Why Realtors Should Encourage Staging (Part III)

Friday, June 1st, 2012 Tags: dallas home stager, Home Staging Benefits
Category: Staging to SELL No Comments

Money. It’s what we most of us work for, right? Yes, I love love love my job and am excited about it most days when I roll out of bed, but I also definitely do it for the money so that someday I can lie on the beach in Fiji drinking something with a little umbrella sticking out of it for a month or two at a time. Aaaahh…I can hear the waves crashing now. No wait, actually that was my stomach growling. Sigh. So where were we? Oh yeah, talking about the reason we work being the paycheck we receive.

Now color me crazy, but my theme as I market to Real Estate Agents recently has been “Work Less. Make More Money” and I happen to be a big proponent of that theory. Who really believes in the thought of ”Work more. Make less money”? If that person is you, then smack yourself on the back of the head Gibbs style (for you NCIS fans out there, you know what I mean) and keep reading. Let’s just look at some very simplified numbers because they speak for themselves:

>> DISCLAIMER: Simple math to follow and I’m not including marketing expenses, etc. so these numbers are not 100% accurate. <<

Scenario #1

List Price of Staged Home: $350,000
Potential commission = $10,500
Accepted Offer of Staged Home: $345,000 x 3% commission = $10,350 smackaroos in the Realtor’s bank account.

Scenario #2

List Price of the same house, UN-staged: $334,000 (because the right updates, repairs & merchandising were not suggested it doesn’t command as much money)
Potential commission: $10,020
Day 30 price reduction: $15,000
Revised potential commission: $9570
Day 60 price reduction: $15,000
Revised potential commission: $9120
Accepted Offer of UN-staged Home: $290,000 x 3% commission = $8700

$8700 doesn’t seem too shabby though. And it’s only $1650 less than what the agent selling the staged home took home, right? But let’s keep working those numbers using the same list and sale prices for simplicity:

Selling (1) ONE $350,000 staged home a month at $345,000 = $124,000 in commissions annually
Selling (1) ONE $334,000 UN-staged home a month at $290,000 = $104,400 in commissions annually

THAT IS ALMOST A $20,000 DIFFERENCE! And that $20,000 more in your pocket is simply due to referring a Professional Stager to do the work for you. As a Realtor, you’re actually working LESS because

1.) you’re not having to convince the seller what updates & repairs are to be made, much less helping them understand their 1970 orange tapestry recliner is NOT adding value to their family room and

2.) the listing isn’t on the market as long, so you’re not having to continually market it, hold open houses, field calls from the sellers wondering why it hasn’t sold yet, and so forth.

3.) And finally – you’ll get more referrals from the sellers who are ever so grateful you made THEM money by getting their home sold for more money in less time so you’ll be increasing your volume of houses sold year after year.

Take that $20k and apply it to selling more than one house a month at various list prices, and you really can WORK LESS. MAKE MORE MONEY.

I hope to see you on the beach in Fiji sipping umbrella drinks!