WHY DOES HOME STAGING COST WHAT IT DOES?

Home Staging is a relatively new niche in the New England area.  Often times, home owners don’t  understand what it is and realtors do not believe they need it.  Both parties have sold homes and done without it for 25 years!  But the realization is HOME STAGING IS NOW BECOMING THE NORM WHEN SELLING HOMES. 

WHY STAGE?  The biggest reason is the home sells quicker and for a greater profit.

Let’s demystify the cost of hiring a professional home stager.

Most importantly, a home stager is a trained professional and therefore has an hourly rate.  Owning a home staging business includes costs associated with developing marketing plans, operating policies, procedures and contracts, networking, overhead, insurance, travel time, continuing education.  This is not a hobby.  It is a business.

“Can’t you just bring in some furniture and leave it in the vacant house for me for $500?”

I hear this all the time from real estate agents who do not understand the cost to stage a home.  The following is what a home stager needs to take into consideration when quoting a job:

• The inventory.  Stagers invest their own money to have furnishings immediately available for rent to create a home that will stand out on the MLS.

• Delivery costs.  Help is needed—large trucks and strong individuals—when moving bulky pieces of furniture in and out of your home. 

• Time:  From the consultation, design, sourcing and showcasing to the de-staging and re-inventorying, home stagers put many unseen hours of work into the preparation to stage your home. 

“Can you be a team player and wait until closing to be paid?” 

Would you ask your contractor, electrician, painter or landscaper who worked to upgrade the home to wait?  Home stagers need to be added to that same list—we are professionals who should be paid when the work is completed. 

“Will you cut your cost for me?  This is a smaller listing.”  

We are staging the home to make both the home owner and realtor a larger profit.  Is it fair to ask a home stager to take a pay cut when you will likely take home a larger paycheck at closing?   We work as hard on a smaller home staging, as we do a larger home staging.

ROI

There is a cost to home staging, but the ROI is more than 6% higher than the asking prices as published in a survey by Coldwell Banker.  Is it worth it to stage your home prior to listing it?  In my opinion, it most certainly is!  Call me to find out more!  603.686.1344

CHEERS!

~Trish