The average U.S. homeowner spends about $1,844 staging their home. Depending on home size and furniture rentals, most homeowners spend between $837 and $2,924.
The average home staging costs $1,844—but there’s a lot that goes into it. Some homeowners only need to remove personal touches (like family photos) to help prospective buyers envision the space as their own, while others need to rent or rearrange furniture. You can expect to spend between $837 and $2,924. Let’s break down the cost factors to help you determine your total project cost.
How much does it cost to stage a house? A multitude of factors determine the overall property staging price—from the square footage of your house to your furniture rental needs. If you want to plan your property-staging budget, here are some factors to consider.
| Cost Factor | Cost Range |
|---|---|
| Consultation fees | $150 – $600 |
| Furniture rental | $500 – $600 per month |
The home-staging process usually starts with a consultation. During this phase, you’ll meet with a professional home stager who will tour the property and recommend ideas, help you create a staging plan, and craft a budget. The cost of an initial consultation is anywhere from $150 to $600.
The larger the home, the more home staging will cost. You’ll also need to clean and declutter the space (which requires serious elbow grease or help from a local cleaning service) before rearranging or adding new furniture or decor. Larger homes also require more furniture, so rental costs will rise.
According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), vacant homes take twice as long to sell as occupied homes that aren’t staged. Unfortunately, it does cost more to stage a vacant house for one simple reason—if you move out, so does your furniture. That’s why many real estate professionals recommend staging and showing your home before moving out, especially since home staging will help your home sell faster.
| Home Status | Average Staging Cost |
|---|---|
| Occupied | $800 |
| Vacant | $2,000 |
Your pro home stager may recommend temporarily adding furniture or decor items to fill in the room to make it appealing for home shoppers. Furniture rentals cost $500 to $600 per room per month. In other words, the longer your home spends on the market, the more you’ll spend on furniture rentals. The average homeowner spends $2,000 per monthafter the initial home staging set-up.
The cost of home staging can vary based on your home’s location. You’ll generally pay more in an area with a high cost of living or in an upscale neighborhood than in a rural area with a lower cost of living. For example, the average home-staging cost in Los Angeles is $4,000, while Detroit’s average cost is $1,100.
| Location | Average Cost |
|---|---|
| Los Angeles, CA | $4,000 |
| New York, NY | $2,000 |
| Houston, TX | $2,000 |
| Phoenix, AZ | $2,000 |
| Seattle, WA | $1,900 |
| Boston, MA | $1,250 |
| Denver, CO | $1,050 |
| Detroit, MI | $1,100 |
Home staging costs aren’t limited to furniture rentals. Here are some things you should add to your home-staging budget to avoid surprise expenses.
| Additional Factor | Cost Range |
|---|---|
| Staging fees | $400 – $700 |
| Decluttering | $800 flat fee |
| Exterior painting | $1,800 – $3,100 |
| DIY improvements | $10 – $100 |
Home stagers often charge a staging fee for the first month of the job. This fee generally costs $400 to $700 per room, with the average homeowner spending around $2,000 for the initial set-up.
Most professional stagers charge a flat fee of $800 to rearrange and declutter your space. This process is one of the most important parts of staging because it allows the stagers to start with a clean, minimal slate and determine what types of rentals are needed.
Your stager might recommend making some repairs and improvements before selling your home. Each upgrade or repair comes with additional costs. For example, you can ramp up a home’s curb appeal by painting a faded exterior—but exterior painting costs an additional $1,800 to $3,100. Other tasks, like mowing your lawn or fixing small holes in your drywall, can cost less than $100 to DIY.
If you’re staging your home with your personal belongings, you may want to purchase some extra pieces to fill in gaps. The additional cost depends on what you buy, including decor or art pieces. However, you should rent larger items like beds, dining tables, and sofas unless you plan to take the new furniture with you when you move.
DIY home staging could cost next to nothing if you already have furniture and decor that’s suitable to present to potential buyers. However, you’ll need to commit to rolling up your sleeves and working on maintenance, decluttering, small repairs, and rearranging furniture on your own. Sometimes home staging is as simple as removing family photos, but other times you’ll need to rent furniture and hire a local handyperson to make quick fixes.
You could save up to $2,000 a month on staging fees and rental costs by staging your home yourself—but that isn’t always the best option. Since furniture is heavy and expensive, it may make more sense to hire a local home stager if you live in a large house or have already moved out. They can make the most out of your budget and do the heavy lifting (both metaphorically and physically).
Home staging has two main stages: planning and execution. Similar to an interior designer, your home stager will create a warm, welcoming space that will attract potential buyers—but you can likely save on the execution. Here are some ways to cut down on home staging costs.
You can save on furniture rental costs by using your own furniture. If possible, you may even want to delay a move so your home isn’t left empty. If you need to move before staging and selling the home, consider leaving extra furniture pieces behind to reduce rental costs.
Though a completely staged house does sell faster, it’s not all or nothing. You can save money by focusing on key rooms that buyers focus on the most. For example, you could professionally stage your living room and bedrooms, but skip out on the finished basement and guest bathroom.
Consider hiring a local interior designer or home stager for only a consultation. Let them create a plan for your space and use it as your home-staging blueprint. There are likely a few tasks you can save on by doing them yourself—like decluttering, cleaning, maintenance, minor repairs, and moving light furniture.
It’s no secret that most prospective homeowners are primarily browsing online listings. You can make your home look more attractive with virtual staging. During this process, your stager will digitally add things like furniture and decor to your images rather than you having to splurge on it in real life. Virtual staging services typically cost $100 to $1,000.
Home is the most important place on earth, which is why Angi has helped more than 150 million homeowners transform their houses into homes they adore. To help homeowners with their next project, Angi provides readers with the most accurate cost data and upholds strict editorial standards. We survey real Angi customers about their project costs to develop the pricing data you see, so you can make the best decisions for you and your home. We pair this data with research from reputable sources, including the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, academic journals, market studies, and interviews with industry experts—all to ensure our prices reflect real-world projects.
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To stage your home yourself, clean your home thoroughly to sell, leaving it gleaming like a five-star hotel. Less is best—always clear away clutter and anything personal so buyers can focus on the beauty of the rooms. Prospective buyers will check the closets, so investing in a storage space may be necessary.
Move furniture around, mix fabrics and decor, and de-cramp the room by removing any unnecessary furniture. A fresh coat of paint always helps, as do natural features like plants.
Remember that staging your home will affect the time it takes to sell your home and its sale price–cha-ching! It may be worth pulling out the extra stops like giving it a face-lift with new paint, making necessary repairs, and refinishing the floors. Also, consider any existing furniture your home stager can use to drive down the rental cost.
You'll likely need more than great home staging to sell your home. Now is a great time to get to work on the curb appeal of your home. Hire local exterior painters and landscapers to coat the exterior of your home and bring it new life with some sprucing up.
It’s always better to stage a home than to leave it empty. Staged homes don’t only sell faster than vacant homes—they also sell for a higher price. A 2018 survey of more than 4,200 professionally staged homes found that most staged homes sold for 6% to 25% more than their unstaged counterparts.
