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The wrong pricing strategy can kill your home staging business

By
Home Stager with Staging Diva / Six Elements Inc.

make money in home staging The pricing structure you set up for your home staging services (and items you charge for), can either make or break your real estate staging business. It's great to follow your heart and make a business out of your creative talents, but if you’re doing something you love and not making money, it’s not a business – it’s a hobby.

Even if you’re the best home stager in your city, if you charge a flat rate for your services, you could end up broke faster than you think. In fact, you could be setting yourself up to kill a business that would otherwise be extremely profitable.

Charging by the square foot or setting a flat rate per room is a common mistake that has ended more than one home stager’s career

No two spaces are ever the same. It could take more time to stage a 1200 sq. ft. condo than a 4,000 sq. ft. detached home. If you're charging by the square foot or room, you're in trouble! When you’re already into a project and realize it will take hours more to complete than you originally estimated it’s too late. By using the wrong pricing strategy, you have totally undercut yourself.

There are several common scenarios you probably encounter regularly as a home stager that eat up time you may not be charging for. For example, the client who is distracted by toddlers while you're doing your consultation, or the one who has saved every item that has come into the house for the last 20 years.

If you have the proper pricing strategy in place, none of these "time-wasters" matter.

In fact, if clients like these are eating up your time, you will make more money with the right rate structure. With the wrong pricing strategy, you will find yourself working for nothing much of the time.

If you charge "flat rates" for your home staging services, you really need to reconsider your pricing strategy before your business "flat lines" from all the extra work you have to do to make ends meet.

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements Inc. Home Staging

Internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould has been writing about home staging since 2002 when she started earning a living as a home stager. Within her second year in business she was earning up to $10,000 a month staging homes. She teaches her strategies to other home stagers in the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, which has 900+ Graduates worldwide. Debra is the author of two home staging guides and offers a Directory of Home Stagers to help homeowners and real estate agents locate home stagers who will decorate homes to sell quickly and for top dollar. To learn more visit http://www.stagingdiva.com.

Comments (19)

Virginia Tatseos
Stage-Show-Sell - Bloomfield Township, MI

Great post.  this has given me a lot to think about.  I try to figure out the hours that it's going to take and use my hourly rate.

The consultation charge is usually for 1 1/2 hours.  I've only had one who abused the time

Aug 05, 2008 01:35 PM
Virginia Tatseos
Stage-Show-Sell - Bloomfield Township, MI

p.s. you are posting to STagers Open Forum  which is no longer there.

Aug 05, 2008 01:35 PM
Kristina Leone
Lionheart Home Staging, LLC - Minneapolis, MN

Excellent post!  Pricing is usually the hardest thing to conquer when starting a staging business.

Aug 05, 2008 02:32 PM
Karen Otto
Home Star Staging - Plano, TX
Plano Home Staging, Dallas Home Staging, www.homes

Good information and important food for thought Debra. Are you then saying an hourly pricing structure is the best way to price? Your phrase "time wasters" got me wondering about that.

Aug 05, 2008 03:25 PM
Joyce Zdenek
Hallmark Sotheby's International Realty & Joyce's Interiors - Hopkinton, MA

Debra:

I learned the hard way about charging a flat fee.  It was my first staging job, I was anxious to get started and agreed to a rate that included furniture, accessories, etc.  I ended up not making anything.

Now I charge an hourly rate, which works in my favor. 

Thanks for the post.

Joyce

 

 

Aug 05, 2008 03:37 PM
Debra Gould
Staging Diva / Six Elements Inc. - Toronto, ON
The Staging Diva

Thanks everyone for feedback, and Virginia for letting me know about Stagers Open Forum!

 

You can read more on this topic in Home Staging is Not a Minimum Wage Job!

 

Debra Gould, the Staging Diva

 

Aug 06, 2008 08:42 AM
Larry Lane
Your Agents in Wichita | Wichita Homes - Wichita, KS
Homes for Sale in Wichita KS | Lane Team, Wichita Homes for Sale

You really have to put some thought and communication into appropriate pricing, but it looks like the only way to go.

