The following information is provided by award-winning home staging industry influencer Shauna Lynn Simon. It’s backed up by thousands of clients, up-to-date and independent research, and over 15 years of real-world experience in the home staging industry.
As a home stager, you know the importance of showcasing a property in its best light but sometimes it can be challenging to convince homeowners and real estate agents that staging is a worthwhile investment. The best way to persuade even the most skeptical clients and create raving fans is by highlighting your value and emphasizing the benefits of staging. Here’s how to sell your value as a home stager in a buyer’s market:
1. Emphasize the importance of first impressions
In a buyer’s market, potential buyers have more options to choose from, and they may be more selective about which properties they choose to visit. That’s why it’s essential to make a strong first impression. Staging helps create a welcoming atmosphere and allows buyers to envision themselves living in the home. Emphasize the impact that staging can have on a property’s online listing and open house appeal, which can ultimately lead to a quicker sale.
2. Highlight the return on investment
Staging can seem like a significant investment for homeowners, so it’s essential to emphasize the return on investment (ROI). Many homeowners are hesitant to invest in home staging, especially in a buyer’s market where they may be concerned about spending too much money. It’s your job to educate your clients on the benefits of home staging and how it can help them sell their home more quickly and for a higher price. Make sure they understand that staging isn’t just about making the home look pretty; it’s about creating a lifestyle that buyers can see themselves living in. Share your statistics and reassure them that by staging the property, it will attract more potential buyers, increase the perceived value of the home, and potentially lead to a higher offer price. Homeowners and real estate agents will appreciate the added value that staging can bring to a property and will be more willing to invest in your services.
3. Demonstrate your expertise
One of the best ways to sell your value as a home stager is to demonstrate your expertise. Showcase your portfolio, highlighting before-and-after photos, and include testimonials from satisfied clients. Show that you have experience staging various types of properties and can create a tailored plan for each home. Highlight any certifications or training you have received, and share any success stories you have had with previous clients. The more confident you are in your abilities, the more confident your clients will be in hiring you. Use phrases like “in my experience” and give specific examples of how you have helped past clients.
4. Emphasize your understanding of buyer psychology
In a buyer’s market, understanding buyer psychology is key to success. You need to know what motivates buyers, what they’re looking for in a home, and what turns them off. Emphasize yo
ur knowledge of buyer psychology and explain how you use that knowledge to create a home that will appeal to a wide range of potential buyers. Keep yourself up to date with the latest market reports, listen to buyer feedback on all your staged properties, and study the specific demographics of each property to ensure that you are creating a staging plan that connects with the listing’s specific buyers.
5. Be personable and professional and sell with integrity
Finally, it’s essential to be personable and professional in your interactions with clients. Listen to their concerns and needs and provide personalized recommendations. Show that you are a reliable and trustworthy partner in the home-selling process. Some homeowners may want a full staging service, while others may only need a consultation and tips for how to better utilize the items that they already have. Sell your clients only what they need, and provide the best options for their budget.
Selling your value as a home stager in a buyer’s market requires a combination of expertise, experience, and confidence. By educating your clients, showing before-and-after photos, highlighting your expertise, emphasizing your understanding of buyer psychology, and being personable and professional, you will connect with more clients, build stronger partnerships, and grow your business.
Resources to help you get started
Styled, Listed, and Sold (SLS) Academy has all the resources you need to be successful as a home stager. Unlike other training programs and academies, we also focus on business skills — our comprehensive training has helped many of our students grow a profitable business from scratch.
Check out these great resources to build your skills and connect with your best clients
The following information is provided by award-winning home staging expert Shauna Lynn Simon. It’s backed up by thousands of clients, up-to-date and independent research, and 14 years of real-world experience in the home staging industry.
There are many paths to becoming a professional home stager and, yes, a career in home staging can provide you with a good stable income.
With the right tools in your pocket, you can start (and grow) your business quickly and efficiently. I’ve personally helped thousands of home stagers from all kinds of backgrounds and economic circumstances to become successful home stagers in their local area.
Here’s what you need to know about how much home stagers make, and how you can kickstart (or rejuvenate) a career as one!
What does a home stager do?
Home staging is the art of furnishing and decorating a home to make it aesthetically appealing to anyone walking through the front door. A professional stager typically works with real estate agents or home sellers to prepare and stage owner-occupied and vacant homes prior to listing their property for sale in their local real estate market.
Professional staging is not the same as interior design. Interior designers work with clients and create an environment based on their personal likes, dislikes, personal functional needs and preferred home look.
A home stager, in contrast, is trained to turn open houses into future homes that potential buyers find universally attractive. Selling a home is about marketing to today’s home buyers.
The day-to-day life of a home stager involves:
Doing consultations with new clients.
Planning room layouts and furnishings.
Physically managing the movement and placement of ALL decor and furniture into vacant show houses.
Advising clients on how to arrange their existing furniture and decor
Helping clients clear clutter, clean surfaces and repair cosmetic defects
And much, much more!
