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You can take the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program from home. To Graduate, you need to take five two-hour courses by phone with Debra Gould or order the recordings. Full course notes provided.

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"Staging Diva Home Staging Business Quick Start Checklist: 20 Steps to Start Your Home Staging Business" by Debra Gould is a handy TO DO LIST. You'll save time and money by doing things in the right order when you're starting your business. This Quick Start Checklist takes the worry out of what to do first and lets you focus on getting it done. Why reinvent the wheel? Follow the 20 steps in the order they are outlined and you'll have what you need to launch your business.

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“Staging Diva Home Staging Consultation Checklist with Room-By-Room Client Planning Forms” by Debra Gould takes the guess work out of how to do a home staging consultation and lets you fill in the blanks as you go through a home. You’ll learn the techniques and process the Staging Diva has used successfully in hundreds of homes, and how to avoid doing time wasting and unprofitable reports.

More about Checklist

 

home staging portfolio guide

"Staging Diva Ultimate Guide: Creating The Perfect Portfolio to Sell Your Home Staging Services" by home staging expert Debra Gould will give you the steps to creating a winning home staging portfolio. Whether you're writing a brochure, creating a portfolio album, building a website or your Profile page in the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers, this guide will teach you how to write about your talents and get great home staging before and after photos. Filled with tips and tricks, worksheets and more.

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The Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers is the fastest and easiest way to gain an Internet presence for your staging business. We build your page for you and host it on the high-traffic StagingDiva.com site so that homeowners and realtors will find you!
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The Staging Diva Network is an online discussion group for Staging Diva Graduates to share challenges and triumphs. A supportive community to stay connected with others starting their own staging businesses and a great place to get questions answered any day of the week!

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"Staging Diva Ultimate Color Guide: the easy way to pick colors for home staging projects," by Debra Gould, will take away any fear about quickly choosing colors for your clients. Filled with helpful tips and Debra's top picks for staging colors that work in any home. You'll get specific Benjamin Moore color numbers, color palette groups and more!

 

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The "Staging Diva Home Staging Business Booster eCourse" will help you stay motivated and keep your business moving forward. When you register, you'll get a weekly business boosting lesson by email every week for 21 weeks. Home Staging expert Debra Gould has been an entrepreneur since 1989 and she has created each lesson to give you practical and concrete steps you can take to build your business. An inspiring quotation is always included to reflect the spirit of that lesson.

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"Home Staging, a hot growth business", says Entrepreneur Magazine







The Staging Diva Program is the only home staging business opportunity featured in all three Entrepreneur Magazine's Start Up Guides for the last three years.
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Debra Gould's mission is to empower and inspire others to start and grow their own home staging business. If our products or services fail to meet your expectations, we'll give you a full refund.

Satisfaction Guaranteed!

"My first staging project was worth over $8,000. Then, within days of joining the Staging Diva Directory,  I got another project to stage a condo worth over $1.8 million. Taking The Staging Diva Training Program and joining the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers have been great investments in my business!"  Bill McIntosh (BC)

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"I got my first real estate staging project within weeks of finishing the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program and made more money than I used to make in a whole week in my full time job!" Kelley D'Lima (AZ)

"My first project was worth $5,000 and thanks to the Staging Diva Program, I knew how to handle it!" Erin Rhindress (MA)

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"After the Staging Diva Courses I made almost $18,000 on my first project and staged another 17 homes in my first year, with an average fee of $10,000 on each! Thank you Debra Gould for all your help and encouragement and giving me a way to quit my previous job and become a full time home stager!" Ken Sater (CA)

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"I'm so happy to be starting a new business at the age of 76. I got two staging projects within weeks of completing the Staging Diva Training. Thank you Debra for everything you have done to make my dreams come true!" Jean Smith (FL)

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"Starting my own business at the age of 26 is such a dream come true!   I would have never made the leap if I didn't find the Staging Diva   Training Program." Andi Atteberry (CA)

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"The Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program is a definite 10 on a scale of 1 to 5!" Lucie Quigley (NS)

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"Enrolling in the Staging Diva Program is one of the best investments I have ever made. I liked everything about it. By the end of the fifth class I had everything in place to start my home staging business." Michelle Aleff (MN)

"The Staging Diva recordings are straight forward and easy to follow. Because of what I learned I made $4,000 on my first staging project!" LaJeanna Pilant (TX)

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"I can't believe I'm getting paid for something that I love to do and that comes so naturally to me." Peggy Depalma (ON)

