It’s always been hard for home sellers and real estate agents to locate qualified home stagers. That’s why I get so many requests to recommend a home stager from all over the United States, Canada and as far away as Australia, England, South Africa, New Zealand and even Israel.

The Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers is heading into it’s third year and I’ve completely redesigned it and added an easier search feature as well as making it better for search engines to find.

Now all a visitor has to do is enter a city, neighborhood, county, province or state into a search box and it will take them right to a list of all the stagers in that area.

Not just a list of names and contact information which really does nothing to build a stager’s business.

Each stager has a complete profile with their logo, personal photo, contact information, list of areas served, 600 words of copy about them, 3 sets of before and after room shots with captions and an extra vignette photo. In other words, it’s a complete portfolio! This approach is important for marketing because prospects need to read about the home stager and see samples of their work before deciding whether to call.

If the home stager listed has their own website, we also provide a link to that from the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers.

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

Home Staging expert Debra Gould also known as The Staging Diva is president of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company that is frequently profiled in the media in both the US and Canada. Debra Gould developed The Staging Diva Program to create opportunities for others to grow their own profitable home staging, real estate enhancement businesses.

If you’re a Graduate of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, you can get your company listed in the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers. We build your page and all the code to help search engines find you!

Learn how to join the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers.

Technorati Tags: home staging, home stager, home staging business, directory of home stagers, real estate staging, make money in home staging, Debra Gould, Staging Diva, advice for home stagers

Home owners looking to make more money when they sell their homes can catch my free tips on decorating a house to sell quickly on KFOR1240 Radio which streams live from their website, Friday April 18, 2007 at 12:30 Central/1:30 Eastern.

I’ll be interviewed by Dale Johnson about:

• what home staging is
• why it’s important
• simple design ideas home owners can do on their own
• how to know when you need the help of a professional home stager
• and more.

Listen to Lincoln Live at KFOR1240 AM if you’re in Lincoln, NE, or if you’re not you can hear the show stream live on your computer at www.kfor1240.com. On the right side of the page, look for the box that says “Live Streaming Click Here to listen LIVE!”

Please let me know what you think by adding your comments to this post!

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, make money in real estate, Lincoln NE staging, KFOR1240 AM, Dale Johnson, Debra Gould, Dale Johnson, Staging Diva, advice for home sellers

Home stagers often have trouble sourcing attractive art to rent to their clients when they’re decorating their homes to sell.

Once you take down the photos, diplomas, hunting trophies and religious items that have no place in a home when it’s on the real estate market, there’s often little left to work with.

Finding appropriate art that will enhance the home without taking over and getting it in the size and framing needed has been challenging until now. I created the Staging Diva Home Staging Art Shop to make this easier and I’ve created specific art galleries for every key room in the house. So you don’t have to wonder if a particular work of art is more appropriate for a master bedroom or dining room for example.

My goal was to take the mystery out of using art for home staging and make it easy for home stagers to earn passive income renting and re-renting pieces from their art collection out to home sellers or their real estate agents.

The Staging Diva Art Shop allows you to order online, preview how the work of art will look in a particular frame and matting, see it against different wall colors and more. There’s also an option to print the work in a variety of sizes on canvas to have a gallery wrap rather than a frame.

Visit the Staging Diva Home Staging Art Shop and don’t forget to sign up for your free copy of The Staging Diva’s Top Ten Tips for Using Art In Home Staging!

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

Debra Gould, creator of the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program, has staged millions of dollars worth of real estate, including seven of her own homes. Debra is the President of Six Elements which offers Home Staging, Interior Redesign and Color Consulting services, as well as the StagingDiva.com website.

Gould has gained international recognition and has been featured in major media in the US and Canada including: HGTV, CNN Money, CBC National News, CBS Radio, GlobalTV, CityTV, The Wall Street Journal, Womanís Day, Reader’s Digest and more.

Technorati Tags: home staging, house staging, home stager, real estate staging, real estate enhancement, art for home staging, renting art, art for home stagers, art for staging, home staging art gallery, decorate to sell, home staging art shop, sell homes fast, house fluffing, Staging Diva, Debra Gould

Many home stagers worry that they’ll forget some of the details they need to cover with a homeowner or real estate agent during a home staging consultation. Or they aren’t sure how to best organize the meeting, what to bring and how to best present their ideas in a way that won’t offend their clients.

After all, we’re going into someone’s home with the express purpose of changing it before they list the house for sale. That can raise some sensitive issues that need to be handled diplomatically.

I created the “Staging Diva Home Staging Consultation Checklist With Room-by-Room Client Planning Forms” to give stagers a tool to make home staging consultations easier, less stressful and more profitable.

This tool is really two products in one.

The first part guides you through how I do a home staging consultation based on the hundreds of homes I’ve staged over the last five years. I take you through:

• what you should consider before the meeting
• what you should bring with you
• how to start the consultation
• the process I use as I go through a client’s home
• how to end the meeting

In the second part of this new tool, the Room-by-Room Client Planning Forms, I give you exactly that. I’ve set it up so all you have to do is put your own logo and contact information on the cover of the planning forms section and then photocopy the rest.

