Does home staging in Jacksonville really work?

The question regularly comes about, whether directly asked, or in a round about way, of whether home staging, here in Jacksonville, actually works. Can you PROVE that home staging saves time on market or gets the seller better offers?

As the owner of Rave Home Staging, one of my favorite things is to watch how quickly our homes go under contract. The argument could be whether that is because they are simply priced better than the competition, or whether the staging helped. This is when a good old nitty-gritty look at market comps helps prove the point.

A look at a $650,000 home in Queens Harbor Country Club

The owner of this home is one of our regular investor clients. This was his personal home. When deciding to live in the home or sell it vacant, he decided his family was better off moving out. Because he is very familiar with the value that home staging provides for his Jacksonville flip homes, he called us out to make a difference in this very personal sale.

One of the reasons that this real estate investor decided to stage his personal home, despite the fact that this would be a pretty heavy price tag, the cost of vacant home staging is 1% of list price, is because he knows that in the end, he will receive a return on investment greater than the cost of staging.

Now that his home has gone “under contract”, looking at the numbers, he’s absolutely right! Take a look at the photo below. In it you will see that 13440 Troon Trace Lane, Jacksonville, FL 32225 was only on the market 43 days as compared to similar homes, with lower costs per sqft, that took approximately 100 days on market.

The average price per square foot in this neighborhood example is $178.21. The subject house is 3,255 sqft. The average list to sale price ratio is 97%.If our investor’s house closes using the average ratio, they will sell for $630,000 ($193.54/sqft). This means that they will sell at $15.33 more per sqft, = $49,899.15.

The “high” cost of staging this $650,000 was $6500, and should, statistically create a return on investment of more than $50,000 to this seller. That is a 764% ROI!

So, let me ask you, would you write a check for $6500 to receive a check for approximately $50,000 at closing, approximately 90 days later? This is why professional real estate investors and home builders use our service. Isn’t it time “average homeowners” did?