Over the past three years, Ontario Staging Diva Graduate Margaret Harlos has been solidifying her position as the expert home stager in her area with her business, Living Organized.
Margaret is a former Volunteer Manager and Program Coordinator for a non-profit organization.
She has been featured multiple times in the local media both in print and on local TV.
This savvy Barrie home stager quickly made a big splash in her local real estate market, and wasted no time becoming familiar with her neighborhood real estate agents.
When Margaret and her husband were looking for a larger home they swung by an open house that was listed by an agent familiar with her company, Living Organized.
After viewing the property’s photos and descriptions online, Margaret was expecting to view the perfect home but even from the driveway she knew that wasn’t going to be the case.
She tried to remain optimistic thinking she would be able to see past the bad curb appeal and would at least be able to negotiate a better price.
Once inside, it was proving difficult to see past the home’s flaws.
The agent, knowing Margaret was a home stager, told her the home sellers would be willing to paint and fix the house up a bit.
When Margaret asked why she hadn’t told her clients to do those things before scheduling any showings, the agent didn’t answer.
Ten days later, Margaret was called by another real estate agent she was tightly aligned with. He had a client willing to do anything Margaret asked to get her home sold.
Through her conversations with the home seller, Margaret learned the previous agent had just been fired after a failed 15 day trial.
This home seller was devastated to learn that while away on an extended business trip, her home had been shown in terrible condition.
The home seller told Margaret that she’d asked her Realtor PRIOR to listing if the house needed to be cleaned or painted. But despite asking the right questions, she was told her home was fine as it was!
At that point Margaret realized who she was speaking to the owner of the same home she had recently visited as a potential buyer. She didn’t have the heart to tell her new client that she was one of those potential buyers who had been turned off by her home.
Margaret was hired and the family went to work on all the tasks she suggested to improve the overall condition of the home.
After staging the home was listed again and sold for just under asking in less than one week.
About her home staging training, Margaret says:
“The reason I chose to train with Debra Gould is because she focuses on business training. I wanted the skills and information needed to help me build a sustainable home staging and organizing business. I learned a lot in the Staging Diva Program and I am well on my way.”
I am having the very same experiences with agents. A lot of them won’t even entertain the very thought of staging. There is a home at the bottom of my street that has been on the market since 2008! I approached the agent and was dismissed. So I’ve sent correspondence directly to the seller.
It never ceases to amaze me how clueless real estate agents are. I have actually had experiences where the homeowner wanted to stage their vacant homes but the real estate agents told them it wasn’t necessary. I recently reminded a real estate agent that a free home staging consultation she won from me was about to expire and, after looking at her 2 listings, I told her that both of them could benefit from a walk-through by a home staging expert and gave her a few comments on improving the space based on what I saw in the photos. She declined on both. On one of them her comment was “you must be looking at someone else’s listing – this doesn’t sound like mine”. On the other, she said she staged it herself.
I, too, am continually amazed by the ignorance of real estate agents regarding staging. Most of them I have contacted tell me “they do the staging themselves.” When I’ve asked how long they are in the person’s home, they say “maybe an hour.” And they clearly are not providing advice on re-arranging furniture, adding accessories, “fluffing” bedding, etc. — mostly they seem to tell them to clean and de-clutter. That’s it.
I am finding it easier to get homeowners as clients than to appeal to real estate agents to stage their listings — I have two clients now who got my name through my website or from the magnetic sign on my car.
Funny that this article should appear today. On Tuesday I was presenting at a local Real Estate office. One of the examples I used was a vacant home that had been listed for 4 months before the home owners called me in to stage. It then sold in a week to someone that had already seen the unit.
I used this example because the home seller had asked the agent about doing additional fix ups and staging. The agent told them to do a few minor things – no need to do more than that – no need to stage.
The group of agents I was speaking with would have loved it if their clients had asked about staging. Their biggest hurdle is getting sellers to embrace it.
The manager even encouraged all of them to offer a 2-hour consultation, and to either pay up front, or to reimburse at closing. He felt strongly that by selling faster they would easily make back my fee. I was thrilled and encouraged.
I had worked with a pair of agents from this office in the fall. But I did not know that the manager was such a strong proponent of home staging. The home I staged was on the market 3 months and sold 1 week after staging – through another agent in that same office. And all it took was a 3-hour agent paid consultation.
My goal in this workshop was to help these Realtors “sell” their clients on the need to showcase their homes – through education, analogies and examples. Also, to let home sellers know that staging is another one of their marketing tools used to sell homes quickly and for top dollar.
I encouraged them to spoon feed staging to their clients at every meeting. Similarly, I feel that agents will become more and more comfortable with the idea of staging the more we – as home stagers – educate them.
Most have been receiving my newsletter for over a year now and each month I include a short feature written specifically for them. I also include an article written for their sellers. My blog contains this content along with other educational tools.
I’m not surprised at Margaret’s experience with the agent, but wanted to offer these words of encouragement, that the tide may be shifting. Slowly, and in the right direction.