A lesser-known fact about home staging is that it’s actually an extremely lucrative career path- when pursued properly. The issue with the industry, and the reason why so many people don’t realize the moneymaking opportunities it holds, is that many amateurs enter the industry with no knowledge of what is/ isn’t appropriate to charge, and wind up completely underselling their services.
Unfortunately, there are many untrained, amateur “home staging professionals” advertising prices like $30 per hour- a figure drastically lower than the industry standard for this line of work. Although stagers like this are likely able to book some lower-profile jobs, they’re truly missing out on the high-paying job opportunities a professional formally trained stager is qualified for.
According to industry professionals, the seller of a home stands to make an increased profit of somewhere between $10,000 and $75,000 after employing the services of a home staging expert. So basically- a homeowner who would’ve made $100,000 on a home sale could make close to $200,000 if they invest in a home stager’s efforts to make the space look appealing to potential buyers. These are the kind of figures you need to keep in mind when you determine the value and consequential cost of your consulting and design efforts.
Generally, here’s the standard prices an independent, formally trained home staging expert should be charging their clients:
- Consultations are standard and should not be free (many amateurs pitch free consultations in an effort to lock in new business, and never charge clients for the consult itself- this is not best practice).
- Two-hour long home staging consultations (a typical length of time for this) should cost anywhere from $250-$800.
- After that initial consultation takes place, if booked for full services, a home stager should be charging a minimum of $1,000 for the staging itself.
- Keep in mind, that $1,000 figure can fluctuate up to $5,000 or $10,000 depending on location, size of the home, experience of the stager, etc.
To give perspective, let’s circle back to the figures mentioned before regarding the increase in property value the homeowner can expect to profit thanks to a well-executed staging service. Use your gauge of that expected value to determine the worth of your services. If you’re staging a massive luxury apartment in an urban location for a client that could then reasonably expect a $50,000 increase in profit off the sale, charging $5,000- $10,000 would be completely reasonable.
