Ok, most of you know that I own the bulk of the inventory that I stage with. There are pros & there are cons. I thought as one who has a significant amount, I would give a little snapshot. I'm hoping that others who have a lot will chime in as well.....
Money money money..... money.... (do you hear the tune in your head? I do....) What do you see in this photo?
- Dining Table,
- 4 Chairs,
- 4 slipcovers for the chairs,
- 4 bowls,
- 4 plates,
- 4 napkins,
- 4 placemats,
- 4 wine glasses &
- an orchid
How much did all this cost? How good of a shopper are you? The more you hit the stores, the more luck you will have at finding deals.
I teach staging & redesign. In my class on vacants I provide a laminated copy of the most commonly used items in vacants. It is two pages long. It's not really a science either. Sometimes I need far more art & accessories than other homes..... built in book cases, large rooms & awkward floorplans can really create inventory challenges. When I come into a vacant home, I have movers bring the big stuff & a few boxes of accessories. My van is always stuffed to it's limit. When I'm done the rooms look something like this....
Where did everything go? You should have seen the boxes of stuff... You would have thought I was actually moving in. I know the neighbors did! It always amazes me how quickly the items disburse and all but disappear. I guess they blend well enough you get a feeling, but don't particularly notice any one thing. That means I've done something right (at least I think so). They are supposed to notice scale, size, layout & lifestyle. You want them to imagine life here, not oooh and ahhhh over the beautiful handmade wooden console table over there on the left.
The most common question I'm asked, "What do you do with all that stuff?" The real answer is I store it at other people's homes. It's what I tell them & it is true. Currently I have 17 staged homes (all vacant) and another stager is renting an additional set (which comes home on Tuesday).... that's 18 homes worth of stuff. I also have about 2 storage units worth of stuff that's not accounted for in that list. (I stage another home this wek with what is currently in storage, but will still need to buy additional pieces... I'm out of queen beds & coffee tables for instance.) I have the most inventory in stock as I've ever had & with the additional of the home that comes back Tuesday will have to rent a 3rd storage unit. The cost is going to be around $500/mo for all of them. In January I am getting a warehouse.... I'm such a happy girl about this, you have no idea!
So.... between movers fees (between $75-$250 total per home), storage ($500/mo) & taxes (yep, you'll need to claim your inventory) is it really worth keeping your own inventory? Most jobs I collect 3 months fees + staging & delivery fee (I charge $100 per home) up front. The average job is between $1800 - $2400 for a living room, dining room, eat-in kitchen, master bedroom & bath. I do an average of 7-10 homes a month. My current monthly income (additional months beyond contract or smaller contracts that I allow month to month payments is $2400) + the above average x # of homes) If I only took the monthly rental bill (exluding staging & delivery fees) for the 18 homes I have staged (includes other stager who rents my stuff) the income would be about $7500/mo. For me, this makes it worth it.
I do have to add that my options for rental are slim. I've been doing a lot of homes over $500K and the rental inventory available is not sufficient for this price point. If I had inventory available to me, I might not have chosen this route.
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Melissa Marro, a published artist, now turned staging advocate and national speaker speaks her mind about real estate and the home staging industry. In her 'no holds barred' approach, audience members find real answers to the industries pitfalls and learn how to overcome them with tried and true information and guidance. With marketing as her passion, she turned a small home based business into one of the nation's largest home staging and training facilities. Selling her successful home staging company in January 2012, Marro is now a full time speaker and instructor for Staging And Resign and Real Estate Staging Association (RESA)'s trade events.
For more information on having Marro speak at one of your real estate functions, please contact her at 843.619.1593 or email at marro.melissa@gmail.com
What a great post Melissa! I love the way you broke everything down - it really is an eye opener! I'm giving you a 5!
