I have seen stagers who charge too little and do disasterous jobs & I have seen stagers who charge ridiculous rates who then make agents & homeowners feel that staging is not affordable. Both ways we have to do more work to clean up their messes....
It definately sounds like the stager in question did a disasterous job, but at the same time I would say if they only paid $450 they probably got what they paid for... did they research this at all? Did they ask questions? Did they just take the lowest bid? Most of the times I have seen disasterous staging the latter was the case. They called other stagers out, and then went really cheap.
Melissa: This stager was a referral from a friend of the homeowners. I really do not think that this homeowner did any checking, he just took the referral and went with it. I wish that the Realtors had taken photos.
Jeff: You are right, we all just have to do our best and stay professional.
Yes I have seen this as I mentioned in one of my posts months ago. I lost a bid to a stager for a vacant model home and the price tags were left on the accessories, even the one that said 50% off in red!
I had a staging from a realtor that I work with all the time. Her client lived in CA and had very little money. I charged her only $450.00 and promised the realtor I would do my best to make it look nice. I can tell you while they are not getting top of the line rented furniture to fill every room, I still go out of my way to present the home as nicely as I can with using my inventory and accessories. Here is a pic of the DR area, 
I also staged a small vignette in the LR and in the MBR used a blow up mattress. We have to think out of the box and still do our very best to make the home as pretty as possible.
Phyllis Pafumi

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