The current state of the economy and real estate market is full of opportunity for home stagers who think creatively about how they can grow their home staging business.
What’s happening to house prices and the mortgage crisis aren’t just affecting homeowners, home sellers and real estate agents. Real estate investors and landlords are pretty nervous, especially if they’re relying on rental income to offset their mortgage costs.
Whether they have investments in multiple apartment buildings, vacation properties or a single bachelor apartment in their home’s basement, they can’t afford to have vacancies. As a professional home stager you have a lot to offer to enhance the appeal of their rental units.
A vacant room looks sad to anyone and this includes a prospective tenant, which means it will take longer to rent the space and that’s money right out of the landlord’s pocket.
I was once called to stage a basement apartment in someone’s home that normally brought in $1000 per month. It had been sitting vacant for four months with no interest before the owner called me. After the apartment was staged, the next three people who looked at it wanted to rent it! She went from having no interest in four months to having her choice of three tenants within a week of having it staged.
Consider this, she invested far less in staging than the $4,000 she lost in rental income having the space sit vacant.
Many home sellers have decided to take their properties off the market and rent them instead until real estate prices turn around. As an expert home stager you can show them how to help prospective tenants fall in love with the property so they can rent it faster than had they left it empty.
They will probably also attract a better type of tenant and be able to rent the place out for more. They may even want to rent it furnished so as a stager you can earn an ongoing passive income stream from all the rental items you put into the home or apartment.
Another area where home staging can make a huge difference is in the vacation rental market.
If you’re near a market where there are cottages or vacation homes, you can have a whole other target market for your home staging services. Vacation rentals are advertised online, so how their interior photos look is critical. Your home staging services can make all the difference in whether a site visitor clicks through to make a reservation or not.
The bottom line is home staging isn’t just for the usual home going on the real estate market scenario. As an entrepreneur you should be thinking creatively about how to increase your business with new target markets. This topic is discussed in detail in course 4 of the Staging Diva Training Program called “Staging Diva Sales & Marketing Secrets to Grow Your Home Staging Business.”
