I've been a bit frustrated lately with the poor quality of staging I've seen. And even more frustrated that I've lost a couple vacant staging jobs to others who seem to be charging pennies! To be quite honest, I believe I am very reasonably priced and provide a quality professional service.
One project I didn't get was a home with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, family room, living room, office and kitchen. We discussed the different levels of service for a vacant and the owner wanted more than just a simple, vignette staging. So I prepared a proposal that I thought was well priced, especially considering the large number of built in bookcases that needed to be staged properly (we all know how that eats up inventory!). According to the seller, I didn't get the job because he found "a stager who was able to fully stage the house for three months within their budget of $1200-$1500." Now I don't know how anyone can provide quality, professional staging for that price for all those rooms fully staged and still get paid! I haven't seen any pictures of it yet, but I can imagine. Oh well... on to the next one.
I had another project I would have loved to do. Two model condo units in a renovated building in the Fan district of Richmond. I had staged a model condo for this builder in 2007 with great results. Well this time around I'm guessing they wanted to save some money. At least that's the only thing I can think of since the listing agent (who I prepared the propsal for) never responded to my several follow up emails/calls. First of all, I think it's very unprofessional of the agent to not respond, let alone not have the courtesy to tell me "no thanks". Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to discuss my proposal and ways to work within their budget, if at all possible. Well, I just found the photos of the units online and needless to say... They Got What They Paid For!
It's probably not too professional of me to post those photos so I won't, but I can't resist just a comparison of my staged living room in the unit I staged a couple years ago vs. the living room of this unit. Let's hope the builder and agent decided to do it themselves. I'd hate to think a professional stager did it!
Here's the living room I did not stage...
Here's the one I staged...
Any other stagers running into this problem? I'm afraid sub par staging is giving us a bad name!
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For professional, quality staging, please consider Judy Heinrich Home Staging, LLC, serving the greater Richmond, VA area. For more information, visit my website at www.judyheinrich.com
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