Furniture rental for staging is a stressful topic for many home stagers struggling to make a profit.
Last week I started a discussion about why I don’t recommend home stagers carry their own inventory of furniture to rent to their clients.
I told a story of a Boston stager I know who got sucked in to multiple ‘don’t pay a cent events’ and ended up with truckloads of furniture she couldn’t pay for, and I want to help other stagers avoid making the same mistake.
Some home stagers believe they need to carry their own furniture inventory because they live in a small town where there isn’t a large furniture rental company.
For furniture rental for staging, think outside the box
If these stagers would think outside the box, they would see several alternative means of sourcing furniture without going out and buying it themselves just to rent to their clients.
In this retail environment, it’s not difficult to negotiate with furniture retailers savvy enough to recognize an opportunity to earn additional revenue from floor models.
Offer to rent some of their showroom furniture for staging projects.
Approach used furniture stores and antique shops as well. Home buyers don’t expect to see all brand new pieces in a home they’re viewing— in fact, some previously loved furniture will help to make the home look less “staged”.
There are many pros and cons to owning your own furniture inventory that are discussed in the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. My students learn how I’ve staged hundreds of homes (including vacant ones), without needing any of my own furniture inventory.
The first question a new home stager needs to consider is whether they are going into home staging to be in the furniture rental business.
Because make no mistake, the furniture rental business is it’s own business. It is not merely a service provided by stagers.
Many home stagers build up their own furniture inventory because home staging courses tell them to.
It doesn’t mean it’s always the best business decision, or that you need your own home staging furniture to grow a successful home staging business.
Please share your thoughts on this topic by commenting below to add to the discussion!
Dear Debra,
Thanks for all the valuable information. I am in the process of getting my business up and running and the thought of owning, operating, and managing the furniture is overwhelming! I am in a smaller town but I am 45 minutes away from Chicago and I found a rental furniture company that will serve my area. I found the company by looking at information on other stager’s websites. I have worked in the furniture business and I definitely agree that it is a business of it’s own and would be a monumental task for a stager to tackle. I love the idea of using resale furniture shops. Thanks!
This is a timely post, Debra! I recently approached a local consignment furniture store (www.uniquelygreen.ca) about renting some furnishings for staging and we will work out the details soon.
I won’t consider building my own furniture inventory and I think this is a perfect alliance with another local business.
I couldn’t agree more, Debra! Why own an inventory of furniture when there are so many other creative options! In many cases, a local reasale shop has certainly been a great resource for my business . I have also used furniture rental businesses, one high-end and one not so high-end, depending on the property and the client’s budget. Owning furniture poses too many issues for my business and I really don’t need to warehouse furniture to be able to offer that service to my clients.
I started my staging business 5 1/2 years ago. I read the Staging Diva newsletters to see what others experience in their staging businesses. I find Debra’s advice to be inspiring and spot on in most cases. Of course any business varies from region to region.
I am concerned that new stagers reading this article will be discouraged to find that in some areas this does not work as well as this article makes it sound (no matter how creative they are). I have working relationships with most of the area furniture stores as an Interior Decorator, but only one of them was willing to put furniture that they could otherwise sell in their store into someones home to rent. The one store that was willing, wanted to charge 25% of the purchase price per month + delivery fees – which was way out of the budget of the homeowners that I work with.The others did not want to tie up their inventory, take the chance of damage, or deal with what they felt was a hassle for the amount of money they would make. I do work with an antique dealer when I can. If the home owner knows that they plan to purchase some new things for their new house, sometimes it works out to buy it for selling instead of waiting (occasionally that worked out great). There is one rental company in the area that occasionally has what I need. I did find it Neccessary to purchase furniture, artwork, accessories, etc. in order to offer a service that would truly be of value to the home owner, as well as one I felt I could stand behind. It was a painful investment in the first 2 years that has now given me the edge over other stagers in the area. I encourage every Stager to try every avenue possible in your area before purchasing inventory, but hope that you do not give up on your dream if those doors are closed to you. You can make good money as a stager with inventory, it just takes a bit longer.
Thanks everyone for sharing your comments and experiences! This makes the whole conversation more valuable to all!
Keep your ideas and comments coming!
Thanks
Debra
I would like to know about how you partner with furniture retailers and make money from it if you do not own the furniture? Do you have an agreement with the retailers or do you just charge a client for the time you spend getting the items you need? Sorry if this seems like a naive question but how does it work?
My question is somewhat like the last entry. I am new to home staging and wanted to began my own business as well. I received a telephone call from a potential client who wants an entire new home staged. I have no inventory and would like to find out where to began in obtaining furniture for an entire home. Its seems overwhelming!
Colleen, I discuss how to stage vacant homes and where to get what you need, without investing in your own inventory, in the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program.
While you’ll find lots of great information for free in this blog, Home Staging Business Report, and in my monthly newsletter, Staging Diva Dispatch, I do save all the best secrets for how to run a successful home staging business for my students and graduates. You can learn all about the many products I have available to help you in the Staging Diva Store.
When I originally commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now
each time a comment is added I get an email. Is there any way you can remove people from
that service? Thanks a lot!
Cole, when you get the email notification that you requested, it always includes a link at the bottom of the email that says, “To manage your subscriptions or to block all notifications from this site, click the link below.” When you click on that link, you can turn off your notifications. You’ll have a choice of stopping notification of comments to that particular post, OR choosing to stop getting notification of any new articles posted to Home Staging Business Report.
After seeing your comment, we tested the system to ensure it’s still working correctly and it is. Thanks for writing!
We own a furniture resale business that carries quality furniture (Thomasville, Drexel, etc. As well as MCM) and have wondered about partnering with stagers in the Dallas area. Maybe sell the furniture with an agreement to buy it back at an agreed upon price when it’s returned to us. We’d love to know your thoughts.
That’s a great concept Stephanie!
So you suggest approaching local furniture stores and consignment stores to rent from vs. actual national furniture companies? How does that work with insurance? I like the idea of buying good used furniture from Cort outlets and even better Raymour and Flanigan outlets and selling it directly to the sellers. What are your thoughts? Trying to finalize what I want to offer. Thanks.
Hi Alberta, No I’m not recommending buying used furniture from rental companies at all. What I’m discussing in this article is alternate sources of furniture rentals if you don’t have access to a furniture rental company in your area.
This is all part of a much bigger and more complicated discussion. I encourage you to read about the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program in detail and to realize that what I provide is an entire business model for you to follow. That’s something no one else offers and it will save you months (if not years) of trial and error trying to figure out how to maximize your profits without what I have to teach you.
I took a quick look at your website and pricing structure and I can already see how you’d make back the cost of my entire training program just with what you’d learn in Course 2. I suspect there are several other areas we could fine tune as well if you’re open to it.
Thanks for commenting and I look forward to helping you on your journey!