Cluttered or tired-looking houses not only take longer to sell but also often fail to attract a great price. That’s where home staging comes in handy. It involves preparing private residences for sale in the real estate marketplace.
According to real estate professionals, home staging isn’t all about decorating; it’s more like de-personalizing a house so that potential buyers can imagine themselves living in the house.
This may mean removing family pictures, rearranging furniture to show off the best features of the rooms, and adding neutral-colored paint and decorative items such as artwork and flowers. Properly implemented staging leads the eye to compelling features, while down-playing flaws.
Home staging has become a popular option for sellers trying to make a good impression. It helps them get a good price for their property.
According to a study conducted by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), staged homes typically sell faster. About 62% of agents agree that staging has a positive impact on a home’s time on the market.
If you are looking to stage your home, you have three options:
- Choose to do the staging yourself
- Look to your real estate agent for help
- Bring in a professional staging company to do the work on your behalf
If you would like to go with the third option, you need to pick the company carefully. They will evaluate the current condition of your house and make recommendations on how to enhance its overall appeal to prospective buyers.
Below, we have listed some of the best home staging companies that will help you sell your property more swiftly and for more money.
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9. Seattle Staged To Sell
Region served: Seattle
Seattle Staged To Sell & Design is a boutique-style home staging and interior design company founded in 2005. It is known for giving unprecedented attention to detail regardless of project size.
The company assigns a professional design consultant to each project who discusses your goals and budget. Based on the discussion, the consultant then performs a comprehensive walk-through of your home, assessing furniture, clutter, color, lighting, accessories, and any required repairs.
Following the assessment (which usually takes between 1 to 3 hours), the consultant presents a detailed plan to prepare your home for the market. You will be provided with custom recommendations designed to get the most money for the home in the shortest period of time.
Since every house is unique and has an aura of its own, the company doesn’t use the “one size fills all” model. It strategically takes into consideration the layout and design elements of the house as well as the targeted buyer to sell your house as soon as possible.
Pros
- Simple, honest, and straightforward
- Creates a unique design for your specific home and targeted buyer
- Perfect for homeowners with a smaller budget
Cons
- Prices vary hugely based on location and number of items selected
The company has curated a wide range of design styles to suit your home, from cottage and beachy to mid-century and modern, or anything in between. They will highlight the most desirable qualities of your home based on homestyle trends, demographic research, and the targeted buyers.
It’s up to you whether you want to stage the whole house or just a few strategically selected rooms.
8. TNT Staging
Region served: Carolinas
TNT Staging offers reliable, high-quality services related to all real estate transactions. Based in the Charlotte area, the company works with numerous homeowners, real estate brokers, and homeowners in the Carolinas.
Their goal is to provide the best services at fair and competitive market prices. They give quotes within 48 hours after seeing the property.
TNT focuses more on marketing to attract as many buyers as possible. They quickly get your house cleaned, staged, and photographed. Unlike other companies, they can stage a house in one day. And since TNT owns 100% of its inventory, you don’t have to pay a third party for furniture rental.
Plus, TNT is the only staging firm in the Carolinas that installs curtains, which make your house look like a model home. They work very hard to make your property look sophisticated and complete.
Pros
- Fast turnaround time
- Owns 100% of their inventory
- Fully-insured and follows strict standards
Cons
- Not available in most states
The company has well-trained, highly professional, and experienced employees who can help you at every stage of the project. They take all kinds of projects — whether it’s too small or too big — and make properties stand out from the competition.
7. Impressive Home Staging
Region served: Virginia
Impressive Home Staging provides professional home staging and redesign services to homeowners and realtors in Hampton Roads, Virginia. It turns vacant and occupied properties into warm and welcoming showplace homes, making them more attractive for selling and living.
The company offers comprehensive consulting for the entire house, inside and out. They will charge you $200 for 90 minutes of consultation. The team generally begins with analyzing your house and addressing the issue to make the best first impression.
They walk through the house and give you recommendations to maximize the selling potential. Recommendations are made for home repairs, furniture and accessory placement, de-cluttering, de-personalizing, paint color selection, and what should stay and what should go. They will also provide a Home Evaluation Booklet to take notes. As an additional service, you can hire them to make all the suggested changes for you.
Impressive Home Staging has enough inventory to stage up to 50 houses simultaneously. They continually purchase new furniture and accessories to stay on top of emerging design trends.
Pros
- Easy online quote, e-sign contract
- Enough inventory to stage 50 houses at one time
- Great for smaller homes, typically under 1,500 sq ft
Cons
- Expensive for larger properties
The company also offers three Vacant Staging packages: Essential (suitable for small homes), premier (best for mid-range homes under 3500 sq ft), and luxe (caters to homes over $1 million).
With professional photography, they can help potential buyers visualize homes as their own. Their average days on the market is 20 days.
6. The Staging House
Region served: Canada
The Staging House is a full-service home staging, decorating, and redesign company. They have a 3,500 square ft warehouse with office space conveniently located in Burlington, Ontario. This huge space allows them to house their own inventory, leaving out the middle man.
