Tweet

What if a Home You Stage Fails to Sell?

Written by: Debra Gould

Article Overview: Expert home stager, Staging Diva, offers advice to home stagers concerned about what happens if a home they stage does not sell.

What if a Home You Stage Fails to Sell?

If you’re concerned about what will happen if a home you’ve staged does not to sell, and what liability you have in the situation, you’re not alone. Many aspiring home stagers, and even established ones, share the same fear.

The first thing to remember is the person the client will be upset with when their home isn’t selling is the real estate agent not the home stager.

Yes, you’re decorating the house to sell, but you’re not in control of:

• pricing the property correctly for the location it is in
• running ads
• hosting open houses
• booking showings
• marketing it to other real estate agents

These things are all the job of the real estate agent not the home stager.

A home stager packages a product for the real estate agent to sell, but after that, it’s up to them.

I never tell a client that if they spend a certain amount of money in staging that I guarantee their home will sell in x amount of time for tens of thousands of dollars more than without staging. That would be crazy and irresponsible for me to do because of the factors involved in how quickly a house will sell.

You can do an awesome staging job, but you have no idea what shape it’s in after you leave when people come for showings. Or, the listing agent might be ineffective in the way they’re trying to market the property. The sellers might be stuck on getting a certain price and impossible to negotiate with. There might be six offers but they’re all rejected.

I once staged a 4 bedroom home that by the time I was done looked great for what it was. But I couldn’t change the fact that the kitchen was 30 years out of date and it was located on a busy corner that would be dangerous for children. There was nothing I could do about the fact that it was a 1970s house on a street where everything else had been torn down and replaced with modern homes. I had repairs done, repainted in appealing colors, furnished it, added accessories, artwork and bedding. But, the inherent drawbacks of the location and age of the house, relative to its neighbors, needed to be factored into the asking price to create an appealing package for potential buyers.

Unfortunately, the homeowner thought because all the other houses on her street were selling for millions of dollars, hers should be priced $100,000 over what it was worth.

Guess what? It didn’t sell because no amount of staging could fix the fundamental problems with this overpriced home.

While home stagers are an important piece of the real estate puzzle by ensuring a house is decorated to appeal to potential buyers, we are still only one piece of a large puzzle.

I doubt that you would ever get the blame from a home owner if their home does not sell, but if that should happen, I hope this article will give you some confidence that the fault does not lie with you.

Related Articles
  Work at Home ideas that work and don’t work
  Where is Your Customer in the Buying Cycle?
  Despite Negative Headlines, People Are Still Buying Houses
  MARKETING YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW FOR BUSINESSES DEVELOPMENT.
  Company Incorporation in Hong Kong and China

Article Tags: 1970s, amount of money, amount of time, busy corner, fear, home stager, home stagers, job, li li, open houses, real estate agent, real estate agents, shape, showings, tens of thousands, thousands of dollars, ul



Related Forum Posts
Re: Trade Shows - Are They Worth It? - HI, I have used trade shows (not participated) to collect potential clients. For example, the Home & Garden Industry is extremely behind the time in regards to their websites. I attended an Home & Garden Expo in Denver and collected all the companies contact information. I plan on cold calling & mailing information to each business. It also gave me time to research the industry more, talk directly to the owners in many cases, and learn more about what they need. Jeff
Your advantage over others - Sell using your USP - unique selling proposition. Why should people buy from you, instead of your competitors? Think about it, why are you so great? It may be a hard question, but finding the answer can multiply the effectiveness of any advertising or marketing activities you undertake.
Re: When do entrepreneurs retire, if ever? - Why would you ever retire when you love what you are doing? Sell the business and start another one maybe - but retire - NEVER! You should all read, The 4 Hour Work Week - By Timothy Ferris. He talks about building your business so that you can take mini 'retirement's throughout your life, instead of saving it all up for when you are old. Great concept - what do you think??
Re: SES Toronto - Day 1! - ...oh and even though it's 21 secrets, why do you have [quote:1gz722fe]Tip #22: Use Your Thank You Page to Sell[/quote:1gz722fe] on your blog? Are you holding out on secrets or are you adding your own? Hope to see you at the next conference!
Try wikipedia.com for more information - That depends what type of business you are involved in. Maybe if you share that, we can help you a little better. I work mostly in the Work at Home industry so my advice would only be along those lines.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

LEARNING TO HAVE FUN – EVERYDAY!

The Value of Small Businesses

Make Small Commitments. Get Big Changes.

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.