Homebuyers Say This Room Is The “Most Important” To Get Top Dollar

Your living room could be the most important room to stage in your home when you are trying to sell. In the National Association of Realtors report “2025 Profile of Home Staging” 37% of buyers’ agents reported that staging the living room was the most important. The primary bedroom (34%) and kitchen (23%) came next.

Whether or not buyers are working with a lender, they have a critical eye for the homes they tour. Staging the rooms in your home can help impress buyers.

What Is Home Staging?

Home staging is a professional service that involves arranging your home to make it appealing to buyers. Ideally, the result will allow them to imagine themselves living in the home.

The median cost of home staging performed by a staging service was $1,500 or $500 when performed by the seller’s real estate agent.

What Buyers Want to See

Buyers want to see a staged living room, but what is the ideal visual presentation? Nearly half of agents (48%) reported that buyers want to see homes that look they were staged on television shows, according to the National Association of Realtors report.

How Staging Can Impact the Sale

Staging can be a useful tool, but how does it actually affect the sale of a home? More than half of buyers’ agents (60%) observed that staging impacted how buyers view a home most of the time.

While 41% of agents found that staging had no impact on the amount offered for homes, 17% found that staged homes had offers 1% to 5% higher compared to similar homes that had not been staged.

Staged homes also might spend less time on the market; 30% of agents saw a slight decrease in the time on the market for staged homes.

The Bottom Line

Staging your home, starting with the living room, can help make it more appealing to buyers. It could potentially impact the dollar value of the offers you receive and the time the home spends on the market.