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What Do You Want From Us?

I was recently surfing other blogs about Virtual Staging. Interesting trend but not the subject of this blog. I came across one by a realtor considering using or testing it, interesting I thought and then....

a realtor posted this comment ....."First of all, I'm not sold on staging as anything more than smoke and mirrors. I am still of the belief that cleaning out the clutter, cleaning, etc., will sell a home just as well." ....."The claims of more sales for more money are impossible to document. Mostly just claims by stagers"

part of my response.... You above described major components of Staging. I am definitely sure people don't like the listings they walk into in which they have to step over things or hold their noses. If so, all you would do is stick the sign in the front yard on all homes for sale...(you wouldn't need to market....just show and show) that is Staging not smoke and mirrors....

I guess what really most bothered me was the second statement. The one about Stagers are the ones mostly claiming sucess statistics.....it's come up on other blogs before. Our statistics are somehow less trustworthy. Well ok then all the statistics that NAR releases are to be discredited because they come from realtors?

A survey from last year released by HomeGain, I am sure many of you saw it. Is HomeGain a Stager run service and did they handpick realtors who participated in the survey?

If other statistics out there are not to be believed and realtor and client testimonials not believable, what exactly is? We as an industry are headed to some sort of regulation and standard that hopefully will go a long way in weeding out those not qualified much as the real estate broker industry did. Will you view us differently then?

I guess my blog title may seem a bit belligerent, it's not my intention. It's a sincere, from the bottom of my heart question. I know there are many realtors who are believers in staging whether they hire out or do it themselves, they believe in it's value to their clients. There are more who don't.

What do you want from us that will make you realize that we can be a valuable part of services you offer a client?

What do you want from us that will convince you that we are not out to take away but to add?

What do you want from us that will help you accept us as the professionals that we are and the industry that is here to stay?

Just askin.

AccentPositives provides effective and economical consultations on site and on line. We service the Inland Empire area of Southern California.

Posted by AccentPositives Corona, CA on 08/08/2009 02:33 PM

Comments (11)

staging, realtors

Post is included in group: Stage It Forward...
Post is included in group: Southern California Real Estate Forum
Post is included in group: Real World Home Staging for Newbies
Post is included in group: Realtors®
Post is included in group: Real Estate Staging Association

11 Comments on What Do You Want From Us?

AUG

Hi Ana!

I know I am not an REA, but I think they want us to remove their fear about the process.

I believe agents are concerned about:

Wasting their client's money
Being embarrassed if it doesn't sell as quickly as claims purport
Trying something that is still seen as "drastic" for the average home
Having the stager say something in direct opposition to a suggestion they themselves have made
Losing a listing because the stager was unprofessional
Offending the client and having to tend to damage control
Having to back up a stager's suggestions when they don't necessarily agree with them

And worst of all:

Having a fear that implementing staging after the listing has already been on the market will result in the client being so successful with their Johnny-come-lately staging that they become upset/confused that staging wasn't a part of the plan in the first place.

They don't trust us because when they call a stager in, they believe they could lose on so many levels.

Many REA's fail to acknowledge that we are not just peppy housewives with a knack for using knicky-knacks.

We are an ethical body of business professionals, most with substantial specialized training and experience that differs completely from theirs, and have darn-near made a science of knowing what triggers buyers in a particular demographic to make an offer.

They get these messages from HGTV - from goofy commercials for schools that promise to make you a stager in a few hours and make big money, to rude stagers pulling no punches with client's feelings. It's an uphill battle for us as an industry, and will remain so until the time when we consistently use our own factual local stats in our own markets, and not rely on other agencies to "prove" the value of staging.

And to get those stats, we have to spend ceaseless hours presenting and re-presenting ourselves to our respective markets, to land the jobs, and execute them with professionalism and get the desired results.

Credibility in the face of so much negative media is very challenging to overcome.

~Michelle

It's too bad that the Commenter has this feeling on Staging.... If you don't mind, email me the blog link ~ I'd be happy to post apples-to-apples statistics in hopes of persuading them to differ on their view.

Some REAs still have a hard time simply presenting Staging to their home owners. I've been doing a lot of office presentations recently, although they all seem to understand Staging, they have a hard time "selling" it to their new Listing Clients. I've actually printed up fliers for my REAs showing an apples-to-apples comparison.

Ana, Great post! I hope Realtors will comment. But I have to say I think Michelle pretty much said it all! Michelle this is why I love to read anything you post or comment on. You are so honest and always hit the nail on the head!

AUG

I agree with everything Michelle said. I also believe it takes time to overcome fears that realtors have about staging in general. A lot of the realtors we work with now "tried us out" in the beginning and then grew confident once they were assured of our professionalism, experience, talent and courtesy with their clients.

