1. What’s the value of staging?

A well-staged room invites buyers in and helps them see past the sellers’ possessions to the layout and square footage. Staging also helps draw buyers’ eyes to the best feature of the room, such as French doors or a fireplace.

Staged homes sell faster and for more money, says professional stager Kala Callahan of Addressed to Sell in Wilmette, Ill. A 2003 HomeGain survey of 2,000 practitioners found that staging could increase the sales price by $2,275 to $2,841; cleaning and decluttering could add $2,093 to $2,378 to the final price. And a 2004–2005 survey of home owners by training company StagedHomes.com found that staged homes sold for 6.9 percent more than homes that were not staged.

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