Are you selling your home?
Here are some important tips that have nothing to do with how to prep your home for the market. We will get to that in part two. First, it’s important to understand why you’re not always comparing apples to apples when you are considering home staging services.
Does your agent, or the agents you’re speaking with offer ‘free’ home staging? If you think it sounds too good to be true, it often is.
Don’t let terms like free home staging or “we cover staging” be a deciding factor when choosing your agent. First, it’s important that you to determine exactly what’s included in this ‘free staging’ and WHO exactly will be doing it.
Staging Levels
Light Staging
Is your agent covering light staging?
Light staging includes items like art, mirrors, lamps, decor, greenery and rugs.
Full Service Staging
Or are they covering full service staging?
Full service staging includes all of the items mentioned previously, as well as furniture such as sofas, chairs dining tables, and beds, as well as smaller furniture like coffee tables, consoles and night stands.
Who Will be Doing the Staging?
Once you know what level the Home Stager is covering, you also need to ask how many rooms they are including, for how long, and WHO exactly will be doing the staging.
Will the agent themselves be doing the staging? Will it be someone on their sales or admin team? Or are they bringing in a standalone staging company as part of their client service offering? If so, does this staging company own their own inventory? Or do they rent from a third party?
I think you get the point that not all staging is created equal. However, for every one of these service offerings, there is an appropriate house for it.
So which one is right for your home? Do you want a complete transformation? Do you want 30 years taken off your home? Or simply want your home to look a little prettier?
The good news is, most stagers offer all these options.
Homes that appear to be professionally decorated already may only require a consultation to prioritize the prep – such as minor repairs, pre-packing, and possibly rearranging some existing furniture.
Homes that have an appropriate amount of furniture that’s to scale and not too dated may just lack art, lighting and decor so only require styling or light staging.
Some properties are completely empty. This could be a brand new home, a recently renovated home, a rental property where the tenants have moved out, or in several cases we see, the homeowners were elderly and needed to move. These homes require full service staging to help define spaces so buyers can visualize how they will live in the space. It is important to note that empty rooms appear smaller. This is not ideal when you’re selling square footage.
These are just a few of the many examples of the homes we are called in to consult on.
How Does the Staging Process Work?
Short answer: it all depends on your expectations.
In the last 5 years, The Staging House has helped almost 600 homeowners, investors and agents get top dollar for their listings. It’s safe to say that we’ve seen pretty much every scenario, and have determined the “how does it work” solution that has the most positive outcome for both homeowners and agents.
We’re happy to share this with you!
It starts well before the staging starts, usually during the listing presentation. Once expectations are met on both sides (i.e. price, commission, length of contract), we will determine what the agent’s budget is for home staging. A good agent will know what their margins are and be able to give you a dollar amount. According to data specific to The Staging House, this amount has a range of $1500-$10,000, depending on the listing price and what has been negotiated.
It’s important to inform your stager what your agent’s budget is at the start of your consultation.
Your stager will ensure that the budget is first used towards the spaces that will get you the most value or Return on Investment (ROI), but still offer suggestions on how to have the all spaces show well.
Please remember that if the rooms you want staged come in over budget, your stager should remove rooms from your stage, not items. It is much better to have 3 rooms fully staged, than 6 rooms half staged.
Stagers want good pictures too. A room that is half staged is nothing to be proud of.
Home Staging Costs
It’s recommended that homeowners be open to covering the initial staging costs on stage day, even if you are using your agent’s preferred stager. If your agent has agreed to cover a staging budget, they will reimburse the agreed amount when the house sells, or on closing. Regardless of who covers the staging invoice, most stagers expect full payment on, or before stage day.
Homeowners should remember that if you’ve negotiated a low commission, your agent may not actually have a budget for staging. This isn’t uncommon. 25-30% of The Staging House stages are from homeowners contacting us directly.
With that said, 96% of our consultations are paid for by an agent. Which means, even when a homeowner contacts us directly, their agent will agree to cover the consultation fee, which is a huge value to them for the cost. Agents are happy to have stagers assist in prioritizing a list for the clients to prep their home for sale. This leaves the agent more time to focus on the behind-the-scenes business of actually listing your home.
For reference, The Staging House consultation services are $250 +HST, assuming that your home is local. Homeowners should expect that consultation service fee for an occupied home will be over and above actual staging costs. The stager will spend time on the road, time making their list of suggested edits and repairs, offer professional advice and time articulating the design plan to you, time creating a customized quote, as well as many communications back-and-forth. A stager may offer to credit a consultation fee back on a final staging invoice. This should not be done unless it was a quick, local, vacant walk-through to give a quote – meaning a home that is empty of people and no furniture to design around.
Choosing Your Home Stager & Real Estate Agent
Regardless of your wishes and your budget, there are plenty of qualified stagers in your area. Ask your agent for a referral or Google stagers in your area – and avoid the stagers who pay for ads that appear at the top of your Google search. These are companies paying to show up first in your search and are not always local. Don’t forget to read reviews and look at their staging photos.
Remember to choose your Real Estate Agent because of their experience, knowledge of the area and their current and past listings. Ask what their reach in the industry (who will actually see your listing?) and how robust is their marketing plan for your property. Do they use a professional real estate photographer? Most importantly, don’t choose an agent because they charge the lowest commission or suggest the highest list price.
If home staging is important to you, we can share a list of top agents that we work with in your area that recognize the value of home staging, and include The Staging House services as part of their client service offering.
