Get Off the Market

Staging a Home Can Raise the Price and Shorten Sell Time

By Lizzie Wilcox

March 2020

Having lived all over the world, Jacqueline Krueger and Elizabeth Stiff know a thing or two about moving. Be it Chicago or Switzerland, each relocation required staging one home to be sold and designing the other. Realizing they had a knack for decorating houses to be put on the market, they created a boutique home staging company of their own: PeacefulNest.

“In the simplest of terms, home staging is readying your home to sell,” Stiff says. “Making a small investment in staging has a very big return on your investment and also dramatically shortens the days on market.” Adds Krueger, “The statistics are 1,000 percent ROI for every dollar spent.”

In 2019, a national survey by the Real Estate Staging Association (RESA) of 1,081 homes showed an average of 23 days on the market (DOM) for homes staged prior to listing, and 41 DOM for homes staged after listing – versus 184 days for non-staged homes. “The longer a property sits on the market, the less interested people are,” notes Krueger. The duo recently took over the local chapter of RESA, which is headquartered in Coral Gables. “What we’re dealing with is an abundance of great homes, particularly in Coral Gables, that are languishing on the market,” says Stiff.

One reason why non-staged homes for sale don’t sell as quickly is that buyers can’t visualize themselves living in a house that is devoid of furniture or decoration. “Only 10 percent of the population can walk
in and visually plan where or how they would live in an open space,” says Stiff. “So that means 90 percent of your buyers are walking in and they don’t have the capability … to see themselves living in the house.”

Home staging isn’t just about the interior. “It really starts at the curb,” Krueger says. “So you need to have every detail looked at, from the mailbox to the numbers on your home.”

PeacefulNest stages homes throughout Greater Miami, but the majority of their projects are in Coral Gables, South Miami and Pinecrest. The founders describe the Gables as “the pride and joy of Miami.” Says Krueger, “When we’re in a Gables house, we really pay attention to style.”

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Home Staging Facts:

— 95 percent of staged homes sell in 11 days or less

— Buyers spend an average of five minutes in a vacant home and 40 minutes in a staged home

— A staged home will sell for an average of 17 percent more than a comparable un-staged home

— Staged homes sell nine times faster than non-staged homes

— When a seller invested an average of 1% of the value of their home on staging, they realized a 1,000% ROI