If there’s one thing most home stagers can agree on it’s that there’s never a dull moment in this career. You’re constantly being challenged and forced to think on your feet, it really is an exciting career. It’s only made better when you hear back from a client about the results your staging brought about and realize there’s more to this career than making rooms look nicer!

Staging Diva Graduate, Patricia Adamic of Ma Maison Home Staging in Oakville, Ontario wrote me recently to share an interesting home staging success story that really proves home staging works.

Patricia received a call from a lawyer who wanted help staging one of his clients’ homes. Sadly, however, it was a client who had passed and there were no surviving family members who would do anything in regards to selling the house.

This compassionate lawyer arranged to meet Patricia and the real estate agent at the home and there she learned this situation was about to get more difficult. The agent did not believe in staging and the home was in terrible shape. It was dated with decades-old wallpaper and Patricia was given a very small budget to work with.

Instead of turning and running from the challenge, Patricia faced it head on wanting to impress the realtor and the lawyer (who would both be wonderful sources of future referrals), and prove to them that home staging works.

Patricia writes, “With my talent and all the knowledge that I got from the Staging Diva Training Program, I staged the property and it sold in 5 days with multiple offers above asking! I was thrilled to be able to prove that home staging really works!”

The Realtor® provided Patricia with the following testimonial, “When I first saw the property, I knew I had my work cut out for me and that this house would take a long time to sell. With Ma Maison Staging’s expertise, enthusiasm and skill, the home was transformed into a very sellable property in no time and she did a fantastic job of staging it. Patricia made my job easy. The house sold in 5 days and with competing offers! I would definitely recommend Patricia’s services to agents and homeowners who want to get their property sold quickly and for top dollar. ”

About the Staging Diva home staging courses, Patricia writes, “The training has helped me to have confidence, to know how to approach different situations with clients, to organize my business and to present a professional image, while helping me do something that I love!”

Home stagers, this story does more than prove that staging works, but it’s also a good reminder that we never know where our next project might come from. Don’t be afraid to leave your business cards with everyone you meet and to talk about what you do! It also demonstrates how much good we can do as stagers, in this case, helping to settle the estate of a man who had no family wishing to do so.

Stagers, do you have an interesting story about an unlikely source of business? 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.

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While the economy was taking its toll on established home stager, Leah Fritz’s business, Leah was hunkered down, working on her marketing despite the storm of uncertainty swirling around her.

• She wasn’t distracted by a constantly ringing phone so she invested time in the development of her marketing plan.

• Her email wasn’t full of client inquiries so she focused instead on building relationships with past customers and potential clients.

• She wasn’t running around from appointment to appointment so she used that downtime to tweak her branding and try some different marketing tactics.

Besides all of those activities, Leah had her Profile Listing on the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers working for her. She didn’t panic, like some stagers do, saying they weren’t getting enough business to keep their listing active. Leah knows that’s the wrong way to think about marketing, because she knew if nothing else, with her presence on the Directory of Home Stagers she was out there where potential clients would be looking for her. In fact, she recently renewed her listing for a fourth year!

Do you know what happened? Leah eventually got so busy that she could hardly keep up with herself but even though she was busy with staging projects, paid speaking engagements and redesign projects, she kept on marketing. In fact, Leah has been busy developing her own home staging blog which she has recently launched to help grow her business even more.

The word is out about her business, Perfect Place Home Staging. Leah was recently contacted by a local property flipper who had his latest flip on the market for a couple of months with no offers. It was a small house at 960 square feet and buyers were having difficulty imagining themselves living in a 17×11 living room. Leah staged the space with appropriate scale rental furniture and accessories.

As a result, the homeowners received a full price offer less than 24 hours after staging.

Leah’s client said he would have many houses for her to stage because he would “hate to see her working for the competition!”

Leah has put everything she learned from the Staging Diva Program (especially Course 4 which focuses on marketing) into effect, ensuring that she’s building her business no matter what the economy is doing and she has the confidence to sell her staging services for what they are worth.

She writes, “Yes last year stunk, but quitting was not an option for me. Walking away from my ‘baby’ would have probably sent me into depression. Everything worth having comes with hard work. That’s why they call child birth ‘labor.’”

Until 5pm this Friday May 14, when the Mother’s Day Madness Sale ends, you can get the same Staging Diva tools Leah has been using to build her business, and you can get them at discounts of 10% to 50%!

