Real estate stagers can and should offer design services

The most financially successful interior design professionals are often the most diversified. They have multiple streams of income.

One lucrative “stream” available to real estate stagers is offering partial or complete interior design services. Problem is, too many stagers avoid that opportunity because they feel they lack the proper credentials.

True, stagers who don’t have design certification can’t technically call themselves “interior designers.” But most certainly can and should call and promote themselves as “interior design professionals.”

That’s because most stagers have a working knowledge of such design elements as color, furniture placement, fabrics, window treatments, and wall and floor coverings. Whether they’re staging homes for clients who want to sell or stay in them, these stagers are interior problem-solvers.

They help their clients enhance the value — and eventually the resale value — of their residences, and they provide resources that those clients likely don’t have access to. In the process, the stagers help those they serve same time, money and stress.

Many staging pros offer interior redesign consultations, helping homeowners discover new and better uses for the furnishings they already own. The savviest stagers also offer full-scale “interior consultations,” supplying their advice on many design aspects of the new homes their clients end up occupying.

Some veteran stagers charge up to five times more for a full-scale interior session than they do for the more limited staging consultations.

A key advantage of this face-to-face, in-their-space consulting is that it enables design professionals to upsell their services. Posing a question like “How’s the kitchen working for you?” can open the door to thousands of dollars in remodeling work.

Can real estate stagers without any formal design or remodeling training capitalize on these interior consultations? Most certainly, if they have a network of kitchen and bath and other professionals to whom they can refer the work. By doing so, they can collect handsome referral fees.

A compelling reason for stagers to offer complete interior consultation services is that a good many of their clients want them to do so. Those clients often get to know, like and trust the professionals who staged their homes, and they are likely to want to continue the relationship.

Many individuals who move into a new home, and others who have had their existing home staged feel anxiety, stress and even “pain” around the design of their interiors. Some count on their stagers to help them overcome those challenges.

Marketing themselves as interior design professionals can give stagers a competitive edge in their marketplace. Stager can differentiate themselves by promoting the variety of design services that they offer — especially if they’re the only area staging professionals who offer so many of those services.

Adding interior consultations or other design services makes a great deal of sense for real estate stagers. It makes for a lucrative income stream, and it’s easy to do considering that most stagers have the background and expertise to make this move.

Expanding their business in that way prevents individuals from making the mistake that too many stagers commit too often: leaving money on the table.

Source: exclusive.multibriefs.com