Agents do you know how to sell home staging?

Telling your clients that you work with a home stager should make them jump for joy! but as a matter of fact some are quite scared and even may put up a fight to bring one in....why is that?
I mentioned earlier that home owners are very protective as well as sensitive about their homes. They frequently confuse a home stager with an interior decorator, WE ARE NOT (we may have credentials as a decorator but that is a bonus, decorating has NOTHING to do with staging)
Since sellers confuse staging with decorating they worry that the stager will be critical of their belongings.

As a professional home stager we will NEVER criticize someones decor no matter what it is like. The whole home could be decked out in Christmas decorations all year round because it's their favorite time of year, well that is great all the power to them! but when it comes to selling a home it becomes a PRODUCT this is what we need to convey to every home owner, to make their home compete in the market it must become a house.

Now, what do you tell your clients about home staging?
well first of all you need to decide who, when, and why you will be providing this service to your clients. Hear are a few options:
- Some agents will choose to stage 100% of all of their listings no matter what the price, condition, location, or willingness of the owners are to participate.
- Stage only homes over a certain price range
- Stage only ugly homes
- Stage 90% of their listings
- Use "Basic package" for homes $XXX and the "Enhanced package" for home over $XXX
- Stage only if the owners request it
ETC their are a million possibilities to how and why you should choose to stage a home. The choice is ultimately up to you but this is how you can sell home staging so it works for you, your clients to the maximum potential.

I suggest you incorporate home staging to 100% of your listings, first of all what do you have to lose? You will make more money by selling faster for top dollar, you will make your clients more money by selling for top dollar and they will love you for ever for that, you will show your clients that you are a modern day real estate professional who keeps up with the changing times by providing them with top notch services.

So lets assume you choose to use home staging on 90-100% of your listings now what do you tell your clients? Tell them the truth!
Tell them that you are dedicated to getting them the best price for their home as well as doing it in a timely manor. Tell them that you use home staging on ALL of your listings no matter how they are decorated (this will ease your clients mind that you are not "singling" them out because of "poor decor"). Inform your clients that home staging has been proven to work and by using this in your marketing plan you are better than all other agents out their (Especially against the ones that don't use home staging or don't use it often)

We all know that times change and we need to adapt. We are in the era of social networking with twitter, blogging, facebook and more. Home Staging is like home inspections, when they first came out people did not see the point now it's necessary to have a home inspector with all home purchases, home staging is obtaining that necessity as well so why not start before EVERYONE else does it. You will have developed a great relationship with your home stager and be on their top list.

If you are a dedicated real estate professional obtain a home stager and use them frequently this will free up some time for you to do your job as a realtor and in turn not only providing top notch service to your clients but also rewarding them and yourself with an appropriate sale price in the end!

Help your clients hold on to their equity in their home once you explain this they will thank you for your effort and once it becomes a reality you will have their trust, support and recommendation to their friends and family written in stone! Home staging is an invaluable tool that you can easily use for your clients.

Happy Staging.