Staging a home can bring out its best, but the owner must be willing to go that extra mile. Be wary of stagers who say "Do this and you will sell your house". Stagers can never give a hundred percent guarantee on what makes a house sell. He can only give suggestions.
As a seller you have certain responsibilities as well:
1. Certain owners make it very difficult for the realtor when he suggests home showing. The seller may have his reasons for this, but understand this: you need to go through certain inconveniences if you want to get the house sold.
2. Find out if the realtor himself is competent enough, certain realtors may have too many things on their plates; they may forget to return calls or respond to offers in a timely manner.
3. If the house is occupied, then it would be difficult to keep it in the way the stager advised, but going by 'his rules' would be helpful. Things would be easier if the house is not occupied, but otherwise you may have to make certain compromises.
Home staging myths debunked
1. Professional home staging is expensive
Home staging is not an expensive process at all. If your home is worth 300,000, then you would probably have to spend 2500-3000 to get the home in a "sellable" condition. The good news is that, you earn every penny back with a huge interest. If your home is in good shape, then you don't even have to spend that much amount.
2. Staging is an unnecessary trend I can do without
Absolutely wrong. Staging is important now, and it was important decades ago. Only thing is you didn’t have a fancy name for it then. Now staging is done in a professional way and it seems to have helped homes sell faster than ever before.
3. I would rather try to sell first
There are people who think they would rather try to sell their home first and if it doesn't worth then they would consider looking at alternative methods. That is a waste of time. And when you relist your home, which you would have to do once you do the staging, then it would raise suspicions.
4. Staging is a waste of time and money
Wrong again! It has been proved several times over that staging a home would actually hasten the selling process. National Association of Realtors (NAR) point out that staged homes get a return of 8 to 10% if they spend 1 to 3% of the home's asking price on home staging.
Certain stagers would vanish once the staging process is finished. In case, you need the stager's assistance till the house is sold, then insist that he stay with you. He should have no problems in coming back and giving you advice. If the stager calls and enquire how the home showing process is going, then understand this: he genuinely cares about you and would like to see the house sold.
Some stagers branch their services to accommodating moving and packing services as well. Or they may suggest reliable packers and movers so your relocation process would be easier. Certain stagers are good at designing new homes as well. So if you are relocating in the same county/area then you can re-enlist his services. Benefits of rehiring him again: (1) You already know the person well (2) You may even get a discount if you are hiring for both services.
Now that you know the facts about staging, get ready to hire a professional stager and sell your home with good returns.