Home stagers often work to make small spaces appear bigger and more attractive to prospective buyers.
Why do people hire home stagers?
Home stagers position homes against their competition so that they stand out to and attract buyers. With more buyers interested in a home, the property will sell at a higher price — often 5-10% above the asking price. In most cases, it also helps the home sell after spending very little time on the market (1-2 weeks). If you think about a $500,000 home, a mere 5% increase in sale price net’s the seller an extra $25k! Considering the cost of staging, their return on investment is five times more than the cost of staging.
Three types of home stagers
While estate agents have governing bodies like the National Association of Realtors ® as well as state/provincial licensing boards, there’s no formal roadmap to becoming a home stager. In a self-regulated industry, the Real Estate Staging Association (RESA) provides standards and professional guidelines for members, however, membership is not mandatory to be a home stager.
As a home stager, your revenue is based on referrals from happy customers, partnerships with real estate agents, and the success of your marketing efforts within your area.
Here are the different ways you can run a home staging business.
Consultations-only
You help homeowners develop a DIY plan of action in your initial consultation. This business model doesn’t require much capital to start, but you will spend less time doing actual staging, and more time advising, planning, and building resources.
In-house
In-house stagers work for real estate agencies or home staging businesses. To find a full-time job in home staging, you need a portfolio of work, training, and experience. You may also start out as a staging assistant while learning the ropes.
Full-service business
A full-service home stager manages home staging projects from start to finish. They hold consultations, plan staging designs, arrange for furniture and decor to be moved or replaced, and physically set the stage of the house for prospective buyers. This type of business requires an inventory of furnishings that you rent to your clients or an agreement with a third-party furniture rental service.
Real estate agents are known to exclusively engage the services of a full-service home staging business.
A professional home stager makes spaces aesthetically pleasing and creates a blank slate for the new owners.
How much money can you make staging homes?
Data supplied by ZipRecruiter indicates that most people working as a home stager will earn between $26,000 and $42,000 per year. The top 15% of home stagers earn between $48,000 and $81,000. (Note: The average salary of a home stager works out to be around $48,000, thanks to these outliers.)
If you are running your own home staging business, you will likely bill a rate of anywhere from $100-$200 per billable hour. Alternatively, if you opt to own inventory, you would also make a rental fee on items you use in a staged home. If you choose to work for a home staging company, your pay rate will depend greatly on your role and responsibilities within their company, however, you can expect to make an hourly rate between $15-$50.
But stats without context don’t really give you the full picture.
Let’s dive into what your monthly income might look like as a solo business owner.
Consultation fees on average cost +/- $300. This covers a couple of hours in which you assess the current state of the house, the number of rooms you need to stage, what the future home will look like, and the amount of work required. This consultation usually includes an upsell tailored to the client with one of the following solutions:
Complete staging in each room with your inventory.
Affordable staging with their EXISTING household items.
A hybrid solution, such as staging key rooms only like the living room and master bedroom only, or providing a mix of your inventory with their existing items.
Each room staged with your inventory can be charged at an industry cost of roughly $500 per month. (It’s possible to charge much higher prices and furniture rental fees to clients if you work with luxury homes.)
Based on these numbers, the following monthly scenario could be what a 1-person business brings in every month:
6 x Consultations: $2,400.
2 x medium-sized staged homes for one month: $4,000.
2 x service-only stagings to stage the house with existing items: $1,000.
And that works out to a monthly gross revenue of $7,400. Next, you need to factor in your expenses to know how much you actually take home.
Understanding your local market
Different locations will allow you to charge varying fees. For example, stagers in New York and Los Angeles will charge a premium for their services due to increased expenses, cost of living, and luxury expectations. On the other end of the spectrum, stagers in a small town an hour outside of Ohio may find that their market won’t bare the same prices and may need to price their service fees far lower.
Factoring in your expenses
While most people will be happy to throw big salary numbers at you, they neglect to mention the costs of securing that revenue. I’ve noticed many people feel overwhelmed by the idea of expenses and operating costs, but it’s all part of running a business. And once you understand your expenses, setting goals and following budgets is as easy as pie.
When creating your business plan, think about the additional cost to do the following:
The purchase or rental costs of your inventory.
Training and certification in home staging and business skills.
Your finance and administration costs (e.g., a bookkeeper).
Movers, trucks, and storage fees.
Mobile phone and internet costs.
Marketing costs (such as a website developer, social media manager, and even Google ads).
General office supplies.
There are some clever ways to manage and curb your expenses while you’re growing your home staging business. Here are a few great options:
Option 1: Go all-in at the start
This is the method I personally chose. Because I purchased the bulk of Beyond the Stage’s furniture and decor upfront, I expected to run at a loss for a whole five years (home staging was an extremely new concept in my market at the time). In reality, that panned out slightly better, and it took just a little more than three years for us to become a profitable business. And boy was it worth it! I have enough inventory to stage several houses at any one time, and I was quickly becoming the go-to in my area.
