It's SPRING and Home Stagers are blooming all over......OMG

Fernando, It's funny that you would write this, I can't tell you how many Feng Shui Consultants have sprung up in the last year or two.  There are online classes or, as you said, some just call themselves consultants.  It is your reputation that you have built up over the years that makes people want to work with you!  You always get the clients you are suposed to get.

Ok, I'm done with my lecture :)

Fernando, It's funny that you would write this, I can't tell you how many Feng Shui Consultants have sprung up in the last year or two.  There are online classes or, as you said, some just call themselves consultants.  It is your reputation that you have built up over the years that makes people want to work with you!  You always get the clients you are suposed to get.

Ok, I'm done with my lecture :)

Best of luck with the cupcake business!  Maybe going in that direction is your real passion and doing staging part time could still be a possibility.  Imagine being able to stage just for the fun of it...forget all the business frustration and just do it cuz you love to...that would be awesome!

It drives me crazy that stagers are underpricing our services! I had an agent call me who used me for a vacant condo. She was looking for a consultation, and said she had someone who would do it for $50. I can't imagine how you make a living at that price unless you don't spend more than 15 minutes in each house. I know agents get beat up all the time about their fees, and I feel the same way!

You are so talented and it is sad when price is the decision maker rather than quality.  Unfortuately many times Realtors and the public do not know the difference between staging and professional staging. Best wishes to you and I know you will always be in the staging industry because you are just too good not to be!  

Fernando

Good luck on your new venture and keep at the staging!  Professionals like yourself will rise the top when the others fizzle!

Hi Fernando, I do hope you keep staging because you certainly have the talent. Love that rug you used in your staging project pictured above, very cool!

Fernando: I'm sad to think you're leaving the business after three long years of hard and wonderful work! Though paying the bills and doing what you love are the two key factors in our lives right?

I've not been around AR long and only opened my staging business months ago but I have also seen a huge uptick in stagers in my area. Just this week I received two phone calls from Interior Designers who want to get into staging and wanted to know if I was hiring. A third was a email from someone who wanted an internship. Looks like there will be even more competition in my area.

Best of luck to you in your new endeavors!

Yes, it's a different staging market for sure. It mirrors real estate sales... it seems to be a buyer's market... lots of options in stagers, now. Clients just have to be careful, and get a recommendation, just as they would from anyone who works on their property.  We'll miss you, Fernando, Good luck!

Oh, my friend we have tons of new people here.  And yes, people are getting quotes and pricing from several stagers.  What the newbies don't realize that we do is that it is very hard work, if you take it seriously and run it like a business.  I to have interior designers, and others that contact me everyday wanting to get into the biz.  It's tough, since some of us got in early, and now everyone is jumping on the bandwagon, but what can you do?

Fernando, same has happened here.  All of the sudden everyone is a home stager!  And just as all of the sudden, business for everyone dried up!  Good luck with your "new" job, I know cheffing in a passion for you as well as the staging biz.

Having experienced your cupcakes first hand, I can confirm you are an amazing chef who also happens to be an amazing stager. I wish you so much luck, in whatever you do.

As far as other stagers entering the market... this is common in industries where there is a low barrier to enter the market. We see this very commonly with the window coverings side of our business. The jobbyists and inexperienced detereriorate the market by offering products/ services at prices which are extremely low. Most often, they run themselves out of business, but in the meantime, they do deteriorate the HECK out of the market.

There is a way to push through -- we've done it successfully, so don't give up completely. If you need to Chef to generate more revenue and buy yourself time to restructure, do that, but don't close the doors on your staging biz unless you really just want too. YOU know what's right for you, I just want to tell you that success is possible for you and you can push through this challenging time!

Fernando, I owe you so much for helping me get started with our local IAHSP chapter in South FL and for being so generous with my AR blogging.  EVERYTIME I mentioned something to you about what happened to me in my Staging, you suggested that I write a blog on it.  You are so creative!  Some people can be trained in Staging but you have a natural gift.  Go ahead and do what you need to do because I know that whatever it is you will be successful, but I truly hope that you don't give up on Staging. 

Good luck Fernando with your chef career and keep your eye on the staging business too!  We'll miss your creativity here in the Rain.

Wow, I have been out of the loop for a few days, and somehow missed this post.  When we had our RESA Round Table last November, I decided to host one here in the Springs, because I "knew of" about 30 stagers in our area.  When I looked online, I found 75!  Yes, 75! Since then I have come to "know " another half dozen... A huge variety of trained, certified, 'naked', working, part-time, out of business, and never got off the ground beyond a liner note on the internet...Also priced from $50 to $125 an hour.  Persevere...as my hubs says, there is always room a the top!  Happy cupcakeing in the meantime, and please come visit us in the Rain!