“Should we call FRAUD staging?”

A response to a local realtor’s blog article: “Home Staging on the Cheap”

One morning I was doing some of my staging work and happened upon a blog of a local real estate agent. The title of the article caught my eye: “Home Staging on the Cheap.” I was interested in what this Realtor had to say as I am constantly working to meet my clients’ staging needs on any budget. As I read, my mouth dropped open and I gasped. I could not believe the absurdity that I had just read.

As I continued my work throughout the day, I just could not stop thinking about what I had read earlier that morning. I mentioned the article to several others to get an idea of how others would respond to it. My husband’s response was, “Wow…that is terrible.” My employee responded, “(gasp.) No way! I can’t believe he wrote that!” My friend’s blunt response: “That is fraud!”
OK. My intention is not to portray this realtor in a bad light. My hope is that he was simply trying to find something to write about for his blog. He probably did not really think through what he was saying.

So what did he write that was so repulsive to me? Here we go...

Here is a quote from his article, “Now, to some of you, this might sound a bit unethical. To me, though, it sounds like pure genius. My clients have really good taste ... What they did is, they went down to ****** and also to ****** (I have removed both of the retail store names out of respect to them.) They bought all kinds of nice, fashionable-yet-cheap home furnishings and accent pieces, and brought it all home.
All of their belongings had been removed from their house, put in storage or brought to their rented home in Santa Cruz. They used the furnishings from these stores, and a couple of others, to make their home into a showcase for contemporary home furnishings. When the house sold, they simply returned all the items from the store from which they were purchased.
Now, some of you might call it cheating – I call it clever!”

Calling it cheating is putting it lightly. This practice that he is promoting is unethical and fraudulent! It is definitely NOT “clever” or “genius”! The word genius denotes exceptional intellectual and creative ability. Simply stealing another company’s resources and wealth does not constitute creative genius or cleverness. It is far more clever to find new ways to use what you already have to properly stage your home.

Just in case there is any confusion as to why this act is wrong, I’ve listed the following reasons:
1. A business transaction should be beneficial to both parties.
2. Here is a definition of the word fraud: “wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain.” It is fraud because you are secretly using another company’s time, money and resources for your own personal and financial gain.
3. It is theft! Without the company knowledge, you are having them pay for your staging. They are paying for the shipping, stocking, re-stocking, employee time and all that goes into running a furniture store. They are also losing money on the returned items that cannot be sold as new once they are returned.
4. It hurts the rest of us! It causes companies to have to change and tighten their return policies for all of us in order to protect against fraudulent use of the return policy.
5. It is dishonest unless you are able to walk up to the store counter and say to the employee behind the counter, “Hi, just to let you know, I don’t intend to keep any of this stuff. I am just using them for a couple months so I can stage my home and sell it for a higher price. Once my house sells, I’m returning everything. Hopefully, they won’t be too damaged. After you give me a full refund, you can just go through the effort of restocking them and selling them for less as used items. Is that OK with you?” If you can walk up to the store counter and say that to the sales associate, and they are still OK with it, than maybe this could be considered OK. Of course, that would never happen because no one in his or her right mind would agree to such a thing. If you can’t be honest than, quite frankly, you are lying.

The best way to stage your home “on the cheap” is to work with us at Limelight Home Staging. Tell us your budget. No matter what your budget is, we can help you!

Please, do not steal from another company and make them pay for what you should be paying for yourself. Please do not lose your integrity. And always remember the Golden Rule, “Do unto others, as you would have done unto you!”