This option is entirely possible, but it will take some upfront investment — so you need to go in with a clear plan for not only operating the business but paying your personal expenses (i.e. do you have savings, spousal support, or a second job that could assist in covering costs while you build the business?).
Option 2: Start slow with consults and furniture rentals
Instead of purchasing your large inventory off the bat, keep costs low and rent them from furniture rental companies. Running a consults-only business avoids the expense of moving furniture in and out of houses entirely. Recently, virtual consults have helped stagers reach an even larger market while keeping their running costs at an all-time low. If you wish to provide inventory to clients, invest in the small goods only and leave the big stuff to a furniture rental company to provide. Alternatively, you can assist your clients with shopping for the staging items they need, and since they purchase the items themselves, they get to keep them in the next house!
Option 3: Become a home staging assistant
This has a little less of the glory, but provides a close-up look at the ins and outs of a home staging business, without the upfront investment. You will help a home stager assemble furniture, clean surfaces, make and steam beds, arrange movers, and more. If you feel nervous about entering the industry, it’s a great foot in the door. I’ve trained many assistants over the years and have found it’s crucial to have some training before you start.
Get started with your career in home staging. Click here to check out our free resources.
Home staging tips for people looking to enter the industry
Passion for home decor is a must! On those days where you need to put yourself out there and give that little push to get yourself on the right trajectory… it’s passion that will keep you going.
Build systems from day one. It all comes down to the systems you create. If you have a strategy for virtual staging consults, traditional homes, and empty homes, you can free yourself from repetitive admin work and focus on getting new clients.
Get clear on your target clients from the start. Home staging is still a people game. Understanding where your clients will come from, and how best to interact with them, will be your secret to success.
Invest in professional photography. This is your biggest sales tool and poor quality photos (no matter how great your smartphone camera is) could turn off clients before they’ve even contacted you.
Resources to help you get started
Styled, Listed, and Sold (SLS) Academy has all the resources you need to start a career in home staging. Unlike other training programs and academies, we also focus on business skills — our comprehensive training has helped many of our students grow a profitable business from scratch.
Staging a home is no longer just the purview of the elite. Eighty-three percent of buyers find that staging makes it easier to view themselves in a prospective home. As a result, buyers today expect homes at every price point to be staged.
Unsurprisingly, demand for home stagers is through the roof and projected to keep climbing. But for many would-be stagers, the prospect of getting started in the business can be intimidating. The costs of buying and storing inventory can be especially worrisome.
But how expensive is it to become a home stager really? Here are the facts.
Is Inventory Essential for a Home Stager?
Inventory can be a double-edged sword. As home stagers, we can get endless use out of the perfect piece. Having a collection of versatile pieces on hand can also make it quick and easy to add some style and texture to common spaces like seating areas and foyers.
On the other hand, inventory is an investment. It takes time and money to acquire it in the first place, and then more time and money to transport, store, maintain, and manage it over time.
Inventory can be especially difficult for new home stagers. No new small business owner wants to spend a chunk of their salary buying up and managing inventory. Many new stagers also need time to dial in their target market, the demands of their region, and other details before they can commit to investing in a storage facility and the staging items to fill it.
What too many of us forget is that we don’t need inventory to be a great home stager.
In fact, non-inventory business models can be more than just a thrifty way to get started in staging without breaking the bank. Done well, they can be powerful marketing and growth tools!
If you are interested in how to become a home stager, there are three great models you can use that do not require an investment in inventory.
Consulting-only staging
Client-funded staging
Hybrid-source staging
Consulting-Only Staging
In a consulting-only staging model, we as stagers help clients present their homes at their best using only items the clients already own. This model can hold tremendous appeal for both us and our clients.
A chance to show our creativity in unique ways with each client
An excellent marketing pitch
For our clients, this method often appeals because:
They do not have to worry about or work their lives and schedules around rented items during the selling process
They do not have to put as much of their stuff in storage as they otherwise might
It keeps their costs to a minimum
It shows them new, creative, and attractive ways to use or display their belongings that they can carry with them to their new homes
This method may also strongly appeal to clients’ personal beliefs in minimalism, simplicity, frugality, or eco-friendly living because it gets the job done with minimum “stuff” and fuss.
Client-Funded Staging
For those among us in the staging community who like to shop, client-funded staging can be a delight. We evaluate how to stage a home for sale, buy the perfect items using clients’ money, and then allow the clients to keep the items at the time of sale.
For us, this:
Prevents the accumulation of inventory
Ensures we can select the perfect pieces every time
Keeps business costs low
For our clients, this:
Provides personalized staging results
Makes it easy to see exactly where every dime of their investment goes
Results in beautiful spaces that they can pick up and take with them to their next homes
Under this model, clients often feel like they get home staging and interior design services all in one. This creates value that rolls forward and gives them the feeling of getting extra bang for their bucks.
The Magic of Rental Companies
Another option for how to stage a home with little or no inventory and minimal costs is to become a master of using rental companies for your large staging furnishings. Essentially, this gives stagers access to fantastic inventory without the costs and hassles of buying and maintaining that inventory themselves.