The Staging House works closely with homeowners, property managers, real estate agents, builders, and inventors from Niagara through to Toronto.
The company specializes in optimizing the function, flow, and esthetic of both vacant and occupied houses of all sizes. Their team offers multiple staging services, and consultation may include furniture/accessories placement, lighting, paint color recommendations, and window covering suggestions. They get a discount at some wholesalers, which they happily share with you.
Pros
- Knowledgeable and professional staff
- Homes look professionally decorated rather than staged
- A totally stress-free experience from start to finish
Cons
- They charge $250 for consultation
They remove the flaws (instead of hiding them) and highlight the best features of the home, allowing potential buyers to visualize a new lifestyle and fall in love with the place. On average, the homes they stage sell within 27 days for 92% of the asking price.
5. Impact Home Staging Experts
Region served: United States
This is Michigan’s most experienced home staging company that has contributed to the sale of more than 6,000 homes in Bloomfield, Birmingham, Rochester Hills, Royal Oak, Troy, and beyond.
Impact Home Staging Experts utilize every aspect of design and market data to develop a staging plan that sells your hose for the highest possible price in the shortest amount of time. They harness the knowledge of both simple and intricate details that trigger the emotions of target buyers.
They control everything (from floor design to furniture) by splitting tasks into multiple stages. Decades of experience have allowed them to improve revenues for home sellers throughout Macomb, Wayne, and Washtenaw Counties.
Pros
- Best for small and midsize homes
- Professional and responsive staff
- Excellent value for the service
Cons
- Pricing varies by location
The company specializes in consultations, space planning, vacant properties, furniture selection, pre-construction design, cost-effective updates, and full-scale builder models. They have been featured on local ABC, FOX programs, Today Show, and NBC.
4. Cullum Design
Region served: London, Oxfordshire
Cullum Design is a family business founded in the late 1980s. From Chelsea townhouses to seaside show flats, it provides amazing interior services to property owners, influential property developers, and renowned estate agents with prime properties.
More specifically, the company provides home stating, furniture purchase, and rental services. It closely works with customers to present the property at its best.
Cullum Design has worked with thousands of clients, from developers to celebrities who live abroad. They approach each project in a unique way, whether it’s a country house, loft apartment, vacant home, or large period townhouse.
Pros
- Unique style and design approach
- Three decades of experience in interior styling
- Provide you with a free no obligation quote
Cons
- Expensive charges for styling and installation
Unlike most other staging companies, Cullum Design provides a staging quote free of charge. The quote includes complete customizable of the property with soft furnishings, furniture, artwork, and needed accessories.
Once the property is ready, the agent takes care of the presentation and makes a stronger first impression on target buyers and the internet.
3. Meridith Baer Home
Region served: United States
Meridith Baer Home is one of the leading home staging companies in the United States, with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and San Francisco. It holds over 300,000 square feet of inventory in its warehouse facilities on the east and west coasts.
The company stages all types of properties, including cottages and midsize homes, highrise condos and lofts, retail showrooms, and furnish hotels. It also offers luxury furniture leasing, interior design, and InstaHome services. As far as the interior staging is concerned, they cover everything from traditional and coastal and traditional to modern.
Meridith Baer Home has a great track record. It averages 185 properties per month, and many of those sell within a month. In 2019 alone, the company installed more than $11 billion of real estate.
They have provided services to hundreds of celebrities and billionaires, including Madonna, Brad Pitt, Harrison Ford, Rihanna, Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Cindy Crawford, and Sharon Stone.
Pros
- Has a great track record
- Creates compelling interiors in every style
- Most projects sell in less than 30 days
Cons
- Relatively expensive service
On average, Meridith Baer Home charges between $15,000 and $20,000 per staging. Their client’s homes typically sell for $2.5 to $4 million in Los Angeles, and most projects have ranged from $600,000 bungalows to $120 million estates.
2. Stuccco
Region served: United States
Stuccco is a virtual home design company that offers various helpful services for homeowners, real estate professionals, designers, and home goods manufacturers and retailers.
If you are planning to sell your property, you can send them property images to get it staged. They add photo-realistic renderings of furniture and decor, remove items, and change interior/exterior walls, cabinets, ceilings, floors, and landscaping. You can then use these final images to market and sell houses faster and for more price.
Unlike conventional in-person staging, Stuccco eliminates the risk of property damage. Plus, the cost of digital renderings never increases if your listing does not sell immediately.
According to the company, their renderings help customers sell properties 88% faster and for 20% more money, while saving over $1,500 and seven days of time in comparison to hiring an in-person stager.
In most cases, Stuccco edits your property photos in 24 hours or less. And if you want those photos to be revised, you can inform them via email. They will edit staged photos free of charge until you are completely satisfied. However, the revision request should be made within 60 days.
Pros
- Get any room virtually staged or designed within 24 hours
- Cost-efficient
- Stage exteriors
Cons
- Staged photos cannot be revised after 60 days of purchase
Stuccco also provides online interior design services. When you sell a house that has been virtually staged by the company, you can refer the buyer to a Stuccco designer to turn the renderings into reality.
