Timing Your Home Staging: When to Make the Move

As I write this article, it's summertime, and volume is higher because this is the season when most families move to their new homes, since the kiddos are on summer break. It's typical for home sellers to opt for staging their homes, which benefits them, potential buyers, and naturally, home stagers.

Repeatedly, I receive calls from home sellers or agents wanting to stage a home within 1-3 days from the time they call us. Here's a reality check: Home stagers don't have large trucks that magically produce furniture and decorations on demand.

Have you ever moved from one property to another? Preparing to stage a home is just like moving. We need to organize, pack items, choose furniture pieces, and decide their placement in the property, among other tasks. Most people take weeks to complete this process, yet they expect home stagers to do it in as little as 1-3 days. To be honest, if there's a staging company that doesn't have any projects going on, and they have inventory on-hand, they could fulfill the request for you.

Preparing to stage a home can take anywhere up to 15-20 hours, and we have other clients to assist simultaneously. The process is not automated; it's labor-intensive, manual, tedious, and imperfect, much like moving.

As a general guideline, I suggest contacting a home staging company at least 2 weeks before listing your property on the market, especially during the summer. In the fall and winter, when the volume is lower, I recommend reaching out at least 1 week before listing. It's common for repeat clients to contact us 6-8 weeks before listing their home on the real estate market just to get on the schedule.

Being proactive is key, and as the saying goes, "The early bird gets the worm!"