It may take a little more legwork to arrange delivery and pickup of items between the client and rental company, but the benefits often more than outweigh that minor inconvenience.
Supplementing With Small Items
Some stagers supplement the “use a rental company” model with a small personal inventory of favorite items or pieces that fit the hottest new trends. This allows us to keep versatile odds and ends that we always seem to need on hand without a huge investment on our part.
Staying Flexible
One of the most ideal things about low inventory and hybrid staging models is how flexible they are. If we as stagers find that these models are a perfect fit for our businesses and markets, we can use them indefinitely.
Or, if we prefer, we can use them as jumping-off points until we are more established and have a clearer idea of what inventory pieces will serve us best. Then we can transition to other inventory models that serve us better as our businesses grow and expand.
We know that launching a new career can be stressful and confusing, so our home stager certification training course takes the guesswork out of every step. We walk new stagers through:
The behind-the-scenes secrets of how the home staging industry works
How to competitively price staging services
How to write client contracts and handle client communications
The best staging techniques for every space
How to establish the policies and practices that make a business thrive
How to start a business without a big financial investment
Unlike many other courses, our course also sets you up for success by providing you with the essential tools you’ll need to get started right away. These include, but are not limited to:
Reference materials you can use on-the-job
A color wheel
An architect’s ruler
Our Consult Toolkit
A Sherwin-Williams Fan Deck
No matter what type of low-inventory or hybrid staging model appeals to you, we have the tools and knowledge you need to make it work.
Learn More
Learn how to get started as a successful home stager during our free virtual training session. Sign up now to learn how we turned our passions into a profitable career and how you can, too!
So you’ve accumulated a great selection of home staging inventory, but now you have fallen out of love with many of the pieces and you feel like it might be time to move on. Hosting an inventory sale will help you to free up cash (which means more money to buy new stuff), and help to freshen up your inventory stock! It also helps to create awareness for your company. You know what they say? All publicity is good publicity! Marketing for your sale will help to draw interest and awareness in a big way!
Big or small, you can have a successful inventory sale if you follow a few simple tips. We’ve put together some from our own experience with these – if you see anything that we have missed, please be sure to share with us!
Plan
Start planning early! Begin by selecting a date for the sale – once the decision to host a sale has been made, you will find yourself looking much more objectively at your inventory, and you will be surprised at the number of items that quickly get added to your “sell” list.
Start putting items aside approximately 1 month prior to the sale – this can be done by starting an “order” within your inventory database system and adding “sell” items to it, or simply designate an area of your warehouse to move items to (if you are short on space, consider renting a temporary storage facility). As you find new items to retire, take them out of use immediately to ensure that they are not used prior to a sale.
Choose a location to host the sale – will this be at your warehouse, or will you need to move the items off-site to accommodate? If your warehouse does not provide adequate parking, or is in a remote area, you may wish to consider renting a space for the event (my first sale, I rented a banquet hall – this allowed us to move the items in the day prior to the sale, and proved to be a perfect solution in a high-traffic area).
Notify your neighbors (if you feel that it may affect them). If they run a business that can benefit from foot traffic, they may want to offer a special promotion that day as well! If your neighbors are residential, encourage them to host yard sales on the same day to capitalize on the traffic that you will be bringing to the area.
Marketing Tips
DO NOT allow for early bird sales, and be sure to note this on all marketing – early bird sales will not only cause you unnecessary stress, but it could also cause you to have a less successful sale if those that arrive on time for the sale cannot find the items that they were expecting. This goes for both the day of the sale (open the doors when you say you’re going to open the doors) as well as the days leading up to the sale. We all have that friend, cousin, or colleague that will say that they just can’t make it to the sale, or that they HAVE to have a specific item, and beg you to guarantee them the sale. The communication time back and forth, making arrangements outside of the sale time for them to pick the items up (all while planning and organizing the big sale), collecting payment, etc. is not worth it – trust me!
Market your payment methods ahead of time – I recommend a Cash & Carry policy, but with this you will need to ensure that you have advised the public prior to the date of the sale (it is also useful on the day of the sale to have a list of 2-3 bank machines close by that people may go to if they are running short on cash).
Advise in your marketing to bring boxes, bins, blankets, large vehicles, etc. – anything that they will need to be able to take their items with them safely that day!
While you don’t need to put together a full price list catalog, you should provide some images of actual items that will be for sale.
Create lawn signs for the day of the sale to help people to easily navigate to the location.
Sale Day Policies
Be sure to have clearly outlined policies, and communicate these both before, and at the sale. Here are a few that I recommend considering:
Cash and Carry – this means that they pay cash, and they take the items with them. Make mention on all sale advertising, and post signs throughout the sale indicating this so that no one is taken by surprise when it’s time to check out.
Holds – I swore that I would not do holds for anyone, but admittedly that rule was quickly thrown out. We did however put some stipulations on this. Designate an area at the sale for temporary holds. This will somewhat tame the chaos. Be sure that someone from YOUR sale staff marks these products as “still shopping”, along with the customer’s name Here are some examples of what we allowed as a “hold” situation:
Customer is still shopping and just need a place to temporarily to put the items (think of what you look like when you go to Home Goods!).
