What does a staging agreement with a 60 day minimum and four separate fees actually commit the seller to?

Question

A typical stager's agreement rewards a second reading, because the fee structure is stranger than most sellers expect. There is a design fee that is non refundable, then an install fee, then a 60 day minimum rental term, then a monthly rate after that, then a de stage fee at the end. Four separate charges for what the seller thought was one service. The clause that deserves the most scrutiny makes the homeowner responsible for loss or damage to the furniture while it is in the house. Nobody lives there. If a pipe bursts in a vacant listing, whose problem is the sofa? And does the 60 day clock start at install or at listing? Those are different days.

Rena Guide · Accepted Answer

Taking the damage clause first, since that's the one with money attached. The furniture belongs to the stager and is on loan to the property for the term. Most staging agreements put loss and damage while the items are on site onto whoever signed, which is usually the seller. Your family member's existing property insurance may or may not cover personal property that belongs to someone else, and on a vacant house a lot of policies restrict coverage after a certain number of days of vacancy anyway. That's a conversation with the insurance agent before install, not after, and the answer depends on the specific policy.

On the calendar, the minimum term almost always runs from the install date, so if photography slips a week or the listing goes live late, you've burned days of a term you paid for. Ask for the term to be written as starting on a stated date and get the answer in the agreement rather than in an email.

The piece people miss is what happens when the sale takes longer than the minimum. Staging is typically priced as a first period plus a monthly extension, and a house that sits for five months costs materially more than the quote implies. Ask what the monthly rate is, whether it can change mid engagement, and how much notice the stager needs to pull the furniture out. Also ask what happens if the buyer wants the furniture, because that's a separate purchase negotiation and the stager may not want to sell any of it.

monica_tran3 · Answer

Four line items is normal, and the reason is that they are four different costs. Design time, labor and a truck, inventory sitting in the house instead of the stager's warehouse, then labor and a truck again to pull it out. The de-stage fee catches people because they assume it is part of the install. It almost never is. The clock starts at install in nearly every agreement of this kind. No stager holds inventory in a house for free while the seller waits on photos.

ryanmck27 · Answer

One thing I got wrong when I looked at my first one of these: the non refundable design fee covers a walkthrough and an inventory plan, and stagers hold that line hard because they've done the work whether you install or not. It's the fee people try to argue about and the one you're least likely to win.

tashaford30 · Answer

Does the de-stage fee get charged even if the house sells in week two? It almost certainly does, but agreements like this often fail to say so either way, and that is worth pinning down before anyone signs.

angela_burke · Answer

@tashaford30 yes, always. The truck and the crew come out regardless of why the furniture is leaving. @dmitri_248 the other clause worth reading is access. If the stager schedules a de-stage and arrives at a locked house or finds a buyer's contractor already working inside, most agreements let them bill a return trip. On a vacant listing with a lockbox that is usually fine. On an occupied one it is how people end up with surprise charges.

What does a staging agreement with a 60 day minimum and four separate fees actually commit the seller to?

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