Professional Home Stagers have the ability to imagine what even the worst room can look like with the right color, furniture, lighting and accessories. That’s not easy to do if you don’t have the right eye for it. For home sellers, it’s especially difficult to view their home as a highly critical buyer will. They are too emotionally involved in the house, the contents, the memories of living there, why they need to move, etc. Home Stager Debra Rowley of Debra Rowley Interior Staging saw this living room when it was filled with construction debris. She was able to create the right contemporary look to attract a full price offer at the first open house for this $945,000 Seattle area home!

Home staging is all about romancing the home buyer, which is especially necessary in slow real estate markets.

Prospective buyers shop with logic but they buy on emotion.

Unless they walk into a home and make an emotional connection with it, they won’t make an offer. Especially in a buyer’s market when they feel no pressure to act quickly because there are so many other homes to choose from.

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

Internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould is president of Six Elements and creator of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program with 750+ Graduates worldwide. She is the author of “Staging Diva Ultimate Color Guide: The Easy Way to Pick Colors for Home Staging Projects”, and “Staging Diva Ultimate Guide: Creating The Perfect Portfolio to Sell Your Home Staging Services”.

Debra also offers a Directory of Home Stagers to help homeowners and real estate agents locate home stagers who will decorate homes to sell quickly and for top dollar.

Technorati Tags: home staging, home stager, real estate staging, Seattle home staging, home staging statistics, romancing home buyers, decorate to sell, Debra Rowley, Washington home staging, Sammamish real estate, Staging Diva

Home staging, real estate merchandising, property styling— no matter what you call it, decorating a home to sell fast for top dollar works. A townhouse that went on the market for $333,000 sold within 24 hours for $355,000, or 6.6% over the asking price.

But was it the careful real estate merchandising by Staging Diva Graduate Hayley Harris of Essential Key Home Staging & Property Styling that made the difference?

Consider this: A townhouse two doors away with the same size and layout has been sitting on the market for some time. Originally listed at $335,000 it has been reduced to $300,000 and still hasn’t sold!

A cluttered playroom where the dining room is supposed to be, does nothing to attract buyers. Home stager Hayley Harris transformed it into an inviting space. Home buyers don’t want to use their imagination to see if a home will work for them. And many can’t do it even if they try. Real estate stagers pave the way for buyers to fall in love with a home and imagine themselves living there.

Why would a prospective buyer pay $355,000 when a virtually identical home is available two doors away for only $300,000?

Because people shop with logic and buy on emotion.

If a property is well presented it will attract more interest than one that isn’t. Sadly this fact is lost on many home sellers who keep dropping their asking price without paying proper attention to the perceived value and appeal of their home.

The real estate agent might recommend a price cut because it doesn’t cost them that much in lost commissions and they make nothing hanging on to stale listings. But to the homeowner, that’s money right out of their pocket. Far better to invest a modest amount (which could range from $250 to a few thousand depending on what’s needed) to ensure the home attracts the highest number of potential buyers.

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

Internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould is president of Six Elements and creator of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program with 750+ Graduates worldwide. She is the author of “Staging Diva Ultimate Color Guide: The Easy Way to Pick Colors for Home Staging Projects”, and “Staging Diva Ultimate Guide: Creating The Perfect Portfolio to Sell Your Home Staging Services”.

Debra also offers a Directory of Home Stagers to help homeowners and real estate agents locate home stagers who will decorate homes to sell quickly and for top dollar.

Technorati Tags: home stager, home staging, home staging statistics, property styling, real estate staging, real estate merchandising, why home staging works, home staging proof, Essential Key Home Staging, Hayley Harris, Staging Diva

There are lots of simple things a homeowner can do on their own to decorate their house to sell. For example:

• getting rid of clutter
• re-painting
• cleaning
• putting out fresh flowers

So why hire a home stager?

Many homeowners don’t know what colors to paint, they can’t be objective about their own homes, many haven’t a clue where to put things, and they’re completely overwhelmed. They often lack current knowledge about what homes in their price range should look like.

