What staging can do for your investment
Staging dresses up an investment property for sale. It will help show off the property‘s best features, and display it in the most advantageous way possible. I used to have a very pronounced anti-staging stance, favoring a much larger, open feeling to be experienced when walking into a fully renovated house that 
you are placing on the market for sale. This was especially true when the investment property I was putting up for sale was on the small side. I always felt that the renovations should come front and center, not the furniture.
However, I’ve changed my thinking over time on the matter. Now I feel that a wide open space without furniture can come off as feeling eerily ghost-like, creating negative connotations as prospective buyers walk through the front door for the first time. So my best investment property advice is to definitely use the services of a stager. Ultimately, staging can help potential buyers visualize actually living in your property. This is a key factor that will give you a major advantage over your competition of similar houses currently on the market. It will also translate into a quicker sale, for a greater price.
What a stager does
A professional stager can transform a tiny room into a very open and airy space with just a few simple tricks. The stager views a property’s appeal through the eye of a potential buyer. They will typically recommend ways to 
make the house more inviting to buyers. For investment properties that have just been totally renovated, there is no need to “de-clutter” or move furniture around. Rather, the stager looks to turn the house into a model home you might see in magazines, thus helping buyers visualize themselves living in the home. Staging helps to broaden an investment property’s market appeal to a wider range of potential buyers.
The benefits of staging
I think that staging can give a stark house a warm and fuzzy quality that will yield an advantage over non-staged properties on the market. As basic 
investment property advice, it’s simply a good way to have your newly renovated property look very lived in. In order to obtain top dollar for your investment when it comes time to sell it, you really want to make your house look exceedingly neat, warm and inviting.
I have to reiterate, I used to think that staging was a waste of time. Whenever rehabbing a house, I felt it was good to show off all the renovations and the open space the house afforded. I believed buyers could envision where there furniture would best fit while looking at an open space., as opposed to seeing a set of rooms with furniture already neatly arranged in them. However, houses can look very empty and cold even after all your wonderful renovations are done.
Part of your overall marketing strategy
So I do feel now that hiring a stager, even just for their professional input on how best to improve the overall look and feel of your particular property, 
should be part of the overall strategy prior to placing your investment property on the market. Staging can become quite elaborate for the more expansive property. Or it can be quite simple on small houses. A staging company will tell you their ideas for how to best show off the existing space. Obviously, in an older home, the stager may want to bring in furnishings that are more in line with antique properties. However, in a newer home, they may decide to go with more modern furniture as a way to make the house look more comfortable.
Costs to stage a property
Staging costs depend on the type of services you’re looking for. A stager will 
walk through your house and note specific items for improvement. The cost for the analysis and report can range from $100 to $400, depending on your locale. Then, if you decide to go to the next step, you’ll pay rental fees for furniture and accessories that will be brought in and set up, or “staged.“ On average though, figure it will cost between $3,000 to $10,000 to properly stage a vacant property, depending on the size of the house and the length of the contract.
Choosing the right stager
It’s best to look for stagers in your area who are familiar with area homes and 
interior styles that are right for your particular house, renovation and locale. They need to be reputable, and my best property investment advice is that it’s always a good idea to check out their prior work. Be sure to ask your local realtor for referrals of stagers. Most realtors have forged relationships with at least one or two stagers in their area, and tend to recommend them over and over again.
photos courtesy of blogs.starbulletin.com, orlando-mortgage.org, homestagingquote.org, grandrapidsrealestatetrends.com, peoples1.com, cutcaster.com, rmhomestaging.com
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