Home Staging Business Models: An Interview with Bobbie McGrath

Cindy: What are some business models in the home staging industry that you’ve seen?

Bobbie: Well, of course you have the solopreneur — the person who’s working by themselves. You’ve got business partners. There are people who work with just vacant homes, people who work with just occupied homes. There are people who provide both sides of the industry. Another thing I’m seeing now are franchising opportunities. There are people who have warehouses and rent furniture to others.

There’s a lot of different business models! But there’s also a new portion that you and I are a part of: the education arm of the staging industry. With all of these business models everything is becoming more professional and polished.

Cindy: I agree with you, especially with rentals. I think it’s a top income source. We will do rentals for photoshoots and there’s a huge profit margin for us. Staging has a much lower profit margin. I’m really glad you mentioned that.

Education is also a booming business model right now. A lot of senior stagers are now coming out with different types of education, which is great for the industry.

What are some of the things that new home stagers should expect when they’re starting out in the business?

Bobbie: The first one I want to say is prepare for the unexpected because I don’t care how much you prepare — the unexpected is just around the corner. And I want you to remember this: don’t let it freak you out. Just understand this is a great opportunity to learn so that I can become more and more experienced. Because when you’re a new home stager, people hire because of education and experience. Well, if you don’t have experience, then you know that you’re really going to need to lean in on that education.

I’ve shared this before, but for me, the definition of experience means you’ve made the mistakes. So when mistakes happen — and they happen to all of us — just realize, “Oh, okay, that’s okay. I’m just earning my street cred.”

Also, realize that even though there’s people who have been in the industry 10-15 years, the industry is still new. Many parts of the country don’t really understand what it is that we do. So keep that in mind and understand that you’re going to have resistance by realtors, you’re going to have resistance by homeowners. You really do become an educator all along the way. It’s important to have that hat on as you go.

Cindy: Education is huge! Even if you’re in an area that is more familiar with home staging, educating home owners along the way will probably still need to happen.

Bobbie: Sometimes that piece is really hard. Someone will say something very unkind and once you take away the way they said it and really look at it because, honestly, their perspective is their reality. There’s been many times I’ve had feedback that inside I get defensive and I’m like, “Well, you don’t even know what you’re talking about.” But then I went, wait a minute. That was their impression. What could I do in the future so that that impression is not created ahead of time. So there’s a huge thing there.

Cindy: But I think once you calm down and then kind of look at the situation objectively or try to be as objective as possible, you might actually find valuable feedback from them. Let it roll off your shoulder and get over it and eat some ice cream, whatever. But you know, you’ve got to move on. At the end of the day it’s still a business. You can’t take every single thing to heart, but just you have to figure out what is the best for your business and you just have to figure if it’s valid.

Bobbie: We get involved in a lot of emotional situations when we’re dealing with someone selling a home. I mean, there’s a lot of negative reasons that people sell. Many times, it’s like a business transfer — one spouse got a transfer for their job, so everyone is excited about the new opportunity, but their lives are here and the kids are in school and everything is great. They’re going to have to start over. They have anxiety, and they don’t want to say that to their spouse, so instead they take it out on you. I’ve just learned, to listen and let them say their piece and then I get back to work.

Cindy: What are some of the mistakes you’ve made in your business that you would have done differently today?

Bobbie: From day one, I would have had a bookkeeper. I also would have trusted my gut more because that times that I look back and regret the most were the times where I didn’t do that. I would not have offered freebies or greatly reduced services period. Because as soon as you offer something for free, that person will always view you that way and it’s hard to stop that. I will give the realtors I’ve worked with forever a little something, but I always, always, always state what the full price would have been so that is still in their mind.

Cindy: One of the things I would have done differently is set up more boundaries. I lost my personal life in the beginning. I really wish I would have learned that earlier and taken better care of myself.

Next, we have some audience questions. The first one is: “Do either of you ever get interior design job offers from people who have walked through a home you have staged?”

Bobbie: Absolutely. It’s really been fun. At first, I tried to act like an interior designer because they have an amazing process. And what I realized was that was not me, but that’s how I developed with my stage to live consultation form. So they went through, they liked what they saw. We would meet at their home and I would make my recommendations, give them size, color, everything, even where to shop. But I wouldn’t do that for them. And then what they would do is they would get the stuff and they would bring it all in and then I would come back — myself or my team — and we would put everything into place. So that was the system that worked for me.

Cindy: I have gone a couple of calls for decorating, and we ended up not moving forward because I think the homeowner had not the right expectations. I think one of the things with interior design projects is that it’s really different from home staging in that you really have to work long term with clients. I mean, I’ve known people who work with their clients for like three or four years on one design. Interior design project can get very complicated depending on the scope of the job you might have to deal with.

Our next question is, “How do you write your contracts for occupieds vs. vacants?”

Bobbie: First of all, this is like a total overview because every state is different, and I know this is international and different countries have different rules. When there are contracts being discussed and specifics, you’ve really got to have your own protection. You need to go to an attorney because if there’s any ambiguity within a contract, it goes to the benefit of the person who did not write the contract. So understand that.

With the occupied, what you’re talking about in there is you’re explaining to them the scope of the job, your pricing, your tim
eline, additional charges. Very specifically, you need to ask, “Is there anything in the house that you do not want us to move? Are there any rooms in the house that you do not want us to enter or touch?” And that all has to be written down very specifically. Many times when you’re an occupied homes, especially like in our area, we have these beautiful antiques and we don’t know that maybe part of it is being held on with duct tape, you know, and then you start to slide it over and it breaks. That’s their responsibility to let you know.

You need to include if you have a specific needs that were to be done prior to the occupied staging, such as if you require the house to be completely clean before you get there. If there’s large pieces of furniture that have to be moved, especially floor to floor, they have to sign off that they will take care of it or I will arrange for professional movers to come in and move those items at a greatly increased price. Number one, I don’t want that oversight. It just slows me down. And number two, I don’t want to be responsible for that furniture.

We talked about so many important questions, especially for new home stagers! Did you learn anything new today?

About Bobbie

Bobbie McGrath is a national award-winning home stager, international trainer, speaker and co-author of Amazon’s best-selling book, “Home Staging: The Power That Sells Real Estate”. Bobbie was voted by her international peers as one of the Top Ten Occupied Home Stagers in America in both 2015 and 2016. She has been recognized as “Best of HOUZZ” for customer service and design in 2015, 2016, 2017 and, once again, outstanding customer service in 2018. Bringing her expertise to the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area has raised the expectations of the home-buying public!

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