Aug 30, 2008 01:41 PM
Cathy Lee
CL Design Services Home Staging - Danville, CA
ASP, IAHSP, RESA Danville, CA

My fees are based on what the home needs-I do not charge by square foot, hour or have a flat fee. 

Aug 30, 2008 02:27 PM
Barbara Cluck-Miksits
BCM Home Staging LLC - Ridgewood, NJ
Home Staging - New Jersey

Debra ~ Great post and I also checked out your link Home Staging is not a minimum wage job.

You are so right! Many stagers do not charge enough for their services. I just put up a post about giving too much info to the client with out getting paid for it.

Aug 31, 2008 03:50 PM
Lori Kim Polk
Premiere Home Staging : Home Staging Services - Roseville, CA
Home Stager - Roseville, Sacramento

Yeah!! Great post. There is a reason why some of us are still around and it isn't a secret!

Aug 31, 2008 04:08 PM
Kristina Leone
Lionheart Home Staging, LLC - Minneapolis, MN

I think pricing is the hardest thing for new stagers to figure out.  I will get emails and phone calls from want-to-be stagers from around the country asking what I charge, and my answer is always... "It depends."

Sep 01, 2008 08:59 AM
Kathi Presutti
RE:STYLE LLC - Brighton, MI
Re:Style, LLC

I agree that appropriate pricing is key to staying in business. But it gets more difficult when there are many "hobby' stagers out there who charge next to nothing, and establish relationships with Realtors who want staging, but don't want to pay enough for someone to make a living at it! It can be a connumdrum...

Sep 01, 2008 12:31 PM
Tori Lynn Wallitsch
Prudential Ambassador / Ross Designs, LLC - Omaha, NE

I have always charged per hour; you are absolutely correct in that often smaller spaces can take LONGER than larger spaces.  It all depends on the type of client and the existing furnishings.

Sep 01, 2008 02:18 PM
Tori Lynn Wallitsch
Prudential Ambassador / Ross Designs, LLC - Omaha, NE

P.S.  I just checked out your link to "Home Staging Is Not A Minimum Wage Job" and am going to send to some of my agent clients who would like to see my rates reduced.  I charge $75/hour for all interior design services, with a 2 hour minimum for owner occupied Staging consults. 

Sep 01, 2008 02:21 PM
Chris Olsen
Olsen Ziegler Realty - Cleveland, OH
Broker Owner Cleveland Ohio Real Estate

People will always pay for quality.  People will not pay for mediocracy, if it can't be supported by the home stager.  As a realtor and stager, and as someone who has hired stagers, all the stagers I have worked with thus far have almost no business sense, and their staging skills are average as well.  It's a profession that can be rewarding if a successful entrepeneur takes notice.

Dec 22, 2008 12:26 PM
Kathleen Lordbock
Keller Williams Realty Professionals - Baxter, MN
Keller Williams Realty Professionals

Those who charge too little to stay afloat will drop but others rise to take their places.

Jan 17, 2009 03:42 PM
Michele Hess
Simply Staged Inc. - Rockford, IL
Home Stager Rockford - Simply Staged Inc

Great advice Debra! I took this advice from you after completing your course and don't work for free - not even "vacant" or certainly not "working" consultations.  It was hard to stick to it in the beginning when you are just starting and want the jobs, but glad I stuck to this business model. It has paid off.

Jan 17, 2009 10:43 PM
Debra Gould
Staging Diva / Six Elements Inc. - Toronto, ON
The Staging Diva

Thanks everyone for your comments and to those of you who stand your ground on pricing.

Playing the "let's charge the lowest price so we get work" game is the quickest road to bankruptcy for anyone playing it, and equally importantly it totally degrades our profession!

 

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva

Jan 19, 2009 06:46 AM
Patricia Barta
Staging by Patricia - Great Falls, VA
Staging by Patricia, N. Virginia

Thank you so much for this posting!  I understand why YOU are the Staging Diva!

Mar 10, 2009 09:17 AM