Speaking Up about Home Staging

You know that you are in a bad way when you get one of those cutsey emails from you mother-in-law.  You know the ones with the adorable animals and the amusing captions.  Tell me what you see when you look at this photo.....

Here's what I saw.... terrible wallpaper and flooring that needs some stick on tiles bad!  What about that trimwork?  Don't they know it's not the 70s anymore?  Sigh...

I am Melissa & I am a stage-a-holic....

A while ago I posted How I got my last staging job and then followed up with the UPDATE.  To refresh briefly and continue the follow up process - I received a call from an investor who owned a property currently for sale on exclusive Daniel Island.  He had discussed (when the property was first listed) staging it.  His agent (who is highly respected & works exclusively on Daniel Island) advised that she didn't think it was a good idea (mind you I've done consults & proposals for this agent and she never hires me!).  Six months went by and the unit did not sell. He decided he wanted to go forward with staging, was given my number as a referral from SOMEONE ELSE and was firing his agent!  We had the unit staged within the week.  It was relisted with another agent, and went under contract in 42 days. 

Here are the current stats for this subdivision (Daniels Landing) since Jan 01, 2007:

Active Homes Listed DOM         129 Days

Sold DOM                               115 Days

Average DOM (includes active, contingent, sold, withdrawn)  119 Days

Do you think the first agent regrets not using my services?  Can you see why YOU need a stager for all of your listings? 

Here are some photos of the staged property

These rooms were staged on a minimal budget - $0.0.  The only expense to the homeowner was my actual time (half day rate of $395 - each of these rooms were done in less than 2-3 hrs)

Now that you've seen what we can do on a meager budget, isn't it time you called a professional stager? 

Ok, so I'm sure you read Craig's awesome post Homesellers - I'm not Popeye, so don't be Wimpy .  If you didn't, you should.  Here's the thing, in my response to it I said, "Here is one more thing that most agents don't talk about but have knowledge of being an ex-office real estate office manager.  MOST real estate agencies have AR accounts (um... that being Accounts Receivable, not Active Rain.... hopefully they'll all have Active Rain accounts eventually).  When agents 'foot the bill' for newspaper ads, virtual tours, etc they very often have their companies footing that bill until closing for them. Those expenses then come out of their end of the commission check.  If their companies (Prudential, Keller Williams, Century 21, etc) were willing to put us on their AR lists the way they do the newspapers and virtual tour guys/gals I would be all for it!  Maybe that is what AGENTS need to work for... your companies to help by allowing stagers to be added to the AR bills!"

So, I walked away from my computer and thought, huh..... I need to think about this a little more.... I wrote my broker - I do hold a real estate license, but don't buy or sell... I just like having access to MLS.  Here is what I said to him...

"I came up with an idea - inspired by another stager in another area of the country - that I thought may be mutually beneficial.  What do you think about the idea of allowing agents to offer my staging services to their clients on AR account?  The fee could be flat 1% of sale payable at closing.  On average staging is approximately ½ of 1%.  I would get paid when the home was staged (by insert brokerage name) but at closing you would receive 1%.  This would double your initial investment (money paid for staging).  In addition, it would probably increase the number of homes actually staged, increasing the likelihood of a quick sale, referrals and possibly increase perspective listings by offering this service with no money paid in advance by client. 

There would be some initial kinks I would think, but it could be a WIN-WIN-WIN situation for the company, the agents, the sellers, yourself and me.  Let me know what you think."

I mean the idea is simple, right.  His response - about 5 minutes later - was that he thought it was a plan that may work on an individual basis.  He is going to present it at the next company wide meeting the end of next month. 

So..... what do you think about the proposal?  I would love both agents, stagers, & any possible consumer/home sellers out there  to chime in.....

I had to record this show last night as I was busy with other things.  I was intrigued by the comment of one of those interviewed praising the FSBO practice & saying that agents don't have their sellers interest at heart.  They cited research that claims agents sell their homes for 3-4% more than their sellers homes and they leave the homes on the market for approximately 10% longer.  They advised this shows that agents tend to 'hold out' for higher offers and should be advising their clients of the same thing.  This got me to thinking....

