Research

Does staging help sell a house?

Staging probably helps, but not in the way most statistics claim. The evidence is strongest that it helps buyers picture a home, weaker that it shortens time on market, and thin on price.

This post sorts every number by who produced it: agents, stagers or researchers. For figures on virtual staging alone, see our virtual staging statistics guide.

What do real estate agents say about staging?

Most agents say staging helps buyers picture the home, and about half say it shortens the sale. The best source is the 2025 Profile of Home Staging from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). In February 2025, NAR invited 49,806 members to an online survey and 1,266 answered, a response rate of 2.5%.^[1]

• •83% of buyers' agents said staging made it easier for a buyer to picture the property as a future home.^[1]
• •49% of sellers' agents said staging shortened time on market: 19% greatly, 30% slightly. Another 17% saw no effect, 13% said it lengthened the sale, and 21% did not know.^[1]
• •29% of sellers' agents said staging raised the offer by 1% to 10%. But 30% saw no effect on price and 34% were not sure.^[1]

Read these as opinions. NAR asked agents what they believe they saw and did not compare sale records for staged and unstaged homes. With a 2.5% response rate, agents who care about staging may also have been more likely to answer.

Do staged homes sell faster?

Probably somewhat, but we found no study that measures it with a fair comparison. The fast numbers come from stagers. On its statistics page, the Real Estate Staging Association (RESA) reports an average of 9 days to an accepted offer across 114 staged homes in the third quarter of 2026.^[2] Stagers submit those homes themselves, with no unstaged group beside them. RESA's note on its first-half 2026 report says the results reflect participating properties, not all staged homes, and "do not isolate staging's effect."^[2]

The most repeated figure, "staged homes sell 73% faster," traces to a 2011 RESA consumer guide. It describes 174 homes that sat unsold for an average of 156 days, were then staged and relisted, and sold in an average of 42 days.^[3] That is a before-and-after on homes that had already failed to sell. A relisting can come with a lower price, new photos or a new agent, and the guide records none of that. Our own statistics guide quotes this figure and similar industry numbers, so read them with that context.

The 2015 experiment covered next could not test time on market either.^[4] So the honest reading: about half of agents report shorter sales, the direction is plausible, and the size of the effect is unknown.

Do staged homes sell for more?

This is not proven, and the best studies disagree. In a 2015 experiment in the Journal of Housing Research, Lane, Seiler and Seiler showed 820 people from a national research panel one of six versions of the same virtual home tour: good furniture, poor furniture or no furniture, each with neutral or unattractive wall color.^[4] The average value estimates for the six versions fell between $203,263 and $205,914, and none of the differences was statistically significant.^[4]

Staging still changed how people felt. On a 9-point scale, the empty version scored about 0.3 points lower on overall impression and 0.5 points lower on livability than the furnished baseline.^[4] The 77 real estate agents the authors also asked expected staging to move the price.^[4] The limits: a virtual tour, hypothetical values, and participants somewhat younger than homeowners nationally.

Two later papers pull in different directions. A 2023 study in the same journal showed students apartment photos with or without furniture. It again found no significant difference in value estimates overall, though people looked longer at the furnished photos.^[5] A 2026 working paper used software to detect furniture in the listing photos of 17,429 sales. It found that furnished-looking homes sold for roughly 10% more than comparable homes without furniture, and its online experiment also found higher valuations for staged homes.^[6] It is a working paper and has not passed peer review.

Real sales data has a built-in problem: empty homes sell for less for reasons that go beyond furniture. Redfin's analysis of homes sold in 2018 found that vacant homes sold for $11,306 less and took about six days longer than comparable occupied homes.^[7] Its chief economist pointed to the seller's position: buyers read an empty home as a sign they can take their time. A furnished-against-empty comparison picks up some of that.

Which home staging statistics can you trust?

Trust each number for what it measures, and no further. The table lists each source with its sample and main caveat.

Does virtual staging work?

It acts on the part of the sale that happens in photos, but we found no independent study that measures its effect on sale price or speed. In NAR's 2026 Generational Trends report, a survey of 6,103 recent buyers, 81% of those who searched online rated photos very useful, more than any other website feature.^[8] In the 2025 staging survey, 31% of buyers' agents said buyers were more willing to walk through a staged home they had seen online.^[1] And the experiments above ran on screens, not in person.

Agents still rank virtual staging below the physical kind. In NAR's 2025 survey, 18% of buyers' agents rated it as more important to their clients, against 57% for physical staging and 73% for photos.^[1] That fits what it is: the listing photos change, and the room is still empty at the showing.

The case for virtual staging is cost. Agents in the NAR survey reported a median of $1,500 for a staging service.^[1] StageHQ turns a photo of an empty or furnished room into a staged listing photo in about a minute, with prepaid packs from $19 for 20 photos and no subscription. With the price effect unproven, a cheap test makes more sense than a big bet. See our virtual staging cost guide, the post on what home staging costs, and our guide on whether virtual staging is worth it.

Label what you stage. StageHQ exports can carry a "Virtually staged" badge with the original and staged pair and a public verify link. Disclosure rules differ by MLS, so check yours, starting with our guide to MLS rules for virtual staging.

Should you stage before you list?

Stage when buyers would struggle to read the rooms, and judge it by cost, not by a promised price bump.

Before

After

• •Empty rooms gain the most. That is where the 2015 experiment found lower livability scores.^[4]
• •Start with the living room, then the primary bedroom. Sellers' agents staged those two most often: the living room (91%) and the primary bedroom (83%).^[1] Our post on partial home staging covers which rooms to pick next.
• •Treat any promised price increase as unproven. Count on photos that are easier to read and, possibly, a shorter wait.