5 Eliminating Questions to Ask Time-Wasting Staging Clients

No matter how fast the technology has advanced in real estate, it is still very much a people business. Ultimately, people do business with people that they like and have found common grounds, interests, etc. with. No matter how virtual we can be nowadays, you will still have face-to-face staging client meetings.

As home staging business owners, we also need to make sure that we are maximizing our limited time, resources and funds to make sure that we are operating at the highest level of efficiencies and profitability. This is why it is important to ask the right questions to your potential home staging clients to make sure that they are a great fit for your home staging business before we commit to a face-to-face meeting.

To help you prepare for your first meeting with your prospective home staging clients, here are the five eliminating questions to ask before you get into your car and start driving:

1. WHAT IS YOUR BUDGET FOR STAGING?

As a home stager, I generally gave prospective staging clients a range of what home staging investment would look like for their listing.

There are many factors that influence the pricing involved in staging their homes, such as location, the age of the home (older homes have smaller doors, so sometimes we may have to take doors off to move furniture in), floor plan, the amount of inventory that I have to bring in, prep time, etc. So it is usually best practice to provide prospective clients a range for pricing.

What I often find is that most homeowners have a baseline pricing for their staging needs, but sometimes the budget expectations can be unrealistic. If the price quoted by the home stager is more than what the homeowners had planned for staging, the homeowners may get a bit of a sticker shock.

If this has happened to you and your home seller or real estate agent, discuss with your potential staging clients to see how your can work with their budget. As professional home stagers, we should be able to work with reasonable budget expectations.

What I also find helpful is take your common pricing objections and write scripts in advance. Knowing what you can say ahead of time can help you increase your chance to successfully squash your staging clients’ hesitation and increase your booking rate.

2. WHAT IS YOUR TIMELINE FOR LISTING THE PROPERTY?

“When are you going on the market?”

Knowing the potential staging client’s timeline is important, because let’s say you are already booked solid in the next three week, it will be impossible for you to do the staging if the client needs the staging done next week.

It is also important to communicate with your home sellers and agents to make sure you are notified for work delays. Otherwise, this may impact the staging schedule on your end.

During peak seasons, we often get booked 2+ weeks in advance while working 6-7 days a week. If the client missed their ideal booking time, they may have to wait 2 weeks for our books to open up. It is important to make sure that the prospective home staging clients understand that. This also creates an urgency for them to book with you right away so that they can get on your schedule for staging.

3. WHAT KIND OF HOME STAGING SERVICE ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?

This is important because if what they are asking for is beyond your normal scope of staging services, this may not be a great home staging client for you.

For example, we specialized in staging a certain kind and size of vacant homes. We didn’t do large homes that are above 3,000 square feet, nor occupied staging projects. So if a real estate agent called me about doing an occupied home, I will not be the right stager for that project.

4. HAVE YOU USED A STAGER BEFORE? WHAT WAS THAT EXPERIENCE LIKE? (OR WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT STAGING?)

This is a good question to ask to figure out if we need to do additional education to set the right expectations on what they are getting. This is also a good time to see if they had been burnt by a bad stager before. If they are still upset about the previous experience, it could make it difficult for you to work with them.

5. WHO IS YOUR BUYER? WHO DO YOU THINK WILL BUY THIS HOUSE?

I ask this question to both homeowners and the agents. Their answers will reveal to me how well they know the current market and if there are any red flags that I need to consider as a stager, and if I needed to reset some expectations on the staging we would deliver.

WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT THIS POST? DO YOU HAVE ANY ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS TO ADD? Tell us about questions you’ve gotten in the Comment section below.