Professional home stagers can make even the slowest producing Realtor into a Real Estate hero!

Realtors very rarely utilize any salesmanship on the potential buyer. Their sales skill is utilized in 'buying the listing'. Back in the 80's when my mother was a Realtor, she would actually 'show' a house. A buyer would call their agent, the agent would check MLS, contact some friends in the business, and a house would actually be sold through the joint efforts of the listing agent and the buyers agent. The computer has totally changed the way buyers and Realtors do business.

Today, the listing agent does exactly that - they list the house, and unfortunately, the only other marketing tool that they utilize is the 'markdown'. Taking 5% off the price of a house every six weeks represents real money! Realtors: when you take away $5000 of every $100000 of my list price, you're taking money from my wallet, and from yours!

Markdowns are an old fashioned way to move stale property.

Professional home stagers generally add sufficient equity to a listing, so that the investment in home staging is quickly recouped by the seller.

In many markets Realtors provide professional staging services to their clients. Let's face it, Realtors are notoriously cheap (no offense). But an increasing number of Realtors are biting the bullet, and developing professional relationships with qualified home stagers. Most Realtors see home staging as a 'cost', when really it's an investment that is paying off, time and time again, at all price points, throughout the United States and internationally.

When I approach a Realtor with even the most modest of staging proposals, they practically faint. Penny wise, and pound foolish Realtors only see an immediate expense, and not the long term return. A nickel invested in home staging generally returns a dime to the investors pocket. The reason for the Realtor's paranoia, is that the home staging industry is a self-regulating industry, and for many years every Jane, Mary, and Harry who had ever matched the Barcaloungers in the den, called themselves professional home stagers. Realtors would recommend their cousin/sister-in-law/significant others to their clients as professional home stagers. The (alleged home stagers) would charge an exorbitant amount, and the seller would have a 'decorated' house, not a 'staged house. The end result was that the house did not perform as expected, and the staging resulted in a net cost for the seller, when it was intended to be an investment that paid for itself.

Good agents work with their client, and execute their fiduciary responsibility to the client by providing the best services to minimize expenses, shorten selling time, and increase profit. Almost all Realtors have had some training in home staging. They know about decluttering, depersonalizing, fresh paint, new carpet, etc...! However, they risk liability when they venture into the home staging arena. Would you trust your Realtor to repair your plumbing, fix your roof, paint the bathroom? No, you wouldn't. The Realtor may have knowledge in that area of plumbing, roofing, or painting, but certainly you wouldn't trust your largest investment (your home) to the hands of some weekend warrior.
So as a Realtor you have a responsibility to inform your clients that accredited, professional stagers are available to them.

In California, a lawsuit is winding its way through the courts. Apparently a Realtor failed to inform a seller of the benefits of professional home staging. In this particular situation, the home was situated in a 'cookie-cutter' development of luxury homes. Each home was identical to the other (with minor variations). The seller was unaware that another home in the development was professionally staged. The other home sold for a substantially larger sum of money. The unstaged home did sell, but with lackluster results. The seller of the unstaged home now holds the Realtor responsible for his/her lost profit in their unstaged home.

Certainly, you wouldn't want to be the test case at TAR, when it's so easy to find an professional, accredited staging professional. Here on Active Rain there are many qualified home stagers to choose from. There's an easy way to find the best home stagers for your area. Look at the Active Rain points...... if the home stager is actively blogging, advertising, and participating in Active Rain, they're most likely that meticulous, and caring about their home staging service.

So, bottom line: GOOD REALTOR + PROFESSIONAL HOME STAGER = $$$$$$

Thom Scanlon ASP/IAHSP/RESA
Houston Home Staging
832.260.3151