In my last blog about teaching/informing/instructing Realtors about staging I had a comment at the end which I was not sure I should have put in the presentation but I just had to put it in and emphasize at the end . Part of the presentation involved the teamwork necessary between the Realtor, the Stager and the homeowner and the importance of the position of each in the selling process. I outlined the turf issues which can cause trouble if not understood and addressed in advance. Everything in the real estate biz is about relationships, everything.
The comment was that there were several points of contention between Realtors and Stagers (at least in my case) that I felt I had to address.
1. The first point was that when a client mentions staging to the Realtor, or when the client has found a stager online and informs the "you can do that yourself, you don't need a stager." I told them that that was tantamount to me telling the customer, "Oh, you can sell this house yourself after we stage it, you don't need a Realtor." I was straight on and very direct about this issue.
2. The second point was in the form of a question, which was "How do you think stagers might feel if the Realtor moved, or changed any of the staging?" There was laughter and I said, "If it is one of my stagings, you don't want to go there." Then they laughed again so we kept it very light. But it was noted.
3. The third point was about photos on the MLS. I asked them if they had looked through some of the shots on the MLS and if they had seen some of the disasterous photos. This was to drive home the point that the staging needed to take place BEFORE any photo stills, home shows or virtual tours were done. It does little good to do a staging AFTER the house is listed, and may have been seen either on the mls or in person. That viewing may be the only one you get with that client, who is afer all motivated, or they would not have been looking in the first place. They got it.
4. The fourth point was that Stagers are professionals just like Realtors and , in most cases, the Realtor would no more stage than the Stager would give real estate advice. Several of the Realtors asked me what program they should take if they wanted to become staging Realtors. I told them about the ones I knew and which ones were most comprehensive without recommending a specific one.
I will incorporate some of the material from my class in the DVD I will be doing in the near future thanks to one of the class members who suggested it.
One thing I highly recommend is that stagers do teaching as well as promotional presentations because I find that each time I do one I learn a lot of new things about staging in the real world. I get a lot more than I give even if I don't get paid for doing them.
***********NOTE**********
I must've mentioned ACTIVE RAIN until the class got it that this was a very valuable resource for all the questions they could come up with in a lifetime of real estate. I have it in my power point, I have it on my website, I have it in my promotional materials and I spelled it out for the class and they all wrote it down.
Comments(21)