National Home Stagers
Protégé Club - NHSPC
™
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Real
Estate Merchandiser & Home
Staging Pro™
Training
and Certification
Course's
Q: How much can I earn working as a stager?
 Well,
There are different numbers and different answers to
this question all over the Internet right now. The
real answer depends on several factors.
First, it
depends partially on the market where you live and offer
your services. Some real estate markets are very
depressed right now, with a large number of short sales
and REO's. Short sales mean that the owners of the
property are behind on their payments and experiencing
financial problems. This makes it difficult, if
not impossible for there to be a budget available for
staging the home. REO's are repossessions, and
banks very, very seldom ever stage repossessed
properties. To be logical, it seems like they
would eagerly embrace staging, because this is something
that could help them tremendously to realize both a much
faster sale, as well as a higher dollar sale. But
the reality is that most banks will not stage their
properties. So in markets with large numbers of
these kinds of homes, the market for staging is down.
Fewer prospective homes on the market for staging means
fewer staged homes and less work for stagers. But with that said, there are still a lot of homes out there that are excellent potential candidates for staging, and there are many, many, many stagers who are making very excellent incomes in this industry. Staging works really well - it is very affective. And when you add merchandising to traditional staging, and come up with Real Estate Merchandising, you have an even more affective service - much, much more effective. This leads us to the next consideration in answering the question as to how much you can earn as a Real Estate Merchandiser / Stager. Part of the equation is the amount of drive, interest, and persistence that you have. If you are a real go getter, if you are one of those types of people who get up every morning rearing to go and ready to go out and tackle the world, and if staging is something that truly interests and even excites you, than the likelihood of your doing well in this field is very high. But you can't just sit around and wait for everything to come your way. If you decide to work for yourself in Staging, you'll need to market yourself, and "network". You'll need to work hard and diligently to get out there and get the word out that you are around, and let people know what it is that you do and how you can help them. If you are not interested in starting your own staging business though, that's alright too. There are plenty of staging companies who are looking for stagers - the jobs are out there. Even in our company, we have opportunities for people who are motivated and who are willing to make a commitment and stay the course (no pun intended). One of the issues in our industry, and I believe this is especially true right now while our economy is going through some tough times, is that there are a lot of people out there who are very willing to under value their time, their work, their talents, and their services. These are stagers who are offering their services for dirt cheap, ridiculously low rates, hoping to make any small amount of money that they can. To prove my point, please Click Here and read this article written by the "Staging Diva" herself. After having read this, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. What this lady says here in her blog, I couldn't agree with more wholeheartedly. It is sooo... true! I see this all the time. In fact, one of my students just sent me an email a few days ago, with an attached coupon from one of our local stagers here in Honolulu, who is running a special deal - an entire day of staging for only $79. The problem with these kinds of low ball offers and marketing methods is that the only types of clients that you will attract are the clients who will NEVER appreciate your work, and they will always low ball and never pay you anywhere near what your time is really worth. By undercutting the value of your services, you not only do harm to yourself, but, as the Staging Diva says, you also do harm to the industry too, and to everyone in it. Personally, and from my own experiences, I believe that the numbers that the Staging Diva gives in her blog are pretty accurate. If you charge a fair price, which means a price that is fair to both your client AND to you, and one that is high enough that you can cover all of your expenses and still come out on top and earn a decent living, you will find that you will be charging somewhere in the range of exactly what the Staging Diva mentions in her blog. But the exact rate will depend on the home. If you are staging a $200,000 property, you will not be able to justify fees that are nearly as high as they would be for a $2 Million dollar home. This isn't really rocket science - it's just simple logic. In our company, we specialize in the luxury Real Estate market, so the fees that we charge, and our earnings, are representative and proportional to the value of the properties that we stage. They represent the costs of staging for the lifestyle and the cultural and socio-economic positions and expectations of our clients, and of the people within our target