Home Staging Contract
Download our home staging contract example and use it as a draft for creating your own
Once you complete your home staging certification, you’ll start gathering up all the documents needed to start your home staging business.
One of the key ones you’ll need is a home staging contract. Luckily, we have one here for you.
Why have a home staging contract?
My advice is to always get a signed home staging contract in your hands before beginning any work. A home staging contract serves two important purposes.
It is the single source of truth
Once you have signed a client, it might be weeks before the job actually begins. During these weeks you might have discussions with 5 other potential clients, and sometimes you might get your wires crossed.
Once you have agreed on a deal with a client, you can prepare the contract immediately. This way, you’ll know exactly what the home staging job entails, what the address is, what the fee you quoted is, and the dates of the job.
More so, once the contract is signed, there is no “he said, she said” as you both have a single source of truth to refer to. No matter what conversations took place previously, what is stated in a signed contract is what the job entails – nothing more, nothing less.
Your home staging contract avoids awkward discussions
During your home staging career some things will go not quite as expected. Jobs could be extended, jobs will be canceled, addresses may change, and much much more.
If you have a signed contract stating exactly what happens in each of these scenarios, you can avoid awkward situations in the future.
For example, if a client wants to cancel a job the day before, you can simply point to the signed contract and mention the cancellation fee.
What's in our Home Staging Contract?
Parties to the Contract
All contracts should start by clearly stating the parties to the contract, and how home staging contract is no different. Add your company name here, and be sure to add the hirer’s name here for each and every job.
Change requests
A good home staging contract will explain what happens if a change request comes from the hirer. The initial quote is based on what the home stager believes should be done to the property in their own professional opinion. In some situations, the hirer might request additional services once delivery has already commenced, and these subsequent changes should incur additional charges.
Initial hire fee
What is the dollar cost of the staging services you are providing? State it clearly here, and be sure to mention any taxes or additional fees that might apply. Also state when it should be paid, such as “in advance”.
Payments & Collection Costs
Reiterate when payment needs to be made, and be very clear that you will not begin providing services (delivering goods) until the home staging contract has been signed, and proof of payment has been provided.
Cancellation
You will get cancellations during your career, and often they come very close to the date of the job. Oftentimes, you’ve turned down other jobs to complete what has now been canceled. A must-have clause in your staging contract is the Cancellation clause. It’ll state what fee you will charge if the job is canceled within a certain time period of the job’s original booking date.
Summary of the Contract
Explain what the contract is about. In our case, the contract is for home staging services. The hirer has agreed to obtain the home staging services from us as defined in the contract, for the period of time defined in the contract.
Hire period
State the initial hire period. You can make this minimum period non-refundable and set it to a duration like “3 weeks” or “1 month” from the commencement date. If the hirer cancel the contract, or requests the removal of the staging goods during this hire period, they are no eligible for a refund. State clearly in this section the commencement date, and the end of the initial hire period.
Extensions
Some customers will request an extension to your staging services. It’s important to state what happens in this situation, as sometimes you’ll have the furniture involved in that particular job booked for a subsequent job. A good home staging contract will spell this out very specifically so there is no confusion from either party.
Insurance
A clause we like to include in all home staging contract is one that simple states what sort of insurance we have. In this same clause we insist that the hirer is to notify us of any loss or damage to our products within 24 hours of discovery.