If you’ve been thinking of buying the downloadable Staging Diva Program (the cheapest way to get these home staging courses) but are reluctant to do so because you’re intimidated by the technology, I want to rest your fears.

The courses are downloadable but you don’t actually do the program online.

You simply download audio recordings and printable study notes, so you can sit at your desk with a cup of tea and pore over the material. You don’t need to do something complicated with your computer in order to participate, you’re really just reading and listening.

As long as you can download the files, there is no technology barrier to worry about.

“Download” just means you are clicking a link you’ll get as soon as you order, and when you click, the material will automatically be transferred (downloaded) onto your computer. Then you open the files from your computer and they will play (in the case of the audio files), or you will read and print them (in the case of the course notes and checklists).

If you’re concerned about what happens if you want one-on-one attention along the way of listening to the material, as this is a self-led program, you’re going to be given the option when you put the program in your “cart” to also get an hour of staging business accelerator coaching with me for 50% off. You’ll have six months to use our time together and you can split the time up into 15-minute sessions, 30-minute sessions or one-hour sessions – whatever you like. You’ll be given access to my online calendar and you can book your appointments when it’s convenient for you. Then I phone you at the appointed time.

During our calls, I’m all yours to discuss whatever challenges you’re facing as you study your home staging courses. Most students don’t have questions about the course material so they use their time for help with coming up with their business name, advice on combining staging with an existing business, or help with their website or other marketing materials. The time is really there for you to get help with whatever you need!

You can order the Staging Diva Program in a home study kit delivered right to your door. It costs a bit more than the download option though.

However, if you can figure out how to go through the online shopping cart and buy the program, you’re tech-savvy enough to handle the downloadable version!

Staging Diva Graduates, did you struggle at all as you worked through the downloadable courses? Hearing about your experiences with the program (especially if you’re not a computer whiz) may help someone debating over whether or not they can handle the technical aspect.

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements Inc. Home Staging

Debra Gould knows how to make money as a home stager and she developed the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program to teach others how to earn a living doing something they love while helping others at the same time.

Technorati Tags: home stager, home staging, staging diva, home staging training, home staging business, staging diva graduate, home staging courses

Home stagers who take the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program know that I emphasize using staging stories to pull your audience in rather than throwing a bunch of staging statistics at them.

Please know that when I say “stories” I’m not suggesting making anything up. What I am saying is, use real life examples of what home staging has done for real home sellers who have had trouble preparing or selling their home on the real estate market.

While it’s fine to quote studies that say that the average staged homes sells x number of days faster or for x number of dollars more, it’s hard for the listener to put their own situation into the numbers.

If on the other hand, you share a meaningful staging success story, especially if it’s one that relates to their situation, they will connect with the power of what you do.

Here’s a great example of what I mean. It’s an ad for Google, but watch the unique way they had of sharing what their search engine can do.

If you’ve just watched the clip, notice how you feel right now. Realize this could have been an ad where Google told you how they dominate the search market, how many seconds it takes to get a result after typing your query into the search box, etc.

But would that have had the same effect? Would you remember the statistics an hour from now, or would you remember the story? What about later when you’re trying to decide which search engine to use?

Home stagers, I’d love you to share your comments about this topic. And please share examples of how you’ve successfully used staging statistics or staging success stories in your marketing and whether they helped you connect with your potential clients.

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements Inc. Home Staging

Debra Gould has an MBA in Marketing and has been writing about the subject since the 1980s when she was a regular contributor to Profit Magazine. She has been running her own home staging company, Six Elements Inc., since 2002 and knows first-hand how to make money as a home stager. She developed the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program to teach others how to earn a living doing something they love.

Depending on what email lists you belong to, you may have recently received a message or two attempting to sell you virtual home staging software. I know this because I’ve heard from many of you curious about my take on this new practice.

In my opinion there are two types of “virtual staging.”

The first (which I practice), is virtual because I don’t actually go into a client’s home but I give them staging advice by phone based on photos they provide me with to analyze. This allows clients to have my staging advice and do the work themselves at a lower cost than if I were to do an actual consultation in their home. It also allows me to offer specific staging advice to clients outside my geographic area.

The second meaning of “virtual staging” I don’t practice and don’t recommend because I think it’s a waste of a client’s money.

Virtual staging companies have entered the home staging industry that use virtual staging software which allows you to load photos of vacant rooms to a computer and manipulate them to make it look like the rooms are furnished. The goal here is to sell attractive listing photos to real estate agents for them to use on their feature sheets and on MLS.

No stager goes to the home and no real furniture goes in the house.

