Craig - I'll call your Wimpy & Raise some Olive Oil

Ok, so I'm sure you read Craig's awesome post Homesellers - I'm not Popeye, so don't be Wimpy .  If you didn't, you should.  Here's the thing, in my response to it I said, "Here is one more thing that most agents don't talk about but have knowledge of being an ex-office real estate office manager.  MOST real estate agencies have AR accounts (um... that being Accounts Receivable, not Active Rain.... hopefully they'll all have Active Rain accounts eventually).  When agents 'foot the bill' for newspaper ads, virtual tours, etc they very often have their companies footing that bill until closing for them. Those expenses then come out of their end of the commission check.  If their companies (Prudential, Keller Williams, Century 21, etc) were willing to put us on their AR lists the way they do the newspapers and virtual tour guys/gals I would be all for it!  Maybe that is what AGENTS need to work for... your companies to help by allowing stagers to be added to the AR bills!"

So, I walked away from my computer and thought, huh..... I need to think about this a little more.... I wrote my broker - I do hold a real estate license, but don't buy or sell... I just like having access to MLS.  Here is what I said to him...

"I came up with an idea - inspired by another stager in another area of the country - that I thought may be mutually beneficial.  What do you think about the idea of allowing agents to offer my staging services to their clients on AR account?  The fee could be flat 1% of sale payable at closing.  On average staging is approximately ½ of 1%.  I would get paid when the home was staged (by insert brokerage name) but at closing you would receive 1%.  This would double your initial investment (money paid for staging).  In addition, it would probably increase the number of homes actually staged, increasing the likelihood of a quick sale, referrals and possibly increase perspective listings by offering this service with no money paid in advance by client. 

There would be some initial kinks I would think, but it could be a WIN-WIN-WIN situation for the company, the agents, the sellers, yourself and me.  Let me know what you think."

I mean the idea is simple, right.  His response - about 5 minutes later - was that he thought it was a plan that may work on an individual basis.  He is going to present it at the next company wide meeting the end of next month. 

So..... what do you think about the proposal?  I would love both agents, stagers, & any possible consumer/home sellers out there  to chime in.....