"Home is where the heart is." This common theme encompasses many of the skills required of a successful home stager. Our design skills, along with our knowledge of buyer demographics and the psychology of home buying, can help a prospective buyer "fall in love" with a home and decide to make it their own. These are the skills covered in our industry's training programs.
There is another set of skills which is rarely included in home staging courses, yet gets at the very heart of what we do: interpersonal skills. Our "people" skills, which are tested on a daily basis and in a variety of situations, fundamentally enable us to get from before to after. Interpersonal skills may be less tangible than design skills but, given the fact that ours is a customer-service-driven industry with ever-increasing competition and standards of professionalism, every home stager needs to hone their people skills if their business is to grow and thrive. Effective interpersonal skills allow us to listen to clients' questions and concerns, overcome objections, and negotiate win/win solutions; they are essential to marketing our business, building an effective team, and ensuring ongoing success through referrals.
One of the best examples of how this home-is-where-the-heart-is theme plays out in the work of a home stager is when it becomes necessary to help a seller emotionally disengage from their home. Depersonalizing a property is often a highly-personal matter to the home seller, and this is where our ability to convey empathy and encouragement can make or break our ability to do our work A seller may have to learn to see their home as a product before we can get down to the business of making it more marketable. This transition can be difficult for sellers-especially those who may be struggling with financial pressures, job loss, illness, temporary separation from loved ones, divorce or death.
Strong interpersonal skills can help you and your clients get through the awkward or difficult situations we sometimes encounter in this business: from telling a seller that their favorite wall color or wallpaper may not appeal to the pool of buyers they're trying to attract; to asking a lonely widower to move his "family" of ferrets out before potential buyers come in (true story). Change can be difficult, but we're in the business of helping our clients move on. Letting them know that we have their best interests at heart can ease the transition.
Happy Valentine's Day!
BARNETT'S OUT
Home Matters Home Staging and Training a professional home staging company "Servicing the needs of our Real Estate community here in Metro Indianapolis and all of central Indiana" We help real estate professionals, home sellers, builders and investors with their home staging needs and we provide the most relevant and up to date Home Staging Training that the industry has to offer through the Staging and Redesign (SAR) 3 and 5 day courses. For more information regarding our services and our training schedule, please contact us at 317-209-9801 or visit us on the web. http://www.homemattersllc.com/
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