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Question?

I need a bit of advice. My staging company just started a realtor program and it is starting to get some good feedback. I had a realtor ask me about ways they can purchase my services. I thought of three ways:

The client can pay upfront
The agent can pay upfront
The agent can pay upfront and have the seller pay for it at the time of closing

Do you have any further ideas? I am interested in the best way to approach this with a Realtor who is interested in using my services on a regular basis. We already charge less for the consultation in this program.

Thanks,

Posted by Amy Powers Home Staging in Atlanta, GA on 03/11/2008 09:03 PM

Comments (8)

8 Comments on Question?

MAR

2008

Hi Amy,

My opinion is that you should get paid when you do the job. It would be difficult, if you get busy, to track each realtor's listings and know when they have closed in order to collect your fees. Once you stage, your work is done and I think it best to get paid upon completion of your work.

All the best,

Kristen

MAR

2008

Amy,

Perhaps, regarding your #3, you meant that the agent can go ahead and pay, but then at the closing the client can pay back the agent? That's one way it's been done with me.

Also, there have been times when the agent and client split the fees.

It is definitely nice when there are options for the agent & client. Quite often, it depends on the price point of the home as to who pays. When the listing is for $1M+, the agent will pay so as to include my services as part of her/his marketing package.

Hope that helped!

MAR

2008

Amy- I haven't done this myself, but I know of stagers who will give a discount to agents that use them on a regular basis. For example, they get a free hour of staging for every three jobs they give you. Something like that. I belong to the local Realtors Association and my friend and I offer special rates ($10 less an hour) to those members.

Amy, Here is a great post by Karen Dembsky, the founder of the home stagers newbies group, about this very question. I'm pretty proud of the post because after Karen and I had a phone conversation about this very thing I pushed her to write a post about it. She is a jewel worth paying attention to here in the rain.

MAR

2008

Amy -

Those are the only 3 reasonable paying scenarios that I know of.

MAR

2008

Whoever is paying me - pays upfront!

Amy,

I, too, have only heard of those 3 ways of setting up payment. I have been in discussions where we have thrown around different scenarios, discounts, offers, etc. and it can become sort of confusing.

I've been paid 2 ways primarily: by the realtor, after I did the work; or by the homeowner, after I did the work. Of course, in both scenarios, my work helped both the RA and the seller, so as long as I am paid...

Good luck, Patty

Stagers need to stick together, get paid when the job is done. We are too often undervalued for our more than worthy services.

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