A professional home stager will look at a home through the eyes of a highly critical buyer. They:

• know what’s needed to create the right environment quickly and at the lowest cost

• know what homes in different price ranges look like and what’s selling

• will tell homeowners things their real estate agent may be afraid to because they don’t want to lose the listing

• are not emotionally attached to any of the home’s contents

• see things that someone who has been living there for years simply can’t

• recommend the optimal way to re-arrange existing furniture, art and accessories

• can quickly choose new paint colors, flooring, tiles, counter tops or any number of finishes that they know will work in the home

• source painters, cleaners, handymen, off-site storage and any of the other myriad of services that may be needed on short notice

• bring in replacement furniture, accessories and art if what is there isn’t appropriate to the home’s target market or the home is empty

Home staging is not just for multi-million dollar homes, it can have a dramatic effect on the selling price, and time to sell, of even a modest home.

For example, one home I did had been on the market for months with a best offer of $350,000. I spent 90 minutes with the owner telling him where to move furniture around, what to put in storage (and where), what to clean. He sold the following week for $361,000! How many other legal ways can you think of to invest $600 and get $11,000 back the next week?

More examples of the difference professional staging makes to the selling price of a home.

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

Home Staging expert Debra Gould is the author of “Staging Diva Ultimate Color Guide: the easy way to pick colors for home staging projects” and “Staging Diva Ultimate Guide: Creating The Perfect Portfolio to Sell Your Home Staging Services.”

Discover the ONLY Home Staging Business Training Program taught by a seasoned entrepreneur who has successfully grown her own home staging business (not as a side-line to selling real estate) — The Staging Diva Training Program.

An entrepreneur since 1989 and with an MBA in marketing and hundreds of home staging clients, internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould, The Staging Diva, is uniquely qualified to train others how to start and grow a profitable home staging business.

More about Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training

Listen to a FREE Staging Diva Preview Call Recording

Technorati Tags: home staging, home stagers, real estate staging, real estate staging business, home staging training, home staging business, staging diva, Debra Gould

When homeowners invest in home staging, it’s important to also have a real estate agent who appreciates the increased value of a home that shows well.

Staging Diva Graduate Leah Fritz of Perfect Place Home Staging LLC recently completed a real estate staging project on a Kenosha WI house that was to be listed for $365,000. Once the Realtor saw it staged, she upped the asking price to $395,000.

Even better, the client invested under $3,000 in home staging and received a full price offer during their weekend open house. Full price offers at an open house are rare in the area, especially in today’s real estate market.

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

Discover the ONLY Home Staging Business Training Program taught by a seasoned entrepreneur who has successfully grown her own home staging business (not as a side-line to selling real estate) — The Staging Diva Training Program.

With an MBA in marketing and hundreds of home staging clients, internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould, The Staging Diva, is uniquely qualified to train others how to start and grow a profitable home staging business.

More about Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training

Listen to a FREE Staging Diva Preview Call Recording

Technorati Tags: home staging, home stagers, house staging, real estate staging, real estate staging business, home staging Wisconsin, home staging Kenosha, Perfect Place Home Staging, Leah Fritz, home staging training, home staging business, Directory of Home Stagers, staging diva, Debra Gould

Today is the last day to save $100 and order the entire Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program for only $795. You can also order individual courses for only $179, which goes up to $199 November 1.

In fact, if you order all five courses today, you save $200 over ordering the individual courses at the $199 price.

Each course is 2 hours in length and comes with a full set of Staging Diva Course Notes. You’ll be ordering course recordings unless you want to wait until January to take the courses live by phone with me.

If you can do the program now, I don’t recommend waiting since you’ll want to get your business up and running before the busy spring real estate market which starts by the end of January/early February.

Actually, there are tons of projects out there right now for all those desperate homeowners who weren’t smart enough to have their homes staged before they put them on the market this fall. Now as the holiday season approaches they realize they’re looking at waiting several more months to sell, unless they do something drastic.

Their agents are all telling them to cut their asking prices. Home Stagers offer a very attractive alternative. I once spent 6 hours rearranging a house and the owner sold the following week with three offers. His agent had wanted to drop his asking price by $50,000 so he hired me instead! This was after sitting on the market for four months. Imagine the result if I’d staged the house in the first place!

