One of the hardest parts about home staging is establishing a pricing model.  Our pricing strategy has evolved over the years as we have grown and expanded our business.  We’ve found that it’s important to re-evaluate our pricing on a regular basis.  One rule of thumb is to assess how frequently you are booking projects.  If you are winning 100% of your proposals, there is a good chance that you are not charging enough. Conversely, if you are not winning any projects, you may need to lower your prices. A simple conversation with a trusted real estate agent can help you understand why you may not be winning bids.

There is not one correct way to price for vacant staging as all markets are different.  As you work through the pricing model, it’s important to work through some pricing considerations to help guide your decisions. Because at the end of the day, the goal is to provide the highest quality service AND to maintain a profitable business.

We use square footage as the basis for calculating our rented furniture and accessories in vacant staging proposals and begin with a base package that includes the following rooms: living room, dining room, family room, kitchen, primary bedroom and all bathrooms. We use pre-determined ranges as the starting point for all bids as we know that the amount of rentals increases in conjunction with the size of the home. As an example, we group our bids into the following ranges: less than 1,000 sq. ft, 1,000-1,600 sq. ft, 1,600-2,200 sq. ft, etc. By establishing base packages, it allows us to prepare our staging bids very quickly. Using these ranges as a starting point, we can then customize the bid with any additional spaces based upon discussion with the client or preview of the space. In addition to the furniture rentals, we add an established rate for delivery, installation and removals. In the event that the project requires excessive drive times or additional labor for our team, we adjust accordingly.

We keep our process quick and easy because time is money and the quicker that we can turn around a proposal the better. In addition to saving time, we’ve found that our consistent pricing method helps us create rapport with our agent clients, who know not to expect any surprises when they receive a proposal from Olive + Opal.

Pricing for home staging is tricky, and as we indicated above, there is no correct answer. But if you are struggling to develop your pricing method, we are happy to help! We offer a 2-hour mentorship program where we answer ALL your business questions, including pricing. Learn more about this program here. We can’t wait to hear from you!