Real Estate Staging / Home Staging Blog

Well in less than one hour the first Stage It Forward Roundtable Discussion will be taking place in Scottsdale.

Many of you emailed asking that I send you the questions we gathered from stagers all over North America... so here they are. 

I thought that posting the questions we will be discussing will give those of you interested in participating a chance to be heard too.

I really gotta run but I wanted to get this posted.... we will be sharing more later.

Me

PS: I know many of you would like a Round Table in your area... we are working on that too.

AFTER EVENT POST SCRIPT: All I am going to say is... "FANTASTIC" When Calie and I walked out we knew that everyone there left with much more than they expected. Calie will share more in her blog later today... as for me. I am going to go hang out poolside afterall THIS was to be a bit of a vacation too.

But I gotta say... I am thrilled!

Me

So here are the "10 QUESTIONS" we are discussing today... actually because I recieved more then 10 good questions, I catigorized the questions to help faciitate the dialogue.

CAREER LONGEVITY

With more and more real estate agents taking formal staging training and large-scale furniture rental companies jumping on the vacant staging bandwagon, do you think our small-scale staging businesses could be rendered obsolete within the next few years...if so, what measures should we take to prevent this? Judy Kincaid, Destined To Sell Home Staging Services - Tampa FL

Is home staging a viable career choice?  And by that I mean - can you make enough money to support your family, pay the mortgage and earn a living without any supplemental income? Maureen Henry, Rockland Home Staging - Rockland County NY

As the popularity of staging grows, more and more classes are created targeting the Realtors themselves.  Has this trend had a negative or positive affect on your business?  If you are 'accredited/certified' have you shared this impact with your training company? Kimberly Wester, Details Staging and Redesign - Northwest IN

QUALITY/STANDARDS

How can the consumer be educated on how to find a quality staging company who understands that the staging design is in alignment with the price point of the home, the market, and meets the expectations of its buyers? Linda Barnett, Home Matters - Indianapolis, IN

If and/or when training courses are challenged to be regulated, will the staging industry and the merchandisers marketing that service gain the recognition and respect necessary to grow to be common practice? Karen Dembsky, Peach Tree Homes Staging - Atlanta, GA

How would/will standardizing on industry terminology, such as Simple Staging, Standard Staging and Select Staging impact marketing effectiveness and product quality? Kate Hart, Hart & Associates Staging and Design - Radnor, PA

NATIONAL AWARENESS / REPRESENTATION

Is it feasible to have a national (international) organization for the industry which will be able to accept members from all training schools and not be a reaction to or in league with any particular training school?

Keeping in mind that a written test will not be complete in determining individual home staging skills and abilities, can a system of testing be developed which can be used to determine acceptability of those individuals wishing to be a part of a national group? (Autonomy with minimum basic standards.) Yvonne Root, Rooms b.y. Root - Prescott, AZ

What (one thing or more do you see, think) needs to happen (or What do Stagers need to do) in order to take Home Staging from the "hit or miss" category in the minds of the RE community to bringing it to being accepted as an industry standard for all residential RE transactions? Karen Otto, Home Star Staging - Plano, TX

With the emergence of communities such as Active Rain & the widespread variety of staging courses how does it affect the industry as a whole when current industry leaders refuse to acknowledge the validity of good stagers not affiliated with their organization?  And how do we create national ethical & work specific standards without the support & recognition of this same group? Melissa C. Marro, First Impressions Home Staging & Interior ReDesign - Charleston, SC

CURRENT MARKET CONDITIONS

How will the current volatile and dropping real estate market effect the staging industry? If the market continues to drop, will more or less people want to have their homes staged? Is there a price point in home sales below which staging will no longer be an option for home sellers and REAs? Michelle Minch, Moving Mountains Design & Staging - Pasadena, CA

What might be the long and short term effects that poor staging jobs will have on an already sluggish real estate market and the staging industry just trying to get off the ground as an accepted practice.  Or is it possible that even poor staging jobs have good results? Joelle Greene, Joelle & Co. Designs - White Rock/South Surrey, BC

PRACTICES

What are your least favorite aspects of being a Professional Home Stager?  How do you overcome them? Also, what are your favorites? Beth Patnode, Stylish Transformations - Twin Cities, MN

