Increasing Your Selling Potential Part 2: the Enigma of Home Staging

Jesse in Lifestyle

In my last post, I provided an overview of options designed to aid Home Sellers when they decide to sell and list their home. I compared hiring professional photographers and home stagers against a more do-it-yourself approach. I had dubbed the combination of photography and home staging as ‘House Porn,’ a title that, sadly, I cannot take credit for as it was previously featured in the Globe and Mail.  My own analysis encouraged Home Sellers to carefully weigh the necessity of incurring the expense of hiring stagers or other professionals in considering their own situation.

I received a great, but not necessarily positive, response from home stagers across North America. One in particular, Vice President of the Real Estate Staging Association, Sheron Cardin, suggested that I utilize the real estate website Active Rain to provide better advice to MoveSmartly readers instead of the “false impression” that I was apparently contriving. After stumbling upon a colourfully-worded and very active blog dedicated to my last post, I decided to go one step further and contact home stagers myself to seek out answers to my questions about the Home Staging industry.  On what basis could professionals in an unregulated industry such as staging confidently claim their services to be a 'must-have' for each and every Home Seller?  Was I missing something?

I initiated contact with stagers and real estate agents across North America to get better insight on the staging industry. From Vancouver to Fredericton, Minnesota to Arizona, I sought out stagers via the Active Rain network. I failed to make contact - perhaps the professionals that regularly visit the site had already formulated an opinion of me?

I did come across the website of a Kingston-based home stager who seemed to have some views to share: “Home staging is a completely unregulated field with no official credentials. Beware of anyone who claims to have official "certification" or "accreditation."  This peaked my interest. Why would this stager post these words when so many of her counterparts lobbed a list of accreditations in response to my  equally frank observations about the industry? I found this upfront approach refreshing. As I was unable to reach her for comment and was getting a poor response from others I had contacted, I decided to turn my attention to one of the most popular social forums available for the expression of views - I turned to Facebook.

“A Piece of a Piece: Accredited Home Staging is NOT Decorating” was the title of one of the more active pages available. On it, a London (ON)-based stager had been presented with an interesting question from a starry-eyed staging hopeful about credentials, a question very similar to one I had myself: “there is legally and technically no accreditation for staging yet...and I find the ones claiming it are so high priced it just doesn't seem feasible.” The response was telling: “I have seen 'staging courses' online, and most of them, like in many areas of business/advertising, make claims against the competition to try to make themselves look better, or discredit the others. Unfortunately, this makes it hard for the public, and potential stagers to know what is true and what is not. It is true that Home Staging is an unregulated industry at this point."   

All of this leaves me, as a consumer, unable to make sense of the industry.  There are numerous online, one-day and three-day courses intended to teach the tricks of the staging trade - some of which offer licensing, certifications and accreditations, and others that do not.  As a potential Home Seller, how do I ensure that I interact with the right professional?  Are training courses where, upon graduation, new home stagers gain a myriad of acronyms considered the Ivy League of home staging?  This being said, are the smaller training courses that offer nothing but education in the field inferior? The industry does not currently demand any standard of training; therefore, the amount of official recognition one displays seems inconsequential since the industry clearly lacks uniformity in this regard.  The bottom line is that pricey accreditation is available but unnecessary.

There is no disputing that home staging works when effectively done - but this may be done by a Home Seller, real estate agent or hired professional home stager.  The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation offers a detailed checklist to Home Sellers who choose the do-it-yourself route.  John Linders, a Halifax NS real estate agent gives a similar to-do list in "Planning on Selling Your Home? A Little Sprucing Goes a Long Way," an article featured in Reader's Digest Canada.  When you consider whether you should engage a professional home stager, I stand by my previous post in saying that Home Sellers should shop around and consider their options before their spending money to make more money.  Look for an updated portfolio, testimonials and ask every professional you meet the hard questions - what will you do, how will you do it and what financial results can I expect to achieve?  And don't forget the most important question of all - will you put that guarantee in writing?

Happy Home Selling!

Jesse is a Toronto freelance writer. Email Jesse

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Comments

[Kate Hart]

Hi Jesse,

You are on to something about the lack of standards.I more took offense to the porn reference but now that I know it was not you who created it I will attack the souce (just kidding)

Please see my post today on training companies and their responsibility to not just churn out stagers. http://activerain.com/blogsview/264917/Let-s-Start-Pointing

I myself do not advertise my credentials since sadly there are no standard credentials for our industry. I term those that do not use their credentials "naked stagers" (oops there goes the porn reference again). I believe that my statistics, testimonials and portfolio speak for themselves and this is what consumers should use to select a stager.

I wish you had contacted me for this article because I would have made you aware that professional home stagers share the same concerns as you.

To address these concerns, we have formed a community on Active Rain's website called Stage it Forward. Monday was our one year anniversary and we announced some exciting new changes to the staging industry. As a group we are going to meet at the local level to discuss the issues facing our profession and how we can best service our clients and create standards for the industry. We also announced an industry wide statistics collection tool so we can show home sellers and Realtors that staging really does work. I invite you to visit our new blogazine http://www.sifblog.com Here we will announce weekly industry news and discuss the very same issues you write about.

