Speaking Up about Home Staging

This is a really cute home in the mid to high $100s.  The owners are military and have transfered.  When I initally saw the home, it was furnished but they were getting ready to move on.  Using informaiton from my consultation, they did a little (ok, A LOT) of painting, cleaning etc.  When they finally moved out - less than 3 weeks after our initial meeting - we staged the then vacant home.  Due to the price point of the home the budget was extremely modest -- I think you will see that big changes can still happen!

There was more done in this home than is visible in some of these photos, but you get a really good idea of the calming and neutral palette in the after photos.  Furnishings and accessories do not have to be elaborate to have an impact.  The cost does not always have to be high either.  For agents with less costly listings, sometimes the answer to maximizing gain is staging.  Staging a property is not only for the high end homes that tend to sit longer.  Often lower end homes have more fierce competition and need that competitve edge....

I've been reading many posts or comments lately that create the question as to why some stagers succeed and other's do not.  I don't think there is a concrete answer to this, but there are some indicators.  I know many say that it's the lack of training, or industry standards.  To some degree this is true, but that is such a small piece of the equation.  Others say it is because the industry is new and consumers aren't educated - there is no demand.  This is perhaps a larger piece of the equation, but it still does not fully answer the question.  The truth is that the stager themselves 9 times out of 10 determines whether they will succeed by their own actions. 

Does that seem harsh?  Let's look at other industries to show the truth behind ours.... How many women join Mary Kay each year?  How many succeed?  Yet Mary Kay is often listed as one of the top 100 best companies to work for and no other company has more women making more than $100K a year.  Hmmm..... how can that be?

How many restaurants open each year?  How many succeed beyond the 1 yr point?  How many beyond 5 yrs?  Come on, some of those had to have great food, great locations, and yet they still failed? why?

My husband is in medical sales.  Every year his company comes out with new products - products the doctors have never heard of - his job is to sell their benefits (create a need & market).  Some products rise to the top, others are dropped after a year or two.  Some are even improved year to year.  Some of his collegues don't succeed while others break records year after year.  When he has an awesome year in selling capital equipment the first thing the company does the following year is to raise his quota for them!  His customer base rarely even changes... how does he stay in business?  I mean as stagers we have new clients all the time...

Real Estate Agents - they have everything, right?  They have an organization (NAR) to help educate consumers, uphold a code of ethics.  They have big companies that do much of the marketing & educating for them.  Their training is standard virtually from state to state and they are fully regulated.  They must submit to ongoing biannual training & most offices offer monthly or even weekly ongoing training & mentoring.  Yet some succeed and others do not.  Why?    

The fact of the matter is that the staging industry is like any other.  Some will succeed given the best resources, others will succeed who had no resources.  Some will have great training, others will begin completely on their own.  Training only offers advice, guidance & business modeling most of the time.  Some will offer ongoing education, mentoring, etc but even that doesn't guarantee success!  

HARD WORK, EDUCATION & TENACITY will usually determine your success.  Like any other sales position (let's not mince words, we are in sales) educating the consumer is paramount.  I hear stagers complain that their agents or homeowners don't even know what staging is.  GREAT!  Teach them!  You will be the expert & they will rely on you.  Stagers (and other sales people) spend a lot of time pushing paper and calling it work.  Unless you are direcly engaging your client you are NOT working! 

Here is the problem as I see it - when we finally reach equilibrium - a point where as many sellers want their homes staged for sale as those who don't, stagers will complain that the industry is now saturated.  They will have to SELL their services over another stager - just like agents currently have to do.   It is all about sales & education.  It always will be.  If you don't currently have a market in your area, create it!  Imagine the sales pitch when contact lenses came out - we are going to stick this little piece of glass in your eye & you'll want to buy it!  Sure glasses are cheaper & safer, but hey, buy this anyway... What about paying more for HD telivision?  Home computers?  Bottled water?  There is a market - sometimes you have to work to bring it out though....

I'm looking for someone with connections.  I was hoping since this is such a large community maybe someone here knows someone who can help....