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"You will leave the Staging Diva Program with a written road map to guide your success. This is practical, no-nonsense information on what you need to start your own home staging business. " Jody Thulin (CA)

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"I have never been so driven, passionate and totally motivated as I have been since completing the Staging Diva Program. Run, don't walk to your computer to enroll now! You will regret that you didn't do it sooner!" Dane Caldwell (ON)

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"The Staging Diva Program gave me the knowledge, power and confidence to quit my job of 8 years and start doing something I have only dreamed of." Heather Ray Ryan (FL)

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"The Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program isn't just about Staging - it's about being in BUSINESS and making MONEY and keeping yourself SANE at the same time!" Victoria Willits (MD)

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"It was a pleasure taking the Staging Diva Courses and Debra Gould has provided continued encouragement and knowledge during my first year in business. I competed last week with someone who has been staging for 12 years and I got the project!" Gary Baugher (TN)

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"The Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training information is invaluable and we appreciate the ongoing support and personal touch that you offer." Adam Luttrell (Tasmania)

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"Debra takes away the fear and inserts a 'can do' policy that gives you an extra boost of confidence to start your staging business. I'm so impressed with her integrity and will continue to buy other Staging Diva products. After taking the training I made over $5,000 on my first project!" Debra Rowley (WA)

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Archive for the 'Real Estate Trends' Category

Home Staging helps Seattle area home get full price offer in one day

Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
Living room before staging 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!

Living room after staging

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

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.

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First Staging Diva Graduate in Milan Italy

Thursday, May 3rd, 2007

home staging milanCongratulations to the first Staging Diva Graduate in Italy, Tamara Lee Wilson Earl who is based in Milan.

Tamara followed the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program by ordering the five course recordings to listen to at her own convenience.

I’m looking forward to Tamara’s stories about starting up her staging business in Milan, Italy.

Italy’s real estate market has been hot in recent years, with prices rising substantially. Many Italian investors distrust the stock market and prefer to put their money into real estate.

Italians are bigger savers than in the US. Personal debt levels are lower so the risky mortgage practices (which have percipitated house price declines in many US markets) are not seen in Italy.

Debra

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

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House Fluffing makes it into Schott’s best-selling Almanac

Tuesday, May 1st, 2007

Schott's AlmanacSchott’s Almanac which the Sunday Times calls “a social barometer of genuine historic value, ” features the latest catch-phrases as language evolves.

The 2007 edition includes “house fluffing” as sprucing up one’s house in preparation for a sale.

This is great for the house fluffing, or home staging, industry as it contributes to overall awareness of the need to decorate a home to sell for top dollar.

The more the average public learns about what this is, the better for all home stagers or house fluffers as we’re sometimes called.

However, our responsibility as home stagers remains, to continue to educate the public and the media about:

Debra

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

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How to Shoot Great Home Staging Portfolio Photos

Saturday, February 3rd, 2007

Family room staged by Debra Gould If you’re serious about promoting your staging services, you need great before and after photos. These take time to plan and shoot; don’t expect to run through a house and get a bunch of great shots in 10 minutes.

If you’re trying to show the before and after of a certain room:

  • Make sure both photographs are taken from the same angle.
  • Shoot both of them with the same orientation, either horizontal or vertical.
  • In the “after” shot, eliminate any distracting details like the dishtowel hanging from the stove or the opened toilet seat.
  • Don’t shoot towards a window in daylight; it will make the rest of your image too dark.

These are some of the many tips contained in my new ebook “Staging Diva™ Ultimate Guide: Creating The Perfect Portfolio to Sell Your Home Staging Services” coming out March 1.

Debra

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

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Sometimes Home Staging Photos Need Fixing

Friday, February 2nd, 2007

bedroom staged by Debra GouldOne of the ways to improve your own home staging before and after photos is to use a program like Photoshop or other photo editing software to help the shot look better.

I’m not suggesting putting in or taking out items (the decorating equivalent of sticking somone’s head on someone else’s body!), but for fixing things like:

  • improving the lighting and contrast
  • rotating the image so that it looks straight
  • cropping to focus on the right elements within the shot
  • bumping up the colors so they look more true to life (sometimes photos come out very yellow for example because of the lighting)
  • cropping down to a close up detail of the room to create a vignette

How room photos look on a home staging website is critical to marketing our staging services. Good interior shots are also critical for realtors who want to do an effective job of drawing potential buyers to their listings since so many people house hunt on line.

I know I bought my last three houses after finding them on the Internet!