How much do you think a homeowner would be willing to pay you to save himself $50,000? That’s why home staging is such a lucrative business. We’re offering a service that homeowners can make huge profits from. As the real estate market slows and shadows grow over the state of the economy, demand for home staging will grow.

If you’re worried about ordering course recordings because you won’t have me on the phone with you to answer your questions, consider these advantages over the live program:

• You can listen to the recordings as often as you like. I pack a ton of information into 10 hours of recordings. If you re-listen a month later, I guarantee you’ll hear something you missed the first time through.

• You aren’t tied to the course times. Listen when your kids are at school or spend a weekend and listen to the whole program; it’s entirely up to you!

• I record all my TeleClasses then I go through and listen to them all. I specially select the ones I offer for sale as recordings based on the quality of the questions asked. Each group is different. Some ask me lots of great questions and others don’t. By ordering the recordings, you’ll have the benefit of listening to my answers to the best questions any group asked.

• The recordings and notes are emailed to you as “download” links. You don’t need to be computer whiz to get the material. You click on the links and the material automatically downloads onto your computer. You print the notes and you listen to the recordings on your computer at your convenience. If you have an iPod or other mp3 player, you can even copy your recordings onto that and listen while you’re walking the dog!

“I was worried listening to the classes might be dry. Big mistake on my part. You are awesome and strong… my new Staging Hero!” Sam Turner

Staging Diva Accelerator Upgrade

When you order the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program, you’ll have the option of adding two hours of one-on-one coaching with me by phone for only $300 more. You can take 6 months to use that time and I’ll help you with:

• naming your company
• writing your marketing materials
• building your web site
• how to deal with an especially difficult client
• how to manage a complex project
• and more. Whatever you want to ask me about!

Here’s what one student who just finished listening to the Staging Diva course recordings wrote to me yesterday:

“I have been in love with design and real estate for 25 years, always feeling the need to do something with the two of them. Having an education in interior design and a real estate license I found myself standing still. Knowing I did not want to be a glorified sales person or work for anyone I choose to start a marketing company, and 15 years later found myself still craving the passion for the two industries.

I have been researching home staging for about a year and finally found Staging Diva. Something kept drawing me back and telling me this woman REALLY knows her stuff. Not just the “pretty picture” but the business in the real world we live in. I signed up for all 5 courses and found them to be an absolute eye opener, a must-have if someone is thinking of starting a staging business, or any business for that matter. Not enrolling in the Accelerator Upgrade with your personal coaching was definitely a wrong business decision for me (yet another lesson learned).

Debra you have inspired me so much as a businesswoman, someone who became a dream catcher not just a dreamer. With your straightforward get-to-work attitude, passion for the business, and your students questions, the Staging Diva Program is without a doubt worth every single penny spent.” Christine Obarto, Michigan

If you’ve been itching to reinvent your life and do something that reflects your real talents, I hope you’ll consider the Staging Diva Training Program. You can listen to a free preview to learn more about it.

Don’t forget you need to order before November 1 to get the $795 price, an amount you can more than make back with your first staging project!

Discover the ONLY Home Staging Business Training Program taught by a seasoned entrepreneur who has successfully grown her own home staging business (not as a side-line to selling real estate) — The Staging Diva Training Program. With an MBA in marketing and hundreds of home staging clients, internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould, The Staging Diva, is uniquely qualified to train others how to start and grow a profitable home staging business.

You can become a Staging Diva Graduate with 10 hours of training by phone with Debra Gould from home, or you can do the entire program by listening to recordings which are emailed to you immediately after you register.

Read more about Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training

Technorati Tags: home stagers, house staging, home staging, real estate staging, real estate trends, proof staging works, working from home, home staging training, home staging business, staging diva, Debra Gould

I just finished my final coaching call with new Staging Diva Graduate Karen Totten of Newmarket. She did the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program with me this summer and also purchased the Accelerator Upgrade which gave her two hours of coaching time, one-on-one with me.

