The Real Estate Blog

You may remember our blog post about why you should hire a home stager and how they can help your home sell more quickly and oftentimes, for more money. This week we’re exploring the top mistakes to avoid when hiring a home stager. Not all home stagers are created equal and avoiding these common mistakes can make a big difference in terms of how quickly you are able to sell your home and for how much money.

The Top 5 Mistakes to Avoid When Hiring A Home Stager:

1. Focusing on price. We’ve mentioned that finding a qualified home stager can help save you money so think about hiring a home stager as an investment. You can expect to pay anywhere from $250-$500 for the initial consultation and rates generally vary depending on where you live. Saving a few hundred dollars on fees and getting bad staging advice will actually cost you more money in the long run.
2. Looking for credentials. Official credentials for home stagers don’t actually exist so don’t be fooled by a home stager who claims to be accredited by some type of governing body. This field is unlicensed so if you see any types of credentials, keep in mind that this is likely from a training company helping the stager market themselves.
3. Hiring someone without looking at their portfolio. Since there are no actual credentials for home stagers, looking at their portfolio is crucial. Home staging is such a visual thing that it’s important for you to get a sense of the stager’s aesthetic and to make sure that he or she can actually do what they say they can do. If you can’t find any proof of the home stager’s existence online, you might want to think twice about hiring them to make your home look professional.
4. Hiring someone without speaking to references. Just like with most people you’d hire to do work on your home, you should always check the references of the home stager. Even if they have references listed online, you should still ask the home stager to give you contacts you can get in touch with. If the home stager is fairly new to the game, they should be able to tell you about their own homes they’ve staged or put you in touch with any realtors they have worked with in the past.
5. Don’t stage every room. The main rooms that should always be staged are the kitchen, living room, all bathrooms and the master bedroom. Leaving some rooms empty or as is will help buyers picture themselves living in your home. Even if some rooms are left un-staged, it is still important for them to be clean and tidy.

Another thing you need to avoid when hiring a home stager is taking their suggestions personally. It’s important to keep in mind that the overall goal with a home stager is for them to prime your home so that prospective buyers can visualize themselves living in your home. Hiding things like family photographs is actually quite common as it can subconsciously convince buyers that the home isn’t theirs.

The more neutral you can remain while the home stager does his or her job, the better!

Have you fallen prey to one of these common home stager mistakes before? Let us know what you’d do differently in the future over on our Facebook page!