Avoid the DEADLY Staging Mistake Made on HGTV’s “Buy Me”

I’ve been watching the HGTV program, “Buy Me” which is a show about the drama that Real Estate Agents and Sellers go through as they sell a home. It’s actually pretty comical for me.

Just like sports enthusiasts who yell at the television screen about how the players should be playing, I’m making comments about what the sellers should be doing, what the real estate agents should be doing, and what the Stagers should be doing.

I know, it’s absolutely ridiculous and it’s obviously easier to be objective and hardnosed from your couch than it is when you’re in front of your customers. However, there was one HUGE error in judgment that occurred on one of the episodes that I wanted to address.

On this particular episode, the sellers were told by their Agent that they needed to Stage their house and she talked with them about de-cluttering, packing and changing the use of their sunroom, but she really glossed over the details.

The Agent did not include the Sellers in the conversation with the Stagers about what really needed to be done and why. She also did not find out what they would need while they lived in the home during the selling process.

Long story short, the sellers left for a week long vacation during which time the Real Estate Agent and the Stagers took care of packing, redesigning and Staging their home. When the Sellers returned to their “Staged” home, they were extremely unhappy about not being able to find things and the overall inconvenience of the Staging.

Because they were never educated they actually viewed it as a nuisance rather than seeing the value it added to the marketability of their property. The big lesson here is NEVER Stage a House without participation by the occupants!!!

First of all, this applies to both vacant and owner occupied properties, but more so for the latter for obvious reasons. This is important for vacant properties if the sellers are going to be visiting the home frequently and overseeing its maintenance.

It is absolutely imperative with owner occupied properties because making the house showcase ready for the big debut is important, but it’s even more important that it stays in that condition during the duration of the time the house is on the market.

Consider these rules of thumb regardless of who hired you or who’s paying for the staging services:

1) Keep all parties in the loop.

Parties include the Real Estate Agent AND the owners/sellers/occupants (hopefully these are all the same people). I always recommend providing ALL parties with a copy of the written consultation so everyone is on the same page about what needs to be done.

Everyone should know what needs to be done, the timeframe for completing the tasks and who is responsible for doing the work, i.e. is it the owners/sellers sole responsibility or will there be a need to hire outside sources to help move the projects along.

2) Sellers/Occupants need to be educated about what the Staging process is and what it entails.

3) Sellers/Occupants need to be educated about how to live in a staged home.

Sometimes this could be dramatically different from their regular lifestyle and they have to be made aware of that.

Even if you have to discuss the smallest details like keeping the toothpaste in the medicine cabinet vs. on the sink counter or vacuuming up hair in the bathroom every morning before they leave the house, to making the bed EVERY DAY, that is your role and responsibility as a Stager to get the message across to the client.

DON’T put yourself in the position where your clients view your service as a nuisance rather than a value add. It is really a collaborative effort between the Real Estate Agent, the Stager and the Homeowners/Sellers.

Keeping a clear, definite line of communication open is the key to a successful relationship during all the “drama”.

Creative Ideas for Marketing Promotions Guaranteed to Get You Noticed

In your frenzy to get prospects to notice you, remember you and ultimately hire you, what are you doing to capture their attention? As you heard me say before, you are not in the business of Home Staging, rather you are in the business of marketing your Home Staging services. So what is it that you are doing to creatively market yourself?
Remember, it is important that you are in front of your prospects all the time. They must automatically think of you when they have Home Staging needs. It is not enough to network and market only on an as needed basis. By then, you're desperate and desperation is not client attractive.

My recommendation is to get a year-at-a-glance calendar and map out your marketing schedule on a monthly, then yearly basis. For instance, if you know that your local realtor association meetings are on a Thursday, block out your calendar so that you know you will be attending those meetings every Thursday. At all the realtor association meetings I've ever attended, they have allowed vendors to display fliers, stand up to introduce themselves, as well as sponsor tables or become affiliates. If your budget does not allow for sponsoring yet, bring fliers or brochures. Since you know this is something you'll be doing weekly, I would put a little more effort into it and run monthly specials and create a marketing promotion on a regular basis, tied to the time of year. For instance, January is a great time for New Years and Chinese New Year is at the end of this month.

Almost every month there is some holiday or seasonal theme you can tie your marketing to. You're all creative types so take a minute to write down a few ideas that come to mind and start working on implementing them right away.

I've outlined a list of 7 fun promotional marketing ideas that you could customize for your own business that's guaranteed to get the attention of your prospects.

This is one of my favorites and I've used it in my Staging business as well as in other applications. It's also very timely since Chinese New Year is on January 26 this year- 1) Fortune Cookies with customized fortunes such as "It is our good fortune to have you as our client" or "Good Fortune come to those who Stage". You can even make them more irresistible by getting chocolate dipped fortune cookies. I would highly recommend getting individually wrapped cookies. Fill a plastic or paper Chinese take out box with the cookies and customize the outside of the box with your company information. I guarantee you will get rave reviews with this!!!

2) Mini Trash Can with "You'd Be NUTS to Trash This Opportunity" printed on it. Put a few peanuts in the trash can (the kind with the shells work well) along with a marketing flier crumpled up inside. Even if you didn't get the printing on the trash can, you can use the headline on the marketing flier itself. Other headlines could be "Don't trash your equity by not Staging" or "Don't risk throwing your commissions away in the trash!"

3) Shredded Money in a plastic bag - "Without my Staging help, your commissions could end up like this" - think this one will get their attention?

4) Stress Toys - stress toys are great because they come in all shapes and themes and you can really play with the marketing line depending on what you use. Examples: "Staging Reduces Stress" or "Listings Stressing You Out? Call Your Stager for Relief" (use the phone shape stress toy) or "Your Listings Making you Crabby? (use the crab shape stress toy).

5) Key - "Unlock the Profits in your Listing with Staging" or "Home Staging Unlocks Profits in Your Listings" (you can use different types of keys or even a key shaped stress toy)

For several years, I sponsored the Holiday Party for my local Realtor Association. If my memory serves me right, they had a wine themed dinner one year so I created a card that read - "Staging works like a Charm" and hung a wine charm on each one and they were placed on every plate. Another year, they had dinner on a yacht so I bought little plastic toy boats and had labels made that read "Cruise into Escrow with a Quick & Profitable Sale - Use Home Staging". I believe I also filled the little boats with individually wrapped lifesavers candies. Again, these were placed on each plate.

The goal is to consistently get your message out there, so that your prospects get to know you, like you, trust you, and inevitably want to work with you. Doing just one thing won't be the end all of your marketing efforts, but it's one piece of the pie that can help launch your pursuit to becoming a client magnet. Plus, it's a lot of fun - and it works!!!