REALTORS... I'd like to NEEDLE you to make a marketing POINT

I am a stickler for words. (Pardon the pun.) But something has been bothering me since I first started my own home staging company. It has to do with referring to ourselves as "Home Stagers."

Is that the best way to describe ourselves? Is being a "Home" Stager actually what we are? Does that term help or hurt the realtor who believes in us and wants to bring us to a client?

The problem and marketing disconnect lies with the word "HOME." If you buy a property, condo, real estate or build a house... how and when does it become a home? I believe it becomes a home when we personalize it with our belongings, life experiences and create memories within and around it.

To capture the emotional connection we have with our homes society has even coined endearing phrases like:

• - Home is where the heart is.
• - Home sweet home.
• - Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.
• - Welcome Home!

Staging 101 teaches staging professionals to advise sellers to de-personalize.... remove those items that make your house your home. Hence bring it back to being just a house.

Even authors on the subject of staging agree. Barb Schwartz in her book entitled Home Staging starts by telling her readers... "You must begin to think of your home as your house, and your house as a product." In their book Dress Your House for Success Martha Webb & Sarah Parsons Zackheim advise sellers to "Start referring to your home as a 'house'. The word house carries much less of an emotional tie."

So I wonder about what we are communicating to realtor and sellers when we call ourselves HOME Stagers?

Recently I had a realtor call us and wanted us to talk to her seller about staging. But the realtor was afraid that she would be insulting her seller by bringing in a home stager.
In her head this is how the realtor thought the conversation with her seller would transpire...

Realtor: I think it might be beneficial if we bring in a home stager.
Seller: What are you saying my home is ugly?

Can changing the languaging of the message, communicate a better message?

For example...

Realtor: I think it might be beneficial if we bring in a Real Estate Stager. OR I think it might be beneficial if we bring in a Property Merchandiser?
Seller: ____________________________________ (Really, what can the say?) Actually a lot of things... but it is not insulting the personal taste or home decor choices the seller has made.

So is it best to refer ourselves as Home Stagers? Remember good and effective marketing is subtle and crafts the message the market will easily relate to.

When working with sellers, trying to convience them about using staging services, might that term "Home" just create another sub-conscience marketing obstacle we then must overcome? Would terms like: Stager, Real Estate Stager, Real Estate Merchandiser, Property Stager or Property Merchandiser be a better way to describe the professionals that are building this Real Estate Staging Industry?