Should You Hire a Home Stager for Your Listings?

Home staging is a key marketing strategy to consider leveraging when preparing a home for listing, and a professional home stager can help make this process seamless.

Though home staging isn’t a requirement, hiring a home stager to prepare the home before it’s listed can help make an impact on the sale of the home, as well as the impression it leaves on prospective home buyers.

Before rolling up your sleeves to DIY home staging, or nixing the idea altogether, consider the influence that hiring a home stager for your listings can have.

What Impact Can Home Staging Have on a Home for Sale?

Staging is a way to spruce up the home for sale to boost its curb appeal and help buyers picture themselves living in the home. But what impact does home staging actually make?

NAR’s 2023 Profile of Home Staging uncovered that nearly 60% of agents said that home staging impacted their buyers’ impression of the house the majority of the time.

This is a staggering number that highlights the power of home staging and the impression it leaves on buyers. As a result, sellers’ agents found that staging a home slightly reduced its time on the market, and in some instances, had a positive impact on the change in dollar value offered for the home.

What Does a Home Stager Do?

Now that you’re able to weigh the possible benefits that staging a home can offer, you can determine whether or not you want to hire a home stager for your listings.

A professional home stager is equipped with design and interior decorating expertise, along with usually being able to provide an inventory of furniture, decor, artwork, and other elements for home staging. Keep in mind that leveraging their inventory may cost extra, but can be a worthy investment for a home that needs some TLC before it hits the market.

If your seller has quality home goods already, you can hire a home stager to rearrange furniture and even declutter a home. A home stager’s skill set will make smart use of the home’s space, helping to showcase the property in its best potential light.

Remember: The aesthetic goal of home staging should be to show the home in its glory, and make it as easy as possible for buyers to picture themselves living there.

A home stager’s deep knowledge of interior decorating and design can elevate the home you’re planning to list, which can help reduce the time it takes to sell the home and even bump up its selling price.

What to Consider Before Hiring a Home Stager

Home staging is optional, but highly recommended if a home needs some extra attention to its overall aesthetic appeal.

A few factors that may encourage you to hire a home stager before you list the property include:

• Cleanliness of the home: Some home stagers offer cleaning services, can work to declutter the home, or even advise on how best to tackle any cleaning needs.
• The seller’s furniture and decor: Every home has its unique charm, but if the interests of your seller reflect in their taste in decor, or if their existing furniture is outdated, a home stager can help fill this gap and show the home in the best light.
• The current layout of the home: Beyond the floor plan, perhaps your seller isn’t using the space in the most efficient ways. A home stager can walk through the home and rearrange accordingly to make the best use of space from an efficiency and visual standpoint, increasing its appeal and highlighting its potential functionality.
  

If you don’t want to have the entire home staged, whether that’s due to financial restrictions or a home that’s fine to list in its current state, consider hiring a home stager for the most impactful rooms, which according to NAR’s report are:

1. The living room
2. The main bedroom
3. The kitchen
   

Paring down home staging to these three rooms can help you get more for your money while still taking advantage of the positive impact a home stager’s work can offer.

Get Ready to List

A professional home stager can help take a home you’re about to list from good to great. Being able to provide an opportunity for prospective buyers to picture their future in the space, along with representing your seller’s property in the best light, makes hiring a home stager a potential win-win.

For more insights into the home selling and listing process, check out the RealEstateAgents.com blog today!