Speaking Up about Home Staging

If the home doesn't sell in the first month or two, then I'll stage.  This philosophy, designed to save money, actually has a tendency to cost the seller more than they could possibly stand to gain - in both time and money.  

MLS PHOTO BEFORE                                                 MLS PHOTO AFTER

Think back to one of the first things you learned after real estate school.  New listings are HOT!  This is when the most interest is generated. Agents who are WOWed by the listing will show it over and over again - if it lasts that long.  The best possible offers are typically obtained during this initial period as well.  When you postpone staging, you have missed the opportunity of putting your best foot forward, so to speak.  These are excited potential buyers and possibly agents that you will never win back!  

So, what to do?  At the listing table, explain the importance of staging to compete in today's market.  Have your professional home stager provide a consultation immediately - before the listing hits the market! (It may be necessary to postpone the listing contract.)  Your stager will provide a list of projects and possible improvements necessary to compete and shine in your market.  

These changes are vital to securing the maximum equity for your clients as possible in today's current market conditions.  Hesitating or waiting WILL cost your client equity.  

Learn more & download brochures and literature for your clients.

After talking to past clients we've realized that often times this is because many agents just don't have enough information.  In this series, we'll begin addressing some of the most common concerns.     

Only High End Homes Need to Be Staged. We hear this comment from both agents and homeowners. People have the misconception that staging is expensive and therefore, only applies to higher end, more expensive homes. It is important to let them know that staging works in all homes, regardless of price, age or occupancy status. Also, let them know that you work with all budgets to get the job done. 

Professionally staged homes can sell faster in all price points. In the past 2 months, we have had several homes go under contract in less than 30 days after staging, ranging in price from $187,500 to $1,999,999. The cost of staging these homes also ranged from $1800-$2800. When you look at the carrying cost per month, for both the agent and homeowner, versus the investment of staging, the savings of less time on market is the obvious choice.  

Remember, staging is done to show a home's size and scale, as well highlight its best features. Every home needs to show at its very best for all showings. Any staged home, regardless of price point, needs to appeal to every potential buyer that views the property. In addition, staged homes typically receive higher offers due to the fact that the staging has increased the buyers perceived value of the home. Shouldn't every homeowner have the opportunity to get the most out of their investment?

You've seen our blogs and our success stories and still we see many homes on the market, right here in Charleston, in desperate need of staging.  After talking to past clients we've realized that often times this is because many agents just don't have enough information.   

Cost & Who Pays?  Agents seem to have concerns about this because they are afraid that if they hire a stager then we'll suggest that they should pay for us.  Well this simply isn't true!  While most of our agent clients do pay for our consultations as part of their marketing budget, the staging itself should be paid by the homeowner.   

Consultations are typically paid for by the agents because they help sellers understand the need for staging and what exactly will be needed to get their home show-ready.  The costs are low and typically help the agent save on marketing costs.   The typical cost for a First Impressions occupied consultation is $150 for homes under 2500 sqft and $225 for 2500 sqft and over.  With our new 58 page Room Ready Handbooks, your clients will know exactly what to do before we leave their homes!

At First Impressions we believe that actual staging jobs should be paid for by the seller, whether the home is vacant or occupied.  When the seller pays for the staging, they typically become more invested in the process - helping keep the property in better condition, understanding the need for proper pricing, etc.  We are here to do as much of the work, or as little of the work as the client wants.  Understanding budget, time and skill sets will help us create the maximum advantage for your clients in this buyer's market. 

Don't worry agents, we already know how hard you work and that you too have expenses that cut into your commissions.  We aren't going to ask for another piece of that pie!

Because you know I love to blog about newsletters and personally use Constant Contact I thought this information was incredibly useful and interesting.  I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did....

Earlier tonight I wrote a blog My client doesn't really want to sell so how do I get them to stage? that is about how to discuss home staging with a client who needs to sell but doesn't really want to.  In that blog I took a real live situation that happened to me this weekend and discussed how to help enlighten the client.  Not surprisingly the agents who read the post all seemed to have the same comments - don't waste your time taking a listing for an unmotivated client.  While for the most part I agree with this answer when all of the agents seemed to not pay any attention to the overall message of the post - how to talk to these clients so they can understand WHY they need to stage - it started making me think about things on a different level.

