DIY Staging or Hiring a Professional Stager: Which Is Right for Your Home Sale?

Life can throw curve balls sometimes and when you have an unwanted house on your hands, it can be financially devastating.

If you’re competing with a lot of homes on the market, it may take more time for your home to sell. You might consider hiring a professional stager to make your home more attractive to buyers.

If you aren’t sure if you should stage your home yourself or if you should invest in house staging, continue reading this article to learn more.

What Does a Professional Stager Do?

Professional Stagers are trained to declutter a home while at the same time setting focus on sweet spots in every rooms features.

Looking at the Overall Picture

Professional Home Stagers not only place furniture in your house they look at your home from top to bottom; looking to make sure everything is in order from big repairs to the way a sofa sets.

When you stage the job yourself, you have to think about everything. You have to remember all the detailed fixes to be done. You need to think like an interior designer.

There are a lot of hats to wear when you’re trying to stage your own home. On the other hand, you’ll save time and effort if you have someone else that’s accustomed to handling this work for you.

A professional stager has a network of vendors accessible to them.  They can get what they need. You’ll have to build new connections and find people that are willing to let you use their furniture and other items to stage your home.

Stagers use mirrors, silk flowers, drapes and other tools to make sure homes appear amazing. Baskets, area rugs, and ottomans are other popular tools for effective staging.

Doing Staging Yourself

If you want to do your own staging, the biggest benefit is that you’re going to be able to save money. You won’t have to hire a stager but you’re going to be doing the work on your own which takes time. And we all know that time equals money.

When you have more time than money, it makes sense to do staging on your own. Here are tips for staging your home.

1) Model Your Home on Similar Homes

Search popular home sites such as Zillow to see homes in the area that are similar to yours. Are they staged nicely?

If they are staged nicely, you can tear a page from their playbook. Make sure to look at homes that have sold recently. You can assume these homes were well staged.

2) Stay Away from “Stuck” Homes

As you’re looking at online home sites, pay attention to homes that are “stuck.” Homes similar to yours that aren’t selling can tell you as much about how to stage as the ones that are doing well.

Some of these homes are likely to be left “open” with nothing in them. People often don’t have a great imaginations so they will look for other homes that allow them see themselves living in a home.

Find homes that are staged but still on the market. Most of these homes are probably too cluttered with furnishings. They may have too many flowers, photos, and flashy curtains.  Too much is often worse than nothing at all.

Use these examples to start planning your own staging. You should think minimal but impactful as you’re picking out pieces to put in your home.

3) Theme the Rooms

Themes give rooms a nice separated feeling. You don’t want themes to be too separate or overpowering but you do want people to be able to notice them.

Whatever the season is, you should use it to make staging even more special. You might use a specific type of flower that isn’t usually in bloom in other seasons. Or you might use bright colors in spring and cooler colors in the winter.

Is Using a Professional Right for You?

Now that you know what a professional stager does, you might be more inclined to hire one. On the other hand, if you’re good at decorating and setting up rooms, it might make more sense for you to do it yourself.

Some people have had bad experiences with movers, stagers and other people in their home while they are away. Since this is the case, some people choose to be onsite while work is ongoing.

If you want to be present while work is being done, this will take up your time. If you don’t choose to be there, store your valuables and important papers safely away.

You really have to decide which option is going to work best for you since there is no one perfect answer for every seller.

Get the Help You Need Today

Now you know what a professional stager does. If you want to make the most of your time and sell your house right away, we can help. Contact us today and we’ll let you know how we can help.