design consultation. The staging cost per room is around $500 to $600 per month. However, the cost can vary depending on the location of the home. If the house sells within weeks or less, the total cost can be on the lower side. However, if the house is on the market for long, home staging can be an expensive option.
Is there a more affordable alternative?
Yes. A simple solution that is incredibly economical is virtual staging.
Like traditional staging, virtual staging helps potential buyers envision the possibility of the available space. Virtual staging uses advanced technology to virtually place furniture, artwork, and accessories into a real photograph of a home. A virtual stager can also help make architectural changes, change paint colors, and even the flooring.
Virtually staging transforms empty listing pictures into appealing and attention-getting photographs for a fraction of the cost.
Benefits of Virtual Staging Over Home Staging
The many benefits of virtual staging over home staging include:
- Time and Cost-effective
Unlike traditional staging, there is no need to move, replace, or rent furniture and accessories in virtual staging. Some of the best virtual staging companies like Styldod only charge as low as $16 to $23 per image. On the other hand, traditional staging costs $300 to $600 on average for an initial design consultation and $500 to $600 per month per staged room.
- Better Visualization
With virtual staging, you can experiment with various styles, colors and moods without making any time and money investments of moving furniture and other purchases made in home staging. Moreover, virtual staging allows conceptualizing and visualizing distinct design options, with many underlying details for the same room to demonstrate the versatility of a home.
- Better Flexibility
Unlike physical home staging, virtual staging gives you the flexibility to work with current furniture, add or remove the furniture, décor, plants to add warmth and color to the image. - Improved Convenience
How long does it take for a traditional home stager to haul out your old furniture, haul in new furniture, and arrange everything in the house masterfully for the perfect shot? Weeks or months, right? With virtual staging, the average turnaround time is 24 to 48 hours from the time the photograph of the room is submitted.
Help buyers envision the true potential of your listing. Try virtual staging by Styldod.
Price Comparison: Virtual Staging Vs. Home Staging
It’s important to choose a home staging service that fits within your budget. In this section, we’ll take a look at some differences between virtual staging and home staging on the price aspect:
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Virtual Staging
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Traditional Home Staging
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Price ranges between $40 and $200 per room, on average
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On average, the cost is between $300 to $600 for an initial design consultation, and $500 to $600 per staged room per month
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Single fee charged per room that you pay only once
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- Charge a flat rate for the first month and several hundred dollars per month thereafter
- The longer the home stays on the market, the more your stager will charge to keep their items in the home until it sells
- Charge an upfront fee based on the number of rooms and size of the home
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Partner With Styldod to Sell Your Listing Quick!
By now, two things should be clear: home staging has big benefits, and virtual staging is a cheaper option than traditional home staging. However, virtual staging is not a DIY thing. You need to have design skills, time, and energy to get the desired results.
Styldod can provide you with an easier and cheaper virtual staging solution to maximize profits and minimize efforts. To sell your home with ease, contact Styldod.
Rahul Agrawal
Co-founder and Chief Business Officer at Styldod
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