When a staging company cannot keep up with the demand for their services, is it ethical to subcontract the work to another company? If not what is the best way to establish a profitable referral program? Jackson West, Reveal Estate Home Staging - Vancouver, BC

Given the same budget, would you rather do several vignettes in a few rooms, or 'full blown' staging in one room?" Jessica Hughes, Ambiance Staging - Bolder, CO

MARKETING

What are some of the most successful marketing tools used by home stager's?  What marketing tools have you used to successfully keep and partner with REA's for repeat business? Janice Sutton, 1st Stage Property Transformations - Riverside & San Diego County, CA

I would like to explore overcoming the objections, usually posed by a realtor, to reduce a price on a house as opposed to using Staging as a marketing tool? Tracie Martin, AZ Home Staging Solutions - Phoenix, AZ

How can we put together some real stats about the difference home staging makes?  Not stats that are hand chosen based upon the best success stories, but complete and actual overall stats between comparable staged and non-staged homes. Nickie Rothwell, Get Staged 2 Sell - Feng Shui for Life - Los Angles CA

How can a simple phone call to set up a friendly meeting turn into an industry "summit"? Easy... just have one ActiveRain member talk to another.

Since I have been a member of ActiveRain, I have met amazing people in the real estate industry that I would not normally have met.

So next week, when I was to be in Phoenix area for business, I thought it would be nice to casually meet with an ActiveRain stager or 2 that I "know" from here... but I have never meet in person.

I happened to first called Calie Waterhouse to see if she was available, and then the next thing I know we were planning a Stager's Round Table Discussion session.

With the state of the real estate market and with home staging on the grow we figured the more people the better the discussion.... we turned a meeting of few into a meeting for many. So you intrested in home staging you are invited to join us for a breakfast meeting this coming Monday at 9:30 AM in Scottsdale.

While this meeting will be a bit social, we do plan on getting down to business. We will have a 10 Question round table discussion that you are welcome to take part in.  We will be talking about best practices, industry challenges, marketing tips and more.

Intrested in attending? Just RSVP below in a comment. We will then get back to you with the exact location and the itinary.

Stage It Forward in Arizona...

Craig & Calie

Stagers Round Table with Craig Schiller
Monday, 10/22 at 9:30am

LePeep Restaurant
Address: 8390 E. Via De Ventura
Major Cross Streets: Via De Ventura & Hayden
Shopping Center: The Village at Hayden
Phone: 480-948-1059

One of my favorite blogs to visit outside of Active Rain is Athol Kay's ReAgent In Connecticut. I see a section on his blog as it having a parallel relevance to the practice of home staging... which I will explain in a moment.

Anyway, I like to visit Athol's site because his readers are always sending him horrible MLS photos... which he then features in his Bad MLS of the Daysection. Knowing the importance good photography plays in selling a home,  I think Athol is on a one-man-mission to clean up MLS listing photos by showing people what is bad.

Now I gotta admit while every time I go to his site for a chuckle I also cringe. Often when I look at those photos they remind me of all the examples of Bad Staging in photos I have seen people post on the web and EVEN publish in books... unfortunately when it comes to bad staging rarely do I chuckle.

So for awhile now I've dropped a few hints here and there saying that I wished I could post the Bad Staging examples like Athol does with MLS Photos... and people began to send me actual pictures or emails telling me to check out this site or check out that site for some good Bad Staging. Which was all quite entertaining. But really what good is that? Now that I had these pictures and links what should/could I do with them?  After all, if fashion magazines can publish pictures of people wearing "Dont's," could I do the same for Bad Staging? Then I wondered, "Should I?" for just posting pictures and labeling them "Bad"seemed.... well it seemed snotty.

So finally... like daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, I go that idea that posting the picture with an explanation as to WHY the staging was poorly executed would at least take what might be perceived as "meanness" out. I remembered that in design school sometimes the best way we were taught what does work was by examining what doesn't.

So now I posted my first Bad Staging critique on my other pretty (outside Active Rain) blog: Home Staging, Rants & Ravings. Each week I will be putting up an example of Bad Staging with an explaination why in my Bad Staging series. Of course you all are welcome to post your own thoughts and opinions and critique my critique in a comment. Hopefully by pointing out what is done wrong we well see more done right.