Customer didn’t bring enough money and needs to run to the closest bank machine. For these situations, I recommend having them pay whatever amount they can, then putting a very tight and very strict time limit on the hold.
Customer needs a bigger vehicle to take the items with them. In this instance, be sure to have them pay in full first, and enforce a strict pickup time. If they are unable to make the pickup time, charge a “holding fee” at your discretion. If they do not return before the end of the sale, and you need to make arrangements for pickup another day, charge a storage fee as well.
Do not offer delivery of items unless you are well equipped to do so, and even then, ensure that you are charging a fee for this.
Sale Day Logistics
I recommend providing some shopping bags, baskets, or bins. We stock a large number of baskets with handles that we use in staging projects, and provide these as a shopping tool (clearly stating that they are not for sale, and are for use only). This allowed many shoppers to pick up more small items than they might have otherwise.
Plan for the expenses associated with hosting a sale:
Wages – you will need to pay your staff for their time (and potentially hire additional help) for the day – factor this into account when you are determining your pricing
Location – if you are unable to host at your own warehouse or storage, there may be additional fees charged by the location that you choose, as well as moving expenses
Signage – a worthwhile investment, be sure that you have clear signage throughout the sale, as well as on the streets surrounding to direct people to the event.
Marketing – you shouldn’t need to spend much (if anything) on marketing, but if you do choose to do some form of advertising, be sure to calculate this in with your expenses
If you choose to disregard my cash and carry policy recommendation and opt to accept credit cards, don’t forget to factor in the merchant fees associated with this. As well, you may need to purchase or rent a point-of-sale device for processing if you don’t have one already.
Post “Policy” signs throughout the venue – this refers to payment methods (as previously noted), as well as any other rules/guidelines/restrictions for the day, such as “no holds”, “items sold as-is”, and “all sales final”.
If you are selling an item that has multiple pieces (i.e. dining table), ensure that all pieces are fully accounted for, or noted if any items are missing.
Make your staff easy to find – we use pink bandanas and have our staff wear these wherever is most comfortable for them (provided it’s displayed from the waste up). If you have staff shirts, hats, or another identifier, then you’re already set!
Label items with the dimensions when possible, and have measuring tapes on hand for people that need to take measurements (sometimes they need to borrow the tape measure to measure the space available in their vehicle to see if an item will fit)
If an item has significant damage, especially if it affects the stability or potential safety of use of the item, be sure that this is clearly identified.
Pricing Items
Ensure that ALL items are assigned a price. Be fair, but don’t base the price on what you paid for the item, think of what the item is worth. Make your judgment based on style, condition, and perhaps how badly you want to offload the item.
If you are unsure about whether or not you want to sell a piece, set the price based on what would make it worthwhile for you sell, and mark a heart <3 on the price tag. This will tell you, and anyone else that might be negotiating pricing, that this item is non-negotiable, as you will happily return it to your inventory following the sale if necessary.
Negotiating
Short answer: just don’t. At least not to start. Gauge this based on the traffic that you receive at the start of the sale, but do not offer any negotiation on pricing until the initial frenzy dies down.
Here are a few tips to keep your sanity, and manage the negotiations:
Designate ONE negotiator (ideally, you). If anyone wants to haggle on the price, they MUST speak directly with you. By limiting the authority of this, most will simply pay the stated price.
Once the initial frenzy has died down, use your discretion with negotiating. I recommend encouraging a “bundled” price as opposed to discounts on specific items. This will make the sale more worthwhile for you, and allow you to get rid of more inventory!
Have a specific colored marker to be used for price slashes or negotiated mark-downs – this will keep your customers honest, and help your staff to easily identify a valid mark-down
Checkout Tips
Have people that you trust – these may be existing employees, or life-long friends, but since they will be handling a lot of cash, be sure that you are comfortable with them managing this.
Have a system for tracking what items have been sold (scanning a bar code, taking a photo, writing it down, etc.)
Left-over Items
Have a plan for these ahead of time, whether you will return them to inventory, donate to a thrift store, or drop at a consignment store to sell for you. You may choose all 3, depending on the items that are remaining at the end of the sale.
Be Prepared!
Create a checklist of the items that you need to have on-hand for the day of the event. If the sale is taking place at your warehouse, you will have easy access to anything that you forget, but if it’s taking place off-site, take extra care in packing. Most of these supplies are likely already a part of your standard staging kit!
What to pack:
Glass cleaner
Rags and dusting cloths
Touch-up markers
Tape – painters / electrical / packing
Labels (for pricing)
Cardboard boxes – keep extra cardboard boxes leading up to the event to provide to customers
Extra safe (depending on the size of the sale, you may wish to have money removed from the cash box periodically and stored in a safe)
Blank paper
Packing paper / bubble wrap (no need to purchase this, but if you have extra that can be provided, your customers will appreciate it)
Baskets (for shopping – not for sale – pack a sign to note this)
Display tables
Storage bins
Moving blankets
Lawn signs
Staff shirts, bandanas, or other identifier
Safety vests (for staff that may help loading items for customers)
Tarps / tents if any part of the sale is outdoor
Colour coded dots – these are great for marking small items
Aprons – for cash and carry sales on the floor, if you wish to allow this
Marketing material – be sure to have postcards, brochures, and/or business cards handy!
