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When staging a home, a seller should budget around $300 to $600 for an initial design consultation and $500 to $600 per month per staged room.
When moving, the last thing anyone wants to worry about is selling their home. With the real estate market slowing, homes aren’t selling as quickly as they did a year ago. That’s why it’s crucial for sellers to make their homes as appealing as possible to buyers.
That’s where home staging comes in, helping to highlight a home’s strengths, minimize its flaws and attract the right buyers.
Photo by Savannah Schmidt
Bonnie Hicks, a top-selling realtor in Trussville, poses in one of her recently sold homes on Jan. 30, 2025.
Bonnie Hicks, a top-selling real estate agent in the Trussville market with Keller Williams, shares his insights on how staging can impact home sales in the local market.
“Staging is very important,” Hicks said. “It can make the difference in a fast sell at the best price, versus staying on the market and getting low offers.”
Home and Garden Television, more popularly known as HGTV, recommends taking steps such as freshening up curb appeal – pressure washing, painting, adding new lighting or a mailbox – giving the kitchen a face-lift with paint or other minor updates, adding a functional office space, reorganizing furniture to show the potential uses of a room, and depersonalizing the home by removing family photos and other personal items.
“Staging is more than hanging a pretty picture. It really starts outside with curb appeal and continues through the home,” Hicks said. “A qualified Realtor can make suggestions that will help the home homeowner know what to do. Usually, it starts with decluttering and purging items to show floor space and wall space. It sometimes may even be as simple as changing a paint color and rearranging furnishings. Should it be a vacant home, there are professional stagers that provide furnishings.”
If you’re looking to have your home professionally staged, Realtor.com recommends budgeting around $300 to $600 for an initial design consultation and $500 to $600 per month per staged room. The more expensive the home, the higher the potential staging costs can be.
While sellers will need to front the money for staging, the Real Estate Staging Association reports that several studies have shown that by investing 1.3% of a home’s value in staging, 73% of sellers saw a return of over 7.1%.
“Recently, I had a seller call me because his home had been on the market for a couple of months, and he wanted to change realtors and list it with me,” Hicks said. “I went in, did a walk through with him, made some suggestions and he gave me full access to do some purging and rearranging some of his furnishings. The home went under contract within two weeks.”
For more tips on staging, visit hgtv.com/lifestyle/real-estate.
