Staging a Utah home on a budget

The best data on staging comes from the National Association of Realtors' Profile of Home Staging. The 2025 edition, released May 6, 2025, surveyed a random sample of Realtors in February 2025. It reports what agents observed, not measured sale prices, so read it as experienced opinion rather than a guarantee.

The most useful finding for a budget is the last row. The three things sellers' agents recommend most cost little or nothing. The same survey found that 51% of sellers' agents didn't stage homes before listing but did recommend decluttering or fixing faults.

Buyers are shopping for space and condition. Clutter hides both. Before you buy anything, work through the house with three boxes: keep and pack now, donate or sell, and trash.

• Clear every flat surface: kitchen counters, tables, dressers, bathroom vanities. Leave one or two items at most.
• Pack half of what's in closets and cabinets. Buyers open them, and full closets read as too little storage.
• Take down most family photos, kids' artwork, collections and anything with a strong personal or political theme. The goal is a home a buyer can picture as theirs.
• Remove extra furniture so each room has a clear walking path. Rooms look bigger with less in them.
• Deep clean: windows inside and out, baseboards, light fixtures, grout, the oven and refrigerator, and carpets. Clean is the cheapest upgrade there is.
• Deal with smells: pets, cooking, smoke and musty basements. Air the house out, wash soft furnishings, and avoid heavy air fresheners, which make buyers wonder what's being covered up.
• Rent a storage unit or a portable storage container if you need to. It's usually cheaper than staging rentals, and you'd be packing anyway.

If you're also deciding what to repair, do the repairs before the final clean. See /sell/guides/what-to-fix-before-listing/.

Put your effort where buyers look hardest. According to NAR's survey, that's the living room, then the primary bedroom, then the kitchen.

• Living room: pull furniture away from the walls into a conversation group, face it toward the room's best feature, and remove extra chairs and side tables. Add one or two lamps if the room is dark. Open the blinds.
• Primary bedroom: make it look restful and roomy. Use plain, light bedding, matching pillows, clear nightstands and nothing stored under the bed or in the corners.
• Kitchen: clear the counters except for one or two items, clean the appliance fronts, replace burned-out bulbs, and tighten or replace worn cabinet hardware.
• Bathrooms: fresh white towels, new caulk where it's discolored, a clean shower curtain, and nothing on the counter.
• Entry: buyers form a first impression in the first few steps. Clear coats and shoes, add a doormat, and make sure the light works.
• Basement and storage areas: tidy and well lit. Buyers want to see the space and the mechanical systems, not boxes stacked in front of them.
• Spare rooms: give each one a clear purpose, such as an office, guest room or exercise room, rather than leaving a catch-all room.

Cheap purchases that show up well in photos: new bed linens, a few plants, matching towels, lamps for dark rooms, and fresh neutral paint where walls are scuffed or bold. Paint was the most common pre-listing project Realtors suggested in NAR's 2025 Remodeling Impact Report (50% suggested painting the entire home).

Improving curb appeal was the third most common recommendation from sellers' agents in NAR's survey (77%). The outside of the home is the first listing photo and the first thing a buyer sees at a showing. What that means changes with the season.

• Year round: a clean or freshly painted front door, working porch lights, visible house numbers and a clean mailbox.
• Power-wash the driveway, walks and siding if they're stained.
• Move garbage cans, hoses, toys and vehicles out of the photos and out of sight for showings.

Timing your listing around the seasons is covered in /sell/guides/best-time-to-sell-utah/.

Most buyers see your home online before they see it in person. In NAR's 2025 staging survey, 73% of buyers' agents rated photos highly important to their clients, more than traditional staging (57%), videos (48%) or virtual tours (43%). Among sellers' agents, 88% rated photos more important or much more important, compared with 47% for videos and 43% for physical staging.

• Stage first, then photograph. Every staging step above is mostly about making the photos work.
• Shoot on a bright day with all the lights on and the blinds open. Avoid harsh midday shadows on the exterior.
• Use a wide but not distorted lens, shoot from chest height, and keep vertical lines straight.
• Take photos of every main room, the exterior front and back, the yard, and any feature buyers search for, such as a garage, basement or view.
• Keep people, pets, cars and personal items out of frame.
• Be honest. The NAR Code of Ethics (Article 12) requires Realtors to present a true picture in their advertising. If photos are virtually staged or edited beyond basic lighting correction, label them, and never hide defects.

With JupiDoor's Utah packages, the Virtual Agent and In-Person Agent tiers include professional photography. On the Utah Seller-Managed tier and the Idaho flat-fee MLS packages, you supply the photos (Idaho sellers can add professional photography for a fee), and the Idaho packages differ in how many photos they put on the MLS. The package details are on /sell/ for Utah and /list-your-home/ for Idaho.

Sellers' agents in NAR's survey reported a median staging cost of $1,500 when they used a staging service and $500 when the agent did it. In the same survey, 21% of sellers' agents staged all their sellers' homes before listing and 10% staged only homes that were hard to sell.

• A stager can be worth it for a vacant home, an unusual floor plan, a higher-priced home where buyers expect a finished look, or a home that has sat on the market.
• Ask for a consultation only. Many stagers will walk the home and give you a written list for a fixed fee, and you do the work with your own furniture.
• Stage only the key rooms. The living room, primary bedroom and kitchen get most of the attention.
• If you're moving out first, consider leaving a few good pieces behind until closing rather than leaving the house empty.
• Read the contract: rental period, what happens if the home doesn't sell in that time, damage and insurance, and pickup timing.

Staging only helps if the house still looks like the photos when buyers arrive.

• Keep a quick-reset routine: dishes away, beds made, counters clear, trash out, lights on, blinds open.
• Have a plan for pets during showings, and put away food bowls, litter boxes and pet beds.
• Lock up or remove valuables, prescription medications, mail and documents with personal information.
• Set the thermostat to a comfortable temperature, warmer in winter and cooler in summer.
• Leave during showings if you can. Buyers talk more freely and stay longer when the owner isn't there.

For more, /selling-tips/ has four short videos on pricing your home, making it feel updated, professional photos and showings.

Once the home is staged and photographed, the next decision is how much help you want with the listing, showings and negotiation. Compare JupiDoor's Utah packages at /sell/ and its Idaho flat-fee MLS packages at /list-your-home/. Current package prices appear on this page.