Sold signs (for items that are paid for – these should identify whom purchased the item, the time it was purchased, and when they are returning to pick up)
User manuals – if any of your items have a user manual
Candy/chocolate – it might sound silly, but having bowls of candy or chocolates makes the chaos of those waiting in line just a little more bearable!
Calculators – technology fails and phones die – be prepared!
Scissors
Bank machine listing
Permanent coloured markers
Sign in/out sheet for staffing
Measuring tapes – have LOTS of these on-hand
Clear garbage bags (for large sales of pillows, etc)
Pencil cases for money drops
Dollies
Light bulbs – you may choose to sell these, but regardless these should be available to allow customers to test lamps
Batteries – same reasoning as the light bulbs – if you are selling anything that would require batteries, have some available to show that the item is functional
Hindsight is 20/20 – we’ve all heard this, but it’s never more true than immediately following a terrible mistake that you have made in your business, that often can be costly. Have you ever had that moment of clarity following a disaster where you thought “I wish someone had told me that!”? Trust me when I say that every home stager and every entrepreneur, regardless of what level they are at in their business, has had that moment.
Well I polled the industry’s best, and I asked for their best tip for home stagers, whether it’s a business tip, a staging hack, or just something that they wish they knew sooner. I have compiled them here for you in this Top 10 List (in no particular order) to help you to grow, learn, and above all else, hopefully avoid some mistakes that we have made!! Check out what they have to say:
1. Transform Old Books and a Simple Option for Staging Built-Ins
Stagers have a love / hate relationship with built-ins. Some love them and some want to avoid them at all costs. With this simple solution you’ll be able to update your old (or newly acquired) books while also giving a slick and time saving look to mix into your stagings.
For years we wrapped our books with wrapping paper so they all had a uniform and neutral look. However, after many trips to and from various staged homes, the wrapping would wear down, rip, and we’d have re-wrap them. We are now spray painting all of our hard cover books to give them a consistent look that is cost effective and durable.
The best paint we found is pictured below and can be purchased at Home Depot. Feel free to try other colors, but this Satin finish of Heirloom White has proven to give us the best and most versatile look.
You can see a close up as well as a photo from one of our stagings.
The painting is quite easy and requires no taping. Simply open the book in the center, turn it face up on a paintable surface (we use large sheets of cardboard and paint outside on the rear driveway of our warehouse) and spray both front and back covers simultaneously. Once it is dry you are ready to go. No need to do anything with the pages.
If you need a good source for hardcover books I recommend searching Craigslist for “Free Law Books”. There are many times when law offices are getting rid of their large collections of legal books and generally will give them away for free or a very nominal cost. We’ve gotten hundreds of free hardcover books this way.
As you grow your business you will find yourself hiring people. I recommend you take the time to meet with your ENTIRE staff (delivery people, packers, consultants, administrative support, installers, etc.) to instill a common vocabulary across your company. This will help reduce misunderstandings and also provides an opportunity to elevate and brand your business. (Think Starbucks…Short, Tall, Vente, Grande…see what I mean?) Remember, what you have in common UNITES you. Let the words you choose not only brand your business but also unite your team!
The number 1 tip I like to give to stagers: Create your quoting system, working with packaged pricing per room. Yes, all homes are different but if you look closely, 90% of the time, a living room or bedroom needs the same amount of staging items. Estimate and calculate what you need per room for furniture, artwork and accessories as well as your staging time and destaging time. In case a room needs one extra piece of art or an extra chair, it is easy to add to your price. By quoting with set prices per room, you save yourself so much time in calculations, inventing the wheel over and over. In my first years, I calculated every vase, flower and piece of art, generating quotes that were more or less the same. Now working with set prices per room, there is no more guessing. You can make a quote in 5-10 minutes. A huge time saver.
Realize your value, and what you are bringing to the table. Don’t sell yourself short or get talked into discounting your pricing. Remember, someone else’s financial issues are not your financial issues, unless, of course, you discount you’re pricing for them!
You are increasing the value of the home, shortening the time on market, reducing the need for price reductions and lowering your Realtors marketing cost. Know with full assurance you bring a great deal of value to the process of selling a home. If you always have the clients best interest at heart, stand tall and tell them what needs to be done to get the house to stand out in the market and what it will cost to make it happen. When you talk to your clients with confidence and show them you have their best interest at heart, explaining why these things need to be done and how it will help them sell, they will trust in you and in the process.
