When is home staging worth the expense? It depends, not every home needs to be professionally staged. Obviously an experienced Realtor with great marketing is crucial.
Let’s take a look at this La Crescenta home I just sold. In this instance, the expense was well worth it. This home had been beautifully updated by the owner less than ten years ago and offered a wonderful floorplan; the only drawback was a small back yard. Bringing in furniture to this vacant home helped highlight the great floorplan and allowed a buyer to get emotionally involved (and overlook the yard).
The home had been previously listed with two different Realtors prior to Harb & Co.:
Agent A: Listed on 7/23/14 for $749,999, 30 days on market
Agent B: Listed on 8/23/14 for $729,000, 69 days on market
After the first two expired listings, the owner was discouraged and kept the home off the market for a bit. He replaced black sinks in one of the baths, updated the stove and microwave, spending about $10,000. I then made minimal recommendations: plant a few flowers, paint one door and the mailbox. But what really made this home pop was staging. The cost for Madison Modern Home to stage was well under $5,000.
We listed this home in April for $745,000. I held the home open on Saturday and Sunday. By Monday, we had a handful of offers. Five weeks later we closed escrow at $805,000, which was $60,000 over our list price! This was $76,000 higher than agent B’s list price.