How many opportunities, not only for listings and possible sales transactions, but for actually helping others move on with their lives are you missing because you are too motivated by the "easier sale"? Now I'm not saying to waste your time on tire kickers and the 'let's see how the market goes' clients but what about the people who really have to sell?  You know, the ones who will lose their homes, who need the money for retirement, who need to move for health reasons?  They may not want to move, but they have to move.  Who is left to help them?  Who educates them?  Do you all just leave them on their own to learn what they need to do or do you take some reasonable effort to explain what needs to happen and why it needs to happen? 

What if instead of simply walking away from these listings, you teamed up with a professional who knows how to talk to these clients to help them understand what they will lose and what they will gain by making suggested recommendations, in price, condition and staging?

Real Estate Agents get a bad rap from most sources because they don't realize how much you do - well, those of you who are actually professionals and utilize all the tools of the trade.  They think that you make easy money.  What if you broke this mold by utilizing compassion, motivation and education as the keys?

Remember, while you think the clients are unmotivated, they may simply be overwhelmed and undereducated.  They may not be able to afford the price reductions you want them to make, but they may be able to afford the staging.  They may have health issues that make the work part of staging overwhelming or simply too much - a staging professional may be able to help them.  They may have age related emotional or pyschological issues and are unprepared for the emotional diress that selling can bring - consider teaming up with a stager who is trained in senior move management.

Before you just walk away from someone who seems unmotivated, take a moment to understand why they are selling.  You may find that you can not only turn a rough listing into a SOLD property, but help them move on with their lives....

This weekend I had a situation where I was searching for properties on MLS.  My family is moving and as usual we are looking for a dog house in a nice neighborhood to purchase.  This way we can benefit for our skill sets and others who don't understand how important it is to have a home in 'move in ready' condition.  As I ran through the properties I found a few that I liked and sat down to narrow down a showing list when I noticed that one of the properties was that of an agent who was familiar with our services, has had it highly recommended to her by another top producing agent (co-listing agent) but has yet to use our services.  With a little trepedation I shot off an email to her letting her know that her clients really needed our help.  Her response back was pretty typical of other agents who just don't know how staging works, hopefully this will help shed some light...

"I couldn't agree with you more regarding the look of (insert street address)!  But I don't know how to handle a client that doesn't really want to move (hence they can't live without their precious wallpaper in case they never sell) and one that loves every treasure they possess. 

It's a great house and I think the price is pretty good so it's hard to just not take the listing but when the client doesn't hear "you need to have someone else love your house and this stuff and look is only good if the next buyer is you"... I'm not sure what to do with them.  

Husband is disabled and pretty much sits home on the couch and computer all day so getting him to work is not going to fly.

Have you had luck getting the "i don't care if I sell" people to take your advise and suddenly sell?"

As a professional home stager I know this is one of those questions that no one ever really asks us, but the problem is across the board.  Here is one of the appropriate responses to this burning question.....

"Thanks for the GREAT questions.  I find this fairly common and depending on a few factors sometimes we have great success overcoming it and sometimes we don't and the property ends up sitting either unsold, sold below what it should have sold for, or sold after multiple price reductions.

The first question I have is why are they selling?  What is their motivation?  You said that they don't really want to move and yet the house is for sale.  Do they have to sell?  Do they need to downsize?  Are they selling to move into the new Del Webb community or something similar?  So long as the reason isn't that they just thought they would try the market and see how it goes then we usually have something to work with here. 

If they need to sell then we need to remind them that if they don't sell the home then they will..... (whatever will happen if they don't sell).  That this may be difficult but they will still have all of their belongings, they will just be already boxed up and ready to be moved into their new destination.  Since they don't want to move, but have to move, breaking the emotional connection will help them let go of the home.  As we change it to a property that is more set up for the buyer than the current owners then it will be easier to let it go and move on to where they need to be. 

If they are downsizing, then helping remind them that their home is already full of their belongings but a smaller home probably won't fit all of them may be helpful.  This is when suggesting that things they want to give away to family members begin to happen now.  This way they get to enjoy their family enjoying the pieces and it helps make moving easier.  Again, because they really don't want to sell, reminding them that they need to begin breaking the emotional connection to the home is key.

If they are moving into a new adult community then help get them excited about getting there.  Get them to detach from this house by getting them excited about that house. 