My 15 yr old daughter is IMHO a very talented budding artist.  She has a flair for turning everday sayings into amazing art projects.  Her goal in life is to be the next Mary Englebreit.  I think she has a real shot at this.  What we are looking for is someone who can help her turn her natural ability into a feasible business.  My primary thoughts for commercial conversion are something in the greeting card industry (cards, calendars, gift bags) or the scrapbooking industry (die cuts, papers, stickers etc).  I think there is a possible application in the art industry - think color backgrounds with white matting and black frames in little girls rooms. 

Does anyone know anyone who could possibly help us (her) get started somewhere?  Maybe you know a printing company, a commercial designer, a publisher, etc who could help..... Below is a sample of a card she made for one of her teachers this year.  This is a saying that the teacher once said that resonated with her.... 'people who are bored are boring people"  I personally think she has done better card presentations, but her use of color is very good and the artistic flair for commerical possibilities is high... what do you think?

I will say the scanned image is far less vibrant than the image is in peson. Again, thanks for your time and any help would be greatly appreciated... you never know, you may be responsible for granting a 15 yr old her life's dream!

I forgot to add that she also does a little work in the photographic medium as well.  This is a SELF PORTRAIT that she 'enhanced'... I wanted to blow this up and put it in her bedroom, unfortuately she saved it in too small of a resolution.... argh!  BTW she didn't even know about Andy Warhol... which is exactly what it reminds me of!

I have been focused on vacant home staging for the last year.  This is my niche.  I almost never do owner occupied stagings - in fact in the last 3 months the only owner occupied stagings I have done were for my training facility during class & then my students did most of it. I was just their guide.  Beginning last week things came completely unhinged!  Everyday I received another call from an agent or homeowner in desperate need of staging TODAY!  My week thus far and next week looks like this...

Monday - unstage home

Tuesday - 6 vacant consults

Wednesday - stage $1.14M property, 1 vacant consult

Thursday - have asst begin painting vacant unit, shop, 2 vacant consults

Friday - stage $699K home, spend time with family seeing Spiderman III

Monday - stage $250K home, shop

Tuesday - stage $350K home

Wednesday - stage $899K home (one that asst painted)

So, the big question, "Where did all this business come from?"  "What kind of marketing do you do?" 

• Newsletters!
• Handwritten cards
• Great personalized customer service brings referrals!
• Internet presence
• Stay focused on my niche & plan to succeed

I did speak to our local ERA office recently regarding their new Gold Plan - 2 of these jobs are ERA clients.  I don't normally speak at agent meetings.  I just don't have the time.  For this new plan, I made the time!

I don't spend much money on marketing.  My website, newsletters and the cost of note cards & stamps (about 10 - 15 cards a week) is my entire marketing budget.  Targeting your market, keeping your name in front of them so they know where to find you when they do need you is the answer......

~Melissa Marro, www.StagingAndRedesign.com - become a member today!

I have been contacted by a homeowner who has a $699K vacant property for sale here in Charleston.  The hitch is that it needs to sell in 4 weeks or they will lose the contract on their new home.  My personal average is 4-6 weeks (I've had homes in this price range sell in 1hr, and others that took 4 mos).  Below are photos from the home... their order is kitchen, breakfast nook, living room, dining room & master bedroom. 

Can I make these rooms dramatically different (ie better)... ABSOLUTELY!  I have proposed a 6 wk contract for only $1500.  I have most of the furniture on hand already.  Since it's a short contract, my furniture won't be tied up.  I have told the homeowner that the odds of selling the home staged are better than unstaged. 

My questions is, would you recommend the staging if you only have 4 weeks to produce?

When sellers won't paint and they call you to stage the unit, what do you do?  Make the best out of it ....

This view backs up to wetlands... curtains are out of the question.  There were modern black barstools left in the kitchen & all the lighting is ultra modern.  My job was to tone down the two tone terra cotta and yellow and to show buyers that the room didn't have to be only ultra modern... bring in a little traditional while keeping the feel of what was already in place. 

Lesson to realtors.... when you have a property that seems too owner specific, stagers can help to tone down that image and open the market up.  Instead of waiting for "the right buyer" let us help show potential buyers why they WANT to live here... not what they will need to mask or change.

~Melissa Marro, www.StagingAndRedesign.com - become a member today!