“Home Staging” is the process of setting up a house for sale in such a way that the buyer can imagine themselves living in it. Home Staging is thought to improve a house’s selling price and help a house stand out in online searches and offline open houses. This helps an owner sell away the house sooner.

Home Staging is often done in a way that it enhances the property’s features and hides its flaws. This eventually makes the house look more presentable and attractive in photographs as well as in reality, thereby harnessing a good price.

Home staging can typically be estimated to cost 0.75% of the home’s list price. The price generally varies between $500 to $2000 but it can vary widely. This is because the cost of Home Staging depends on multiple factors like the size of your home, renting the furniture, the consultation fees, and the location of the property and the scope of the project.

Home Staging can get very costly especially if you need to rent the furniture for duration longer than expected. Moreover, the cost of hiring and consulting home stagers is also increasing day-by-day owing to the demand.

An alternative here is – ‘Virtual Staging’. Virtual Staging implements the concepts of Augmented Reality for offline staging. But in case you want to pictures for online markets than you can simply Photoshop the images of the property and add in the furniture like sofa sets in the living room and beds in the bedroom. This brings down the price drastically and allows us more flexibility to play around with what looks best. This also consumes lesser time and is considerably cheaper. But a warning saying that these are not real images is important.

It is true that if you have a good sense of designing and if interior designing is your cup of tea than you can easily arrange or re-arrange the furniture and put up a show. But if interior designing is not something you are good at than you should consider consulting a home staging company. This is because it gives a more professional touch to your house interiors.

The additional services offered by a home stager may differ from any of the following-

They advise on how to furnish any space i.e., adding, redesigning and removing furniture.
Recommend the best spaces or the “good features” of your house which should be staged ideally.
Point out and mention the repair and maintenance issues.
Advise you as a homeowner to present weird spaces in a creative and presentable way.

The process is a lot different in Virtual Staging which includes-

Changing the colours of the wall and flooring.
Changing the view from the windows.
Adding in pictures of new sofas, plants or wall pieces by removing the current ones.

Having discussed home staging and how to do it in detail, it is time we discuss the most important factor of the entire process – how to find a reliable home stager? The best way to find one is via referrals from sellers who have had success with a particular stager. Your broker is also an apt person to recommend good stagers to you. Make sure you do a good research about their work portfolio before signing up with them.

Is Home Staging worth it?

Firstly, when we think about home staging, we have to think about the costs involved. This tends to tread on a higher side if the stager you have hired is highly recommended or well rated, has a wonderful design sense as well as a great track record. In case you are not sure whether you should hire one or not, it makes sense to consult your broker and candidly ask them about the houses around you and your neighbourhood in general. This should give you a fair idea if you need to spend money on staging. If staging helps your house sell sooner and if it gets your house the necessary attention than it is worth to consult and hire a home stager.

We, at Mint Homes, are pioneers in partial and full home staging, interior consultation and design services, and furniture rental. Want to know more? Then contact us!