Ask the Expert: Who Pays for Staging?

http://stagingweblog.com/?p=2729

Hi Christine,
My question is: who pays for staging? I just want a straight answer.

– Bill M., Thunder Bay, Ontario

Well, Bill, here is the straight answer.
In my opinion, the person who should pay for staging is the property seller. It is that simple. They pay for the painter, home inspection, title search, etc., why not staging?

Bill, the question comes up because some real estate professionals have leveraged a marketing edge for themselves by providing some or all of the staging service to their listings. This leaves some agents wondering why they are doing that, and also a bit confused.

Let’s face it, staging services are simply marketing expenses; providing the service via a stager adds value to listing with you and helps support, not compromise, your commission. We did a survey a few years ago with real estate agents. Ninety-eight percent of the agents we talked to said they believe staging is a valuable tool for selling property. When we asked why they don’t use it all the time, they said they really didn’t know how or when to talk staging to their clients, didn’t know how much money it would be, and didn’t know how to measure a “good” stager; another reason to work with a fully trained and certified stager! Check our website for two programs especially for agents. One is protecting your client’s equity through staging. The other is a new designation program specifically for agents (CSP Elite). It teaches you how to integrate stagers into your marketing, addresses all the concerns raised in the survey, and provides scripts.

Hope that helps, Bill. Let me know if you need more.

Christine Rae
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