Individual courses are marked down by $50 and you can save $100 on your Directory listing, plus get your free company brochure, much like the one I created for Leah. Hurry, though, because the sale ends Friday!

And Leah, well done!

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

Debra Gould has 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. She’s put together a special Mother’s Day gift for all stagers to provide them with the encouragement they need to follow their dreams. Download your own free copy here.

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Before finally hiring Staging Diva Graduate Fabia MacNair, a desperate house seller had accepted an offer of $250,000 for her home knowing it was worth more. She wasn’t interested in doing the work needed to complete the home staging to-do list, however, because she just wanted to sell. Fabia hated that her hands were tied and the seller was losing so much equity for the sake of a little elbow grease. But nothing could be done with a signed offer and a date with the lawyers.

In an odd twist of fate, the deal fell through and as soon as she left the lawyer’s office, the homeowner called Styling Spaces.

The homeowner took down notes during her two-hour consultation with Fabia and followed her advice to the letter doing a clean-up and making repairs. Fabia helped choose the renal furniture and prepare the home for showings. The work was done two weeks after the original deal fell through.

After the first open house, the home sold for $330,000 after an investment of less than $6000!  Remember this house seller originally accepted $250,000. So that’s an extra $80,000 after spending $6,000. I’ve always said home staging is one of the few legal ways to see such a quick return on an investment, especially when you consider what’s happening on the stock market.

The homeowner was obviously thrilled and now Fabia has this glowing testimonial to use in her marketing, “We were ready to sell the house, as is, because we didn’t want to spend the time or the money fixing it. When the deal fell through I invited Fabia over to see what needed to be done so that I could make my proper profit. My sister and I did as Fabia suggested and with two weeks work, in between my full time job, we went through the home staging to-do list and made all the design and redesign changes. I spent about $6000 on construction materials, furniture rental and her fees. I had doubts about putting in the amount of work that Fabia said I should, but when it was done, it sold on the first day. I’d have to work two years to make profits like that!”

If you’re a Staging Diva Graduate with your own story proving home staging works, send me some information so I can write about you. I’ve made it super easy, all you have to do is visit this link and plug in your news. I’ll turn it into a story like this that you can use in your marketing!

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, fabia macnair, staging diva, home staging success story, home staging program, staging diva graduate, home staging course

Over the past three years, Ontario Staging Diva Graduate Margaret Harlos has been solidifying her position as the expert home stager in her area with her business, Living Organized.

Margaret is a former Volunteer Manager and Program Coordinator for a non-profit organization and has been featured multiple times in the local media both in print and on local TV.

This savvy Barrie home stager quickly made a big splash in her local real estate market, and wasted no time becoming familiar with her neighborhood real estate agents.

When Margaret and her husband were looking for a larger home they swung by an open house that was listed by an agent familiar with Living Organized. After viewing the property’s photos and descriptions online, Margaret was expecting to view the perfect home but even from the driveway she knew that wasn’t going to be the case. She tried to remain optimistic thinking she would be able to see past the bad curb appeal and would at least be able to negotiate a better price.

Once inside, it was proving difficult to see past the home’s flaws. The agent, knowing Margaret was a home stager, told her the homeowners would be willing to paint and fix the house up a bit. When Margaret asked why she hadn’t told her clients to do those things before scheduling any showings, the agent didn’t answer.

Ten days later, Margaret was called by another real estate agent she was tightly aligned with. He had a client willing to do anything Margaret asked to get her home sold.

Through her conversations with the homeowner, Margaret learned the previous agent had just been fired after a failed 15 day trial. This homeowner was devastated to find out that while away on an extended business trip, her home had been shown in terrible condition. The homeowner said she’d asked the agent prior to listing if the house needed to be cleaned or painted but despite asking the right questions, she was told that it was fine as it was.

At that point Margaret realized who she was speaking to the owner of the same home she had recently visited as a potential buyer. She didn’t have the heart to tell her new client that she was one of those potential buyers who had been turned off by her home.

Margaret was hired and the family went to work on all the tasks she suggested to improve the overall condition of the home.

After staging the home was listed again and sold for just under asking in less than one week.

