Make Money as a Home Stager
Debra Gould
October 16, 2010
1. Consider all the time you don´t get paid for. If you think $75 or even $200 per hour is too much to charge a client for home staging, remember the many hours you put into your business that no one pays for. As a home stager, you spend time on many other non-paying tasks, like researching decorating and design trends, understanding the local real estate market, writing home staging blog posts and newsletters, networking with real estate agents, negotiating with suppliers, preparing for client appointments, answering potential clients´ questions in advance, scheduling and re-scheduling appointments, travel time to and from meetings and so on and so forth.
2. Consider the many benefits you bring to your home staging clients. Do you believe you provide real value to your clients? If you don´t believe this, it will be very difficult to convince them. It might help to think about the many benefits you can bring to a client if you do the job well. Don´t fall into the trap of feeling embarrassed about your rates. Done well, a home staging project should generate anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 profit for the homeowner.
So, why shouldn´t a professional home stager be paid well?
One of my home staging clients sold his house for $71,000 over the asking price.
The client invested about $950 in my advice during a home staging consultation.
Someone could easily say, "wow, $950 just for advice, that´s a lot of money!"
But if you asked them, "what if you could invest $950 and make $71,000?" few people would consider that too expensive.
Perhaps you´re thinking, "it´s a slow real estate market, my clients aren´t going to make that kind of profit on my services."
There are thousands of "proof home staging works" examples of homes that have languished on the slow real estate market for months (or years) until they were decorated to sell. If home staging can save a client from the costs of carrying a house they don´t want, not to mention saving them from the emotional costs of having their lives on hold waiting to sell, how much is that worth?
Home Staging is an investment in a potentially significant return for the client. Consider this when determining your rates.
3. Remember that when you´re in a service business you are selling your time. You have a limited "inventory" of your time. Since you can´t manufacture more hours in a week, the only way to earn more is to charge more for your time. You will never make real money as a home stager until you get your pricing strategy right!
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