The Most Important Rooms to Stage in Your Listings

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The Most Important Rooms to Stage in Your Listings

By Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR® Magazine

If you’re prepping a home for sale, what are the main areas of a home you should target with your staging – especially if you can’t stage every square inch? The National Association of REALTORS®’ 2015 Profile of Home Staging ranks the most important rooms to be staged, based on a survey of real estate buyer agent’s. Here’s how a home’s spaces stacked up:

1. Living room

2. Kitchen

3. Master bedroom

4. Dining room

5. Bathroom

6. Children’s bedroom

7. Guest bedroom

Overall, the survey found that staging can influence buyers’ perceptions of a home and even the home’s perceived value. Indeed, 32 percent of buyer agent’s say that their clients tend to be more willing to increase their offer by 1 percent to 5 percent of the dollar value; 16 percent say they believe a staged home could potentially raise their buyers’ offer by 6 percent to 10 percent.

The following chart shows just how staging can influence buyers’ perceptions of a home.

 

impact of staging

Yet, not every seller opts to stage, nor do the listing agents always recommend it. Forty-four percent of listing agents surveyed said they do not recommend staging but instead suggest that the seller declutters and fixes any property flaws; 13 percent say they only recommend staging for “difficult” homes to sell; and 4 percent say they only reserve staging for their high-price bracket listings. On the other hand, 34 percent of listing agents surveyed say they recommend staging for all the homes they list.

For those who do stage, the median dollar value spent on home staging per home was $675.

But who pays that amount varies. Sixty-two percent of REALTORS® surveyed say that the seller’s agent offers the home staging service to sellers and pays for it; 39 percent say the sellers pay for staging prior to listing the home; 10 percent say the seller pays for the staging after the home is sold; and only 3 percent say the agent’s firm pays for a home staging service.

Access more of the results from the 2015 Profile of Home Staging at Realtor.org.