I think it would also probably be helpful to show them either in person (if you can arrange it) or at least the photographs of the homes in that neighborhood that are currently under contract.  Of the 6 properties currently under contract in (insert neighborhood), 4 of them are in great condition - no wallpaper and completely updated.  They are all selling for close to or over $100 sqft.  Two properties remain.  One of them is (another address) - which then would right next door - from MLS they look very similar (although your clients does look cleaner and slightly more updated) the other is (another address).  Both of these properties are listed for around $55 sqft.  Your clients home is listed at $90.56 - which is very close to the value of the fully updated homes, but measures more closely with the lower end homes (based on what I see in MLS).  If your clients spent a little money stripping wallpaper, painting and removing the excess furniture, art and accessories, it would probably not only be worth it's current list price but possibly be worth slightly more based on the other properties currently under contract. 

Please understand that I'm not trying to tell you how to price the home, or do your job.  I only contacted (co-listing agent) because she typically brings us in on all of these type properties because she knows that they need us.  I only ran across this house because we are downsizing and looking for another home - a fixer upper that we can kind of live in and flip and as I looked through the photos this home quickly went on my list.  When I saw (agents' name) name at the bottom I knew this was not a home I wanted to go in offering a lowball figure (which based on the other comps I would have gone in around $60sqft) but rather to recommend getting it staged. 

Also, we are always happy to meet with the homeowners when we do the consultation to help them come to terms with what needs to happen.  This doesn't have to be your job.  You just need to get us in the door so we can help do ours.  (insert co-listing agent's name) has just always been great about doing all the dirty work for us in most homes so we just had to say what needs to be done, but we can actually be the bad guy telling them what really is going on - except for the pricing thing - we don't touch that with the sellers.  We always defer that to the agent.  I only know these numbers because I'm actively looking for a house for us to purchase and fix up."

You see, it is important to put the whole thing into perspective and show the reality of the situation.  What I found out later, from the co-listing agent was that she had already recommended us to this agent for this house three time, once when she became the co-listing agent and the other two times when they took a $5000 price reduction.  She advised that staging would have been less than either of those price reductions and they would have made money on the deal. 

Now, as an agent consider if you are really doing your best job if you aren't providing this information to your clients.

I've been trying to figure out what I wanted to write about after passing the 200K point mark.  I was going to try to write some whitty and insightful post about looking back on all the things I learned in the rain.  Today I was inspired to write by Lori Kim Polk's blog When you walk the same walk as your clients.. The Twilight Zone of Real Estate.  She's going through what a lot of American's are going through right now - faced with hard economic times.  I guess my post won't be whitty, but hopefully a little bit insightful for those of us facing difficult time.... Yes, I'm one of those people wondering about the future.  My husband's company recently laid off people and may have another round of layoffs coming.  My husband fortunately didn't make the first list, and we are hopeful he won't make the next either, but we kind of hold our breath and wait, plan for the worst and hope for the best.

With all of that said, I thought i would take my 200K point blog to talk about a little lesson I learned.  Nearly every 'tragedy' in my life has turned into one of the best things that has ever happened to me.  Of course I didn't see it that way when it was happening.  I'll give you my best example - it is a bit on the personal side, so I hope you'll understand and be respectful with your comments.....

About 14 years ago my husband and I were at odds.  We had a dreadful relationship, there was nothing positive going in our marriage except our two great kids.  We filed for divorce but still lived together because of the kids - waiting for school to end.  After the filing, the fighting stopped.  It was just a waiting game then.  My husband, started counseling.  He didn't want the divorce, but didn't want to go to couseling when I wanted him to years before... now it was too late for me.  I took the kids and left after school was out.  I talked to him several times a week, when he called to talk to the kids.  What I realized after a few weeks was that he was changing and I was remembering the old John.  Slowly we fell back in love.... the day before the divorce proceeding, I called him and asked him if he wanted to try to work things out.  We both called our attornies and let them know we didn't want to go through with it. 

When the attornies shows up in court to stop the proceedings, they found the judge had already signed the documents - prior to actually hearing the case.  Because technically this shouldn't have happened, he had to white out his name on the document.  My husband still has the whited out divorce papers - he keeps them in his top drawer to "remind him of what he almost lost". 

Today our marriage is the stuff fairy tales are made of.  We deeply love each other and have three gorgeous kids.  I can't imagine my life without him and our kids constantly tell us to get a room.... The truth is that without the divorce process, we would never be where we are now.... a happy, loving couple.  It was the hardest time of our lives, but gave us the best thing in our life.... our relationship.

