Home Staging 101

The way you live and the way you sell are very different.

Home staging is the act of preparing a private residence for sale in the real estate marketplace. The goal of staging is to make a home appealing to the highest number of potential buyers, thereby selling a property more swiftly and for more money. Staging is a way to make photos really stand out online, as well as focuses on the flow as potential buyers browse through the home. Home sellers spend an average of $1,800 to stage a home, but costs can range from a couple of hundred dollars to $5,000 or more and this can be paid at closing.

Staging won’t make a home sell for more than it’s worth. But it can set your home apart and boost the selling price to the top of the range for comparable homes. It can also cut the time on the market.

Staging can really help buyers imagine their life in your home and it accentuates the positives in the home.  Staging a home is a like a thorough detailing for a car. If you were going to sell your car, then you would focus on every aspect of that car to have it ready to show.  Similar concepts are for the selling of real estate as well.

MHM Professional Staging is a local company who specializes in staging in Central Florida.  They offer a 1 hour consultation for $150 to help give you ideas in terms of rearranging furniture, if you need to refresh some paint colors and some other ideas.  Typically the cost is $200 per room per month, plus move in and move out fees.  They also offer “Soft Staging” in which they just have a few accent items to assist with staging and not as costly as furniture staging.

Virtual Staging is another new concept where photos of the empty home are then staged with furniture.  Sometimes this can help one visual the home online, but of course the furniture isn’t in the property when the buyers visit the home.