The software (used by a stager, decorator or interior designer), is doing the “staging” by creating images of fully-furnished rooms to show online. While I can see the application of this software as a way to simulate what you’re going to do in a home to get a client’s approval for a decorating project where you’re asking them to buy new furniture, I don’t believe it has any place in staging in the way it’s currently being promoted.

Why is virtual staging, using software to manipulate listing photos, a waste of a homeseller’s or real estate agent’s money?

Because potential buyers are going to be quite disappointed when they arrive at a showing and see that the house looks nothing like the photos they viewed online. And everyone knows a buyer in a bad mood is not a buyer that makes an offer.

Potential buyers might even find themselves wandering through the empty house wondering why the owners had to move out so suddenly. Sensing desperation, this might attract a low-ball offer, certainly not the goal of home staging!

Your job as a home stager is to romance the buyer and while photos count (considering 90% of Canadian buyers and 70% of US buyers look online for a home before ever calling a real estate agent) they don’t count for everything.

The buyer needs to be romanced when they pull up to the drive and take in the view from the curb. They have to fall in love when they walk through the front door and they have to fall deeper in love with every single room in the home they look at until they have the feeling that it’s the property they’ve been looking for.

That’s why virtual staging software misses the mark and it’s not something I promote.

Home stagers, have you heard of this new technology? What are your thoughts? Do you agree with me, do you have a different opinion or do you see potential in such technology? Please add your thoughts in a comment below so we can have a discussion about this.

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements Inc. Home Staging

Debra Gould knows how to make money as a home stager and she developed the Staging Diva Training Program to teach others how to earn a living doing something they love.

Technorati Tags: virtual staging, virtual staging software, home stagers, home staging, home stager, home staging training, home staging courses, home staging business, staging diva

I lived in 3 different cities in 4 years and learned my way around all of them by car. This was before GPS of course, and even though the technology exists now, I still don’t use it.

I often pulled over to the side of the road on the way to a new destination to look at a map, convinced that I was headed in the wrong direction. It happened to me so often that I coined the phrase “giving up a block too soon,” because I realized I was letting self-doubt force me to pull over and wondered if this wasn’t a metaphor for how I was living my life in other ways.

Self doubt is a powerful emotion, stopping us dead in our tracks both literally and figuratively.

When you started your home staging business you may not have expected to be an overnight success but perhaps you expected to grow faster than you’ve been growing.

I’ve heard home stagers complain that they started their business 6 weeks ago and still don’t have their first client! The self doubt is already kicking in and they’re wondering if they have chosen the wrong business. The more they listen to that negative voice in their heads saying “this will never work,” the more their enthusiasm starts to wane and they start to hold themselves back.

It took me three months to get my first client but I made $5,000 on that one project. Imagine if I had given up just before that first call from a potential client?

Even if you’ve taken a bunch of home staging courses and have been doing everything right, it will take time to get your name out there, to prove that home staging works and that there’s value in the services you provide.

If you’re feeling frustrated because things are harder than you thought they would be, the worst thing you can do is give in to that feeling and give up. Because you haven’t given your business a real chance if you “give up a block too soon.”

The truth is your first year in business is going to be tough. Giving birth to something new is never easy!

You’re coming out of nowhere and you have a reputation to build; a buzz to create. You have an added challenge being in a relatively new industry like home staging because you need to educate your market that home staging works. (This is also a blessing by the way, because when you’re educating your market, you are also positioning yourself as the expert.)

So in your first year, you’re getting yourself established, you’re trying to carve a niche for yourself if there are other home stagers in your market, you’re working hard at promoting your business and you’re learning how to be your own boss. It’s not an easy year!

If you don’t give up and pull over to the side of the road, and instead hang in there and stay motivated during those difficult first months, you’ll get to experience how much easier it all becomes. As you master being in your own business and more and more people know about you and your home staging services, many projects and opportunities will present themselves.

In your second year as a home stager things will be even better because you’ll reap the rewards of all that marketing you did in year one. Plus you’ll feel so much more confident in your abilities and those moments of self doubt will be largely a thing of the past.

Over time it just continues to get easier but that isn’t to say you won’t experience peaks and valleys because that happens with any business. The important thing to remember is that you don’t have to panic when you hit another valley.

When you find yourself in the middle of a slow period thinking there’s no business anymore and you’re going to give up, remember that you’ve seen this trend before and you made it. The customers are still out there, you just have to keep marketing and things will come around.

If you’re just starting out, or if you’re currently experiencing a “valley” in your business, stick it out because you never know if you’re giving up a block too soon.