It is always best to deal directly with the client, the person who owns the property, so you can explain why you are recommending what you are recommending and show them you are knowledgeable, that you care and that you want to help them sell their house. They need to trust you and believe in you! That won’t happen though email or their Realtor® relaying the information. Make a point to “Sell” face to face when you can! Use marketing terms instead of design hot phrases, they will see you as a professional who understand the Real Estate Industry.
When you appreciate your value, talk with confidence and always have your clients best interest at heart you will be able to close most deals face to face with the decision makers.
The first thing you should invest in when starting your home staging company is a good home staging contract (assuming you’ve already taken a comprehensive home staging course). Do this before you have a website or business cards. It will be the backbone of your company and it will give you confidence knowing you have this very important piece of your business puzzle in place. Your contract should lay out the terms of how your business will operate. It should set your boundaries so it is clear what you will and will not do. It should help eliminate any questions your client may have and provide them with a road map for working with you. You should consider your contract a “living” document that will change over the years to incorporate different guidance to cover you for events you never imagined encountering. A well-written contract will help you to sleep at night, knowing you and your business are covered.
Have some type of inventory system – it doesn’t matter how big you are or if you only have accessories. If you are renting items, you need to know how much money these items are generating for you. If you have something that is just sitting on the shelf taking up space, get rid of it, every square inch of your storage space should make you money! An inventory system is also good if you have theft or disaster. Your insurance company will want to know what you paid for things if you want a payout. An inventory system doesn’t have to be complex, a simple spreadsheet will do. Get into the habit of entering your purchases as they come in. Also spend money on racking your storage space to store as much as you can: go as high as you legally can.
Starting a Home Staging company was exponentially harder than any other job that I have had. Evaluate your time and commitment. You will not instantly have success and you will be wearing many hats as you grow. Operating well across a variety of areas: sales, marketing, finance, operations, HR, etc. Your first order of business is to create a product that showcases value and is an irresistible solution to the target agent.
Whether starting a home staging business or being an established veteran the key to success is consistency. You need to be consistently upholding your company’s systems, marketing platforms and relationships to make your business more visible and viable for that matter. Aristotle says:
So my question to you is, what do YOU do daily in your business and is it directing a positive narrative for your brand and your clients? If it’s not, make a conscious decision to remain consistent by having a plan and knowing your objective.
My biggest tip for home stagers is that, like it or not, marketing will always be an important part of growing your business so you might as well embrace it. If you want to attract your ideal clients and create a lucrative business that makes you happy, you need to become a savvy marketer or pay handsomely for someone else to do it for you. Either way you need to be clear about who you are marketing to and have a solid strategy to attract clients.
Have a signature accessory that identifies your company for realtors who view the jobs frequently. I have silver birds – they’ve been in every home we have staged for past 8 years and have made their rounds to every room!
If you are considering home staging as a career, you might be underwhelmed by the amount of information about how to get started. While some colleges offer some basic courses on home staging, it can be difficult to figure out where to get your training, and whether or not it’s even something that you need.
If you are planning to offer home staging services, it is recommended that you enroll in a reputable home staging certification training program. Here’s the skinny on this – home staging is NOT a regulated industry, therefore, you are not required to receive any licensing, diploma, or certificate in order to call yourself a home stager. In fact, you can wake up tomorrow, call yourself a home stager, and *poof*, you’re a home stager.
Right…?
WRONG
Now that you’re calling yourself a home stager, what exactly makes you a home-selling expert? Why should people hire you? Why should your clients take your advice?
Sure, there are some great online resources available today that will provide you with some general information about staging a property for sale, but to become a qualified and successful home stager, you want to be sure to arm yourself with the best resources. Who do you trust with your money? Do you have a financial advisor, or an accountant? I’m sure that they have likely received some pretty extensive training; after all, you are trusting them with your money. What about your doctor, they received some training as well, didn’t they? I mean, you are trusting them with your life. When working with homeowners to sell their home, you are working with their largest asset, and they are trusting you to do great work – this means selling their home in the shortest timeframe possible, for the most amount of money.
You might be thinking that you have “staged” and sold many of your own homes already, and your friends have probably told you that you should pursue a creative career because of your natural eye for design, and this is certainly a valuable skill when it comes to becoming a home stager, but it isn’t the only skill needed.
Did you know?
Home staging is just as much about marketing, as it is about decorating.
