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Bidding on a Staging job for the Parade of Homes

By
Home Stager with The DeZining Divas

This is my first post and I hope I have posted this in the right place.  Love this whole Active Rain concept - it is the best networking group I have ever seen. 

 I am just getting my Home Staging business going here in Utah.  I am anxious to go to work but here in Utah staging has not quite taken off yet, so it is slow going.  Add to that, I am not from here so that narrows my contacts even more.

Anyway, I was in California a couple weeks ago, and got a call from a lady who said she was interested in getting me to bid on a job staging a new house for the Parade of Homes.  WOW!!!  I was jazzed - not to mention, she "Googled" to find me - that was even more impressive to me.  I know that getting my name out there in connection to the Parade of Homes would be big for my business.  Long story short, i cut my trip home short to come back and prepare for my meeting with the realtor.  The place is an  hour and a half from my home, so it is quite a jog,  I met with her, we connected, i thought, and I saw the house which is still under construction.  I proceeded to the furniture stores to see what kind of deal I could get on renting furniture suitable for a couple million dollar house (15 rooms to stage).  I found a furniture store and they would charge me 30% the cost of the furniture to use it for the 2 weeks of the event.  Cort Rental just wasn't going to get it for the calibur of house it is, and they wanted a 3 month fee.  I took about 200 pics of pieces i might want to use from the store.  I then went room by room to get a ball park for a bid.  My bid included the pics of pieces i might use and then a furniture cost, accessory rental cost (I have a large inventory of accessories) and then a labor rate.  I ball parked a large span for furniture, not knowing what all I would need after I saw the house a bit more completed.  So far, I have logged probably 2o hours for travel, furniture hunting, and then writing up a detailed bid.  To make matters more complicated, I have no idea what the parameters are for doing this for the Parade of Homes.  I am asssuming they are going more to Stagers rather than Int. Decorators to keep the cost down.  This is not really a staging job or it is at least somewhere in between the two.  Not knowing what the 'normal' rate for something this involved, I took way longer to do this work than normal.  I then met yesterday with the brothers as I was selected as 1 of 2 for final decision.  

I know I can do the work.  I had decided to go with a Claasy Bombay look.  I am now waiting for the final answer.  My question and request for some feedback is 1) What is standard procedure for something like this?  Do you charge for your time to get too this point?  I was thinking Geez!  I spent so much time to get to this point and if it is all for naught......maybe I should have charged and then credited back if I get the job.  2) What does anyone think is a normal bid for something like this?  I am only asking for a ball park figure - for furniture, accessories and labor.  3) Does anyone have a suggestion for where they would have looked for furniture for 15 rooms (very high end furniture) if they had to do this? 

Thanks for any light you can shed on this for me. 

Janelle

Comments (3)

Anonymous
michael

Janelle, since you are on the short list, you should absolutely ask for hourly pay moving forward. Also ask for a letter of commitment. This letter should clearly spell out their decision criteria and timeframe for awarding the bid. Good Luck! Feel free to email me if you want to discuss further michael@ihausa.net.

Mar 21, 2009 01:51 AM
#1
Fred Griffin Florida Real Estate
Fred Griffin Real Estate - Tallahassee, FL
Licensed Florida Real Estate Broker

Welcome back to ActiveRain!

     I encourage you to take another look at the website.  Surf some blogs, leave some comments.  Better yet, post a Blog.

    Best to you!

Aug 12, 2015 12:58 PM
Christine Gerbehy
Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Fox and Roach Northfield - Egg Harbor Township, NJ
Making waves, one home at a time...

Hey!  I see you haven't been on in awhile, you should stop back!  Lots of good info here on AR...

Jan 05, 2016 01:42 PM