Not only has this impacted my relationship with my husband now, but I routinely find myself in situations where I have a friend going through similar circumstances.  I let them talk and talk about my experiences with them.  I have seen more than one relationship come back from the brink of divorce because they were able to have hope because they see what can happen..... with hard work and faith.  This means that not only was my life positively affected by this negative event but others that I was able to help also benefited from our pain.

I can look back at virtually every single 'tragic event' in my life and find the same thing.  In the end, life was better, not worse as a result of it..... I'm sure you've heard the saying that when God closes a door, he opens a window.  While I believe that is true, what I believe to be more true to me is that I often find that when tragedy happens we are left banging on a door trying to get out, not realizing that we are already on the outside, banging on the wrong side of the door. 

Look around at your surroundings and find what is, or could be great.... what is the opportunity you are being given at this moment and embrace it.

Last week the infamous Linda Barnett (along with husband Gary) headed down to Charleston, SC to become part of CSP!  Linda will be joining us as CSP as one of our newest instructors....

I'm excited to welcome Linda to our CSP family and looking forward to her being able to help so many new stagers enter the business with integrity, skill and knowledge! 

Other CSP Certification Instructors include Jackson West, Duncan Scott, Joanne O'Donnell, Lynelle Hartmann, Nairn Freiman, and of course Christine Rae herself.  Check out www.stagingtraining.com for more information on classes and be on the lookout for our new Indiana classes with Linda Barnett!

This past week I was proud to have a great class of students in my CSP Class in Charleston, SC!  After spending 30 hours of greuling class time, our students left mind boggled and mind numbed from all the things they learned.  They also left with a great begginers portfolio from an occupied home that they transformed.

After staging the entire home in just 6.5 hours, and using ONLY what the homeowners had in the property, they really learned the value that staging provides and how/why they need to price their services at a fair market price. 

Our savvy students even managed to find an air mattress in the family's camping gear to make a bed in this empty room - their teenager had gone off to college and left the room bare.  I think they did an amazing job for their first project and am excited to see what they continue to do on with their exciting new career!

Two weeks ago one of CSP's Staging Certification Instructors, Duncan Scott, received several glowing fan mail letters from his students.  A group of women, who dubbed themselves, "Duncan's 6F Girls" (CSP has a proprietory 8-7-6-5 way of remembering the important aspects of staging, which include the 6Fs, required for proper staging) had nothing but positive words to say about their experience with Certified Staging Professionals, which was all the more impressive considering some had already been trained by other staging companies. 

One of the women, Beverly Tollofson, from Guelph Ontario had this to say....

"I am new to the Home Staging business.  I had originally taken the (removed name) Home Staging course and received their certification.  However, my experience was very disappointing; my interaction with their staff was unsatisfactory, I was unable to communicate directly with a trainer and the course was limited.  Follow-up and mentorship was non-existent.  I really felt like I was adrift.

After receiving my certification from (removed name), I started to do some research on the Home Staging training offerings and decided that I wanted to be associated with CSP.  The CSP staff I spoke to were extremely informative, helpful and responsive.  I concluded that the CSP training program seemed more interactive and inclusive.

My instincts were correct!  I have just completed the 3-day program and my experience couldn't be more different.  I have to first give a big "bravo" to our instructor, Duncan Scott.  Duncan made the whole 3-step staging process come to life.  His in-class course content was jam-packed with information, from how to run our business to the detailed aspects of Home Staging.  Day 3 - the Home Staging day, brought it all together and turned the theory we learned into a real and practical experience.  Thanks to the CSP training program and Duncan's high energy, enthusiasm and knowledge, I now feel more prepared to proceed with my business, than I ever imagined, and I know that there's support along the way.  I'm looking forward to having the designation of CCSP and displaying the CSP logo, and feel certain that my association with CSP will bring my business the respect and credibility I want.

Sincerely,

Beverley Tollofson,  Renew Home Staging"

I have removed the name of the course she originally received her training from as I do not want this student harrassed by their legal department.  Unfortunately, this is a large training company that regularly airs commercials on TV and this is only one of many students who have felt the need to take additional training to actually begin their staging business.  Beverly was able to sign up under CSP's Second Chances Program, offered now through October 1, 2009 to receive an additional $650 in business building supplies FREE with her paid course fee.

As always, CSP Staff and Instructors are here to help both new and experienced stagers learn and grow - developing dynamic, successful staging businesses along the way!  For more information on taking a CSP class in your area, visit www.stagingtraining.com or www.cspbusinessacademy.com.  Don't see one in your area, call 1-888-STAGING to help get your area on our schedule!