This post was updated April 16, 2025.
Pardon me, do you speak staging? An essential skill for new and seasoned agents is knowing what it takes to ensure a new listing looks as appealing as possible to potential purchasers. Here I’ll provide essential information about home staging and detailed checklists to make sure that important details are not lost in the shuffle of preparing your listing for the market.
This 10-item list breaks down the language of staging to nuance, myth and trends that every agent should be fluent in to talk the talk and walk the walk of a staging expert.
Details matter
The takeoff of home staging over the past several years is best understood through Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point. The tipping point of staging started with a “few agents of change” who had the insight to interpret the powerful message a home is sending to a potential buyer, even when the homeowner has stopped hearing it.
Listing a property for sale was very different prior to the emergence of home staging. A new listing in exceptional “top showing condition” was a rare catch, marketed as “cream puff,” causing agents to practically beg buyers to “bring their checkbook” to a showing. Then, there was the dawning of a new age of financial clout awarded to a home that captured hearts. In the pre-home staging market where multiple offers were still in their infancy, the “cream puff” had agents writing offers literally on the hoods of their cars.
The real estate industry — no longer at the mercy of design-savvy sellers to boost their own sales prices — is a full proponent of home staging as a proven art and science, presenting a property wrapped and ready for purchase with the expectation of a significant increase in value. Recent stats back it up: According to NAR’s Profile of Home Staging, 81 percent of buyer’s agents said staging a home made it easier for their clients to visualize a property as their future home, and 20 percent said that staging increased the dollar value offered between 1 percent and 5 percent.
To stage or to be the stager, that is the question
The agent is the primary consultant, ultimately responsible for selling a home at a premium. Staging strategies are paramount to this goal. To this end, for the agent questioning where their capabilities and priorities lie, and whether to personally stage or use a staging service, here are the options:
- Compile a DIY list to task the seller with simple steps to enhance the home’s condition.
- Get involved in staging, such as rearranging/editing furniture, bringing in colorful decor items, advising on neutral paint colors or decluttering.
- Uniquely blend professional real estate listing services with professional staging services on a large scale, investing in a storage facility for furniture pieces and hiring movers.
- “Prefer to refer” the services of a professional stager.
Clear evidence from NAR in its Profile of Home Staging supports some degree of staging as a marketing strategy, along with photos, video and virtual tours:
- It was most common for sellers’ agents to use a staging service (24 percent), say it depends on the situation (24 percent), and personally offer to stage the home (22 percent).
- Twenty-three percent of sellers’ agents said they staged all sellers’ homes prior to listing them for sale. Ten percent noted that they only staged homes that were difficult to sell.
- Among buyers’ agents, having photos (77 percent), traditional physical staging (58 percent), videos (74 percent), and virtual tours (42 percent) available for their listings were much more or more critical to their clients.
The 10-item list below is a fluency guide for agents to speak like professionals and interpret the benefits of staging to potential clients to bring value and secure a working relationship. The list is also a capabilities guide that highlights the best strategies. Whether it is the agent as a stager or hiring a professional, the goal is never to “wing it” with a “let’s try moving the couch over there” approach, a no-confidence signal of a lack of professional knowledge.
1. Staging is manipulating space. “Tell me about this piece. Can we commission it to another room, just for now, for the showings?”
2. Staging is seduction. A stylish display creates emotion. Storage — books, personal collectibles — does not. “Pack it up, just for now.”
3. Staging is competition. “You don’t live the way you sell. And you don’t sell the way you live. It’s just for now.”
4. Staging myths negatively brand a home:
- MYTH: Buyers will want to change it anyway: Don’t count on buyers being resourceful; they have limited time and vision and want immediate style and comfort now
- MYTH: Public rooms are the only concern: Unclaimed space is abundant space, even basements and closets. Everything should come off the floor; hang it, stack it or store it.
- MYTH: Staging is decorating: Decorating is the seller’s story; staging is a mass appeal story.
5. Staging with color follows two rules: saturation and value.
- Value (light to dark) impacts size, making a room appear larger or smaller. Greige, a grey-beige, projects a blank canvas as a warm neutral that pops a room in size.
- Saturation (low to high intensity) impacts emotion. Accent colors can spotlight a regal front entry, Americana front porch, architectural focal point or kitchen island.
- White can result in negative branding. Visual clutter on a white wall distracts, making the home appear smaller. White is relegated to austere rooms. Go with it, not against it.
6. Staging within selling zones follows a formula to create visually pleasing spaces:
- The function zone is 0 – 36” where you sit, walk or stand, with rugs and furniture defining boundaries. Remove pet cages, toys, unnecessary furniture. Reclaim usable square feet.
- The power zone is 36” – 78” where the eye goes first, with a goal of transforming a room with mood and emotion: dramatic mantle accessories, lighting, sizable art.
- The skyline zone is 78” to the ceiling, drawing the eye up to enlarge a room and heighten a ceiling: architectural features, crown molding, windows, draperies.
7. The numbers of staging: Guide and enlarge using trompe l’oeil, from the French term meaning “fool the eye”: drapes 8” – 10” above window, traffic patterns 30” to 36”, gallery height for art 58” to 60”.
8. The ROI of staging: Return on investment is reported yearly by the National Association of Realtors. NAR Remodeling Impact cites the cost of 19 remodeling and replacement projects. This will let you know what to replace, or what not to replace.
9. The staging of what goes where: Solves common problems with space solutions: conversation groups with a functional goal, “conversation”, in five room shapes: square, rectangle, L-shape, bowling alley and asymmetry. A style goal is to create an inviting, intimate setting of impact.
- Avoid perimeter furniture, which creates a “waiting room” effect. Do not place everything against the wall.
- Create an entry hallway or a kitchen-great room boundary with a well-placed sofa.
- Utilize two furniture groupings in huge rooms to avoid an undefined, cold space.
- Asymmetry is staging-friendly, less formal and trending with young buyers.
- Anchor rooms with area rugs. The front legs of the furniture should kiss the rug three or four inches.
10. The 3 D’s of staging
If you, as an agent, just want to focus on the bare minimum basics, the 3 D’s have you covered. A simplified DIY list can provide staging value to prospective clients by a listing agent during an initial Pre-Marketing process with steps to sell for a premium.
- Depersonalize to promote mass appeal
- Declutter to remove all distractions
- Deodorize to clean, which impacts emotion
NAR’s consumer guide for preparing to sell your home has great step-by-step instructions that are a great parting gift for you to hand to potential listing clients as you leave listing interview appointments.
Additional resource: NAR Consumer Guide – Preparing to Sell Your Home
Agents must speak the language of staging fluently to win listings and educate sellers. A prospective listing agent vying for the listing doesn’t have to be the stager but does have to master the talk of the professional for the seller to see the value of hiring the agent as the one with the knowledge and capabilities to achieve the seller’s goal or to understand the importance of hiring a professional stager for a top-dollar sales price.
For agents interested in staging homes they list for sale, getting the proper education and earning a professional staging certification demonstrates a professional’s knowledge of interior design and the home staging industry.
Course and certification options:
- HSR Certified Professional Home Stager and Redesigner 21-day HSR Certification Training Course in Home Staging and Redesign by the Home Staging Resource, accredited by the Real Estate Staging Association (RESA).
- Certified Home Staging Professional (CHSP): A nationally recognized exam that validates a home stager’s knowledge
- RESA Real Estate Staging Association
Annette DeCicco is a real estate broker, coach and director of growth and development at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Jordan Baris Realty in Northern New Jersey.