Melissa - Thanks for a wonderful post. I'm just starting to build up my inventory and I really appreciate your information and insight. And by the way - thank you for letting me know earlier today about where you got your great bar stools in your downtown Charleston staging. I was in the market for some good looking dining room chairs so I ran out to Pier 1 and the chairs were even on sale.
I'm getting more and more calls for vacant stagings and your info is extremely important!
Julia - When I started with vacant staging I thought I would probably need about 4 homes worth of stuff... then 6-8.... then surely 10 would be enough. By the end of next week we will have 20 vacant homes staged & I still have 4 outstanding quotes. I'm pretty sure I have over $200K in furniture, art & accessories now and it seems that is still not enough.....
Marci - Funny, I always think I want to be YOU when I grow up. Maybe we just need to share each of our own strengths with each other and we'll ROCK SC!
Kathy - Thank you so much! I get a lot of questions on renting vs owning & I hope this helps a little....
Lynn - I love Pier 1. They are one of my best sources for all kinds of chairs.... particularly wicker & barstool types. My favorite chairs are all Pieir 1....
Joelle - I get charged $75/hr from my movers. Most of the time it is only an hour there and back... sometimes the back actually is delivering to another property (I love it when that happens!). I almost always charge my clients a $100 delivery fee and basically eat the rest of the cost. It is just part of operating expenses for me. If I were renting furniture the delivery fee would be $75 & there would be no pick up. I don't have to pay rental fees, so the income from the rental makes this point mute. I could rent the furniture for $300/mo times 3 mos minimum or pay an extra $75-$150 in delivery fees..... the choice is clear... (for me)...
Hey
It's so very true. This is an excellent post and thank you for your honesty. Staging vacants yields a lot more profits than just doing redesigns. But also our overheads are much higher as well. California is much more expensive! I think simple moving job would start at $200. :( also storage for $500/ month is super reasonable comparing to the bay area. I would love to get a warehouse one day but right now the bay area real estate needs to come down a lot more to make it worthwhile... So I am still living with everything! One day, one day, I will reclaim the garage again!
Cheers,
Cindy
Hey Melissa,
Thanks for providing some valuable info as always. It is great to see it laid out like that. In Florida I do no not have nearly the same amount of jobs per month to make having my own furniture a possibility. I do wish that Brook would open up in Central Florida since we have the highest amount of vacants in the Nation!
Karla
Melissa,
Thanks for the post, Inventory is a huge issue for me. I know I can't go out and buy 18 houses worth of furniture, but I would like to at least get some key pieces to start and add on. I have a friend that has decided to join me in this business, but she is dead set against the idea of owning inventory. I'm going to reference this post to her since you explained everything so well!
Penny White
Beststagedesign
wampi- wimpy's mother
sAm in the process of staging a 2500 square foot property--- just the main floor.
have spend over $5000 so far plus items already in inventory and still need to complete the master bedroom and bath. (it is being painted before I can finish) Having trouble with the bed problem-- my blowups when I checked had leaked air and they looked soggy. What brand and quality works best?
Must solve the bedroom problem before Wednesday as video guys are coming. Any great suggestions. The house is priced in the $800,000's. We have very poor rental sources where we are----
Cheers,
marilynn from the north west coast stager 9 www.stagingfortopdollar.ca
World Stagers group because it would give 'newbies' such a lot of great information. Margo and I have accessories and small furniture items for over 12 vacants now - but we still rent the big pieces of furniture. After reading this post we may have to do some rethinking. Betty
I really enjoyed this post and am AWED by the amount of work you do each month. You have inspired me by knowing it is possible to have that volume of business. At present, my space is packed with just small pieces and accessories, and I have no immediate plans to offer larger pieces. Some day, maybe I will change that, but for now the rental on accessories sure helps in a slow staging month!
Kim Dillon, Creative Eye Home Staging
Marilynn,
I'm not a vacant stager yet - however I'm a display merchandiser in a furniture store, I do allot of model homes with my company.