Home staging is about properly merchandizing and marketing a property for sale. Even if you have received formal training to become an interior designer or interior decorator, you will find great value in taking a home stager certification course. While many concepts of the two industries overlap and inspire each other, home staging is a part of the real estate industry, and operates with very different guidelines, processes, and “rules” (whether official or not) – your home staging certification will teach you which design elements to use and when. Setting up a home for sale takes a lot more than a little cleaning and decluttering. Here are just a few things that your certification training program should outline and teach you:
The ins and outs of the Real Estate Market, the key players and how home staging fits in
The various business structures, creating your business plan, and registering your new home staging business
Creating your staging plan by addressing buyer perceptions, decluttering, and eliminating distractions
Furniture selection and placement for optimal flow and buyer appeal
Step by step review of the home staging evaluation – what to look for, and what to address with your home sellers
Accessorizing techniques for selling
What role textures and fabrics play in home staging and design
Organizing spaces for selling and living
Repairs and updates – what to address and how to understand the value and impact of each recommendation
Creating curb appeal and lasting first impressions
Identifying design styles and working within them
Creating and preparing accurate floor plans
Colour theory – using the colour wheel as a tool in colour palette selection; understanding the components and significance of colours
Preparing your home sellers for the process of selling their home, including managing seller expectations and resistance
The home staging consultation, from start to finish
The people factor – the importance of working with the homeowner throughout the process, and understanding their needs
Managing your owner-occupied and vacant home staging projects, start to finish
Building your portfolio (especially when you are first starting out)
How to set up your office to run efficiently and effectively to keep you out meeting with clients and building the business
Contracts – what clauses to include, policies to consider, and how to create these to ensure that they are ironclad
How to work with subcontractors
Health & Safety, and how it applies to your home staging business
Insurance – what you need, to ensure that you are properly covered
How to set your policies and procedures for smooth operating practices
Inventory management and best practices (applies regardless of whether or not you choose to own large furniture pieces)
How to outline your services and set your pricing (including identifying the various services that you can offer to help your clients, such as color consultations, shopping, decluttering, organizing, project management, and more)
In addition to teaching you how to run your home staging projects, a quality home staging certification program will provide you with the tools and templates that you need to be successful – this is invaluable! I can’t even begin to explain the amount of time that this alone will save you when you are first starting your business. Why re-invent the wheel? From outlining what your services will include, how to provide each service, pricing your services (to get paid your value as an expert in your field), plus contracts, insurance, and SO MUCH MORE! Mistakes can be very costly, so arm yourself with the tools and the information to safeguard yourself, and your business.
Becoming certified as a home stager will also add to your credibility. Keep in mind that the very real estate agents that you will be working with are required to take an intensive training course before working in the industry, and they are also required to earn additional credits through continuing education courses throughout the year, in order to maintain their license. They expect that the people that they work with as a part of their home-selling team are just as qualified, and have invested a similar amount of time, money, and energy.
Above all else, in taking a home staging certification course, you receive the thrill of learning something new, and I promise, you will learn something new. For more about how to choose the right home stager certification training program for you, check out our blog here.
As you grow your business you will find yourself hiring people. I recommend you take the time to meet with your ENTIRE staff (delivery people, packers, consultants, administrative support, installers, etc.) to instill a common vocabulary across your company. This will help reduce misunderstandings and also provides an opportunity to elevate and brand your business. (Think Starbucks…Short, Tall, Vente, Grande…see what I mean?) Remember, what you have in common UNITES you. Let the words you choose not only brand your business but also unite your team!
The number 1 tip I like to give to stagers: Create your quoting system, working with packaged pricing per room. Yes, all homes are different but if you look closely, 90% of the time, a living room or bedroom needs the same amount of staging items. Estimate and calculate what you need per room for furniture, artwork and accessories as well as your staging time and destaging time. In case a room needs one extra piece of art or an extra chair, it is easy to add to your price. By quoting with set prices per room, you save yourself so much time in calculations, inventing the wheel over and over. In my first years, I calculated every vase, flower and piece of art, generating quotes that were more or less the same. Now working with set prices per room, there is no more guessing. You can make a quote in 5-10 minutes. A huge time saver.
You are increasing the value of the home, shortening the time on market, reducing the need for price reductions and lowering your Realtors marketing cost. Know with full assurance you bring a great deal of value to the process of selling a home. If you always have the clients best interest at heart, stand tall and tell them what needs to be done to get the house to stand out in the market and what it will cost to make it happen. When you talk to your clients with confidence and show them you have their best interest at heart, explaining why these things need to be done and how it will help them sell, they will trust in you and in the process.
The first thing you should invest in when starting your home staging company is a good home staging contract (assuming you’ve already taken a comprehensive home staging course). Do this before you have a website or business cards. It will be the backbone of your company and it will give you confidence knowing you have this very important piece of your business puzzle in place. Your contract should lay out the terms of how your business will operate. It should set your boundaries so it is clear what you will and will not do. It should help eliminate any questions your client may have and provide them with a road map for working with you. You should consider your contract a “living” document that will change over the years to incorporate different guidance to cover you for events you never imagined encountering. A well-written contract will help you to sleep at night, knowing you and your business are covered.
Starting a Home Staging company was exponentially harder than any other job that I have had. Evaluate your time and commitment. You will not instantly have success and you will be wearing many hats as you grow. Operating well across a variety of areas: sales, marketing, finance, operations, HR, etc. Your first order of business is to create a product that showcases value and is an irresistible solution to the target agent.
My biggest tip for home stagers is that, like it or not, marketing will always be an important part of growing your business so you might as well embrace it. If you want to attract your ideal clients and create a lucrative business that makes you happy, you need to become a savvy marketer or pay handsomely for someone else to do it for you. Either way you need to be clear about who you are marketing to and have a solid strategy to attract clients.
