I have been detailing all kinds of information about home staging for years. So it was great to know that the suspected benefits of home staging have now been validated.
Floridarealtors.org, the support agency for dozens of Florida REALTOR® Associations, recently reported to its members about a National Association of REALTORS® survey that revealed how home staging not only makes sense – it can make dollars and cents as well!
According to the post, REALTORS® believe that buyers most often offer a 1 to 5 percent increase on the value of a staged home (37 percent representing sellers and 32 percent representing buyers). Additionally, 22 percent of REALTORS® representing sellers and 16 percent of Realtors® representing buyers says the increase is closer to 6 to 10 percent.
NAR’s first-ever staging report found that 49 percent of surveyed REALTORS® who work with buyers believe staging “usually” has an effect on the buyer’s view of the home; 47 percent believe it “sometimes” has an impact; and only 4 percent says it has “no impact.”
REALTORS® on the buyer side believe that staging makes an impact in several ways:
- 81 percent says staging helps buyers visualize the property as a future home
- 46 percent says it makes prospective buyers more willing to walk through a home they saw online
- 45 percent says a home decorated to a buyer’s tastes positively impacts its value
- 10 percent, however, says a home decorated against a buyer’s tastes could negatively impact the home’s value
- On the seller side, a majority of Realtors® use staging as a tool at least sometime:
- 34 percent say they stage all homes
- 13 percent tend to stage only homes that are difficult to sell
- 4 percent only stage higher-priced homes.
The report also reveals that the median cost spent on staging a home is $675. Sixty-two percent of REALTORS® representing sellers say they offer home staging as a service to sellers, while 39 percent say the seller pays before listing the home.
REALTORS® representing both buyers and sellers agreed on two major points covered in the report – which rooms should be staged, and the change in dollar value a buyer is willing to offer for a staged home compared to a similar not-staged home.
REALTORS® ranked the living room as the No. 1 room to stage, followed by a kitchen. Rounding out the top five rooms were the master bedroom, dining room and the bathroom.