Debra

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

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Home Stagers Using Fake Portfolios

Thursday, February 1st, 2007

Flowers by home staging expert Debra GouldSince home staging is a completely unregulated field, some house stagers seem to think “anything goes” and others do certain things without really thinking through the ramifications.

I’m disturbed by the number of home staging websites using the same before and after images. That’s because many of these stagers have taken a program that includes being given a fake portfolio to help them get their business started. Others, have purchased “stock images” to enhance the look of their websites and marketing materials.

This completely misleads homeowners and real estate agents who are purchasing our services based in no small part on the strength of our portfolios. We are selling our staging or decorating talents, so the before and after photos we present to them must absolutely be our own work!

This flower image is not a stock image, it’s from a kitchen I personally staged. The project included doing all the flower arrangements for the house. This shot is a close up I took of one of my arrangements.

What is a stock image?

An image, photographed and made available by someone else, and then rented or sold to third parties for their own use (generally marketing communications). Some stock images are royalty free and therefore available without a fee.

Stock images (photographs and illustrations) have been used by major corporations and advertisers for years, long before the Internet made digital images available to the masses. It’s an effective way to build your marketing message without having to budget for a professional shoot or professional illustration.

But, the stock images are not used to represent the actual product being sold, they are used in other ways. For example, a beach shot to depict the prize you can win by buying the product. The product shot would be an actual photograph of the product being sold.

In this blog I use stock images to represent locations where I’m advertising for a home stager. I used a stock shot of a projector when I was posting about the need for a guest speaker in Texas. However, I never use stock shots of interiors of homes. All the decor shots on this blog and my two sites are of rooms I’ve staged. The only exception being when I’m blogging about a Staging Diva Graduate or showcasing their portfolio, then I use one of their own portfolio shots. In the case of listings in the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers, all the photos must be the work of the home stager advertising.

Use of stock images to promote your home staging or decorating services

As professional home stagers we should not be using stock photos of house interiors or exteriors in our marketing efforts. I know many will disagree with me, especially the people using them or making money selling them to others.

When we use an image that we’ve bought, begged or borrowed from someone else, we are implying (to potential customers) that it is our work because it’s showing the service we are selling.

Establishing trust and credibility

In a nation-wide survey of why people buy, “confidence in the company or their service/product,” was the number one reason (”price” was down at number 5 in case you’re wondering). If a prospect assumes that all the lovely room shots they see on your site, brochure, etc. are your own work and they find out that it isn’t, what does that do to your credibility?

If your brochure and front page of your site have gorgeous stock shots and then they go to your portfolio and don’t see the same level of quality, what do they think of your portfolio? I think they’ll very likely feel like they were getting sucked in by fancy packaging and there isn’t anything beneath that. So, their confidence in you has just gone out the window.

If you haven’t bought my case for why using stock “decor” images is misleading, consider this…. your own portoflio of before and after photos can only look worse when you mix it in with professionally shot and styled stock images. Because they’re juxtaposed together, the contrast in quality is obvious. What might have been a perfectly acceptable portfolio on it’s own now looks amateurish.

With every word and image you use in your marketing efforts, you are communicating who you are and what you offer. When there are inconsistencies you only lower the confidence others will have in you, making actually getting hired for your work, infinitely harder.

If a real estate agent runs an ad with a bunch of photos of homes with a SOLD flash across the picture and they were not involved in the sale of any of the homes, I would find this equally misleading. Because they are implying that they had the listing or that they found the buyer for the home. The fact that some do it is not a reason to say everyone should.

If you were selling your car, would you run an ad with a different vehicle in the picture? And if you did, would the person buy the car when they saw the real thing?

If you’re selling your decorating talent and the photos on your site are of rooms decorated by someone else, this is misleading. That’s why you shouldn’t do it, plain and simple. No amount of rationalizing about how others do it, or how it’s hard to get started, will change that.

I don’t use stock images on my two home staging websites and I don’t provide staging portfolios as part of the Staging Diva Training Program. Though I do discuss how to go about building your first home staging portfolio as part of course 2 of the program.

It can sometimes be tempting to take short cuts, but in the long run I believe it will hurt business. What goes around comes around. At the end of the day, if we don’t have our integrity, what do we have?

Debra

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

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Blacks and visible minorities in home staging

Thursday, January 11th, 2007

A major US newspaper is doing a story on blacks and visible minorities in the field of home staging. If you have any information to share and would like to be interviewed for this story, please contact Staging Diva Graduate, Venus Hamilton of Distinctive Touch.