About her home staging training, Margaret says, “The Staging Diva Program has helped me to market my business. The reason that I chose to train with Debra Gould was because she focused on business training. I wanted the skills and information needed to help me build a sustainable business. I learned a lot in the program but combined with her private business accelerator coaching I am well on my way.”

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, margaret harlos, staging diva, home staging success story, home staging program, staging diva graduate, home staging training

What could make a stronger case for hiring a home stager than an offer coming in after a home was staged…from a person who saw the home before staging without any interest?

That’s exactly what happened with a Maryland property transformed by home stager and Staging Diva Graduate, Holly Battaglia.

Her clients, who found her online had their house on the market for part of 2007 and for most of 2009. They didn’t have a single offer on the property despite all that time on the real estate market.

After they hired Holly to stage the house, the couple had 7 showings in 7 days and one resulted in an offer.

That offer was not accepted because it was too low and the sellers knew with all the activity happening on their property thanks to Holly, they wouldn’t have trouble selling it.

Credit: Danielle Arcilesi Photography

Holly believes the offer (which had come from someone who’d seen the house before), was because the prospective buyer felt an urgency to take action— fearing that since the property looked so good after staging, someone else might snatch it up first.

That’s what home staging is all about…perception of how desirable a property is. And that’s why it works.

Besides working full time as a home stager, Holly works part time as a nurse and is a busy mother of four children. When someone has as hectic a schedule as Holly, it makes a lot of sense to market online because she has something promoting her staging business 24/7 while she carries on with her full life.

According to Holly, the fee she made on this one project, which was a result of her online marketing efforts, covered the cost of her home staging training program and her Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers listing.

Staging Diva Graduates, if you’re still trying to decide if a listing on the Directory of Home Stagers is worth it, does this story change your mind?

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, holly battaglia, staging diva, home staging success story, home staging program, staging diva graduate, home staging course, directory of home stagers

Master bedroom before staging

I’ve featured New York home stager Donna Dazzo before here in the Home Staging Business Report after one of her impressive media appearances. I’m happy to have the opportunity to write about Donna again because she is such a model student!

In January, this Staging Diva Graduate was featured in Yahoo! Shine with her inexpensive and easy design tricks for selling and she was also recently featured in Newsday’s weekly paper and online in the “Long Island Makeover” column.

Donna certainly deserves this recognition because she so obviously knows what she’s doing as demonstrated by her latest success story.

Donna’s home staging company, Designed to Appeal, was contacted by the owner of a Manhattan apartment who was relocating to a different state. She and her husband had one month to move due to a job relocation, so needless to say they needed to sell fast.

Master bedroom transformed

Luckily, these homeowners had family members on the West Coast telling them they just had to have a home stager because “no one puts a home on the market in California without having it staged.”

It wasn’t too difficult for Donna to evaluate what wasn’t working in the space as it was. The dining room had a sofa, the living room had two dining room chairs and little else, the master bedroom had a set of bunk beds in it and the children’s room had a full-sized bed and was also doubling as a home office.

Donna made recommendations for the furniture placement and the homeowners decided to simply move their own items out and bring rental items in to show the apartment in its best possible light.

What happened after staging was finished?

• The real estate agent booked 35 showings the first week
• The homeowners received 3 offers at the first open house
• The house sold in 8 days after the first showing

This homeowner was happy she listened to her family members so she could carry on with her move with that much less stress.

About her home staging training Donna says, “The Staging Diva Program’s emphasis on continuous marketing and marketing to more than one group (not only real estate agents) has helped me with increased exposure and more clients.”

Donna is obviously focusing on marketing to the media just as she was taught in Course 4 of the Staging Diva Program. Home stagers, do you consider the media one of your target markets? What have your experiences been? How have you managed to get noticed by local media? Please share your experiences and let’s discuss!

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

Debra Gould developed the Staging Diva Training Program to create opportunities for others to grow their own profitable home staging businesses. More than 4000 Staging Diva Students around the world have been trained by Debra.

Technorati Tags: home stager, home stagers, home staging, donna dazzo, home staging training, home staging business, staging diva

With two very young children at home it was a risky move on Fabia MacNair’s part to quit her job in the residential development field to run her Ontario home staging business, Styling Spaces, full-time. But it’s a risk that continues to pay off for her and her family.

