Any stagers ? Need how to advice in Long Island/ New York area.

A Good Eye Curated Decor

8 years ago

Any available courses recommended?

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Cynthia Taylor-Luce

8 years ago

In most places you can attend a course that's less than a week and get a certificate as a stager. However, this can be expensive and if you're not looking to do this as a profession, it would be cheaper to hire a stager to give you individual advice for your own home, if that's what your priority is at the moment.

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A Good Eye Curated Decor
Original Author
8 years ago
Thank you Cynthia. Are you a stager? I am looking to do this as a profession. The only program I have come across is called "CPS" - a three day course for around $3000. I'm wondering if this is really the only option out there. I've recently moved and my real estate agent loved my old home and what I've done to the new one and has said she would use me if I pursue this career.that being said I would have a client base to start with .
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PRO
Cynthia Taylor-Luce
8 years ago
Hi Lisa, No I'm not a stager but I went to college for interior design for three years. Along with doing interior design for my own clients, I did extra work for about ten years for a real estate company and staged their clients' homes with what they had (I didn't rent anything extra and I didn't supply props). You can improve a place a lot by (1) decluttering and (2) rearranging the furniture and (3) deep cleaning it throughout, including paint touchups where required.

The course is expensive and all it gives you is a blueprint to start from. You'll still need lots of experience and you'll need to have a business plan. It's nice that your real estate agent is encouraging you but you also have to weigh how many clients she actually has and how many of them would be willing to pay for your services (or will the agent pay you out of her commission?). If you are planning on making this your career you're going to have to be heavily involved in marketing and networking, spending up to half your time doing that, just to keep your job "pipeline" flowing along. You'll need to buy business insurance too. It will cost you some money before you ever see any profits coming back to you.

Professional stagers will have a collection of furniture, artwork, lamps, pillows, throws, etc. which they can place in their clients' houses and most will have an arrangement with a trade company that rents out furnishings. The work is hard because everybody's in a hurry, they don't want to spend much, and there's a lot of heavy lifting. You'll need to have a couple of assistants who can load and unload trucks and move furniture. The margins are not very big either.

I would hesitate to recommend this to you as a career if you are a sole earner, honestly. If you want to do this because you think it would be fun and that would be ample reward in itself, then by all means pursue it.

I am speaking generally and I don't know the market where you live. Perhaps you need another serious conversation with the agent to see how much business she could potentially put your way, and who is the competition in your area. There may already be a firm that's been in business a long time and services most of the market. Or there may be no-one doing this, and you would automatically attract a lot of business, which would be wonderful. You just need to do some more in-depth research before you commit.

If your real estate agent enthusiastically encourages you to become a stager, it might be worth asking if she would consider investing in you by paying for the course and you could work off the fees until they are paid in full. If she would do that, then I'm sure that your future prospects will be quite good.

I wish I could be more positive, but I've tried to lay it all out there since you asked. Best of luck with whatever you choose to do.

Cynthia
PRO
A Good Eye Curated Decor
Original Author
8 years ago
Thank you so much for your time and thoughts you put into this. I truly appreciate it! You bring up many good logical thinking points. I am looking at this for a career change as I have been a stay at home mom for many years and this is area I enjoy. Of course I am not looking to work for nothing and any income would help, but I am not looking to support myself or my family doing this. Basically , I am at this point researching to see what is involved. As you mentioned furniture and heavy lifting etc. Can I ask what area and price ranges were the homes that you have staged?
PRO
Cynthia Taylor-Luce
8 years ago
You are very welcome, Lisa. You are best to go into this with your eyes open and you are approaching this the right way by asking questions and doing your research.

The houses I was working on were in the $300,000 to $1,000,000 range in the western Greater Toronto area, so were not terribly upscale. The lower-end ones mostly needed renovation and investment, but the idea was to not scare people off any more than necessary. Showing how the rooms would accommodate appropriate pieces of furniture was key. I made sure that window blinds were up, heavy or ugly draperies were removed, personal photos were stowed away, and stuff like that. You'd be surprised how many people don't have bedside lamps or have lamps that are 12" high! What a difference buying a pair of proper scale lamps makes in a bedroom! I always recommended that, and then people would have them for the next house anyway.

I wasn't paid to shop or supply the clients with anything, but made a list as I walked around the place so the homeowners would do their homework to add or remove more things. It was the most basic kind of staging and I was paid by the real estate agents a flat rate depending on the square footage--whether it was an apartment or a house up to 2,000 square feet, or 2,000 to 4,000 square feet, and over 4,000 square feet. I would generally spend one to two hours at the home and leave my report. If the homeowners were keen, we would all pitch in and move stuff around, but sometimes they would say they'd get help later to do things. In that case I would sketch general furniture placement plans and describe what i wanted them to do.

What you'd be doing as a professional stager would be beyond what I was doing with these clients. I was doing the minimum because that's all the agents were interested in paying me for, but it was a good selling point for them because they offered this as a free service and people responded to it. This was also a few years ago--late nineties to about 2008 I think, when there weren't many staging companies in this area.

Actually when we agreed to part ways, it was because the agents wanted to go the extra mile and have a staging company that could bring in furniture etc. and I didn't want to do that. I liked staging as a sideline, but I have an interior design business which I love, and I would have had to spend a lot more of my time being a full-time stager. The money is also better as an interior designer too. It was what I went to school for and it's what I love to do. My favourite clients are those who love their homes and want to stay in them so they are decorating them with quality pieces. Staging is so much the opposite--it's all for show and quality doesn't come into it. No custom pieces, no fine details. It's just not for me.

I hope that this has helped. I wonder if you should contact local stagers to see if they might want to take you on as an assistant for a while so you can see if you like it. If you have any more specific questions I'd be happy to answer them, but as far as I know this is the extent of my advice on the subject! Best wishes, Cynthia
PRO
Nestings Home Staging by Julia Vigneron Maher
8 years ago
Check out the website for the Real Estate Staging Association. There are training companies listed there, as well as a lot of other information that will help you with your decision. Via the website, you can also look up stagers in your area to talk to. Good luck! Julie
A Good Eye Curated Decor thanked Nestings Home Staging by Julia Vigneron Maher
PRO
A Good Eye Curated Decor
Original Author
8 years ago
Thank you Cynthia, you have been very helpful! If I was just starting out I would choose to be an interior designer as well - I truly would enjoy it. However , it would involve too much at this point. I do realize it is completely different from staging although it does touch upon arrangement and decorating.. I will see about assisting to begin with and take it from there. Happy New Year to you and yours!
PRO
Cynthia Taylor-Luce
8 years ago
Lisa, I hope you find your niche and enjoy your future career. Best wishes for a great 2016 for you and your family too!
A Good Eye Curated Decor thanked Cynthia Taylor-Luce

Any stagers ? Need how to advice in Long Island/ New York area.

Cynthia Taylor-Luce

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Any stagers ? Need how to advice in Long Island/ New York area.

Cynthia Taylor-Luce

Comments (8)

A Good Eye Curated DecorOriginal Author

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