Her first project took 7 weeks to complete. It was for a home that was on the market for 8 months with a best offer last October of $659,000. The clients took the house off the market and worked with Karen who not only staged the house but managed all the other details for carpentry, painting, new appliances and more that needed to be done.

Home Staging Results

Overall, the client invested $48,000 on their property (over $14,000 of which went to Karen for her time). The result, the client sold after only 6 showings and got $780,000 on a $799,000 asking price.

In other words, even after investing $48,000, the client made a profit of $73,000 over their best previous offer, and they were able to sell after only 6 showings, when they had previously sat on the market for 8 months.

And for Staging Diva Graduate Karen Totten, she made over $14,000 in only 7 weeks in a brand new business. Not bad for her investment of only $1095, which gave her 10 hours of course time, notes, plus 2 hours of one-on-one business coaching with me.

By the way, I’ve shared these details with Karen’s permission. I consider any business details discussed during coaching sessions privileged information.

Discover the ONLY Home Staging Business Training Program taught by a seasoned entrepreneur who has successfully grown her own home staging business (not as a side-line to selling real estate) — The Staging Diva Training Program. With an MBA in marketing and hundreds of home staging clients, internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould, The Staging Diva, is uniquely qualified to train others how to start and grow a profitable home staging business.

You can become a Staging Diva Graduate with 10 hours of training by phone with Debra Gould from home, or you can do the entire program by listening to recordings which are emailed to you immediately after you register.

Read more about Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training

Technorati Tags: home stagers, house staging, home staging, real estate staging, real estate trends, home staging statistics, proof staging works, working from home, home staging training, home staging business, staging diva

I hear from aspiring home stagers and others new to the business who are afraid that they’ll be held responsible when a home doesn’t sell for a certain price.

While I’m not a lawyer, I can shed some light that should alleviate this fear.

No home stager should say to a client, “if you follow my advice I guarantee you’ll sell for this amount.” You can talk about other successes you’ve had with clients. For example, if I’m talking to a homeowner with a house in the $300,000 to $400,000 range, I’ll tell them the true story of my client who was on the market for 3 months with a best offer of $350,000 for his house. I did a 90 minute staging consultation with him, advising on what to get rid of and what to rearrange. He took my advice and sold the following week for $361,000— an $11,000 increase in his selling price!

Or, if I was talking to someone with a more expensive home, I’d tell him the true story of another client who had a house sit on the market for 4 months. His agent wanted to drop his $949,900 asking price by $50,000, so he called me instead. Investing $1,000 in my advice, he sold the following week for 98% of his original asking price.

In addition to using your “success stories” to illustrate the financial gain other clients have had using your services, you can say “I believe these changes will increase the value of your home by more than what they will cost you.” Notice this is not a guarantee and you’re not saying by how much the value will go up.

A common practice of less scrupulous agents is to “buy a listing” by telling a client they can get them a higher amount for their home.

Some clients are stupid or naive enough to pick an agent based purely on the selling price that agent says they can get, even if it is out of line with what other agents have told them the home is worth.

What happens when the house goes on the market and doesn’t sell at that price? The agent gets the client to keep reducing the price until someone buys. Are real estate agents legally responsible for not getting the initial list price of a home? NO! Why would a home stager be responsible?

By the way, any home is only really worth what someone pays for it. The rest is just conjecture.

Discover the ONLY Home Staging Business Training Program taught by a seasoned entrepreneur who has successfully grown her own home staging business (not as a side-line to selling real estate) — The Staging Diva Training Program. With an MBA in marketing and hundreds of home staging clients, internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould, The Staging Diva, is uniquely qualified to train others how to start and grow a profitable home staging business.

I get about 200 requests a day for information. Realtors looking for free staging advice for their clients, aspiring home stagers hoping I’ll tell them the magic secret to getting rich quickly in home staging with no effort (hint: there’s no such thing and run in the opposite direction from anyone that tells you otherwise!).

Thankfully, I also get thought provoking questions. I don’t give one-on-one free advice (I do need to earn a living after all), but I will answer interesting questions here for the benefit of the greater community. And, if you’re a Staging Diva Graduate with a specific business challenge, another place to get help is in the Staging Diva Network.