Fabia has worked hard to put what she learned in the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program into practice (she was obviously motivated to make her business work having given up her steady job). She has even been mentioned in her local newspaper after giving a staging seminar to local members of the community.

In December of last year, Fabia received a call from a homeowner who was listing his home and despite the fact that his real estate agent did not feel the home needed to be staged, he called in Styling Spaces to do the job anyway. After being a home stager for 7 years, I can assure you what happened to Fabia in this case is common. Savvy home sellers use their own common sense even if their agent isn’t a believer in staging.

When the agent came back and saw the transformation she was “wowed” and immediately hired Styling Spaces to stage four of her other listings.

One of those listings had been on the market on and off for a year before staging and it sold that same weekend.  Two of the homes sold same day and one that had been overpriced for its market sold for $15,000 over market value.

That skeptical real estate agent became a big fan of Fabia and spread the word around her office leading to lots more work for Styling Spaces.

This story proves you cannot depend on real estate agents for your business. (That’s a lesson covered in Course 4 of the Staging Diva Program when you learn about the four key target markets a home stager has). Obviously the homeowner in this case had been educated about the value of staging and look at the snowball effect that followed.

Fabia writes, “The Staging Diva Program, hands down, has given me the answers I need to run my business. My class notes still guide me when I am stuck. Debra Gould is very knowledgeable about this industry and is willing to teach it. When you have spent enough time with those other courses and you are ready to get to work call The Staging Diva.”

Stagers, I would love to hear your best “agent-proven-wrong” stories! Please share yours in a comment below and perhaps I’ll compile them for a future post if we get a good discussion going.

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, fabia macnair, staging diva, home staging success story, home staging program, staging diva graduate, home staging course

Many home owners choose to sell on their own instead of working with a real estate agent and giving 5% or 6% of their selling price over in real estate commissions. These properties are known as FSBOs, an acronym for ‘For Sale by Owner.’

The very fact that they’ve chosen to sell without an agent tells you these types of clients are interested in making more money on their sale. Home staging is an excellent way for the owners of FSBO properties to maximize their selling price, as demonstrated in the following story about Staging Diva Graduate and Omaha home stager, Dolly Dewald.

Bedroom before home staging

After doing an initial home staging consultation for a busy couple with three young children who were selling their home without a real estate agent, Dolly was asked to stage the home for them.

The home owners spent weeks cleaning and painting their home. They had little in the way of furniture so Dolly helped them get set up with a furniture rental company and assisted in selecting furniture for 4 bedrooms and an entertainment room. Dolly went on to purchase bedding and accessories. The home took an entire day to stage.

Bedroom after staging

Each Sunday they held an open house and they ended up receiving multiple offers, not bad for a FSBO. The couple eventually sold for 96% of their asking price.

The clients were thrilled with the results and later told Dolly the buyer said her staging is what sold the house.

About her home staging training, Dolly writes, “My goal was to have a job I loved. The Staging Diva® Program gave me the structure and know-how to create a business and make it work. With Debra Gould’s help I now have an outlet for my creative juices and a job I love.”

Do you have a story like Dolly’s that proves home staging works? Just follow this link to share it with me and you can be featured in a post like this too!

Have any of you worked on FSBOs? Have they provided any special challenges or opportunities? Please share your thoughts and comments below.

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: FSBO, staging FSBO, home stager, home staging, dolly dewald, staging diva, home staging success story, home staging program, staging diva graduate, home staging course

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

Few types of people are in as much of a rush to sell as those going through a divorce. It’s a wonder that all couples going through the process don’t choose to work with a home stager, especially with stories like the one Staging Diva Graduate Carol King recently sent in, proving that home staging works.

Before becoming a home stager at the age of 62, Carol was a single mother operating her own hair salon. Though she’d always loved redecorating, she hadn’t considered changing careers to pursue a career in the field. Not even when she found herself staging a vacant home for a divorcing couple.

Carol naturally brought in furniture and accessories, art and flowers to make it feel warm and inviting, knowing that the home shouldn’t be on the market vacant.

The home sold on its first day after being staged after the divorcing couple was presented with multiple offers. They ended up selling for well over their asking price.

It’s a shame that Carol didn’t take before and after photos of this project, but this was before she realized she was a home stager.

This goes to show, even if you just enjoy decorating right now and don’t have plans to start a business, you should be taking before and after photos just in case!

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 training