Home stagers, do you have any tips to share about keeping that momentum going? Did you feel like giving up but kept on persevering? Please share by leaving a comment below.

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements Inc. Home Staging

Debra Gould knows how to make money as a home stager and she developed the Staging Diva Training Program to teach others how to earn a living doing something they love.

Technorati Tags: home stagers, home staging, home stager, home staging training, home staging courses, home staging business, staging diva

Here’s a business dilemma that you may run into whether you’re a home stager in a small town or a large city. You’ve been staging homes for awhile and you know that there’s another stager serving your market area. You are certain that your track record is better because you’ve been recommended by agents who have told you that the other stager doesn’t seem to help homes sell any faster at all.

You’re at a networking luncheon talking to a woman about real estate and she mentions she’s going to put her million-dollar home on the market very soon. She tells you she’s planning on having her home staged and she’s already had a discussion with your competitor. She asks you if you’re familiar with her and her work.

All you can think of is the bad things you’ve heard about that stager and how staging the million dollar home of a business woman active in networking could be a great referral source for you.

Do you hold your tongue, or do you share what you know about your competition, knowing that the client will have better results if you do the staging?

Please share your thoughts by leaving a comment. I’ll add a post in the coming weeks with my own thoughts but first I want to get a lively discussion going!

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements Inc. Home Staging

Debra Gould knows how to make money as a home stager and she developed the Staging Diva Training Program to teach others how to earn a living doing something they love.

Technorati Tags: home staging business dilemma, home staging, home stager, home stagers, home staging services

I once read that 64% of men make no special plans for Valentine’s Day and only 15% of women send themselves flowers. Now that’s not to say that Valentine’s Day is only for women, quite the contrary. But my point is, there is often a mismatch between what we might expect (or hope for) and what we actually get.

If you’ve been reading my articles in Staging Diva Dispatch or Home Staging Business Report for any length of time, you know I’m a firm believer in self-empowerment. Part of self-empowerment is not waiting for (or relying on) others to make us happy— on Valentine’s Day, or any day.

Because I couldn’t send everyone a bouquet yesterday, I decided to make it easier to treat yourself to the gift of knowledge.

For any order of $50 or more that you place between now and Feb. 18 you can take $10 off, if you apply this special code when placing your order:

10Valentine10

For example, choose from the Staging Diva Ultimate Portfolio Guide, Design Guide, Color Guide or Staging Diva Sales Script.

Or, combine items like the Home Stager’s Guide to Twitter and 14 Marketing Ideas to Rev Up Your Home Staging Business and watch $10 come right off your total when you enter the coupon code and hit “apply” before checking out.

This offer will not be extended. The coupon automatically expires at midnight eastern time (that’s 9PM if you’re on the west coast) this Thursday Feb. 18. You can apply this $10 off to any new purchase of $50 or more from the Staging Diva Store right now!

To see the $10 come of your order, remember to enter this coupon code 10Valentine10 then hit the “apply” button. Make sure you apply this coupon before entering your credit card information to ensure you get your Valentine’s Gift!

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President Six Elements Inc.

Debra Gould’s mission is to inspire people to follow their dreams. She developed the Staging Diva Home Staging Courses to teach others how to earn a living doing something they love.

Technorati Tags: home stager, home staging,  staging diva, home staging course, home staging business

I haven’t heard a story that demonstrates the power of follow up better than one recently sent in by Staging Diva Graduate, Susan Atwell of New York-based AtWell Staged Home.

On a spring day in 2008, Susan was out touring model homes being built nearby, a practice she considers “continuing education for home stagers.” During her visit, Susan signed up for the builder’s mailing list under her personal email account.

Weeks later, an email came through from that builder announcing a seminar for potential home buyers with home staging being one of the topics.

This is one of those potential potholes in one’s road to success that can swallow you up if you’re not careful to simply go around it! I’ve seen so many entrepreneurs get stopped in their tracks for no good reason.

Here’s what I mean:

Many new home stagers would have been discouraged by this builder’s announcement assuming he already had a solid relationship with a home stager. Some would even blow their own disappointment into something bigger and use it as an excuse not to keep promoting themselves. They would listen to the negative voice in their heads saying, “See, this will never work. There are already well established stagers who are better than you. Who are you kidding, trying to make a living as a home stager?”

Fortunately, Susan Atwell knows that growing a business takes work and she is very single-minded in her commitment to her staging business success. She thought that in view of his upcoming event for home buyers, the builder might be interested in speaking with a local home stager so she picked up the phone and called the manager.

During this call, she learned that the builder would be offering a $1000 credit towards home staging for any buyer needing to sell their home before buying.

