If your real estate team is really awesome like us, they may even stage your place for you with your own furniture at no extra cost.
Our home selling clients often ask if staging really makes a difference. Our answer, in a nice and roundabout way is that every listing must be have some staging involved. There are a many ways to accomplish this goal, but if a seller wants to make the most money (or lose the least amount of money) on home selling, then it is imperative. The least expensive way of getting your house ready to sell is to do the staging yourself. Often, the realtor can go through the house with you and give you a list of what to take out and what to keep & how to rearrange for showing the house to its highest potential. Ask the realtor to be brutally honest! The next step up would be to do the same thing with a staging professional– in this case you’ll pay anywhere from $150-250 for a consultation with the staging professional where they will tell you what to do. This is a great option if your realtor is a friend or sheepish about telling you which furniture to 86. If doing the actual work & moving is unpleasant for you, the staging professionals can help with that. Their team will usually charge about $1000 (give or take, depending on the size of the house) for staging with your own belongings and moving things around. If not much is involved, the cost is much less than that. The biggest bang for hour home selling buck is whole house staging—this option will make your place look like a model home & it has the biggest financial return. Of course, it also has the biggest financial outlay. In our area it runs from $2200-$4000 for a moderate staging job depending on property size. Typically this works best if the house is vacant – staging professionals bring in furniture, air mattresses, art & other décor and transform your place in one day! It is an investment that can bring upwards of $25,000 or even more. What you don’t want is a dowdy, frumpy, cluttered house on the market. The competition will eat you alive (because guess what – they are staging!).
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About Kelsey Lane
