Selling a home in Denver can be challenging, which is why staging is such a crucial strategy. Staged homes have been shown to attract more buyers, sell houses quicker, and obtain higher bids than homes that are not staged for sale. Knowing this, the cost of staging is well worth the investment — but how much does it cost to stage a house? Successful home staging goes beyond renting furniture to fill out space. It also involves repairing, cleaning, and decorating. With that in mind, the following is a breakdown of the home staging costs that you should budget for when selling a house:
1. Hiring A Professional Home Stager
First and foremost, nobody doubts your interior design tastes; however, you should strongly consider working with a professional stager. Most real estate agencies and agents have connections with local staging professionals. The first thing a professional home stager will do is schedule an appointment for an in-home consultation. A consultation is usually two hours long and is essentially an evaluation of your home in its current state. The home stager will look at every room and give you advice on how it should be staged. Such advice can be useful whether your home is entirely vacant or still furnished. The initial staging consultation usually costs between $150 and $600.
Additional Home Staging Services
Although you could stop at the consultation, you would be wise to continue using the home stager’s services. These services include the actual staging of the house. Considering the time it takes to furnish and decorate a home, as well as the connections a professional stager will have with local furniture rental stores, it’s well worth the investment. Professionals who charge by the hour will usually charge between $25 and $150; however, most charge a set service fee˛ (often between $800 and $1000) along with a per room monthly staging fee (usually between $400 and $700 per room per month).
2. Professional Cleaning
At the very least, a thorough cleaning is an absolute must. Cleaning your house can be very time-intensive, especially if there’s a lot of work to do. There’s more to cleaning than just vacuuming the rugs, mopping the floors, and dusting the furniture. For example, if the kitchen has been regularly used, appliances such as the stove and refrigerator will likely need a serious scrubbing. The same goes for the bathrooms in your home. To ensure that the house is thoroughly cleaned, consider hiring a professional cleaning service. The cost of hiring a professional cleaning service in Denver is between $120 and $225 an hour, depending on the house’s size and whether any specialty cleaning services are required (which typically cost more).
3. Decluttering And Rearranging
Decluttering and rearranging your furniture is certainly something you can do on your own. You could use the advice provided by a professional home stager during the consultation to make your changes to the existing interior design. However, most professional home stagers can declutter and rearrange furniture for you as part of their general services. If you’re already using a home stager, decluttering and rearranging can be considered part of that cost.
4. Improving The Lighting
Good lighting will help showcase your staging efforts better. It would help if you replaced all dead or dying light bulbs to ensure that every room is adequately lit. Replacing bulbs costs between $1 to $8 a lightbulb (depending on whether you buy an incandescent or an LED bulb). To repair a light fixture, expect to pay between $110 and $285 (depending on the fixture and the labor required).
5. Painting
Painting isn’t always necessary, mostly if you’re selling a newer home, or you’ve repainted the interior or exterior somewhat recently. However, if the color has begun to fade, a new paint job might be in order. If the existing colors are a little too bold, consider repainting as well.
Interior
The cost of painting your interior depends on how much square footage you’re covering. To get a professional painter to paint your interior walls, it will cost roughly $2 to $6 per square foot of coverage. Some painters do charge hourly instead, in which case you can expect to pay approximately $20 to $50 an hour.
Exterior
Several factors contribute to the cost of painting your home’s exterior. Not only will it depend on the square footage covered, but also on the difficulty of the job. For instance, it will cost more to paint a two-story house than a single-story home. The cost of painting a home exterior tends to be between $1,734 and $4,116.
6. Furniture Rentals
Arguably the most critical part of staging a house is furnishing it. It’s the furniture that helps showcase the function of each room as well as highlight the potential. The estimated costs of furnishing either an empty house or an already furnished house include:
Furnishing Empty House
The cost of furniture rental varies significantly based on not only how much furniture you need, but for how long you need it. If your house remains unsold for months on end, it can add up. However, be aware that there’s often a three-month minimum, even if you sell within the first month. You can expect to pay around $2,000 to furnish a 2,000 square foot home with an additional $2,000/month rental fee. You can also rent furniture on a by-room basis, costing around $400 to $700 per room. If you decide to rent out furniture on a by-the-room basis, the monthly rental fee will be somewhat smaller, typically around $500 to $600.