They had a brief discussion about recommending her company to his clients and several days later, Susan got a phone call saying that the builder would recommend Atwell Staged Home as a preferred local staging company.

Of course, Susan didn’t hang her hat on that and sit back waiting for new projects to fall in her lap, instead she continued to work on marketing her business.

She started a home staging newsletter and a blog, two topics she’s been getting coaching on during her monthly participation in Staging Diva Dialog. She also got a new company brochure (free) because of her listing on the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers.

By the time January rolled around, having received no calls from the builder and approaching a new spring selling season, Susan decided to follow up under the guise of sharing these new resources she’d been developing.

Two weeks after that follow up note, Susan was asked by the builder to present to two potential home buyers, a presentation that ended in two scheduled home staging consultations.

After that successful engagement, Susan was asked to present again and again and she ultimately ended up with 25 hours of home staging projects from that one builder in 2009.

One of those homes was staged for a couple in the Bronx who were up-sizing to a new home. They got a signed agreement from the first couple to view their existing home making them and the builder very happy with AtWell Staged Home’s staging abilities!

About her great home staging success, Susan writes, “Having a solid business plan is key. Debra Gould’s  home staging program is extremely logical and effective. The beauty is that it is also simple. With a strong IT background, this appeals to me!”

This is not the first time I’ve written about Susan’s home staging successes. She’s followed what she learned about marketing to the media in Course 4 of the Staging Diva program and realizes that by virtue of all the articles and blog posts I write about home staging, I am a member of the media on this topic!

As a Staging Diva Graduate, Susan shares her news, giving me everything I need to write a story about her and then put it on this blog and submit it to hundreds of other sites across the Internet, which gives her tons of free publicity and web links back to her listing in the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers.

If you’d like to take advantage of this free service for Staging Diva Students too, simply visit this link and tell me your story!

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements Inc. Home Staging

Debra Gould knows the key to success in business is in how you market it. She’s taught thousands of people around the globe how to make money using their natural creative talent as home stagers through the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program.

Technorati Tags: home stager, home staging, susan atwell, staging diva, home staging success story, home staging program, staging diva graduate, home staging course

If it hasn’t already happened during your career as a home stager, you might one day be asked by a homeowner if you’ll conduct your consultation even though they can’t be there.

Even if they say they’ll have a check there waiting for you, you should always insist someone be there when you do a home staging consultation.

What value is the consultation to the homeowner if they’re not there to hear it?

How will they understand what you plan to do?

How committed can they be to this process if they won’t make an effort to be there with you for the initial consult?

If I’m going to be doing a major home staging project, bringing in furniture and having the place painted and all of that, I definitely need the client there with me to hear what I plan to do and I suggest you do the same. Otherwise, that can come back to haunt you if the client doesn’t like what you’ve done.

You’ll also want to be paid not only for your consultation on your first visit to a house, but for the rest of the work you’re going to be doing as well. You need your clients to be there in order for that to happen so you can agree on the amount you’ll be given to go shopping with, etc.

If the homeowner can’t be there with you, then ask for the real estate agent to be present but only if he or she is prepared to give you your checks while you’re there.

Do you have questions when it comes to conducting a home staging consultation? Check out Staging Diva Consultation Checklist with Room-by-Room Planning Forms. It’s full of great information, including how to conduct your room-by-room consultation with your clients, what to wear, what to bring and much more.

Home stagers, have you had something like this happen to you where you were asked to do the consultation with nobody there to hear what you had to say? How did you handle it? Please share your experiences by leaving a comment below.

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®

President, Six Elements Inc. Home Staging

Debra Gould’s mission is to inspire people to follow their dreams. She developed the Staging Diva Home Staging Courses to teach others how to earn a living doing something they love.

Technorati Tags: home stager, home staging, business coaching, staging diva, home staging course, home staging business, home staging consultation

A lot of you were very interested in the last home staging dilemma I posted. In case you missed it, I asked what you would do if you were asked to waive your consultation fee. I highly recommend that you go back and read the post and go through all of the excellent comments that were left. There were some different opinions and I love to see such a great discussion going on. Thanks to all who contributed.

I don’t think I could have provided better advice on this issue than Staging Diva Graduate Leah Fritz, who from day one has applied everything she learned from her training to grow Perfect Place Home Staging into very successful home staging business.

Leah hit it on the head when she commented that she constantly reminds herself that “If my mouth is moving, I’m getting paid!” Or Staging Diva Graduate Gary Baugher of An Eye 4 Change who said, “Why waste your time giving free advice when you could be somewhere else making money?”

