Michelle King

Calling all home stagers in Quebec- Are you a member of RESA ? Would you be interested in having a local chapter ?

Would it matter to you if it was a French or English chapter ?

Please let me know.

I have met a few Home Stagers in the Greater Montreal area who would like to have a local chapter but I don't know enough to make it worthwhile.

To those RESA members in Ontario - what do you see as the benefits of being a RESA member ?

Here in the Montreal area most home stagers market directly to the Real-Estate Agents and seemingly with mixed results.

The idea for Home Stagers seems obvious...REA need the home staged and therefore they should know who I am and call me in to do the staging.

A few months ago a prominent Montreal Home Stager posted a blog on AR suggesting she was frustrated that no matter how many great presentations she did to REA and how favourable the response was very few agents ever called her.

I work with REA but no longer try to market to them exclusively. I found that while the REAs I worked with would usually only call Home Harmony for staging projects it often seemed that their use of staging services was inconsistent.

A few questions :

1. Does Home Staging work ?
   • Yes it makes a home look better/more presentable
   • It can help a house sell more quickly and/or for better money
2. Is Home Staging worth it ?
   • That depends on what the investment is. Not all stagers and staging projects are equal.
   • Some people spend too much on staging (and perhaps not the right things are done)
   • Some people don't spend enough
3. Is it worthwhile for a REA to bring a stager in to do a consultation ?
   • Maybe...sometimes the homeowners don't do anything with it, sometimes they will do the work themselves and sometimes they will hire the home stager.
   • Sometimes it can differentiate the services of one REA versus another making it worthwhile to the REA.
4. Why aren't more houses staged ?
   • I wonder if many REA are uncomfortable selling Staging Services - Am I wrong ?
   • I wonder how many home owners understand what staging can do for them and therefore don't need to be sold on staging ? - I am thinking it isn't as well understood as it should be.
   • Is it the concern over the cost ?

My Title like asked - Should REA be promoting staging ?

I used to think so. Now I am far from sure. I am beginning to think that to properly sell staging services we must first sell the idea of staging and Home Stagers need to take the education of the home-owners into their own hands and stop drafting on REA.

I think REAs would rather try to sell a home that was staged than one that was not. But I don't think they should be in a position to educate people as to the benefits of staging and encouraging them to hire a stager.

What do you think ?

1. Are homeowners in your area well informed as to the benefits of staging ?
2. Do they understand the ROI for staging ?
3. Is the best place for a stager to get into a home still with the Real-Estate Agent ?
4. Should REAs be encouraging their clients to stage their homes ?

I got a call from a real-estate agent today. She found me through TheMakeoverShow.com, the blog for the "trade show" I am co-producing.

She was not only excited about the premise for the show (Making over your life in just one day - Home, Health and Image) but she apparently loved that someone who had a full-service home staging business was involved.

It seems she has a new business model which consists of giving her customers (about 25 through the end of 2009) home staging services. While this in and of itself is not news the fact that she budgets 1.5% of the selling price for staging is amazing.

After speaking to her at length it seems like the math all adds up for her.

She calculates that her ROI on staging costs, in terms of gaining new clients, is higher than if she used the equivalent money for door-to-door advertising. Now I don't know how it works in your part of the world but here it seems that most agents prepare post-cards or flyers, maybe even calendars with their coordinates and perhaps info on recent local sales they have. This costs them a lot of money. I am sure it must get them some clients or they wouldn't do it but statistically the return is likely not that high. In general post-card type advertising isn't wildly successful.

Her broker thinks she is crazy as do her colleagues. Her clients are thrilled.

She does not have higher rates than anyone else on her team, although she asks for an extended contract term.

What do you think ? Is she foolish or ahead of the curve to invest 1.5% of the selling price with no guarantee of the home being sold ? Do you think this is likely a more effective tool for gaining clients than other more traditional ways ?

Do you do this ? Would you consider taking this approach.

MK

Follow me on twitter www.twitter.com/michelleking

I have friends in the St-Lazare area outside of Montreal. They put their house up on the market on Tuesday - the same day as the caravan.The feedback from the agent is that everyone found the house priced appropriately. There have been 4 visits to the home in the last 3 days.

Today there is an offer on the house. Most people would get excited about the turnaround time. I know as a home stager I would be.

I don't know how good the offer is yet but the homeowners already feel the home was priced too low.

I tried to explain that isn't necessarily the case. That sometimes we just get lucky and the right person is there are the right time.

What are your thoughts on this and how do you handle a similar clients reaction ?

Follow me on twitter www.twitter.com/michelleking

Visit my new blog on home staging www.home-stagingmontreal.com and please leave comments. it is new and I can really use your feedback.

Phew, so we have finished another challenging project. Louise Garai had the most difficult parts to handle and for that I don't envy her. I got to go in on staging day, and avoid all the renovations etc.. I love staging day. I love the immediate results.

So what does this have to do with Social Media, Twitter and other Web 2.0 tools ? The question of immediacy.

I find I am spending more and more time on internet communication tools trying to drum up business and I wonder how many of you are too ? Do you have blogs apart from Active Rain ? Do you spend much time on it ? Does it get you more business ? Or do you have a regular website that you post project photos to ?

Are you spending time on Twitter building networks of contacts ?

I am curious as to how much of a benefit these tools will be for real-estate and staging.

I have someone in my network who is using Twitter to post his listings. He provides links to his property listings and asks people to RT (retweet) the info. Is anyone else doing that ?

Please let me know. I love the tools and find it easy to stay online as a way to get more business but I wonder how productive it likely will be.

MK

Follow me on twitter www.twitter.com/michelleking

Visit my new blog on home staging www.home-stagingmontreal.com and please leave comments. it is new and I can really use your feedback.