Mistakes to Avoid When Pricing Your Home Staging Services

It’s the number one question that we get from home stagers – how do I price my home staging services? The answer is so involved and nuanced that we devoted an entire course to the subject: Pricing Lab for Home Stagers.

Coming up with the appropriate pricing for your staging and interior design services can feel like shooting in the dark sometimes. So let’s shed some light on it. Here are three common pricing mistakes we see home stagers make, and how to avoid them.

Mistake # 1: Working for free in the hopes of getting future home staging consultations.

New stagers often feel that they need to charge very little, or nothing at all, on their first projects. Since these stagers don’t have a lot of experience, they are not confident in their worth. Offering to work for free is a big mistake for many reasons:

• You are promoting the false narrative that you don’t know what you are doing. If you have been properly trained and certified as a professional home stager, you do know what you are doing. You are a professional stager! You are not making it up as you go.
• It is very difficult to raise your prices later, because you have already set the value of your services at zero.
• You will attract the kind of clients who are looking for the cheapest stager, not the best stager.
• You are undercutting not only other professional stagers, but also the future of your own staging company .

The results are clear – staged homes sell faster and for more money! Home staging is the best investment a home seller can make. As a professional home stager, you are bringing great value to your clients. Be proud of your staging skills and the services you have to offer, and charge for them accordingly.

Mistake # 2: Underestimating the average cost of furniture delivery.

Your delivery and set up should not be a one-size-fits-all staging fee. You probably already take into consideration the distance from your storage facility, but here are some other important things to factor into your staging delivery fee:

• Steep or inaccessible driveway. We have staged homes where there were low hanging branches or a drive so steep that our staging trucks could not make it in close to the house. Carrying furniture uphill an extra 30 yards significantly adds to your working hours.
• Stairs, whether outside or inside. Think about not only the extra exertion of going upstairs, but also the extra time needed to maneuver in tight stairwells. We have had to resort to pulleying furniture up the outside of the house to upper floors.
• Parking. This can be a big issue especially in urban centers.
• Elevators. When staging a condo that is accessed by an elevator, you will need double the usual amount of time as you have to wait for the elevator to make the trip up and down for each load. You may also need an extra hand just to hold the elevator.
• Loading dock. Be sure to reserve your loading dock timeslot. Many buildings limit dock usage to a certain number of hours, so it may take 2 appointments on consecutive days to get everything unloaded.

Remember that what goes in must come out when it is de-staged, so your cost is doubled.

Mistake # 3: Charging a set price for your staging packages.

Having a standard price for your staging packages is a bit like having a standard price for homes. There are an infinite number of variables that will affect what home stagers should charge.

Basing your pricing on just one factor, like the square footage or the list price, ignores the many other considerations. For instance, the luxury level, the property condition, the location, the property style, the room sizes, the local market, the lifetime value of the client, your current staging inventory level, and so much more, all play into it. Publishing a static home staging price sheet limits your ability to adjust accordingly.

If you are still unsure of how much to charge for your home staging services, Staging Studio is here for you! We created a pricing course just for you!

To learn about the best pricing formulas and strategies for home stagers, check out our brand-new Pricing Lab for Home Stagers™.

What you will learn in the Pricing Lab for Home Stagers™:

• How to calculate your hourly rate
• How to calculate your cost of acquisition for your staging inventory
• How to calculate the price per room
• How to create a vacant staging proposal that converts staging bids into staging jobs
• How to keep track of your stages and determine your staging value based on average DOM
• The different methods of pricing, how to use them and the pros and cons of each
• How to value your staging services
• Secret home staging pricing strategies
• How to calculate the best formula for each service: vacant home staging, occupied consultations, model homes, and Airbnb design
• How to negotiate with potential buyers 
• How to raise your rates
• How to overcome objections to your staging prices

Take the Pricing Lab for Home Stagers™ today and set your prices at rates that get you consistent work that makes you a nice profit. Never again will you wonder how much to charge for staging jobs!