Staging With Craig Schiller in Geneva, IL -- The Process of Engagement

Today I spent several hours at client's home in Geneva, IL with Craig Schiller, owner of Realestaging, a premier staging firm located in the Chicago area. During this session I had a "flash of the obvious" and one of the old saws from my consulting firm days hit me: "awareness precedes change". Managing the client's process of engagement with change is central to our jobs in real estate.

If you don't know Craig through his work or his blogging, you are missing out on a great experience. Craig is smart, funny, charming and a great communicator. I always look forward to our appointments with the sort of enthusiasm previously reserved for high school dates: a little excited, a little worried, wondering what my client will think and do, but always sure that I'm going to have a great experience no matter what happens.

I am sure that Craig prefers to work on luxury homes in trendy neighborhoods with big spending clients who will engage him for elaborate staging jobs. But Craig is generous with his time and advice, even if that includes spending hours with me at a $200,000 town home in Geneva, IL. This home has been listed quite a while and the homeowner just decided to "get serious" when she fell in love with and purchased a charming little home in Wayne, IL. In a better market, this client's town home would have sold quickly at a good price. Now this seller is experiencing the undeniable maxim of "it's a price war and a beauty contest".

This four bedroom, 3 bath town home at 1346 Arlington Court is well-priced, clean and neat, but just doesn't have that "snap" that grabs a buyer to select it over all the other townhomes on the market. I decided to bring in Craig for his special way of making a home more sellable in today's market. Craig started today's session with his engaging opening that clearly says that his job is to tease out a vision that weaves together the client's possessions, her taste, her budget and what a buyer will most positively respond to.

Craig "works the home" -- some people can work a room, Craig can work a home. He starts in one place, evaluates the existing furniture, paint colors and accessories. He instructs and chats and throws out ideas in a running commentary. He moves from room to room, goes back and forth, tossing out stories and ideas. You can see his mind working, trying to get traction on what is necessary and what is achievable to make the home more marketable.

I usually sit and take notes while Craig works the home. I'm watching and listening for many things at once, starting with the client's level of responsiveness, ability to withstand criticism, and finally the ability to engage in the process of change.

Since I'm not talking while Craig works (well, not too much, anyways) I can judge how well the client is absorbing the information -- and at the same time, I'm watching Craig evolve his vision for the home. It's an iterative process: Craig is chatting and thinking out loud and instructing, I'm sometimes translating into market value and expectations, and the client asks questions but mostly listens. In the beginning the client usually holds back, watching and waiting and deciding if they are going to come along on Craig's carpet ride. We Midwesterners are polite to one another, even when cherished thoughts and beliefs are smacked around.

These staging consultation sessions simultaneously succeed and struggle at various levels. Most of my clients are pretty regular folk with pretty standard tastes. Of course their homes are lovely and maintained with pride. Craig has to help move the client into accepting change, spending money and doing work: all to help "maybe" sell a home for less money than they can even bear to think about it.

Today was no different and it hit me that for staging to be successful, we must accomplish many communication and motivation goals. As I watched today, smoothing over the rough points and nudging in certain directions, I saw how the client was engaging. First she was politely "taking it all in". For every comment on a paint color or a location of a piece of furniture, I think she was first probably sorting through her feelings and memories about the object or paint color -- we all have those eight tracks of dialogue in our mind. She's thinking about what she hoped for her kids when she bought the piano, whatever happened to that piano teacher, where could she buy boxes to pack up the paperback books, who could she get to come in to move the hutch to another room and so on. I think we need to be sensitive to the speed that a client can embrace the change, and how much their minds (or egos) can cope with at one time.

In the middle of a staging consultation, the client usually follows along a few steps behind Craig and is clearly picking and choosing what she is going to do. After all, this is a tough economy and she is already selling for significantly less than she would like. Of course no one is going to hop up and do everything the stager asks for...or might she?

Because sometimes it happens: full engagement. I think that today, just maybe, the client made that big step away from polite consideration to agreeing to do a lot of work and spend even more money to get to a partially articulated vision. Today it happened about three hours into the session: all of a sudden Craig and I both saw how cute and compelling this town home will look if we'll implement his ideas. Craig showed us his goosebumps when the right paint color was decided on. I followed a few minutes behind but then all of a sudden got that "buzz" of understanding and excitement.

I'm not sure if the client saw everything we saw, but I know she felt our enthusiasm. All the tracks in her mind were probably running at once: "when would I do all this, how much will it really cost, when could I do the shopping they want", and so on. I hope she becomes fully engaged and trusts us enough to continue.

Craig has so much to say and is so generous with his help, I hope we can encourage him to blog on the progress of this assignment. I'll post existing and new photos in a future post. This isn't one of the big sexy jobs that stagers love to brag about with lots of gorgeous photos to display. Maybe it's more important and interesting that this is a regular client, in a regular home, and that our work will make a difference between selling and not selling in a difficult market.