Do you suppose that agents homes actually sell for more because as agents they do more to prepare their homes for sale?  I know when I look at homes on MLS when I am prospecting agents homes actually do tend to look better.  I also know that I stage investment properties owned by agents more than those of average consumers.  Average consumers don't want to spend any additional money, agents seem to understand the value and are willing to part with the cash.  I think it is also interesting how close to the 3.9% higher sales prices staged homes garnish over un-staged homes is to the 3-4% higher sales prices of agents... hmmmm....

Now what about the 10% longer?  I would be willing to bet that agents, after taking the time to prepare their homes also list them higher.  Do they list them at higher costs than they may recommend for their clients?  Well, ok, I'll give them this one, but if the clients aren't willing to do any preparation... Besides, how many clients would be willing to 'hold out'?  As an ex office manager for a real estate office, I would say NONE!  If the offer is good enough, they will take it.  Agents may be more likely to counter, etc knowing trends that sellers will not understand no matter how much they explain it!

What do you think?  Am I onto something?  Should I email 20/20 with a rebuttle?? (Ok, I probably really won't do that).  What did you think about the show in general?  While it was flattering to staging professionals, it surely was against real estate agents!   

Today I staged a space that had some real challenges.  The unit was a decent size for downtown, but it was 3 floors, each with only one room.  The issue?  I disagreed with the agent/owner as to how the unit should be promoted.  In the end, the client won - it's their property & their money.  I did my best to overcome the issues presented. 

These are the current MLS photos:

Kitchen living/dining combo

Master bedroom

This is what I created & the photos I have given the agent to replace the MLS photos:

Here is also a real estate show I created for this home, something I now do with all of my staging jobs...

The budget on this home was low & I actually wanted to do it differently - but that's another story.  If you were looking for this type of property, which would you more likely visit - the home with the first set of photos or the second? 

One of the biggest things professional stagers do is to entice buyers to visit the property.  The more buyers that actually come to the property, the higher the odds of a sale (& better offer)! 

If you are in the Charleston market & looking for a way to set your listings apart, give me a call.   

Ok, I was doing a little prospecting the other day and was shocked to see some of the photos on MLS.  Today I thought I would blog about this including some actual photos of homes that are active on MLS.  Each of these homes have been listed since at least January 1, 2007 & are OVER $1 MILLION!!!

Ok, now here's the thing.  I didn't have to look hard for any of these.  I'm sure there are even worse ones.  I actually pulled 6 photos that look similiar to these out of ONLY 30 homes - there are currently 291 active listings OVER $1M that have been listed since before 01.01.2007.  What are these homeowners thinking?   I apparently need to get on the wire and get in touch with some of these agents!  They NEED me!

I had hoped to have time to post this last Friday, but didn't.  Last Friday was a milestone for me.  It was the one year anniversary of my very first newsletter.  I know I've blogged about newsletters before.  Many of you simply don't see the value.  Here it is.... Since then I can directly contribute over $100K in sales directly to this one marketing campaign.    Does this get your attention?  What other marketing tool do you have that is this effective?  Why haven't you started one yet?  Or worse yet, have you started one but send it out sporadically? 

I have 'moles' in the local real estate market.  Ok, not really, they are friends who are agents that send me every newsletter they get from someone else.  It is amazing to me how few are actually well written, well designed and well executed.  NONE of them are sent on a regular basis.  There is one local stager who sends them out every so often (maybe once every 4-6 mos).  There is another that has sent 2 in the last year.  (Last time I talked to her she was wishing she had more business... meanwhile I've trained 3 other stagers locally who work as much as they want.... same market!).  Why aren't they doing it?  Frankly I'm thrilled.  If we all were sending monthly newsletters in the same market, the content might get watered down.  All of my personally trained local stagers are listed on the same newsletter as me (and I'm not counting their income in that $100K!)

So, now I know all of you reading this who are looking for more business are going to go right out there and begin your newsletters, right?  If you need tips, visit my past blog - Newsletters - Getting Agent Attention.  If you want to see some of my past newsletters you can visit my local website, www.RedesigningCharleston.com and click on News, Articles & Links.  If you want help creating your newsletters monthly, including 2 pre-written articles for you to use each month, monthly business tips, etc, consider joining First Impressions as a member. 

For those of you who want to use Constant Contact, email me and I'll send you a link that offers you a free trial month and then a $30 credit when you join.

Good luck!

Melissa Marro - become a member of First Impressions today!