Home stagers quite often get frustrated in their efforts to promote home staging to real estate agents, and are left with the feeling that agents just don’t “get it” and, worse, don’t even want to get it.
Many new and aspiring home stagers even allow themselves to be talked out of starting a home staging business in the first place by the misguided and misinformed advice of an often well meaning real estate agent.
It helps to remember that all these agents and brokers are sales people working on 100% commission in a market where it now takes far longer to sell a property than it used to. Here are 5 key selling points you will want to communicate to real estate agents to help them realize “what’s in it for them” when working with you:
1. When dealing with listing clients, Home staging is something you can recommend to them as a faster way to sell their home, but it’s not a service you personally have to be responsible to pay for.
2. As a home stager, I will tell your clients the changes and improvements you don’t want to mention for fear of offending them and losing your listing. Plus, as an unbiased independent third party, I save you from having to get in between spouses who have different opinions about how to best show their home for a speedy sale.
3. With 70% of US home buyers searching online (that number is 90% in Canada) before ever calling a real estate agent, you will attract a lot more leads with better looking photos, not only for the staged listing but from active buyers who will want you to show them other properties as well. Attractive listing photos do a lot to increase your own agency’s status and credibility.