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1. Showhomes
Region served: United States
Showhomes began in 1986 with the idea of helping homeowners and their Realtors sell vacant homes faster and for higher prices. They turn vacant, unappealing houses into fully-furnished, inviting, and valued homes.
In 1994, the company started franchising. Today, it has relationships with various third-party sources that offer financing to cover the franchise fee, startup costs, equipment, and inventory.
Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Showhomes is still the leader in this growing industry. So far, they have helped more than 30,000 homeowners and their realtors sell homes valued at over $10 billion.
In order to provide a more personalized experience, the company assigns a home manager to each customer who takes care of the home and keeps it in “show-to-sell” condition. The home manager would cover utilities, water, gas, furniture, artwork, and accessories while giving owners the peace of mind that their home is safe and sound.
Pros
- One of the largest staging compaines in the US
- Has more than 35 years of experience
- Provides up to $5 million in additional insurance coverage
Cons
- Independently owned franchises may lead to inconsistent experiences
According to the company, houses staged with managers usually out-perform vacant homes by significant margins. Customers can defer payments until the home sells.
Perhaps the best thing about Showhomes is it provides up to $5 million in additional insurance coverage for owners and their homes.
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Other Equally Good Home Staging Firms
10. Model My Home
Region served: Grand Prairie, Texas
Model My Home is one of the largest exclusively-owned firms that has staged more than 7,000 homes to sell in various market conditions.
It offers multiple services, including consultation, vacant and occupied home staging, and design and redesign services. Whether you prefer all rooms and patios staged or set-up specific areas with stunning art, furniture, and accessories, the company guarantees your property will be in a better showing condition to sell quickly.
It offers different packages based on the customer’s budget. The Essential Package, for instance, includes minimal art, carefully selected furniture pieces, and accessories to define primary spaces within the home. The Luxury Experience Package includes premium furniture, upscale art, accessories, plus additional high-quality goods and personalized accents to fully engage target buyers throughout the house.
Furthermore, Make My Home has a great track record of cutting the time that the average home is on the market in half. According to the company, most of the homes get more than 95% of their asking price, many receive multiple offers, and some sell above list price.
11. Everything Creative Designs
Region served: San Diego, California
Everything Creative Designs specializes in home staging and interior design to meet any of your decorating or selling needs. They use their own methods and solution to reduce your property time on the market and maximize its value for the best return.
The process begins like this — one of their professional designers will meet with you for the initial consultation. He/she thoroughly reviews your home, clicks pictures, and develops ideas of how to paint the walls, where to put furniture, how to rearrange existing items, and what accessories or artwork need to be added.
The company then sends you a detailed plan of everything they would like to add or upgrade in order to make your home more appealing and irresistible to buyers.
The pricing starts at $3,000. However, if you think this is too expensive, you can put your own ideas forward. They will make adjustments as per your budget. According to customers’ reviews, their whole crew is very professional, punctual, and careful.
12. Wall to Wall Home Staging
Region served: Washington DC and Central Maryland
Wall to Wall Home Staging offers comprehensive home staging services for home sellers and real estate agents throughout Annapolis, Washington DC, and Baltimore.
Their professional, trained staging consultants determine the renter or buyers of your home, and develop an effective strategy to present the home. They do all the heavy lifting to design and showcase the property.
Their representatives will go room-by-room and suggest ideas that will help you organize and accent your space with beautiful furniture and artwork. They may also recommend applying a new wall paint or minor changes that will ultimately help you showcase the real value of the home.
The company has a huge inventory of rugs, lighting, artwork, furniture, and accessories to furnish every type of property, from small homes to multi-million dollar estates.
Based on the staging plan, they will pick perfect items from the inventory and put them into your property, bringing spaces to life. And when they are done, your property will look like a model home. Once it is sold, they will return to de-install and move-out staging items, leaving the house ready to move.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best home staging companies in Los Angeles?
If you live in Los Angeles, you can contact LA Stating Company, R&C Homestaging, The Academy Of Home Staging and Design, Stage of Mind, and Elite Home Staging. They all have received wonderful reviews from their clients.
Are staging companies worth it?
Yes. They absolutely do. Studies show that staged homes spend half the time on the market than non-staged homes, and could fetch as much as 20% more than an empty house or a house not properly staged.
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How much can you make as a home stager?
While expert home stagers earn as much as $90,500 annually, the average salary is about $55,000. According to the Real Estate Staging Association’s State of the Industry report, most lead stagers make over $20 an hour, while staging assistants make somewhere between $10 and $25 per hour. A staging warehouse manager, on the other hand, makes $15-$30 an hour.
Typically, home stagers charge $300-$500 for the initial (two-hour) consultation. If the client hires the stager to complete the project for him, he/she can make at least $1,000. The figure can go as high as $10,000-$20,000 based on the location, stager’s expertise, and needs for that property.
It’s important to note that these numbers only represent the salaries of employees, not the business owners’ profits. Most staging companies operate on profit margins of 20-30%, so the real wealth is in owning and running a home-staging business.
