Home Staging Expert Advises Stagers to Evaluate Furniture Rental Issues

TORONTO, ON, March 22, 2012 (Press-News.org) On the Home Staging Business Report blog, home staging expert Debra Gould discusses the reasons why home stagers should carefully consider the pros and cons of maintaining their own inventory of rental furniture.

"While I teach the pros and cons of having your own home staging inventory, I'm a big fan of not having it," says Gould. "It's really not necessary to invest tens of thousands of dollars in home staging furniture, art and accessories, and I say this as someone who has staged hundreds of homes, many of them vacant or only partially furnished. There are tons of pitfalls of furniture rentals for home stagers."

Early in her home staging career, Gould was invited by an established home stager to tour a condo she had staged. The stager was selling her furniture rental inventory and assured Gould that she could get a good deal by buying all the contents from her. She pointed out that she'd made $5,000 staging that property, so Gould's investment would pay back quickly.

"What she didn't know was that I had already staged a number of vacant properties using inventory from an actual rental company and made just as much profit as she did, without having any of her overhead," Gould explains. "Needless to say, I didn't buy what she was selling and appreciated that early view of how much better my business model was than hers. After all, she was selling her inventory! If she was making so much money from it, she wouldn't be doing that!"

A number of Gould's readers wrote in about their own experiences and frustrations with furniture inventory. Staging Diva Graduate Stacy Goade of Alaska Premier Home Staging had this to say: "While I do feel that my home staging business has been at a disadvantage because I don't offer furnishings or accessories, I've learned this first year that I can be a successful home stager even if I don't stage vacant homes! In fact, this week I made the decision to pull vacant home staging from my website and my marketing materials. Why? Because the process involved in working with furniture rental companies and real estate agents has not been pleasant or profitable, so why continue! I think each of us has to decide our priorities and define our own success. For me, success is enjoying my home staging business and getting paid for every aspect of it."

Gould has been a home stager since 2002 and has communicated with thousands of home stagers in more than 20 different countries over the years. She reports that she has noticed a pattern throughout this time: The home stagers who are most likely to go out of business within their first or second year are the ones who maintain their own inventory. Gould believes that their sizable upfront investment, plus the ongoing cost of storage, pick up, delivery, cleaning, maintenance and insurance has a lot to do with this.

"Many new home stagers think I don't know what I'm talking about," Gould says. "They believe their situation is special and that it's different where they live. If they really want to get into the furniture rental business, they should go for it! But before they do, it's important that they consider the potential hassles involved."

Gould discusses the pros and cons of maintaining a furniture rental inventory in her home staging course, The Business of Home Staging: What You Need to Start and How to Grow. For more information, visit the Staging Diva website.

Contact

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva
Voice of Possibility Group Inc.
416-691-6615
debragould@stagingdiva.com
http://www.stagingdiva.com

About Staging Diva

The creator of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, Debra Gould has staged millions of dollars' worth of real estate, including 7 of her own homes. She is the president of Voice of Possibility Group Inc., which operates a home staging division, SixElements.com, in addition to StagingDiva.com, which has trained over 7,000 home stagers to start and grow their own businesses.

Debra has gained international recognition through features in major media in the US and Canada including: This Old House, HGTV, CNN Money, CBC National News, CBS Radio, Global TV, City TV, The Wall Street Journal, Women's Day, Reader's Digest and more.