I love that! As a professional home stager, you’re making a living selling your time, your talent and the accumulation of your experiences.

Several other comments that were left opened my eyes to how many home stagers do waive their consultation fee when they’re dealing with a vacant home.

I do not agree with that practice. How much time do you have to take out of your day to book the appointment, travel to that vacant house, go through all of the rooms and come up with a plan as to how to tackle it?

Why shouldn’t you be paid for that time?

Have you determined how much an hour (or three) of your time is worth? When you get a real handle on that, you’ll see that it makes absolutely no sense to give that time away because the home is vacant and not occupied.

After all, it takes a lot of expertise to walk into an empty house, take all your measurements, imagine how the rooms can best be furnished, determine the style and type of furniture, calculate that you need 2 couches, 8 tables, 10 lamps, 15 pieces of art, etc.

This is not the same as doing a ball park estimate over the phone; of course you can tell someone the rough costs of furnishing a three bedroom home of a certain number of square feet. But actually planning it out is an entirely different matter that requires you to be at the property using up your creative energy.

When you choose to give a free consultation, you’re devaluing your knowledge and your talents, not only for yourself but for all home stagers as a collective industry.

If you’re nervous about how to approach the issue of charging for your time spent at a home staging consultation, order a copy of the Staging Diva Sales Script. You’ll get my word-for-word script that I use when I’m on the phone with a prospective client.

Please continue to discuss the issue here by leaving a comment below. It certainly is a hot topic!

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements Inc. Home Staging

Debra Gould knows how to make money as a home stager and she developed the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program to teach others how to earn a living doing something they love while helping others at the same time.

Technorati Tags: home stager, home staging, staging diva, home staging training, home staging business, staging diva graduate, home staging consultation

Last week I wrote a post called, “Stagers, don’t let real estate agents discourage you”. I was motivated to write it because for the 7 years I’ve been staging homes I’ve been running into real estate agents who:

• don’t understand why an empty, disorganized or ugly home is harder to sell
• list it as is, put a few bad pictures on MLS and then talk their client into subsequent price reductions when the property doesn’t sell
• are afraid they’ll have to pay for our services if they recommend them, or worse, feel threatened by what home stagers do instead of realizing we make them look good and their selling jobs easier
• want to be proud of a listing that has their name on it because they know it reflects on their reputation and who know if they have great MLS photos they’ll attract more showings and quicker and higher offers.

Sadly, that last group is harder to find. The good new is that the “unaware” or “fearful” real estate agents can be educated and many of them do come around to understanding the benefits of home staging to themselves as well as their clients, as you’ll see from the comments from home stagers on my original post. That’s why I emphasize the messages and selling points you should use with real estate agents when selling your home staging services in course 4 of the Staging Diva Program.

I was also motivated to write that post because for the 5 years I’ve been teaching home staging courses, I’ve watched too many really talented stagers feel they should give up on following their dreams because they let the discouragement of real estate agents stop them in their tracks.

It’s important to note that in the past, most of a real estate agent’s power came from the control of information.

Before the Internet, you couldn’t get any details about a house for sale without using a licensed real estate agent. I’m old enough to remember when listings were printed out and carried around in binders and the only way to see them was through an agent. Then MLS was available by computer, but the public couldn’t access it. There was no way to tell how fast homes sold or for how much, without a real estate agent.

As the gate keepers of all information about real estate, agents had tremendous power to establish asking prices, sway buyers and to convince their sellers to accept certain offers.

They still have power and influence of course (which is not a bad thing as a good real estate agent has an important role to play), but the rest of us no longer exist in an information vacuum.

With 90% of buyers in Canada, and 70% in the US doing their own online search for properties before even calling a real estate agent, the competitive environment agents operate in is completely different. Not all agents have woken up to the paradigm shift in their industry. That’s where a lot of the resistance home stagers run into comes from.

Not to mention that change always brings up fear. For agents old enough to remember when they controlled all information, it’s hard to let go of habits that came with that. For newer agents who flooded the industry when the market was booming, it’s hard to recover from the giant reality check the last 12 to 18 months have brought, and look for ways to change how they sell properties.

All this is to say, home stagers and aspiring home stagers: don’t give up your power to real estate agents. Many of them will discourage you, but keep on going anyways.

We offer a tremendous and valuable service to home sellers that makes a huge difference in their lives. If you have any doubt of that, please read the many examples of what Staging Diva Graduates have done for their clients here.

I welcome your comments to this story. Let’s keep this conversation going!

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements Inc. Home Staging

Debra Gould knows how to make money as a home stager and she developed the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program to teach others how to earn a living doing something they love while helping others at the same time.