A realtor in British Columbia wrote:

Can you direct me to a resource that will help me accurately advise my clients as to where to spend their home improvement dollars for the highest return? I do of course advise to clean, de clutter, tidy the yard and garden, paint and so on but if it comes down to a choice between say a new living room carpet or a new kitchen counter, which one to choose? Should a seller upgrade lighting fixtures or replace the dated taps in the bathroom. Those are the kinds of questions I get. Sometimes the answers are clear. I would prefer to use an expert opinion for my clients. (Bill Craig, BC)

My Answer

Hi Bill, I think the accurate answer is “it depends”. These are judgement calls that professional home stagers make every day. In some homes I recommend changing taps, in others I’d change the lighting, and in many I’d do both! Factors I consider are:

• how dated, worn or just plain ugly the current items look
• the price point of the house
• how the house compares to others in a similar location/price range
• the target market of the particular home and what they’d likely find important
• how much time is available until the house hits the market
• how much a homeowner is prepared to invest in staging

Any home has a myriad of things that could be improved upon, prior to selling. I don’t believe there are any hard rules that say don’t bother with “X”, but absolutely do “Y”.

We know that home buyers are particularly interested in the state of kitchens and bathrooms because these are typically the most expensive to renovate. However, a talented home stager can often recommend relatively inexpensive cosmetic improvements that will make a huge difference to how these important rooms look. For more information and before and after photos, visit:

Why Home Staging Works to Sell your House For More Money

What to Expect When you Hire a Home Stager

One Day Bathroom Makeover

While a definitive To Do list might be nice, it would not be an accurate way to answer this real estate agent’s question.

By the way, the kitchen pictured above is from a house I did a home staging consultation for. I spent several hours with the client and left her with a 10 page TO DO list. She followed all my recommendations and sold her house for $100,000 more! She later wrote,

“Thanks to you my husband and I can retire mortgage free after putting all our kids through university. We’re really excited about downsizing into our new downtown condo! Honestly, when the house sold for $100,000 more we felt like we won the lottery. We can’t thank you enough for all your advice!”

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

Home staging expert Debra Gould, also known as The Staging Diva is president of home staging firm Six Elements Inc. and has been featured on HGTV, GlobalTV, CityTV, CNNMoney, MoneySense, Entrepreneur Magazine, Reader’s Digest, Woman’s Day and more. She has staged hundreds of homes in the $190,000 to $1.5 million price range and taught close to 300 women all over North America and in Wales, Australia and South Africa to start and grow their own home staging businesses.

Home staging training course descriptions and schedule

The fall home staging / house fluffing market is really heating up. I’m fully booked until October with client projects.

Last year at this time I had three overseas clients. One in Hong Kong, one in Thailand and another in England. After years of having tenants living in their homes while overseas, they decided to sell.

That made my job especially interesting since tenants don’t always take the best care of a place. Repairs and painting are always the first steps, once they move out, followed by a specialized cleaning team.

I love doing empty houses, and when the owner is away I really have complete creative control. I’m starting with an empty shell just waiting for my vision of what the home can be.

I usually stick to a neutral color palette— but not always, as you can see in this bathroom. Here the 1920s tiles and fixtures are set off with a colorful shower curtain, bold towels and a rich gold on the walls.

It creates a “look” instead of saying “this old bathroom has got to go!” As it happens, this bathroom was in a house I staged that sold for $100,000 more than the client thought they would get! But I digress. Back to my three overseas clients…

Once I’ve created the color palette for the home and the whole place is repainted, I have the window coverings added. Then I move in rental furniture and accessories to create the dream home potential buyers can fall in love with.

Home Staging is a very detailed business

Every detail must be attended to and so much has to be planned. After all, once the truck full of furniture arrives is not the time to realize you forgot a chair or a lamp you needed for the corner.

It can be intimidating furnishing an entire house from scratch when you’ve never done it before. It takes me about 3 hours to choose furniture and accessories for a 4 bedroom house. I take lots of measurements ahead of time and draw rough floor plans.