Use 2 box springs for bedding, they are allot cheaper, if you go to a furniture store, you can bet that they have a few missed matched ones that they will sell you cheap. They can't give the things away. Now days the mattress warranties aren't any good unless you purchase the matching box. Check out the clearance section in the stores. The trick is to use very plush bedding on top. Sometimes even extra blankets or quilt batting. Mattress are so expensive now.
Becky
Melissa, Great blog. I have enjoyed reading on this topic as I only have 7 houses full of my inventory. (and still growing) I started purchasing my furniture inventory because of lack of available rental opportunities.
I have had several agent/stagers contact me to rent my inventory for their stagings. I am not to the point yet where I can offer this as I am purchasing the inventory to aide my clients. And I have been very lucky to have a wait list so moving from one property to another and changing accessories and adding/removing furniture as needed per house.
Have you seen a slow down in the rental aspect of your business during the winter months? Just planning ahead. Thanks, Leslie
Cindy - for a long time I would have errant items in my garage (or formal dining room). I'm getting tired of the mess in my home & having movers in & out. I find storage is better for me right now. If it were that expensive I would probably live with the mess.
Karla - If you live in the area that has the most vacant homes in the nation, I would say 'get to marketing!'.... Most agents here didn't know what it was until I started doing my monthly newsletters. I've been doing them for 16 months now and literally I have more work than I can handle most of the time. I've also trained 3 others in the area who work for my company and are regularly busy themselves.
Lori - I do a minimum 3 month contract. I don't think it is worth the money for less time. The rental companies here won't do less than 3 months, so neither will I.
Penny - owning furniture can take on a life of its own. It can be a big committment. I personally believe it is where the real money is. That is something you'll have to decide for yourself.
Roberta - I have advised clients that the staging isn't doing the job (maybe the home is significantly overpriced, bad neighborhood, external things we can do nothing about) & should be removed. Sometimes they listen, sometimes they don't. I let them make that call as long as they are paying for me.
Maryilyn - I also use 2 box springs. They are cheap & fairly light. I get mine from Sam's club. They cost about $100/ea.
Betty - Thanks... I'll look into that group. When my monthly rental bill got to $4000/mo I decided that was almost $50K a year I wasn't earning (I still had some couches & stuff in homes at the time). I have vowed to get rid of all rental as soon as I possibly can. I unstaged 5 homes this month with rental furniture alone. Only about 4 months later and my bill is down to about $800/mo. (I still have 2 fully rental furniture & 2 with partial rental)
Kim - my goal in this business is to be able to earn money even while on vacation. I feel like rentals are the way to do that.
Becky - model homes are great! I get to do those once in a while (where they purchase the furniture), but not too terribly often. They usually come to me because they want to rent the furniture. I also use 2 box springs... cheap, easy, effective.
Leslie - I only rent to a couple of stagers locally. They are ones I have trained and have bought the rights to use the name of my company - First Impressions. This is part of the advantage of that option for them. We have plans to expand this to members locally next year, but I don't quite have the inventory for that yet. This is one reason we are getting the warehouse in January.
Marilynn - Glad we could help!
Kathleen - Yes! Tons of inventory... I think in the ballpark of $200K. I just got word that I have 3 more vacants on the book for the next week and a half. I fortunately have almost all of the furniture in those storage units I mentioned. I'll still probably spend $3000 of the $7K in new business on inventory.
Joy - I don't really think you want to live there. It's so crowded half the time I can't get it all straight anymore. I've switched datebooks/palm pilot tracking systems 4 times in the past 1 1/2 yrs trying to get the best method so I don't have to keep it all in my head! It is so hard to keep track! I'm pretty sure my brain could use a stager & organizational expert! lol.... thankfully when I get the warehouse next year I'm also getting a secretary!!!!!!
Great post Melissa! As always you are very generous and helpful with your information. And there was alot of it here, for clarity you are receiving between $1800-2400 per month x3 or approx. $1200 per month for the LR, DR. & MBR? Thank you.