Last week I wrote a post called, “Stagers, don’t let real estate agents discourage you”. I was motivated to write it because for the 7 years I’ve been staging homes I’ve been running into real estate agents who:
- don’t understand why an empty, disorganized or ugly home is harder to sell
- list it as is, put a few bad pictures on MLS and then talk their client into subsequent price reductions when the property doesn’t sell
- are afraid they’ll have to pay for our services if they recommend them, or worse, feel threatened by what home stagers do instead of realizing we make them look good and their selling jobs easier
- want to be proud of a listing that has their name on it because they know it reflects on their reputation and who know if they have great MLS photos they’ll attract more showings and quicker and higher offers.
Sadly, that last group is harder to find. The good new is that the “unaware” or “fearful” real estate agents can be educated and many of them do come around to understanding the benefits of home staging to themselves as well as their clients, as you’ll see from the comments from home stagers on my original post. That’s why I emphasize the messages and selling points you should use with real estate agents when selling your home staging services in course 4 of the Staging Diva Program.
I was also motivated to write that post because for the 5 years I’ve been teaching home staging courses, I’ve watched too many really talented stagers feel they should give up on following their dreams because they let the discouragement of real estate agents stop them in their tracks.
It’s important to note that in the past, most of a real estate agent’s power came from the control of information.
Before the Internet, you couldn’t get any details about a house for sale without using a licensed real estate agent. I’m old enough to remember when listings were printed out and carried around in binders and the only way to see them was through an agent. Then MLS was available by computer, but the public couldn’t access it. There was no way to tell how fast homes sold or for how much, without a real estate agent.
As the gate keepers of all information about real estate, agents had tremendous power to establish asking prices, sway buyers and to convince their sellers to accept certain offers.
They still have power and influence of course (which is not a bad thing as a good real estate agent has an important role to play), but the rest of us no longer exist in an information vacuum.
With 90% of buyers in Canada, and 70% in the US doing their own online search for properties before even calling a real estate agent, the competitive environment agents operate in is completely different. Not all agents have woken up to the paradigm shift in their industry. That’s where a lot of the resistance home stagers run into comes from.
Not to mention that change always brings up fear. For agents old enough to remember when they controlled all information, it’s hard to let go of habits that came with that. For newer agents who flooded the industry when the market was booming, it’s hard to recover from the giant reality check the last 12 to 18 months have brought, and look for ways to change how they sell properties.
All this is to say, home stagers and aspiring home stagers: don’t give up your power to real estate agents. Many of them will discourage you, but keep on going anyways.
We offer a tremendous and valuable service to home sellers that makes a huge difference in their lives. If you have any doubt of that, please read the many examples of what Staging Diva Graduates have done for their clients here.
I welcome your comments to this story. Let’s keep this conversation going!
Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements Inc. Home Staging
Debra Gould knows how to make money as a home stager and she developed the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program to teach others how to earn a living doing something they love while helping others at the same time.
Related posts:
- Home Staging: Evil trick or the smart way to sell?
- Home Staging helps sellers meet conditional offer deadline
- Sellers need their homes to stand out in a flooded market
- When real estate agents request cheap home staging
- Record Level US Home Sales Bodes Well for Home Stagers
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I certainly had a rude awakening when I started my staging business. I knew I could convince any mildly intelligent real estate agent that staging their listings would only result in a quicker sale and happier clients. I was not prepared for the “brick wall syndrome” I encountered. I wish I would have had this article to read then! Debra, you are so good at putting all areas of this business into perspective.
New Stagers, don’t be discouraged by the resistance you may find in the Real Estate world! Heed Debra’s wise advice and be proud of what you do!
It is always hard to convince people to change. Realtors have been doing business a certain way for a long time and are comfortable with it. I can certainly understand that. However, to not utilize services that can enhance their lisitings, and bring a better price, is just not taking advantage of the marketing. It IS an expense to stage a home, but we just have to convince them that the price of home staging is almost always less than the cost of a price reduction. And that’s money in everyone’s pocket!
Debbie Fiskum, The HomeDecorGenie.com
This sounds like a “spiel” I repeat in my sleep. The “staging will cost less than your first price reduction” speech. BUT IT’S TRUE! I haven’t had too many staging projects that cost more than 5 or $10 thousand dollars! – normal price reduction increments. Staging IS an investment, just like buying a home is an investment. Sometimes you really do need to spend money to MAKE money.
Staging To Sell
Home Staging For Sellers . Interior Design & reDesign
231.690.0398
Jill R. Monczunski
President/Designer
http://www.staging2sell.com
jill@staging2sell.com
I setup a luncheon with 6 high producing realtors in my area. I developed a professional bio and presentation that I presented to them. We spoke for over an hour about what I do, how much I charge, how do I handle difficult customers, and it went on and on. At the end I told them I would like to develop a relationship with them and provide brochures they could include in the selling packets to the their clients.
I was shocked at their response. One said he didn’t beleive staging a vacant home made any difference, even after many before and after pictures that they loved. Another said her clients would not be willing to spend money on staging. I asked if she would be willing to provide my brochure to their client and let the client decide. She declined and said she provides the client with “suggestions”.
They all said they loved my presentation, my before and after pictures, understood the staging stastics I provided and said there “might” be some benefit but they would let me know.
I didn’t let that discourage me because I know I do good work and the presentation was aimed toward realtors and it was good.
I felt they were reluctant to tell their clients their homes needed help.for fear of offending them.
Oh well…the journey continues. A $300.00 lunch didn’t help but you never know…one of them may come around and that’s all I need, one convert to get the ball rolling with that agency.
Jenny, it sounds like you did a great job and it’s a crying shame you got the response you did. Sounds to me like they were just looking for a free lunch and didn’t really have their minds open even if their ears supposedly were!
Keep on going, don’t let them discourage you and put more efforts on home owners as described in Course 4 of the Staging Diva Program. Thanks for sharing your story!
I don’t know if this topic is being re-opened, but I have two comments on the reactions of real estate agents. First, I have also had many negative reactions from agents I have talked to — I have not done presentations and don’t plan to based on the many individual conversations that go nowhere. They say they don’t need me because they give their own suggestions and “know how to stage themselves”; my price range of $500-750 is “way to high” for their clients (in one of the most expensive towns in Northern New Jersey); or “staging doesn’t work anyway and it’s not worth the money.”
Secondly, I had the unpleasant experience of having a top local agent yell at me over the phone after I had staged a client’s home and then she came into the picture, telling me I didn’t back her up on two points that would have cost the clients money they didn’t want to spend. The outcome for the sellers? They sold their house in less than 2 weeks after staging for $10,000 MORE than the agent wanted to list it at. This after the same agent had previously listed their house a year before for 3 months withOUT staging and no decent offers. I find homeowners are thrilled with my work and the houses I stage generally sell within a month or less of staging for close to full price. So I agree with Debra completely that homeowners are our primary target market and the ones who are far more willing to listen and spend the money — they realize their return on investment is worth it. I happen to think most agents either think they “know it all,” are afraid of offending clients (mistakenly), or are just too lazy to bother explaining staging to their clients.
Thanks for sharing your experiences Amy, I know that most readers will have met with similar reactions. That’s why there are so many real estate agents who aren’t making a living. In fact, the average earnings were about what the manager of a McDonald’s makes, and that was before the real estate market went down so much!
Thankfully as home stagers, we make far more than the typical real estate agent and my experience has been that our clients really appreciate the value we bring.
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