We keep track of our stats and send them out periodically to our realtor pool so that they know what we are doing, and how well we are doing our job. By also including RESA stats we show realtors that its not just our area which is using staging and being successful doing so.

The more good information experienced stagers can get out there, the better. Then realtors such as the one above who made the comment about staging obviously doesn't know much about our profession. One of the major components of my job is public speaking and it is through seminars, presentations and one on one meetings where I believe the right information will slowly change people's minds.

I appreciate everyone's comments and most definitely many of the things Michelle listed I am sure are part of the mix. Again we can keep stats until the cows come home, and I show RESA stats to prospective clients, if there is this view of us from realtors, what good does it do? I recently lost a job after a realtor told a homeowner that I could not guarantee the sale, which I can't, neither can she! The house has been on the market 255 days. Shall we move on?

Donna I too was hoping maybe to get some realtor comments. It is something I have noticed since being on AR. While there is some mixing here and there on "safe" topics I still as of yet to see a REAL debate on this attitude (if there was I may have been sleeping.) I think it should be discussed more in this forum as our jobs could be considered to intertwine.

We often talk about AR being an educational forum. We try to educate and learn from each other daily. I am up for some education from the other end. Perhaps we should start a forum called Realtor - Stager's Mixer LOL, but all we would probably hear is crickets.

If there is already one I apologize, I have not explored each and every group on AR.

Great question and I believe Michelle has a great answer. I hope that you get some Realtors to comment and shed some light. I would be very interested to hear what their experience and feelings are.

Ana,

Great post and I share your frustrations.

Michelle, very interesting reading. You have mentioned points that I had not seen anywhere else which are good ones. It is obvious to me that it is more of a Trust issue than a $$ issue.

I can understand a realtor being concerned about a stager's expertise and professionalism, and the possibility the stager could undermine the realtor with their client. However, this can be dealt with thru a walk & talk between the realtor and stager in the clients house when the client is not home. The realtor can then asses the stager's behaviour, their recommendations, review their portfolio, ask for references and reach a resolution about the use of staging.

How much of the estrangement or whatever we want to call it the result of insecure realtors?

AUG

Ana, the part about guarantees struck a cord with me. Last summer I had a out-of-town client that asked me to stage just the primary rooms (living, dining, kitchen, master bath and bathroom). The house was in marginal condition and in an out- of-the-way location but at least clean.

After two months she had me destage because she really thought (TV thinking) that staging was a guarantee of a sale. When it didn't, she became very hostile. The house had already been on the market for 6 months and it's still listed today with a renter inside. I wanted to say to her that she must not have watched many TV staging shows lately, as even those homes don't ALWAYS sell quickly.

Frustrating and disconcerting! Thanks for opening up the conversation...too bad that agents are commenting.

Sharon T, thanks for commenting, agree about realtor comments, as you see none yet. I am not the only one who has asked these questions in one form or another and it was my hope to start a dialogue, any dialogue. Some stagers here on AR have been fortunate to forge a relationship with a realtor. What sets them apart from those who have a bad opinion of us? I know too that many other stagers here will not comment for fear of angering realtors. Michelle M. always tells it like it is!

Sharon C, I agree with you and understand, I would feel the same way about working with a realtor I didn't know. Your walk and talk is a great suggestion and would seem the logical thing to do if a realtor is not totally comfortable with using a stager at first. While I have never offered my expertise for free I have always been flexible so folks could be comfortable with me and my level of service. I understand wanting to know what you are getting for the money and not offended by caution.

I have gotten the usual, do a job for free pitch, not like when I first started but it still gets brought up here and there. I get plenty of agent calls that mostly never get past the "I need to see it to give a quote" explanation. I am not a flat rate stager. Another thing is the increased inquiries concerning getting paid at closing. This could be a reflection of all the bank owned and short sales going on here.

I am a professional, good at what I do, not a hobby stager. I know I haven't been around ten years but I have jobs under my belt now. I am not the cheapest or most expensive either. I have set up my business as a business, not a shingle. I am licensed, insured and I have references and pictures but that never seems to be good enough. It's good enough for my homeowner clients but let's face it, realtors are the source of good steady business too. My staging business is hit or miss without it, consultations for FSBO and HelpUSell clients and redesign have up to now been my bread and butter.

Ginger I have bought and sold a few of my own homes and no agent ever guaranteed my house would sell if I chose them to list it. They surely know of all the variables so why would a stager be required to offer a guarantee?

Thanks for the feature SIF!

AUG

Ana,

This situation isn't going to change quickly; however we can have fun chatting about it over lunch. See you end of October!

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