Supplementing Existing Furnishing
A professional stager will generally charge a one-time fee to stage an already furnished house. Typically around $800, this fee includes the consultation, decluttering, and rearranging any existing furniture. However, the rental decor will cost extra (around $400 to $700), along with a monthly fee, between $500 and $600.
7. Landscaping Services
Your yard plays an essential part in your home’s curb appeal, which is why it requires staging as well. For example, mowing the lawn, trimming bushes, trimming tree branches, planting flowers, and more, are all ways you can stage your landscaping. The cost of landscaping will vary based on your needs, but here are some of the costs of the more basic landscaping services:
- Mowing: $50 – $220
- Tree trimming: $75 – $2,000
- Flower planting: $300 – $3,000
Tips For Staging Your Home On A Budget
There’s no real way around it; if you’re going to stage your house for sale (which you should), you’re going to have to pay a decent amount of money to do it. While we believe it’s worth the investment (and studies have indicated that it is), we understand that the entire home selling process can be expensive. If you’re operating on a tight budget, there are certainly some things you can do to help cut costs, including:
Declutter And Clean Your Home Yourself
If you have time on your hands, you could easily save some money by decluttering your home yourself. If your house is already vacant, then no decluttering is necessary; however, cleaning will still be. Although it’s easier and more efficient to hire a professional cleaning service, doing it yourself can save you a chunk of change.
Focus On Staging Only Most Important Areas
Going all out to stage that third bedroom or the attic space may not always be necessary. Focus instead on the essential spaces, such as the living room, master bedroom, and kitchen. You can then save some money on staging non-essential areas.
Use Your Own Furniture
If your house is currently furnished with your furniture, there’s no reason to move it out and have it staged using rented furniture. You should be able to use a lot of your furniture, even if it may need to be rearranged. You can always rent a few pieces to complement what you already have.
Perform Landscaping Yourself
People forget that landscaping is a part of staging. You’re staging your home exterior for sale, after all. There’s a certain amount of landscaping that you can do on your own to save some money. For example, removing clutter from the yard, mowing your lawn, and trimming your bushes.
Wrap the Costs Into Your Sale
Some real estate agencies offer staging services and can handle all of your staging needs for you. The cost is then taken out of the sale of the house. If you go this route, expect it to cost anywhere from 1 to 3 percent of the sale price. If you don’t have cash on hand to have the staging done yourself, this can be a good option.
Is Home Staging Worth The Cost?
Considering how much it can cost to stage a home, you might be wondering whether it’s worth the investment. The two main reasons why it’s worth it to pay for home staging are these:
Staged Homes Sell Faster
A house that is staged will sell faster than a house that hasn’t been staged. This fact has been proven by studies conducted by the RESA (Real Estate Staging Association). According to RESA, a staged home will spend an average of 32 days on the market before it’s sold. But a house that’s not staged takes an average of 143 days to sell. The costs of staging are well worth it once you consider how much money you’ll spend on the house the longer it’s on the market (from existing mortgage costs and property taxes to insurance and upkeep costs).
Staged Homes Sell For More Money
A study published by NAR (National Association of Realtors) revealed that realtors strongly believe that staged homes tend to receive higher bids than non-staged homes. In fact, 58 percent of professional realtors who took part in the study believed that homebuyers submit larger bids for staged homes than non-staged homes.
Be Sure To Budget For House Staging Costs When Selling A Home In Denver
As you can see, home staging costs can vary greatly, especially when taking into account the size of your house and whether or not it’s already furnished. Whatever the case may be, it’s well worth the time, effort, and cost to have your Denver property staged for sale. In the long run, effective staging can help sell your house quicker and for more than if you didn’t stage your home. Just make sure that you sit down and calculate the potential costs so that you’re not taken by surprise. A reputable real estate agent or agency can help with this.
