Professional staging works. But what if you can't afford it?

Yes, I said it: Paying a professional thousands of dollars to bring in staging furniture and decor WORKS. Don't take my word for it! There's plenty of evidence available to show that sellers typically walk away with much more money for their staged home than they would have otherwise.

Unfortunately, staging is also expensive: In the Portland area, typical staging costs range between $2,500 and $5,000! Though you are likely to make that money back, and then some, you will still need to pay for the staging up-front. On top of that, it requires that you move out, or at the very least move your furniture and belongings out, before your home hits the market, which can add significantly to the cost. For many home sellers, this is just impossible.

But that doesn't mean that you can't reap some of the benefits of staging with a little bit of work, and the guidance of an excellent real estate agent! I'm talking about "staging in place", and it's something almost any seller can do.

Not all real estate agents are comfortable assisting sellers with staging in place, but many of us are. If you have a trusted agent who is not, try asking them if they could refer a staging consultant to assist you. In the latter case, a staging consultant might cost you a few hundred dollars, but it will be considerably cheaper than professional staging.

To start, your agent (or consultant) will walk through your home and select furniture and decorative items that will be used for the staging. They will probably take a lot of pictures for reference, and begin to put together a plan. They may leave you with a list of items for you to keep, let you know what needs to go, and suggest some repairs to take care of.

Your agent may also suggest that you may some small changes to thinks like paint color, cabinet hardware, or lighting fixtures. They can help you weigh the benefit of these changes against the money and time you'll spend on them.

Now here's where the real work comes in: You'll need to start pre-packing you home! It is likely that many of your belongings will need to be packed away in order to create a more minimal look. Small items in your home that look great in-person can create visual clutter in real estate photos, and the goal will be to remove everything but furniture and larger decorative items. Some furniture pieces may also be removed, or moved to different locations to enhance the strengths of your home's layout, or play down its weaknesses. In general, we try to make rooms appear larger, and have the best possible flow.

Depending on how much stuff you own, this may be a lot of work, but don't fret! You would need to do this anyway, and by pre-packing BEFORE your listing photos are taken, you are saving yourself so much work that would have had to be done just a few weeks later, when you might be very busy purchasing your next home. Also, don't be afraid to ask your agent for help! I've personally put in hundreds of hours helping my clients through this process.

Once you've gotten things packed up, your agent will come back and fine-tune furniture and decor placement. Some agents, like myself, even have a small cache of staging items that we can bring in to polish it off, like small furniture pieces, art, linens, and decorative pillows (SO many pillows!).

When everything is in its place, the last step is to give everything a good cleaning. Pay attention to windows, doors, trim, and floors. Professional cleaning will save you a lot of time, but if it is not in your budget, that's ok. Just make sure you leave enough time for this critical step!

Now I know this all sounds like a lot of effort, and it is, but the results can be quite striking. Check out the before and after photos below from a recent listing of mine, and let me know what you think in the comments!