"...Start Staging the house Friday, the contract will be coming..."

Amen, Michael.  You said it well. Fooled once, ok, it's a learning experience, fooled twice is just silly. 

Amen, Michael.  You said it well. Fooled once, ok, it's a learning experience, fooled twice is just silly. 

I will schedule a job and start planning ONLY with a signed contract and 50% down payment. As you know, a lot of time is spent behind the scenes planning a staging job and especially a vacant staging job, so I have to have a signed contract and deposit up front before any work is done.

I will never ever do any work without a contract...even with contracts you will get burned. Thank god for the back up they do provide!

I will never ever do any work without a contract...even with contracts you will get burned. Thank god for the back up they do provide!

Hi Michael,

You will do well to hold to your line in the sand.

As you said they have committed to the wanting, now they have to commit to the paying. Wise words.

Micheal, I came back to this one to share with you that one client yesturday (after spending what seems like hours on the phone with him)  said "Great, so since your Staged properties sell so fast and you are confident in your abilities, then you won't mind being here on Friday to Stage and we'll pay you upon opening escrow...."  no-joke: He was dead serious, only I was laughing.

HI Michael!  Good Post-Professional Policies were not made to be broken.  You are a wise business man to begin your staging jobs with a signed agreement and deposit.  I have only had a problem with one or two Realtors in the past, hardly ever with homeowners in all the hundreds of homes. Most of my clients are homeowners, referred by Realtors or Affiliates, which is soooo wonderful!!     

Good for you!  We will not start staging a home until we have the signed contract and the deposit.  It is always best to avoid any potential problems from the beginning of any job.

No signature on my contract, no staging. We have to protect ourselves.

Hi Michael....yes, signed contract with the deposit in hand and banked....THEN the staging process begins.  Too many people out there trying to get away with something for nothing and Home Stagers need to be more strict with their business practices.  Being too nice or lenient during tough times may equal someone getting burned...and it is usually the person who was too lenient!  Be firm and professional....those boundaries serve a purpose!  Regards-Kathleen G

Michael,

 I had this very thing happen to me last week. It was a builder who contacted me, wanted the job done now now now! He was extremely busy and hard to hold down.

I finally ended up telling him flat out that I only required 5 minutest of his time, to sign the contract and get the deposit, otherwise, until that time, the staging job would be delayed.

! I met him within one hour, and received exactly what I needed to commence the job.

I will never start a job without the contract and the deposit, to easy to get screwed in the long run.

Heather

Michael,

Well, I just wrote about 4 paragraphs describing a recent scenario that I encountered with a staging job (which resulted in a contract revision) and then screwed up the 'graphic' when I went to submit the comment.  Of course, it's all long gone now and I've been on AR for almost 3 hours and am way too tired to re-write it...so I'll do the next best thing and write a blog about it tomorrow (when I'm more awake!) :)

Let me just say this, for now....we have all made mistakes in trying to run a business...that's how we learn - through trial and error!  I've been burned a couple of times, like yourself....usually when I was being 'too nice' or too trusting!

Live and learn, right?  I am VERY CAREFULLY going to post this comment now.....

Val

If we are running  a professional staging business then we need to run it like a business, make money and cover all the bases. We can still be nice, just firm.

A contract is like a bible ,use it i protects you and your client ;)

Hi Michael-

Glad you stood firm on your contract requirements.  With the availability of  email attachments, printers, scanners and faxes-there is NO reason to operate without a signed contract.

Michael - I've held my breath a couple of times on contracts and getting them signed before a staging.  In the past, I sometimes thought "I know how to read people - in most situations", I've been lucky so far (knock on wood).  Everyone here is correct, with fax machines and credit cards there should be no reason not to be safe......my company had only tried the "gut feeling tactic" a couple of times and thankfully it worked out okay but not something I want to do all the time.  We have yet to be burned (knock on wood again).  But it's better to be safe than sorry.  After almost 5 years, our clients still have not disappointed me, I feel very fortunate.  Since we are more established now, I'm a pro at getting contracts signed on time.  I would never recommend not having your contract signed and money down.