running a summer gig. Can your potential stager provide references and photos of successful past projects? • They ask you many questions. Just like a doctor, the staging pro wants as much information from you about your needs as possible. On your part, you also need to ask many questions during the initial consultation to make sure this is the stager for you. Ask about how they work out their rates, how long they will take, what you could do on your end to keep the costs down, whether they’ve staged homes in the past (and how many), and whether they’ll expect anything from you during the process. • They are staging pros. Not Realtors®. Not bankers. However, they do need to know enough about real estate to increase a home’s salability. Their job is to make your home as appealing as possible to potential buyers, so they will not (and should not) talk to you about negotiating pricing with those buyers. • Be prepared to change your habits. The stager will want you to follow certain guidelines if you’ll be living in the staged house. This will help keep the rooms in order and ready for viewing. If you won’t be living in the house, it’s going to be much easier to keep the home clean and ready to show. However, get in and dust regularly. Real staging pros should make you feel confident about the quality of their work. If you have any negative internal reaction during your initial consultation, run in the other direction and find someone you can trust. If you want to sell your home, it’s ultimately your responsibility to make it happen.
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