Does anyone track what staging actually costs per day once you add the extension fees

Your math works out to roughly $82 per day over 74 days ($6,100 divided by 74). That is the number to carry forward, and it is a much more honest baseline than the quote.

For your next flip, the framework I would suggest is this: take the stager's six-week quote, divide by 42 days to get a daily rate, then multiply by your realistic days-on-market estimate. Add an extension buffer. At $650 per extension and a 30-day extension period, that is about $22 per day of extension risk on top of the base rate. If you think there is a reasonable chance of hitting 60 or 75 days rather than 42, build those scenarios into your carry model before you sign anything.

The thing you did not ask about, but which your Westerville experience points to directly: stager contracts vary a lot on what triggers fees. Piece removal, substitution, early termination, and pickup windows can each carry separate charges, and some contracts let the stager pull inventory at their discretion if a higher-value job comes in. Before your next engagement, ask the stager specifically what happens if they need a piece back, what the restage fee is, and whether the extension rate is locked. Get those in writing. A $400 surprise mid-listing because the original stager pulled two pieces is avoidable with the right contract terms.

I cannot tell you whether your $6,100 paid off on a $284k sale. That depends on what comparable unstaged properties in that October Westerville market were doing, which is a question your agent's comps can answer better than any general rule.

What does your typical days-on-market look like across the flips you have done so far? That number is really what the extension probability assumption should be built from.

The part that caught me was "kept the listing from going stale visually," because that is doing a lot of work for $6,100 and I would want to know if it did anything at all before I built it into my model.

What I would track instead is days on market for comparable unstaged flips in the same zip that fall before you go in, not after. If unstaged comps in Westerville were sitting 80 to 90 days anyway in October, your staging bought you nothing and the $6,100 is pure carry cost dressed up as marketing.

For the extension probability piece, I just assume week eight is the real quote when I budget, not the base term, because I have never seen a six-week staging package actually close in six weeks on a slower listing.