You care about growing your real estate business, keeping your buyers and sellers impressed by your smooth process and quick turnaround, and you’ve heard that home staging could take your entire operation to the next level. Before you dive in and call the first stager you see, get familiar with the basics of home staging — from the required timelines and the work involved to the investment.

40% of buyers are swayed by MLS photos. According to the National Association of Realtors, “Buyers are more willing to walk through a home they saw online,” indicating that they are attracted to or deterred by the photos presented. Home staging, followed by professional photography, can make or break your success on MLS.

National Association of Realtors

The Timeline

If you want to list a new property for sale on MLS tomorrow, you’ll need to have booked the staging and photography two or three weeks prior. Vacant home staging requires a preliminary site visit to determine the needs of the space and issue an estimate, followed by a scheduled staging day and a professional photo shoot.

Occupied home staging requires a staging consultation and enough time for the sellers to complete the consultation recommendations, followed by either a scheduled staging day or pre-photo finishing details service to ensure fabulous marketing photos and a professional photo shoot.

The Work

Home staging involves spatial awareness, merchandizing experience, and hard labor (you think we’re joking but we aren’t). Our team of home stagers regularly haul large furniture pieces in and out of trucks, remove or install window treatments, place genuinely breakable art and decor in each space, and move heavy area rugs to create the vision that our lead stager has developed for the space.

Home staging is not interior design. It isn’t about selecting furniture and decor that matches the style of the seller, realtor, or the potential buyer. Home staging is about showing the potential of a space and helping buyers understand its possibilities and capabilities.

The Investment

Home staging is a real estate marketing tactic that has proven again and again to make a significant return on the investment. A staged listing often sells faster and at a higher price. Staging ensures that the home is strategically highlighted for fabulous marketing photos, successful showings, and creates a lasting impression for buyers so that they bring offers.

Occupied home staging often involves using (some) existing items in the space, adding additional and necessary items, rearranging, repainting, editing, etc., as needed. Because not all houses are furnished with intention, occupied staging is not necessarily less of an investment than vacant staging, but it can be, depending on the listing.

Listing a home for sale? We can help you get it ready for market.

Occupied staging can still be livable. If your seller is worried that home staging will render their current home unusable, put their mind at ease. Occupied home staging is easy to quickly “reset” for last minute showings, and we offer these staging reset services as needed. This is ideal if your client is away at work or too busy.