Hi everyone.

I need your input on a proposal I have submitted to an exclusive Realtor Group in a gated retirement community. The Realtors are direct agents to the community. The community itself did a buy back on several homes from original owners who moved into upgraded homes in the community. The neighborhood is over 500 homes and right now 80 or so are on the market.

I have been working with the Realtors to get into this neighborhood to do staging. Most of the homes listed are vacant or in desperate need of updating. Many are owned by children of the original owners who have passed away or are in nursing homes etc.

My offer to the Realtors and the community was to stage one of the vacant homes directly owned by the community as an example to all other listings as to the difference staging can make in marketing their properties.

I offered all my labor, design and delivery services for free and my proposal was to charge them $1500 per month to lease ALL the contents, furniture accessories etc. for a period of 3 months.

This price was too high for them, so I offered them 3 months of lease for the price of 2 months which would be a total of only $3000 to stage the home and keep it staged for 3 months.

They now tell me they want the home staged for no charge at all, totally free. If I do this, they say they will hold an open house and invite all their homeowners to see the staging and also send my marketing materials in their monthly newsletter.

I need the input of you experienced stagers to tell me if I am crazy to even consider this idea?

To be the exclusively reccomended stager in a community with 80 listings could be a huge break for me, but I feel I have already reduced my price enough.

What do you guys think??