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva

Home Staging expert Debra Gould also known as The Staging Diva is president of Six Elements Inc., a leading home staging company that provides free information to raise the standards in the industry and build awareness amongst homeowners and their real estate agents about the benefits of decorating a house to sell.

Debra Gould developed The Staging Diva Program to create opportunities for others to grow their own profitable home staging, real estate enhancement businesses.

Learn more about the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program

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Speak to new real estate agents in Arlington Texas

Wednesday, January 10th, 2007

staging presentationI’ve been contacted by a major insurance company that is organizing a series of lunch and learn sessions for new real estate agents who have joined the Arlington Texas Board of Realtors.

They would like a guest speaker for their March 13, 2007 luncheon to speak about home staging. It’s an excellent opportunity to educate new agents about the benefits of home staging and position yourself as the local home staging expert.

Imagine speaking at an event that is organized and hosted by a prestigious firm. That’s far different than showing up at a realtor office begging for a chance to speak to their agents!

If you’re interested in me recommending you for this opportunity, you need to be a Graduate of The Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program and have a website or listing in the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers. I’ll be looking for stagers with a strong portfolio of before and after photos who can speak confidently about home staging.

If you’re interested in this amazing opportunity to showcase your talents in a professional setting, please email me using “Arlington Texas Speaking Opportunity” in the headline and tell me why you should be the one to speak at this event.

This is one example of the leads and marketing opportunities I provide to Graduates of The Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. I’ve also referred hundreds of staging projects over the past twelve months and gained media attention and other speaking engagments for a number of Graduates.

Debra Gould

Home staging expert Debra Gould, the Staging Diva, is president of Six Elements Inc. a leading home staging firm. She has also taught close to 400 women and men across the US, Canada, Australia, England, Wales, South Africa and The Philippines to start and grow a successful home staging business. She has been featured on HGTV, CBS Radio, CNNMoney, The Wall Street Journal, Woman’s Day, Reader’s Digest, House and Home, Style at Home, GlobalTV, CityTV, LIFE Network, and many more.
Learn how to take your decorating talent and turn it into a profitable staging business

Staging Diva Training in Entrepreneur Magazine for third time in 2006

Saturday, December 23rd, 2006

Staging Diva in Entrepreneur MagazineBrowsing for magazines to read over the holidays, I discovered that The Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program made Entrepreneur’s Fall 2006/Winter 2007 Business Start Ups Guide.

It’s the third time Staging Diva has made one of their Start Up Guides this year. Staging Diva is the ONLY Home Staging Business Opportunity Entrepreneur Magazine recognized this year, and they also identified home staging as one of the hottest growth businesses for 2006.

Given the continued melt down in US real estate (Canada experienced what they’re calling a “soft landing” in 2006), the demand for home staging services will continue to rise in 2007 making this an excellent time to learn how to start and grow a staging business.

After all, when there are a dozen other similar houses in your neighborhood for sale and prices are falling, what other strategy can a homeowner use to protect their most important financial investment when it’s time to sell?

Home staging makes a tremendous difference in how fast a home sells and for how much because it’s human nature to be attracted to something that looks better! That’s why we dress up when we go on a date, why we detail a car before we sell it… how silly to imagine you can take a cluttered, badly decorated home in need of obvious repair and expect top dollar!

Debra

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.

More about Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training


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Home Staging Expert Debra Gould on Money 101 today

Monday, November 13th, 2006

Debra Gould on Money 101

Last Monday I was supposed to appear on Bob McCormick’s Money 101 radio show on KNX1070, CBS Newsradio’s Los Angeles affiliate. The show was moved to today because of the wild fires that were burning around LA last week.

So, you can catch me live today on Money 101 at 10:30 AM Pacific Time, for a 30 minute interview on how to stage a house to maximize it’s value given the squeeze Southern California homeowners are in because of slower real estate sales, declining propery values and the high number of adjustable rate mortgages in a rising interest rate environment. It’s a great show with lots of real estate-related features.

Listen in live to Money 101 on KNX1070 in LA, November 13, 10:30 AM, and I invite your comments here!

Recent Money 101 Episodes available on line


Home Staging expert Debra Gould also known as The Staging Diva is president of Six Elements Inc., a leading home staging company that provides free information to raise the standards in the industry and build awareness amongst homeowners and their real estate agents about the benefits of decorating a house to sell. Debra Gould developed The Staging Diva Program to create opportunities for others to grow their own profitable home staging, real estate enhancement businesses.

Learn more about the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program

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