I really pay attention to where walls jut out and exactly how many inches I have to work with in smaller areas. Imagine bringing in a dresser and realizing it doesn’t fit where you thought it would. Or worse, they can’t even get it up the stairs because you forgot to consider the width of the staircase or the sloped ceiling!

I also bring my digital photos of the home for reference when I’m selecting furniture. Sometimes I’m choosing furniture for two or three houses at once and I need to keep them straight. Photos really help bring life to my floor plans and measurements.

Special reporting requirements for out of town clients

Working with a client that is out of town requires additional project management time so it’s important to prepare your client for that cost of your time. You need to keep them in the loop as the project progresses as it requires a huge leap of faith on their part to turn their home over to someone else to decorate to sell in their absence.

I admire their courage and feel a profound obligation to do their home justice while they’re away. It’s not all about measurements, floor plans and scheduling (those these are critical) it’s also about hanging out in the space and understanding and seeing its potential.

In case you’re wondering, on staging day, I usually arrive at the empty house at about 9 AM and by 5 PM the home is showing ready! What a feeling of accomplishment there is at the end of a day like that. To so clearly see the results of your planning, project management and creative vision is very rewarding.

Discover the ONLY Home Staging Business Training Program taught by a seasoned entrepreneur who has successfully grown her own home staging business (not as a side-line to selling real estate) — The Staging Diva Training Program. With an MBA in marketing and hundreds of home staging clients, internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould, The Staging Diva, is uniquely qualified to train others how to start and grow a profitable home staging business.

Read full Staging Diva Home Staging Training course descriptions and schedule

One of the top reasons for not making enough money in home staging is not charging enough. Here are 3 tips to help you establish your home staging fees:

1. Consider all the time you don’t get paid for.

For example, preparing for a client appointment, answering potential clients’ questions in advance, scheduling and re-scheduling appointments, travel time, follow up calls (before, during and after the project), keeping track of client expenses and time on each project, bookkeeping, standing in line at the bank, etc.

If you think $100 or even $250 per hour is too much to charge a client, remember the many hours you put into your business that no one pays for.

2. Consider what tangible benefit you bring to your home staging clients.

Do you believe you provide real value to your clients? If you don’t believe this, it will be very difficult to convince them. It might help to think about how much financial value you can bring to a client if you do the job well.

Don’t fall into the trap of feeling embarrassed about your rates. Done well, a home staging project should generate anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 profit for the homeowner.

So, why shouldn’t a professional home stager be paid well?

This house sold for $71,000 over asking.
The client invested about $900 in my advice during a home staging consultation. Someone could easily say, “wow, $900 just for advice, that’s a lot of money!” But if you asked, “what if you could invest $900 and make $71,000?”, few people would consider that too expensive.

Home Staging is an investment in a potentially significant financial return for the client. Consider this when determining your rates.

3. Remember that when you’re in a service business you are selling your time.

You have limited “inventory” so make sure you’re not always “on sale!” Since you can’t manufacture more hours in a week, the only way to earn more is to charge more for your time.

The Staging Diva course “The Business of Home Staging: What you need to start and how to grow” includes a detailed discussion of pricing strategy.

If you’ve already taken the course, now is a great time to review your notes so you make sure you earn what you’re worth this fall real estate season. If you haven’t taken course 2, you can order a recording of it right now for only $179. You’ll make that back easily on your first client because I share with you everything I’ve learned about pricing based on my MBA training and the real world experience of being an independent entrepreneur since 1989.

I have also built a lucrative home staging business from scratch in a very competitive market.

In Staging Diva course 2, you’ll learn what I charged clients three years ago and how I systematically increased my rates over time. I’ll share the single biggest discovery I made in how to best price home staging services for profit.

You’ll also learn what home stagers charge all over North America and how not to make the same mistakes they are!

Discover the ONLY Home Staging Business Training Program taught by a seasoned entrepreneur who has successfully grown her own home staging business (not as a side-line to selling real estate) — The Staging Diva Training Program. With an MBA in marketing and hundreds of home staging clients, internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould, The Staging Diva, is uniquely qualified to train others how to start and grow a profitable home staging business.