This was a question that someone asked me when I told them I staged houses and did interior redesign. They were referring to redesign. He couldn't believe that people would actually pay to have someone rearrange their rooms. He then said the people were stupid. I was wondering if maybe offering this service is such a good idea. I have had no response about redesign when I mention it. Then I happened to mention the starting price of $225.00 and felt like I was on trial. Everyone in the room looked at me like I was crazy.
I am being competitive with my competition in this area and charge five to ten dollars more because I live in a bigger city than my competition. Maybe my approach is wrong. I get the standard question of ,"what is staging?" but I never hear what is redesign? Isn't it the same as staging only the end results are different? So should it be known as staging for the not for sale home or should it be a subcategory of staging? Just the results are different. I know that redesign focuses on showing off the homeowner's things and staging shows off the house; or am not making any sense at all. When I hear people say designer I have to tell them I am a redesigner.
About the nomenclature of "green designer" since we are reusing the owner's things and not buying new? I don't like the term "re". I feel though that there should be a distinction between interior and redesigner. How about ecofriendly designer, use what you have designer, or designer of the domestically challenged? If I went with these terms then I would have to explain to the client my reasoning behind the name. I don't know about you, but I get tired of explaining what a stager does. I know we need to tell the public but this concept(even if it has not been called that) has been going on for 20 years. Why is it taking so long for the public to catch on? Maybe if everyone was faimiliar with staging, then we would have to work as hard to try and find clients.
One would think that the public would catch on. I realize that some people may never need to move from their houses and would not require our services, but since the term "home staging" was coined over 20 years ago you would think it would take off like the fads we had as kids and still remember. This blog is the writer's opinion and should be taken with a grain of salt. I know that my opinions do not or may not reflect the general opinions of others, but the writer's mind sometimes wanders off and topics like these come up.
Have a great evening!
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What a cute widget! Well, I have found that redesign work often comes after staging. I have done redesigns for agents who were so blown away by staging, that they wanted me to come and work magic on their own homes. I have also done redesigns for staging clients. For example, I stage their rental property for sale, and then they hire me to redesign the home they are living in. It seems to go hand-in-hand, so I think you'll find that once you get more staging under your belt, the redesign work will follow. Good luck!