I'm pretty sure I was one of the first home stagers in Canada. I've staged countless homes over the years and still find I am learning things. One of my last jobs went a little bit sideways. I wanted to share that with you so that if you are new to the business or not, you might be able to avoid the situation.
Here's the story:
- I had staged 2 homes for this client already - 1 for $1.3 million and totally vacant so everything was selected by me and brought in to stage - sold in a few days; and a condo for $450,000 where I made recommendations for paint, decluttering and depersonalizing and enhanced the condo with some of my own inventory
- The client called me to stage his deceased mother's home - she had died 6 months ago and they were now wanting to prepare the house for the market - a $4.5 million penthouse
- I spent over 8 hours over 2 weeks with the client helping to stay on track and give my expert opinion on what should be kept for staging and what needed to be packed up
- I hand picked the art and a good amount of rental inventory consisting mainly of accessories, towels, bedding and florals
When all was said and done unfortunately the client did not like the look of the home - it didn't look the way he thought it should since it was his mothers' home.
What I learned:
- just because you have worked with someone before don't assume that every home staging can be treated the same way - communicate, question, ask, take your time to understand the emotional state
- when someone is still in the grieving stages communicate more with them than you would if they were not
- make sure you both have the same vision of what the final staging will look like
- if you have different views see if there can be a compromise so that the home has that broad buyer appeal
- always treat each other with respect to understand all points of view
- do your best and value the work you have done
If you are the home owner, know that home stagers want you to have the best experience possible in getting your home ready to sell. Our goal is your goal and we strive to do the best that we can with every staging job we do.
Comments(11)