We met with the owner of the Tallahassee apartment complex where my wife staged a model home (see pictures) last week, and he was absolutely thrilled with the work. He also spent some time at The Poor House taking a look at the staging we do for our own flips…
After seeing all the work we do, he asked if we’d stage one of his flips in a relatively upscale Atlanta neighborhood (Buckhead)! So, my wife now has her second official staging project…
She is planning to stage this flip with the agreement that the investor will pay a small fee upfront (to cover our costs for furniture delivery), and then pay a percentage of the selling price if/when the house sells. This would allow him to have his house staged with little risk (other than the upfront fee, he only pays if the house sells), and also allows him to defer the cost until after he makes a profit on his flip. And my wife benefits by earning a profit based on selling price, as opposed to a flat fee or monthly fee. This means that the better the staging does to attract buyers, the more my wife will earn from the project.
In fact, we’ve decided to pursue this pricing model with all my wife’s clients, and I have a feeling many home sellers will prefer this compensation method to the traditional upfront plus monthly costs. This may also allow her to start stealing customers from the bigger staging companies in this area, as well as attract home sellers that otherwise wouldn’t consider staging. Certainly, there is a risk on our side (that the house doesn’t sell and we don’t get paid), but we’re willing to take it and see how it works out on the first few projects.
Anyway, the Buckhead project is scheduled for this upcoming week, and my wife expects to have it ready to be put on the market by next weekend…
Nice work to both of you. Can you give me an idea as to an average cost for staging? Say for a 3/2 around 2000 sq ft. Any tips on doing a “budget stage” would be greatly appreciated.
Hey Chris –
If you want to do it yourself and are a good bargain shopper, you can generally stage a house like that (all furniture, accessories, props, window treatments, etc) for between $4-8K, depending on how high-end you want to go with the finishings. We can furnish one of our houses for about $4K, and my wife will probably spend closer to $6-7K to furnish her professional client’s houses.
As for paying for staging, you’ll find that the costs can run the gamut, generally with an upfront fee, monthly charges, etc. So, the longer you take to sell the house, the more you pay. This is one of the reasons why my wife loves the percentage-of-sale-price model where she just charges based on how much the house sells for. Her fee will generally fall between 1.5 – 2.0% of the sales price of the house.
Gotta love it. Kick some tail you 2.