Since you are an expert in assisting people with their moving needs I would like to personally invite you to be a profiled professional in our Blogazine. I will be interviewing industry experts weekly so our readers can learn more about services available. I know move management is a popular subject. Please contact me via email and we can set up a time to chat.

[Craig Schillerr]

Hi Jesse

How refreshing and THANKS for sharing what you have. I am a stager and have been RANTING about what you speak of for over a year now.

You will find that my blog is RICH in posts (that go way back into 2006) that speak to that which you are writing of. Here is the link to Home Staging Ranting & Ravings. (www.realestaging.blogspot.com/It happens to be the #1 blog in the country on home staging and the home staging industry… and its pimples.

I am also the founding member of Stage It Forward… (www.stageitforward.com) a grass roots group of stagers from a variety of backgrounds, that is working on establishing true Professionalism in this industry. NOT “professionalism” that is doled out on the last day of a 3 day wonder workshop, or worse yet 2 hour seminar, or worse yet $199 course on a CD compelet with certificate stating the buyer of the CD is a "CERTIFIED" professional stager.

I am fighting back because I know staging CAN and HAS helped people sell their homes.

So I am rallying the troops to get this industry in shape. Check out the freshly launched www.stageitforwardblog.com it is a blog for the entire Home Staging Industry. Stage IT Forward is going to begin to gather REAL data about staging from across North America (USA & CANADA) to give TRUE picture of what we can do. I know, like so many other stagers, in my gut what staging can do… but THAT is no longer good enough.

The staging industry is an IMAGE INDUSTRY… becareful to those who you look to as leaders in this loose industry. A reasonably good way (not perfect) to weed out the RIFF RAFF is to look at the WEBSITES of those who claim leadership. If you don’t get a good first impression, I would be leery. Remember FIRST IMPRESSIONS are the foundation of what we do. In fact this is a great litmus test for evaluating a home stager’s ability.

Finally with all that Stage It Forward (SIF) is doing, if can find the time, I hope to write a post on my personal blog pointing too your words… for I am in aligned with MUCH of what you say.

Sincerely,

Craig Schiller
Real Estaging
Chicago

[Sheron Cardin]

Hello again Jesse,

See what I mean about Active Rain and RESA? I am so glad you upped your game and reached out to some professional stagers. I am a little surprised that you could not reach anyone in Active Rain...but it appears that we are definately reaching YOU.

It escapes me why the business of real estate is the last retailer to dress their windows...hmmm!

Well we are here now to help.

Warm Regards,
Sheron Cardin
www.how2homestage.com
www.realestatestagingassociation.com

[Yvonne Root]

Jessie, Journalists are also unregulated. Hummm, I suppose that means that the general public should write their own news stories, books, magazine articles and blog posts. Just a thought.

Three of the leaders in the home staging industry have posted above me. You have gotten to the top of the heap, so to speak. Will you be contacting one or all of them?

Yvonne

[Dane Caldwell]

Jesse, this realosophy site is great! After reading and responding to your previous blog (which stirred a few feathers) I looked around the site. It is nice to see a Toronto site getting so much exposure!

I'm surprised to hear that you tried contacting a number of stagers on ActiveRain and didn't get any response. I'm on there (a Featured Toronto and York Region) and easy to contact for a local take on the industry of home staging as well as the trials and tribulations. Oh, we can't forget the different associations jumping on the bandwagon to partake of the cash-cow home staging is to those who want a business with little $ invested and even little skill (hense the idea many have that anyone can stage).

[Dane Caldwell]

I forgot to mention...not every house needs to be staged. There are always houses out there which sell themselves.

As a Professional, I'd be happy to tell someone they don't need my help.

Unfortunately these houses are not the norm. When I was looking to purchase my current house it took me 8 months of looking to find one that was in decent condition in my price range and which didn't require me to do a ton of work to make it presentable.

Dane Caldwell
Lead Consultant
2 Hounds Design + Home Staging
www.2-hounds.com

[Kathleen Lordbock]

Jesse - You didn't try me and I am listed as the top MN stager on AR and in the top 5 nation wide. Who did you attempt to contact anyway?
Just because you follow a checklist of things to do when staging does not mean you now understanding highlighting architectural details, colors, who potential buyers are and what they will be looking for, traffic flow, or the many other "staging" details that professional & experienced stagers deal with.
I carry a complete inventory of furniture and accessories, do 2 week checks on vacants, will host a brokers open house, and know what I am doing.
No, all stagers are not the same. PS - I am also a writer.........

[Charlene Storozuk]

Hi Jesse,
I'm really glad that you decided to contact home stagers to get more insight into our industry. I am disappointed though to hear that you have not received any responses. I haven't heard from you as yet, but my previous offer still stands to discuss home staging with you at a mutually convenient time.