I was recently approached by someone wanting to talk about taking up a career in real estate AND home staging, and they asked me what I thought of the idea. Of course, they thought it was a great idea since the two skills sets seem to compliment each other well. They do, but not like you might think.
What you need to know, is that as a stager, I am often doing a Realtor’s dirty work. Realtors want to have a good relationship with their clients. They want client interactions to go smoothly and they want to be “liked” by the client. It is really difficult to foster and maintain a relationship like this if you have to offend your client by telling them what is wrong with their house. I am the person who Realtors bring in to deal with “the bad smell” or the “hideous decor” or the “poor housekeeping” or the “prized collection” that must be put away. I have often been able to get results that a Realtor could not, or perhaps did not even dare to ask for.
Being a professional stager, I know how to approach these topics tactfully, as not to offend the home owner. I explain that what we are doing is making the house appeal to as many potential buyers as possible, and there are some proven strategies to do just that. I tell them that I am acting as the most critical buyer that might come through their house and I help them to see what potential buyers will see in their home. I help them devise a plan to get their home into the best shape possible given the timeline, skill set and budget, and I make myself available to the clients to help with some or all of the staging. Of course the goal of all of this work is to sell the house as fast as possible for the most money possible.
Staging a home is a big commitment in time and energy and takes a very specific set of skills. While it is possible for a Realtor to have these skills, do you want your Realtor rearranging your furniture and hanging art, or do you want them to be marketing your property? I’d guess that you would want them to market your property and get it sold as soon as possible. I feel somewhat the same about Realtors who are also their own mortgage sales representative. Stick to the job you do best…..selling houses.
I think that to be a really successful Realtor, you should be a one-stop-shop for your clients, but that doesn’t mean you should do it all. It means that you should have a business relationship with a reputable stager, mortgage agent and handyman and be ready to refer to this support system whenever you need to.
If you’re a Hamilton, Burlington, Oakville or Mississauga Realtor looking to add staging as a value-added service to your clients, contact Katherine James of Set Sale and Go Home Staging.
