Home Stagers are popping up all over the world (although Home Staging has been around since the 1970s) and real estate agents need to be smart not to get sued by their clients after selling their home to them.

Home Staging is the art of decorating a house to sell it for the best price and in the shortest possible time.

Recently in Ontario, Canada, a real estate agent was sued by his client AFTER he sold the house. It seems that the real estate company never spoke with its client about the staging of the home (because they did not know it existed). The court decided that not only should the real estate agent have known what a Home Stager was, but the agent should have offered the service to his client.

Here’s the heart of the matter: the man (let’s call him Mr. Jordan) puts his house on the market with a real estate agent. Many months later, the house is still for sale, has had no offers and few visits. The real estate agent suggested lowering the price. Mr. Jordan wanted to sell, so he followed his agent’s expert advice and lowered the price by thousands of dollars. The home was eventually sold UNDER the sale price that had already been reduced.

Down the street, just a couple of doors down, another man (let’s call him Mr. Wills) listed his house for sale with another real estate agent. In just a few weeks, Mr. Wills’ home sold ABOVE the asking price.

Since Mr. Jordan and Mr. Wills live in EXACTLY SAME townhomes except for the decor, Mr. Jordan just couldn’t figure it out. Until Mr. Wills explained that his real estate agent suggested hiring a home assembly expert to get the best price on your home in the shortest time possible. It worked.

Mr. Jordan was furious (rightly so if you ask me) and took his real estate agent to court. And won!
So beware of all real estate agents. Your job is to sell people’s houses quickly and for profit. So get your contacts out, go online, or check your yellow pages, but be sure to offer your client the services of a Home Stager and protect your profits.

And if you really stop and think about it for a moment, hiring a Home Stager is a great thing for you, too. A home stager will have absolutely no qualms about telling his client that while he is selling his house, the smelly kitty litter has to go, and by the way, the cat has to go too. And do you really have time to make sure the customer gets their home ready to sell or for open house visits? Isn’t it your job to get listings and sell? Let a good entrepreneur do their job and remember, it’s a high-return investment. Sure, 10k less for a home sale doesn’t really affect your bottom line. But if you have 16 homes for sale, 10k on the 16 homes makes a huge difference to your bottom line! And keep in mind that a house that has been organized sells higher, on average in 15 days and the trend is that organized houses are so nice that multiple offers come in on a house and then you can just sit back and advise your client that take the highest offer … Much better than telling your customer to lower the price. Hire a Home Stager, let the client pay for it and you take all the credit for selling high and selling fast … What more could you ask for?