Getting furniture from furniture companies for staging

Mary Lou - you should google "furniture rental" to see if there are any companies near you.  In the New Yokr city area we have Cort, Churchill and American Furniture Rental.  A lot of stagers use Brook, but I don't know where they have locations.  Good luck!

Mary Lou, I buy all my furniture because we have no good rental companies in the area.  It gets expensive however, if you have a montly rental minimum, say three months, you can recover quite a lot of the investment.  Keep an eye out for sales, especially Rooms to Go.  This week they have a sofa, love seat, end tables, coffee table, and lamps for $999.  That gives you two living rooms if you split up the set.  Not a bad investment.  Good luck.  P.S. Seems to me I commented on this already, but my comment disappeared.  Strange things happen here on AR :-) sometimes.

Hi Mary Lou -

This is a problem if you aren't in an area that has a CORT, Brook or other rental furniture company. I am an hour away from those sources so have decided to buy my own furniture. When I did my financial reports I found that the rental income was 50% of my income so I feel it is worth it. I also am able to offer my furniture at a better rate than the rental furniture companies because I buy low. I'm always looking for sales and also find a lot of good stuff on Craigslist.

If there is a Rent-A-Center near you it might be worth talking to them. I know of one stager who was able to get them to carry nicer furniture with the promise that she would be renting from them a lot.

This is one of the most difficult parts of this business.

Good luck!

Kelly Townsend, Star Staging 

Hi Mary Lou,

 I am going down that same road. I just started my staging business and I'm learning that I have more staging requests for vacants then occupied. Thanks for asking the question, I need the answer too.

i agree with Terry!  W dont have furniture rental here either

Mary Lou, as you progress in your business you will start looking for bargains and buying even if you don't have a house to stage.  As I said previously, Rooms to Go has great deals on nice looking furniture.  You have to have a little start up cash otherwise you're not going to be able to compete.  Look for the bargains, buy what you think you may need, build up your inventory, and before you know it you'll have several houses of furniture and when the jobs come you'll be ready.  I recently posted a blog about co-staging with another stager.  All the furniture in that $450,000 condo cost me less than $1500, and all of it is very nice furniture.  The living room set was from Rooms, all the pieces including the lamps cost me less than $600.  I'm renting it to the client and have already made that investment back.  Its a circle.  Buy, stage, rent, buy, stage, rent.  Its the only way you can do business without a furniture rental company.

Oh my...the question is really where DON'T we get furniture for staging?

We serously ahve purchased furniture from some fo the strangest places. Typically from your typical furniture stores - TJMAxx, Homegoods, HOM Furniture, Ashley, Slumberland, Wickes but often times from local fav stops, some perhaps going out of business (we had a local spa where we got some GREAT finds), craigslist, antique shops and even the occiassional garage sale. You name it...we've tried it :)

That's part of the fun...the thrill of the hunt - ha!

Enjoy!