When Selling Your Home: Stage It Yourself, or Hire a Home Stager

Once you've decided with me, or your real estate agent, on the market price and how you will market your home there’s little time left to get your house ready for visitors by putting on the finishing touches, just like that quick housecleaning you do before company comes over for dinner.You can either do the staging yourself, or hire a professional home stager. Here are some tips on doing it yourself, and the top 5 must-knows before hiring a professional:


Do It Yourself:

1. Outside: Keep your lawn trimmed, the rose bushes pruned, the weeds tamed. Put away the garden hose and the tools. Make sure the bulbs in your home’s exterior lighting fixtures are all in working order. Be vigilant about removing flyers, handouts and newspapers left on your front doorstep or driveway.

2. Inside: Brighten the rooms by opening the drapes, turning on the lights, cleaning the windows. Clear the clutter on the kitchen counter, bathroom sink, coffee table and couches. Make all the beds. Clean all your bathroom and kitchen fixtures. Do a quick vacuuming of the entire house, being sure to catch any cobwebs in the corners along the ceiling. Finally, take out the garbage.

3. If you have pets, find a safe place to keep them during a house showing: in the garage, in the basement or at a friend’s house.

Hiring a Home Stager, What You Should Know:

1. There's no clear-cut career path to becoming a stager: They are professional home stagers, which can also mean they are designers, decorators, real estate agents, etc. The ones who do the best are often people with backgrounds in merchandising and visual display of products.

2. Most, but not all, stagers have some kind of professional training for staging.
Much of the instruction in these classes is weighted toward teaching stagers how to run a successful business, rather than focusing on visual appeal. Make sure your stager has a background of experience with visual displays, not just program training.

3. Although some stagers work on a per-hour basis, most charge by the job, and the cost varies by region. The cost can be as low as $500 for the average single family home, but is usually between $1,500 to $3,000, and can be as high as $20,000 for large mansions.

Whichever way you are leaning, consult with your real estate agent first on what the best option is for you.