If you're getting ready to list your home, you've probably asked yourself this question at least once: does staging actually make a difference, or is it just an added expense on top of an already expensive process?
It's a fair question. So instead of giving you a marketing answer, we pulled the actual numbers — from our own projects, and from what's happening in the broader market right now.
The short answer
Staged homes tend to sell faster, and they tend to sell closer to (or above) asking price. That's not just an ALT Interiors talking point — it's backed by industry-wide research. According to the Real Estate Staging Association (RESA), staged homes spend significantly less time on the market than comparable unstaged listings. The National Association of Realtors' more conservative estimate puts the typical staging-attributable price premium in the 1–10% range.
But averages only tell you so much. What you really want to know is: does it work in this market, right now, where you're actually selling?
So here's what six of our own recent projects looked like, compared against the specific local market each one sold in.
Real projects, real markets
| Property | Local Market | Days on Market | Local Market Average | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Falcon Street | Toronto | 4 days | ~32 days | 8x faster |
| 337 Marlowe Drive | Waterloo Region | 5 days | ~35–41 days | 7–8x faster |
| 1 Dustan Crescent | East York, Toronto | 7 days | ~19–28 days | 3–4x faster |
| 63 Pinecrest Road | Georgina | 17 days | ~27–38 days | 1.5–2x faster |
| 4 Walford Road | Etobicoke | 20 days | ~38 days | ~1.9x faster |
| 596 Woodbridge Avenue | West Woodbridge | 33 days | ~29–41 days | Right in line |
(Market averages reflect 2026 TRREB and regional board data for each specific area.)
A few things stand out here.
This isn't one lucky market — it's six different ones. Downtown Toronto, Waterloo Region, East York, Georgina, Etobicoke, and Vaughan are not the same market. They have different buyer pools, different price points, and different pacing. And in every single case, the staged home matched or beat its own local average — in several cases by a wide margin.
We're not hiding the average result. 596 Woodbridge Avenue sold in 33 days, right in line with what's typical for West Woodbridge. We're including it because an honest picture is more useful than a highlight reel — and even in that case, the home still sold at 98% of its original asking price in a market where TRREB reports the GTA-wide average sits at 97%.
Days on market matters more than people think. Every extra week a home sits unsold is a week of carrying costs — mortgage interest, property tax, utilities, insurance — quietly adding up in the background. A home that sells in 5 days instead of 35 isn't just a nicer number to see; it's real money saved before you even get to the sale price itself.
Why staging moves the needle
Staging isn't about redecorating a home to someone else's taste. It's about presentation — helping buyers walk in and immediately picture the space as livable, rather than working around someone else's furniture, clutter, or an empty room that's hard to mentally furnish.
Today, that presentation starts online. The overwhelming majority of buyers begin their search on their phone, scrolling through listing photos before they ever book a showing. A well-staged home photographs as a place someone wants to live in. An unstaged one — occupied or vacant — often doesn't, no matter how good the bones of the house actually are.
The bottom line
Staging isn't a guarantee — no single factor is, and market conditions always play a role in how quickly a home sells and for how much. But across six very different GTA and regional markets, staged homes consistently outperformed their own local averages, in some cases dramatically.
If you're weighing whether staging is worth it for your listing, the honest answer is: look at what's actually happening in your specific market, and weigh that against the real cost of extra weeks on market. In most cases, the math works out in staging's favor.
Curious what staging could look like for your home? Get in touch with ALT Interiors to talk through your specific property and market.