How to Find and Work with a Professional
Home showcasing, fueled by television reality shows, is rapidly becoming a real estate industry. Agents, interior decorators, home renovators, and anyone with a yen to decorate are hanging out their shingle. That means the professional quality runs the gamut from scammer to excellent.
So how do you find the best talent? The same way you find it shopping for an agent or contractor. Some sources are: Agents, title people, the Web, open houses, builders, and booths at home shows. Make sure you:
- Check out their track record of how many homes they’ve staged in the last three months. Get specifics: names, addresses, and references.
- Look at homes they’ve recently showcased. This is important. You want to be comfortable with the person’s style and taste.
- Work up a short list of three home showcasers who impress you as able to walk the walk as well as to talk the talk. Set up an appointment for them to see your home.
- Go over their program and cost options. Go with the one you feel most comfortable with and think can do the best job.
- Having an Accredited Staging Professional (ASP) or similar professional designation shows they’re serious about their industry.
Once you find a showcasing professional, treat this just like hiring a contractor: Have a contract that spells out exactly what you’re paying for. If it’s not in writing, it doesn’t exist. If you make changes, those should go on contract addendums, signed by both parties.
Most showcasers have a fee schedule of services. Typically, at the bottom will be a consultation fee of several hundred dollars for a walk through and working up a list of things to do. From there, fees range up to several thousand dollars for whole-house packaging. Additional fees can apply if you need rental furniture and/or props.
Some home stagers are heavy on the hype and tout claims of homes selling for inflated prices. Occasionally homes do sell for inflated prices, but there is a downside. In one case, a home was showcased and showed beautifully. The owners did get a fast offer, only to have the appraisal come in $10,000 lower than the sales price. Appraisers have to follow appraisal guidelines and no amount of packaging is going to alter age, square footage, and location. Undoubtedly, they are influenced by a sharp-looking home, but appraisal reality still applies.
Still, showcasing a home is important. It allows a home to attract offers in the top range of values rather the middle or lower levels. This becomes more important when the market is slowing down or there are a lot of homes in your price range. The bottom line is if you don’t have the time to prep your home, hiring a professional can be a money-making move.
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