So my home selling pets, would you like to pick a home stager to regularly work with, but are not sure which in the bunch to hire? Plus does it seem as if daily there are more and more staging bananas out there to pick from?
Well, you are right; it can be a tough to know which stager you should bring to your seller, especially since staging is still a relatively new service offered in most parts of the USA. You are also right if you noticed that there are many new bananas rapidly joining the staging bunch.
To make a wise and informed choice, that best serves you and your sellers, you need to understand that a "professional stager" may just be an average green Jane or Joe who just fell out of a training tree. Many stagers are newly transformed into "professionals" merely due to the fact that they sat through a one, two or three day foundation training course. That's it, in as little as one day... a newly credentialed staging banana is thrown into the bunch.
So be wise and discerning, staging credentials that hype "trained," "certified" or "accredited" can be a bit deceiving... especially considering onyone can be trained and graduated from some foundation staging training programs in as little as one day. This is not to say that there are plenty of well qualified stagers who have been trained through these courses. But remember, above everything, the ripeness of EXPERIENCE trumps all else... even "credentials."
Unfortunately, unlike Realtors in the real estate industy, Stagers in the home staging industry are an unregulated wild bunch. Because this so... your sellers are at risk, especially in this tough selling market! Picking a green stager could cost them some green and a sale. So while staging looks mighty tasty, to those of you who are looking for some hope and help, don't blindly accept the fact that a stager, with a horde of initials after their name, has the experience needed and fully yet knows what they are doing.
So how can you pick out a green novice stager from the ripe experienced stager? Well, it is not the difficult, if you keep in mind that home staging is an "image" industry.
Considering it is a stager's job is to create a good first visual impression of home seller's property, then a good stager needs to do the same for themselves. A good stager knows the importance of and how to present a good visual first impression of their company and their work.
To start to weed out amateurs from the experienced, first look closely at the stager's portfolio, for examples of their work. Also, make sure that you ask the stager if they ACTUALLY staged the properties they show in their portfolio... believe it or not there are some foundation training programs that give green stagers a set of "starter" portfolio photos. Finally if you have any doubts, of course you can always ask the stager for testimonials from past clients and/or references.
So that's it, pretty easy actually. That is all you need to know and do to be a good home selling monkey and pick the ripest stager that will best help you and your sellers.
Ripening It Forward...
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Great Post! Nothing evil about the truth!
I would think samples of work and references would be key here. You are right about the nregulation. That's not a bad thing as look as folks are honest