Many home stagers mistakenly believe they need to carry an inventory of furniture to rent to their home staging clients who have vacant properties, or need new pieces to supplement existing furniture for a resale home on the market.
Sadly, many of these stagers end up broke and out of business with nothing but a warehouse full of furniture and a pile of debt.
These unfortunate stagers get so caught up in what they think other home stagers are doing, they forget to look at home staging as a business and consider where and how they will make a profit. They buy truck loads of furniture on credit believing that’s what home stagers need to do. Then, to add insult to injury, they don’t mark up the price properly and never recover their costs.
Their inventory sits in a warehouse racking up storage fees and often when it’s not in their warehouse it’s sitting in a client’s house on the real estate market that may not be selling as fast as they hoped.
When I’m asked why I don’t recommend stagers carry their own furniture inventory, I think of a Boston stager I know. She made the classic mistake of renting out her furniture for an indefinite period without even making sure that she would collect rental fees along the way.
With each new assignment to stage a vacant house, she’d go out and buy more furniture, lured in by those “don’t pay a cent events” where you can buy furniture now on credit and pay for it in a year or two.
Before she knew it, she owned enough furniture to fully furnish 10 vacant homes and that inevitable day when she’d have to pay for it all was fast approaching!
Would you like to avoid this happening to you, but aren’t sure how to work around the rental issue when there’s not a furniture rental shop in your town?
I’ll blog about your options on Monday. Check back then!
Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements Inc. Home Staging
Home Staging expert Debra Gould also known as The Staging Diva knows how to make money as a home stager and is determined to inspire and teach others to do the same. More than 1000 Staging Diva Graduates have learned how to monetize their decorating talents and run their own home staging businesses after taking the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program.
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Agree with every comment and just want to add my pennies worth!
If you use the same rental company try to mix it up a bit.
We realized at the end of our 1st year in business that all our portfolio pictures were looking so similar because we always had the “oak” range from the rental company and used the same colors because we didn’t want to buy too much.
We learnt our lesson and now specify different looks and have quite a large inventory of pictures, cushions and lamps that we usually manage to sell with the house when it’s bought.
We have also learnt to choose plainer items that we can embellish to make then unique, one off pieces, not found elsewhere.
When we stage for renting we have had great feedback from the Landlord/Developer/Investor that the potential rentee will not sign unless they allow them to have the contents of the apartments also. We love it when that happens!
Another great blog, Thanks Debra.
I transitioned my business last year with making investment in furniture only as I needed it. I made sure that everything was paid for by the end of a 2 month term. This investment was very good for my business last year.
If you do invest, you have to be very careful, to not over invest. Classic shaped used sofas are great with slipcovers and look better than many of the rental options available. You also need to make sure that you only buy items you can easily move with the assistance of one other person.
The “lugging” of stuff around is not very glamerous and does open you up to some liability, but i have a pod which is delivered to the site which makes the task much easier and efficient.
Jill and Ana, Thanks so much for adding your thoughts here. Great contributions to the discussion!
Ana, you’re so right “some Stagers measure their success by the size of their inventory,” which would be a lot like measuring your success by the size of your debt! How ironic is that?
Jill, I’m really glad you thought outside the box and looked at the renting from retailers option. I’ve been recommending this in the Staging Diva Training Program for years, yet many are too skeptical to try it. Good for you!
It’s difficult for me to even wrap my head around WHY anyone would plunge into the expense of purchasing furniture and warehousing it. I live in a small town where rental companies certainly are not plentiful. I have Rent-A-Center available to me – not a company I personally can envision using anyway! Ugh! I worked out an agreement with a local furniture rRETAIL store to source my furniture, accessories and art! – and they deliver and pick-up the furniture. It’s new, clean and trendy! For those stagers who purchase and warehouse their own furniture, etc., do you also have to pay someone to deliver and pick the items up? – or do YOU provide this service? If so, that’s added liability on your part! My source takes on that liability if items are damaged to and from my client’s home.
Debra,
Once again great business topic for those of us starting out. It seems that some Stagers measure their success by the size of their inventory. I have never had an inventory and do not plan to other than smaller accessories and art pieces. I have always viewed it as something that would hinder the flexibility of my small company and would also be an unnecessary and expensive drain on my budget and ultimately the budget of my clients through pricing. I have lost quite a few vacant jobs because the client was not comfortable that I did not have my own furnishings. I just always explain that I do not stage with a cookie cutter approach, each home is different and so should be the furninshings! Rentals are a great option and there is so much more to choose from small to large.
Ana Hitzel
Owner
AccentPositives
Corona, CA
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