I was reviewing some past blogs on Active Rain. They, are, admittedly, from the ancient past as blogging goes (Dec 7, 2006) when I read one of Sheron Cardin's fine postings titled Could Realtors who have heard of HOME STAGING please raise your hands! and it started me thinking again....I know, I know that can be a problem but it is so cold here today (0'F) that I had to do something to warm up.
Anyway, what I would like is to hear from Realtors about their fears and objections concerning professional staging. I know there are many Realtors out there who have no objections to staging but it is the objections that I can learn from the most. Now perhaps many Realtors are too busy to share this, or do not want to get into debates with stagers, or, perhaps, have not examined their own feelings about it. I am asking for your honest objections- not to engage in a debate. I really want to hear from the Realtors side of the street. Sometimes I feel like we are preaching to the choir, so to speak, and so I would truly like to learn from Realtors what their thoughts, opinions, and objections are. This information would, no doubt, help our profession.
I doubt that there is a realtor in the country who, given a choice between showing a home that is average and one that is staged, would choose the former. I also doubt that many Realtors would object to the whole idea of proper home preparation. So, to many of us stagers, it would seem like a no brain deal. If their listing were improved by staging, we reason. "Why don't they all use a professional stager?" There must be reasons and if we could hear them perhaps we could improve what we are doing.
Sometimes it is, of course, not the Realtor who objects to the idea of staging but the seller. I just had a call with a Realtor who was initially excited about having me give an estimate for a listing she had. She just now informed me that the seller did not want the estimate due to "having a bad experience with a home stager in the past." Now I suspect that this was not the actual reason that the seller declined the estimate due to the fact that staging is relatively new to this part of the world and unless she is selling a home that she bought less than 4 or 5 years ago it is unlikely she would have had a professional stager here but none the less it was the seller rather than the Realtor who objected to even a free estimate. Perhaps she had a fear of what we might tell her. Who knows?
Realtors we do want to hear those objections. It will help you examine you feelings about staging, help us to hear the resistance to our profession and perhaps stimulate ideas that will help us both overcome obstacles to what should be a win-win-win situation between Realtors, Home sellers, and Professional Stagers.
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