Hello All!  We hope everyone is doing well in their respective staging businesses. If not, this post is for all of us to "pick our brains" so to speak with regard to showing realtors and homeowners the value of staging.

A big part of our business is what is known as "perceived value". For those of you not familiar with this term it basically means that unlike something you purchase in a store our services are sold based on a "promise" or "potential". To put it another way I can think of a particular brand of car, very popular, as well as very pricey. Now these cars are notorious for the high upkeep and maintenance cost yet since people "perceive" them as providing a certain image, they are still extremely popular.

Herein lies the problem with our business. How do we convince realtors and sellers that are services are worth the money spent? Most sellers are already strapped and it's difficult to convince them that investing several hundred, or even several thousands of dollars will pay off in the long run. Truth be told while we all know the value of staging, in today's market you can stage an overpriced home til the cows come home but it likely won't help it sell. To top it all off I have seen some REALLY BAD stages that were done by people that really shouldn't be in this business. Sorry if that sounds harsh but unless you really have a good eye for marketing and interior design then this is not the business for you. Bad staging only hurts those of us who are serious about our business as well as helping out our sellers and agents. I've been in staged homes where the stager charged an exhorbitant amount of money (in this case over $2,000) for banged up cheap rental furniture, mismatched accessories, and poor furniture placement. This job actually did the exact opposite of what we should achieve. Needless to say the homeowner was less than pleased, the realtor had egg on her face and I can guarantee you that she went back to her office and told her colleagues to steer clear of home stagers in the future. Luckily we had done some work for another realtor in this office and were able to turn them around.

I guess my point is, what do you think works and what doesn't work with regard to attracting and keeping clients?