markets. If you market and position yourself correctly, and if you become really good at your work, you can make a very excellent income in the Luxury property market. But you can also make very excellent incomes in the mid-priced and even the lower end Real Estate markets too. To be completely honest, there are many stagers out there who are literally making thousands of dollars every month. But, there are also stagers out there who are barely able to put food on the table. If you are one of those stagers who charge your clients eighty bucks for an entire days work, this is probably the category that you are going to wind up in. But if you value your time and your creative talents, and if you have the ability to make good contacts and can stay focused and on track long enough to get your momentum up and moving forward, if you really and truly love this kind of work, then you really shouldn't worry - you are highly likely to do very, very well if this is the new career path that you have chosen. So, back to the question of how much can you earn! Well, once you get going, it would not be at all unreasonable to at least meet the numbers that the Staging Diva shows in her blog. To be honest, you really 'should' be able to do better. Getting out there and finding two or three consultations a week isn't really a very big task. And if just one of those consultations each month converts into a full blown staging project, you're already looking at at least five or six thousand dollars in your pocket. And it really IS totally possible to do much better - especially once you become established. If you can be patient and give yourself enough time to position yourself in your market, the potential is more then just there for you to become extremely successful in home staging, and, especially when you take it to the next level and provide the full services of a true "Real Estate Merchandiser" So now, okay, I do realize that some of you out there really DO need to see some numbers. So in an effort to provide this, here you are. These numbers are in addition to what you see on the Staging Diva site (assuming you clicked on our link and actually did visit there) These numbers are very realistic, and they can give you a good idea about what your potential really can be! Home Stagers nationwide are charging $75 - $150/ hr. Here is an example of how easy it is to earn $3000 in just one week: 1 vacant home staging, average profit ............ $ 1,800.00 2, two hour consultations at $100/hr............... $ 400.00 1 lived-in home staging, average $800/ea........ $ 800.00 Income for less than 40 hours of work............. $ 3,000.00 Many Home Stagers average $50 - $100k + per year ! Here at NHSPC, we are offering a truly unique, one of a kind Real Estate Merchandising and Home Staging training program. We are not focusing on the business and marketing end - but instead, we are putting all of our energies and direction into teaching our students how to properly and effectively stage and merchandise Real Estate property. Plus, we also throw in a number of other types of spinoff services that you can add into the mix, so you can create some additional revenue sources as well. But the bottom line is that we are offering you a level of training, and materials that are simply not currently covered by any of the other courses out there right now. After you look around and do your research (due diligence), I believe you will agree. If you are truly, truly, truly interested in this line of work, and if you would like to actually learn how to deliver the services in this industry - if you would like to learn how to take your staging work to that "next level", than this is most likely the right training program for you. However... If, on the other hand, you are looking for a business course, and if you simply want to learn how to set up your own staging company, if you you want to learn how to market it, how to do your books, how to advertise, how to get insurance, how to do all of that kind of stuff... and if you already know how to deliver the services that we teach here, then one of the other courses out there may be your better choice. So, in the end, can you make a good living in Home Staging and Real Estate Merchandising? Given a good, positive attitude, and the right amount of get up and go, and determination - ABSOLUTELY YES! You can do very, very, very well in this business if you really set your mind to it! If you have managed to read this far, and if you have already read through our course curriculum, than this is a strong indicator of your apparent deep interest and likelihood of success. You have already taken a giant step in the right direction by doing your research and by reading the material here on our website. The next step is to sign-up and get started learning what you need in order to launch into your new career... Mahalo (Thank You) for reading. Should it turn out that you make the decision to join us and to enroll in our Real Estate Merchandiser and Home Stager Training Program, all of us here at NHSPC are very much looking forward to working with you. Aloha, Alvin Murphy Managing Director / Principal Designer & Certification Instructor NHSPC / Million Dollar Stagers http://www.nhspc.info http://www.milliondollarstagers.com |
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