I’ve given you forms/checklists to fill out for every room in the house! There are different pages for the:

• living room
• dining room
• kitchen
• master bedroom
• 3 additional bedrooms
• powder room
• 3 bathrooms
• play room
• home office
• family room
• den
• basement
• attic
• garage
• front porch
• exterior
• overall home
• suggestions for showings

You can fill these Room-by-Room Client Planning Forms out yourself or let your client do it as you go room by room during your home staging consultation. Another way to use the forms is to just have your own copy that you refer to as you go along helping you stay organized and making sure you don’t miss anything you should be discussing in a particular room.

If you or your client fills out the forms as you go through the home, you’ll have a professional looking and complete document to leave with the homeowner at the end of your meeting. This puts an end to the time wasting and unprofitable task of typing up a report of your recommendations after the fact. Besides, anyone with a non-selling home already on the market, or anyone about to list with lots to do to get ready, doesn’t want to wait the day or two it would take to get your report. They want immediate solutions and this tool allows you to meet this need.

And no more worrying that you’ll forget some of the details as you go through a house. It’s all laid out for you step-by-step, all you have to do is fill in the blanks!

Learn more about Staging Diva Home Staging Consultation Checklist With Room-by-Room Client Planning Forms.

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 700+ 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: Debra Gould, home stager, home staging, home staging business, home staging consultation, home staging guide, how to stage, real estate staging, staging checklist, Staging Diva

Learn more about home staging as George Bodarky interviews Staging Diva Graduate Donna Dazzo of Designed to Appeal on New York City’s public radio station WFUV-FM 90.7

Time: Saturday, February 16, 7:30 AM.

Donna’s first project after completing the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program was to transform a vacant $3.5 million home in the Hamptons.

This huge home had been on the market for over a year. Imagine the carrying costs for the owner!

Within a week Donna turned the house into a show home by bringing in furniture and accessories.

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

Entrepreneur and Home Staging expert Debra Gould, The Staging Diva, knows how to make money as a home stager. Discover her secrets to business success in the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program.

Free quiz to see if a home staging business is right for you.

If you’re a home stager and you’ll be in Toronto Friday Feb. 22, I recommend you sign up for the Interior Design Show Trade Day.

It’s an awesome event held at Exhibition Place and it’s only $10 by advance registration (if you sign up online by today’s deadline).

This show is a great opportunity to see what the latest design trends are and find suppliers for fabrics, paint, hardware, window coverings, flooring and more.

You’ll get yourself on all kinds of industry mailing lists (if you want to), get free magazines, product samples and more. I’ve found some of my best resources at this show in previous years.

If you took my advice in course 2 of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program and registered your business, you’ll qualify to attend on Trade Only Day. If not, you can go as a consumer (along with all the extended families and baby strollers) and fight the crowds to see everything over the weekend Saturday Feb. 23 and Sunday Feb. 24.

This is the 10th anniversary of The Interior Design Show with lots of great guest speakers and more.

Learn more about the show and sign up here.

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 700+ 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”

home staging, home stager, real estate staging, Interior Design Show, IDS, Staging Diva, Debra Gould, Six Elements Inc.

I recently finished an all day shoot for a new HGTV show to air this spring, “The Decorating Adventures of Ambrose Price.” That’s a photo of the host and I together at our third location during the taping.
Ambrose was one of the contestants on the last season of HGTV’s Designer SuperStar Challenge.

In one of the 13 episodes of this new show, I take Ambrose under my wing to teach him about how to stage a home. We visited three houses just before Christmas and I talked through what was done right and what was wrong in each one. All were staged (though it was hard to tell in two of them!).

In the coming weeks, we’ll get together again on camera to have a first look at a home he will stage on his own. I’ll be the judge in the last segment of the show and come back to evaluate how well he has applied the principals of home staging.

It was great to visit a couple of “staged” homes to see why they weren’t selling.

One had been on the market for 45 days, despite being in a hot market. It screamed “vacant” the minute we walked through the front door despite the attempts to furnish the main floor. There were no proper focal points or cohesion to the design, they set the dining table badly, the house was dirty, the list of mistakes was endless.

I’ve never been a fan of setting the dining table, though I know some people are. But if you’re going to do it, for God sakes make sure all the cutlery is in the right place, put some candles and flowers in the center, and don’t put dishes right down on a glass top with no place mats under them. It just looked sad!

In another, they’d done a beautiful job furnishing the living and dining room and then left the rest of the house empty except for a lone desk and broom in a back room and a dirty threadbare towel in the en suite bathroom off the master bedroom! Why bother staging at all?

Once you’re paying for the truck and the furniture for two rooms, it doesn’t cost all that much to finish the rest. I don’t believe in staging only a couple of rooms because then all you’re doing is emphasizing to people that the home is vacant and that the vendors are probably desperate. When I’m a buyer in that situation, I immediately think “low ball offer.” And I know, because I’ve bought 7 homes in 11 years.

It was great fun today working with Ambrose and the crew. I’ll report back after our next two shooting days in the next fee weeks and when I have the schedule for the new show.

Apparently each of the 13 episodes will focus on a different aspect of decorating. Our episode is staging of course, other topics include: cake decorating, floral design, interior design. I’m not sure what else.

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

Internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould, also known as The Staging Diva, has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, CNNMoney, CBS and CBC Radio, Reader’s Digest, Woman’s Day, MoneySense, Entrepreneur Magazine, House & Home, Style at Home, National Post, Globe & Mail, and HGTV, CityTV, GlobalTV, CBC TV, LifeChannel among others.

She created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program and has almost 700 graduates across the US, Canada and in Australia, New Zealand, