I stumbled on a magazine article that claimed that if you look at enough real estate listings you’ll start to notice that all the homes on the market look pretty similar.
I can’t totally disagree!
First of all, we’ve all seen the neighborhoods where every home is one of three or four choices for an exterior, and the floor plans are pretty much the same, unless there have been renovations over the years.
Or what about condos? Those cramped boxes in the sky that all look the same when they start off, but can look radically different with home staging when it’s done well.
We’ve also probably all seen the badly staged homes that are so decluttered and depersonalized that they look boring at best, or vandalized at worst.
Furniture Repeats Inevitable in Staged Homes
But this article I read was really talking about staged homes and the fact that so many home stagers put the same furniture arrangements in every home.
You can’t really blame the home stagers if they are working with their own inventory of home staging furniture and accessories.
After all, how much inventory could one home stager possibly have?
I’ve seen some claim online that they can furnish 25 homes at a time, top to bottom. Good for them. That’s certainly not an investment or amount of overhead that I’d be comfortable with! These home stagers are also fairly rare.
Let’s face it, most home stagers (who choose to invest in their own inventory) could maybe furnish 3 to 6 homes tops— especially when they don’t do every room.
If these home stagers are focussing in a tight geographic neighborhood, it’s only natural that the same furniture and accessories will keep repeating themselves as they claimed in the magazine story I read.
If you’ve been reading Home Staging Business Report for any length of time, or you’re a Graduate of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, you already know I’m not a fan of home stagers working with their own home staging inventory.
Unless they especially want to be in the furniture rental business.
I don’t like it because of the investment needed, the ongoing costs and ongoing headaches that would naturally come with having a bunch of furniture and accessories to buy, store, rent, clean, keep track of, deliver, pick up, insure, etc.
You get the idea.
And here’s another reason, I don’t want all my staged homes to look alike!
I can go to a number of suppliers who each have about 100,000 square feet of their own inventory. I can choose exactly what I want for a particular house. I don’t have to repeat the exact same living room combination in house after house because I have far possibilities to choose from.
And I get paid for my time to search through their inventory! Which is way more fun than climbing around in my own storage locker looking at the same selection year after year.
I also make a commission on the furniture and accessory rental without taking on all the downside risks I’ve just highlighted.
Now I realize not everyone will have the same access to furniture rental companies. But there are so many other ways to manage this as I discuss in detail in the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program.
So, what do you think? Have you noticed that a lot of staged homes look alike?
Do you have your own inventory of furniture and/or accessories? And if you do, are you willing to share what investment you made and what it costs you to carry that overhead every month?
Please share your thoughts and ideas in the comments below.
Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
A home stager since 2002, Debra Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program in 2005 to help others make a living from their creativity. Debra is the author of 5 guides including the Staging Diva Ultimate Design Guide: Home Staging Tips, Tricks and Floor Plans.
I’m lucky in Brisbane that I have access to 3 large furniture warehouses. This enables me to give each property the style it tells me it needs and also style to the most likely buyers. It allows me to be more creative, makes every house I stage different and importantly the overall look is appropriate and not overly ‘staged’ The majority of companies in Australia who have their own inventory have a very similar look – a kind of modern scandi look. It’s a lovely look, but I’m pretty sick of seeing it. To me it says “I’ve been staged” It’s very formulaic. It would be easy to select as every piece goes with every piece but I’d get bored if it was all a had to select from. I love coming up with style variations for my houses. This year I’ve had everything from “Spanish Colonial” to “modern coastal” to “cutting edge tropical” It’s fun (and challenging!) to go into a warehouse with those words in my head to pull together a look that suits the house and isn’t shoe horned in from available inventory. I do realise I’m lucky as I’m in a major Australian city (and there aren’t many of them!). I know other stagers struggle to find good inventory.
That’s fantastic Imogen and I know what you mean about getting bored looking at the same inventory all the time. I also love that you have a “look” in mind as you “shop” the warehouses for the appropriate pieces. Thanks so much for sharing your experience.
I own a staging company on the North Shore of Milwaukee, and I purchased approximately 8k worth of furniture and accessories. I would say most of the stagers up here own their own inventory. We do have a few furniture companies that rent out furniture, but they are pretty expensive, and I don’t think the choice of furniture is all that great. I bought several neutral furniture items, cream and grey sofas with classic lines that hopefully will look good year after year. I change them out with different pillows for each house, and I have so many accessories, that I switch out with every house. I often will shop my own house, so I do think each listing looks unique. But at the same time, I don’t limit myself to a certain area, so every house I stage has it’s own unique qualities. I’m lucky that I have an enormous garage where I store my furniture, but I usually have a house staged so I haven’t had to store much. I do worry though about wear and tear of my furniture over time. The realtors I work with encouraged me to buy my items so they are always ready to go, as I will often get called and am needed immediately. Once I broke even on my investment I now make more money than I would using these furniture rental companies. I would honestly say my biggest expense every time is paying my movers. I try to find some local muscle, but they are not always as careful as movers from a company are.
Thanks for sharing your experience with us Sara! Wearing my coaching hat for a moment (hope you don’t mind), I would caution though asking “How high?” every time a realtor says “Jump” at the last minute 🙂 It’s OK to have some boundaries, not saying you don’t, just putting that out there as something to think about. Thanks again for your comments and I’m thrilled that you’ve broken even now on your $8,000 investment in furniture and accessories!
I am a Staging Diva Graduate and completely agree Debra…I do not want inventory as it would be a huge investment as well as headache with as stretched out the DFW area is. I choose to do occupied homes and in most cases use what the homeowner has. If pillows or bedding is needed, they know exactly what to buy. No way are these homes going to look the same as the next one! I also have learned to carry a good selection of silk flowers and glass containers and can do on the job creations or if I am going to return to finalize the staging, I can make one at home and bring it with me. I do not rent these out…the client buys them from me. I am very aware that in my area a larger % of stagers do maintain inventory, even if it is for accessories, pillows and so on, but I trained with you and follow your lead…and to this day have never had a problem. We have agreements with a few furniture rental places, but like you said…the agreement should be between the H/O and the rental provider. My clients have always been very pleased with the “reveal” so to speak
Amazing Leigh Anne, thanks so much for sharing your experience! I LOVE that despite what other stagers do typically in your area, you’ve followed the business model that works for you… and as I predicted, it works out just fine! Hey if you’re in the DFW area, I hope you saw that home staging job I posted recently!
When I started my staging company three years ago I too wanted to rent my furniture although it was extremely expensive. Not only did I think it was expensive so did all of my potential clients and I was basically hung up on it quite a few times. Therefore I started purchasing My Own inventory and it has worked out quite well. I to change out the accessories and colors to keep it looking like the same Furniture over and over again. I’m in California and maybe rental furniture is just expensive here I don’t know but there’s no way I could stay in business if I had to rent furniture and accessories.
RoyLynn, thanks for commenting and sharing your experience!
For clarification, are you saying that the furniture rental places were too expensive for your clients and so to offer your clients a cheaper alternative you invested in your own inventory?
And if so, I’m curious whether this is really profitable for you since there’s a reason the furniture rental companies have the rate structure they do. I’m really big on “not being a bank” for my clients. My mission is not to take on financial risk so they don’t have to.
I could be reading this all wrong, and really welcome your thoughts on this. Thanks again for commenting and I’m happy you found a business model that has worked well for you 🙂
Debra, with all due respect, I’ve got to agree with Sara… somewhat. I do own my own furniture. Let’s get that said right up front. However, I have accumulated this furniture over 10 years, never buying anything that wasn’t paid for by a staging contract first. This has allowed me to grow my business successfully. Yes, you have to jump when realtors need you. If you don’t, they’ll find somebody who will, especially until you are established with your repeat realtors.
I consider myself a very savvy shopper though, only buying extremely versatile, neutral furniture at the best price so I can use it over and over without it looking repetitive. Then I juice it up with snazzy accessories, don’t you know. This has worked for me! I’m just not willing to give Cort or Brooke or AFR all my profit.
My biggest expense is also my mover, but he has become like a third son, taking extremely good care of my furniture and warehouse etc. I wouldn’t trade him for the world he’s worth every dollar I pay him.
Thanks for sharing your experiences Patricia! I’m curious how you can buy something that’s already paid for by a staging contract. Surely you can charge the full cost of a purchase as a rental. So perhaps you mean current jobs are subsidizing future purchases?
I agree, most realtors will expect you to jump immediately. That’s one of many reasons I chose not to build my staging business around real estate agents. I talk about this in Course 4 of the Staging Diva Training Program. While I don’t own my own furniture, I don’t give up my profits to furniture rental companies, I still make money on every rental.
I’ve always believed you have to build your business according to what will meet your own needs for the business, not just your clients, if you want to be happy long term beyond just making money.
If you have something that you’re enjoying and still making money at 10 years into it, than that’s a tremendous success and you must be congratulated for it! I definitely like your strategy of keeping the major pieces neutral and then jazzing it all up with different accessories!
I’ve had to start buying decorative accessories and art. Not what my intention was for the reasons you are speaking of. There really isn’t anywhere in London Ontario to rent these items. I’ve found a great furniture rental place though that is very reasonable. I’ve pondered the idea of looking into new ways to find inexpensive decor and art rentals. The one thing that I do love is when the client buys my items when the home has sold.
Thanks for commenting Trish! I believe if you relisten to the Staging Diva Course Recordings, especially courses 3 and 5, you’ll hear discussions of other ways to get access to rental accessories and art.