Stage It Forward...

Me

PS: If you have an exmple of a Bad Staging that you would like featured... you can send them to me. I will not to reveal my sources.

Until recently, it was always true that what a homebuyer saw when they first drove up a property could either make or break its sale. For if the home was appealing, from the gutter, it was said to have "Curb Appeal". Which was a good thing.

But times have quickly changed, and while "Curb Appeal" still matters... today it matters in a different place and way.

Below is a 30 second "Curb Appeal Quiz Show" I created to show just where Curb Appeal ACTUALLY now begins... the final conclusion might challenge your way of thinking. (In fact I hope it does.)

CURB APPEAL QUIZ SHOW 30 Seconds Long

(If you can not see the show above... Click Here.)

Realtors, you and your sellers need to know that with the vast amount of inventory in the market today, home buyers are now first prescreening homes online to help them decide just what they want you to set up to tour in person.

Since online prescreening/pre-shopping is now so prevelent, it is my opinion that with today's easy to use digital technology, Realtors have the obligation to capture and present the absolute best images and comprehensive visual experience of a property for buyers to shop and consider. Doing anything less is NOT doing one of the basics of your job.

SOME home stagers have the "eye" to help you prepare a home's look and then decide how to best visually capture the home for online presentation. (NOTE: Not all stagers can visually size up a room and then capture it... that is why I say some "SOME".) So If your listing is languising in the market you might want to work with an expirienced home stager who can not only help you re-examine but also update your listing's "Web Appeal"... because if you don't, your seller's home's sale could remain in the gutter.

Stage It Forward...
Me

Blogging was QUITE a popular topic yesterday at Emagine 2007 Expo... and educational event Coldwell Banker held for its agents in Chicago.

I'm happy to report back that the day FLEW BY as ActiveRain's Caleb Mardini and I answered questions about blogging in the "Blooger's Lounge" set up at the Expo. I gotta admit it was very clever and forward thinking of Coldwell Banker to devote an area to where its agents could come and inquire about blogging. The Blogger's Lounge was very, very popular. (See Photo - Left) In fact, at one point I actually thought I was going to loose my voice as we answered over and over again the same 3 questions about blogging, which were:  "What is it?" "How is it done?" and "Why do it?"

I believe that there are no such things as coincidences... when the time is right the right things will come.  And the right thing came for us. A simple and definitive example to the power of blogging came early in the morning that would be the perfect answer the "What, How -N- Why" questions we would be hit with all day long.

Early in the morning 2 agents came up to us to inquire about blogging. As one of the agents was talking, she looked at me and said... "Hey, I know you. I was on your blog this morning!" When I asked WHY she was on it, she said that she had lost her info sheet for the day's upcoming Expo. In hope of finding the address and times for the event she decided do a goggle search on the term "Emagine Expo." Where did that search taker her? RIGHT to my, my September 28th blog post "EMAGINE... Education is Part of the Silver Lining in a Slow Market " posted here on ActiveRain. My blog and that post was #3 in google search results and considering that yesterday there 143,000 possible results (Caleb and I checked) on Google for that search phrase... THAT is amazing placement! When we pointed out this to her and the many other What,Why-N-Hower's throughout the day, we could literally see people "getting" the powerful impact blogging has.

From the Blogger's Lounge experience to participating as a guest expert in 2 great panel discussions (on blogging & home staging) I have to say I really enjoyed being part of such well planned out and executed day. Anne Marie Schafer, Director of Professional Development & Education for Coldwell Banker and her team put to geather a top notch educational event. The venue was perfect, the exhibit area was great, the general assembly speaker was informative, the food was plentiful, the break-out sessions were varied and well attended. Considering the challenging market, the day could have gone quite differently,,, but the end of the day speaks volumes as to how successful the day was. for about 1,000 agents stayed on to celebrate and enjoy a wonderful cocktail party.

So thank you Coldwell Banker, for the opportunity to share my wisdom and insights on my 2 marketing passions... blogging and home staging. I was honored to be asked and proud to be part of this QUALITY educational event.

Blog On and Stage It Forward...

Me

PS: Click here to read a "staged blog." This quirky explaination shows just how these 2 marketing tools are more similar then you might first think.