Speaking Up about Home Staging

I really do love my job.  I get to do so many fun things and often sit and wonder how it is that I get paid for what I do.  I guess it's the age old, "do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life".  Over the weekend I did give up some family time to share my experience and knowledge with a budding new group of stagers from South Carolina.  They created some amazing changes and I really wanted to share them with you....

I began teaching the Certified Staging Professionals course a few months ago and have really been amazed at just how much information is provided in this extensive course.  I'm proud of the affiliation, forward thinking and friendships that have come along with the move. 

Many of those friendships are formed in classes such as these.... finding students, instructors or classmates to be friends is not at all uncommon.  After spending thirty hours in an intense learning situation, bonds grow fast and it becomes hard to imagine that you haven't known them forever!

Of course, I always love seeing the transformation of the properties they stage...

This home has been for sale for over 6 months and just wasn't getting the feedback (or offers) that the homeowners were looking for.  Now, with the changes our new Certified Staging Professionals have created, I am confident that their home will sell quickly!

I hope that our new stagers will find as much happiness with their new careers that I have found with mine!

Well, I think I'll actually start this by telling you how it started, according to the agent and then I'll share with you why this appointment was just a little different than an ordinary agent meeting. 

A few months ago there was a little set of townhomes in a great neighborhood that simply weren't selling.  Desperate, the agent called us to see about staging them.... We negotiated for 2 months on a rate that I think was nearly not worth doing.  I viewed it as an opportunity since there were 9 units for sale and we have a history of selling the model unit then moving the furniture, etc to another unit and so on.  Today the agent told me that he wasn't really sold on staging but just didn't know what else to try & had seen our successes in our newsletters..... After staging he was impressed with how different the units looked. 

After all 9 units sold in less than 45 days he was doubly impressed!!

In October - several months later - I received a call from him asking us to quote a $1M+ home in Seabrook Island.  Today he tells me that still he wasn't sold on staging this high end home - sure, the condo had issues, but this was a stunner.... did it really need staging?  Well, we successfully negotiated a contract and less than 30 days later the home was in Pending status and closes next week.  (It had been on the market over 8 months prior.)  He said he was impressed (again) that this home looked so different after staging and actually asked the buyers if the staging had made a difference (you see they had seen it prior to staging and this was a second viewing).  The buyers said that it was the staging that sold them - they sat on the sofa and discussed the homes they saw and wrote the offer while sitting on our furniture in the home!!

Earlier this week I received a voicemail from the agent asking me to call him - we needed to talk real business....

(fast forward to our meeting today....)

Today I met with him (actually for the first time - all other deals were done via email).  I walked into his office, sat down and he started at the computer printing up MLS information.  Turning to me he tells me his side of the story of the last 2 deals we've had (Ok, our only 2 deals).... explaining that he is SOLD on staging and will never list another vacant home.  Then handed me 17 MLS sheets and told me that these all need to be staged.... to give us our best price and they will all be done.  Following up, he added that without staging he closes around 45 deals a year and will now stage all of them & with us on his team that he expects that number to increase.

Best yet, all 17 of these properties are bank owned and the staging has already been negotiated.  All future listings that come from this bank will be staged by First Impressions as well.... So, if you are wondering where I've been and why I may continue to be absent a bit longer.... you'll know why!!  (Of course you can always catch me on facebook - I do keep daily tabs of our progress and what's going on there.... )

Anyway - that's how my day went.... now I need to get back to writing up all the contracts for the bank....