In a private email exchange last night, another AR Stager/blogger was sharing she asked: Are we moving away from the principles of arranging and using what a seller has in their house in the Staging process and towards becoming "rental" businesses? Is our focus on vacant homes overtaking our other possible (and needed) services?
When I responded to her - she shared that I had a "blog" post - so here it is. I know that much of the market around the US is vacant. In my own market an estimated 40% of the homes for sale are vacant - your market may be the same or different. That is a huge opportunity for us as Stagers to capitalize on that as there is a lot of money in vacant staging - and perhaps why we are seeing the furniture rental places getting more aggressive about going after "staging jobs." But that statistic shows that 60% are not vacant.
There is still money to be had for Stagers that want to work on occupied homes - using what the sellers have and advising them on what to do to prepare their homes for sale. I wonder how many of you out there bring in inventory to Stage a house - every time. We will use what the seller has, and budget permitting, will add things to create that "WOW" factor. But if they do not have the budget, how many use your ideas and talent instead?
With my team, we have worked to develop a 50-50 mix of business - so that not all our eggs are in one basket. I know some Stagers prefer to do just vacants and there are others that do not like to handle inventory management. If the trend this other Stager shared is happening, the concern is that we will forget where our roots started - and that was with helping people Stage their houses - using what they have - because we are not selling "stuff" - we are selling the house, the floorplan.
And the income potential for Stagers is possible with both occupied and vacant houses. It takes more occupieds to earn what one vacant can produce - but it is very real to expect to earn a nice 5-6 figure income working with sellers, using what they have, telling them what to do, and perhaps assisting them in a small way on the back-end to finish of the Staging. I do the math every 2 weeks when I teach a course - and it is always an eye-opener for students who did not realize there was a nice income out there. Of course marketing consisently is the key to this success.
Don't forget about telling people your specialities - and to carve out a niche market for yourselves. What I teach in our classes is "people don't know what we don't tell them." So spread the word - don't forget about the basics of Staging and using your talent to transform someone's home using their stuff. That is - to me - much more challenging than staging an empty house where I get to start with an empty pallette, and is a test of my Staging creativity - and just as rewarding with the final outcome - and the sale that follows.
- Jennie
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