Ann ~ I most definitely get more calls for interior decorating consultations than home staging.  I don't know if my clients are just opting to stay put, or if, as it seems, they are just getting around to decorating their "new" homes after they've been in them 5 years!

Hi Ann,  I'm sure you'll get a variety of answers on this one. Almost 95% of our business is staging vacant homes.  The other 5% is presale consultations for those who are selling their existing home.  This 5% wants quick, low cost ideas to make their home more marketable.  I'm in the northern suburbs of Seattle.

Ann, here in Indy it's just the opposite.  We have been over ran with Staging projects since the first week in January.  Most of them are vacant so we're scrambling.  We ran out of furniture inventory several weeks ago and most of our accessories are depleted so were in this vicious cycle of almost every Saturday, shopping to get furniture and accessories for week after next projects.  We must be at least 50% above our average for this time of year.  We're also scrambling to get our new design consultants trained so we can be ready when the real selling season starts.

Hi Ann!

I am getting consultations before placing the house on the market.  Several have decided to take their time getting ready to sell & are not really sure the timing is good right now.  The stock market has folks really skiddish.  They would like a good buy on a new house, but don't want to take less for theirs.

Kathy

I am getting about half staging calls and half redesign consult calls- one of my clients, whose house I staged last year , wanted me to "stage" her new house so it was fresh and clutter-free. She wanted to enjoy her home before she sold it again someday...~Leslie

Good question Ann. In Orange County CA. I did a survey of local home stagers. The vast majority of them did not earn thier living on Home Staging, but by decorating or similar business. Out of over 14,000 homes on the market, less than 1% were actually staged by a Professional Home Stager.

Dave Jones

Whoa, Dave! I can't believe only 1% are staged- make that less than 1%!!!

Odd. Good for us, but odd.

Hmmmmm... guess we have some work to do?

~Leslie 

My company earns more money on design work than staging work  still - we would like to exclusively stage but the market is not ready for that here yet - we are "staging shy".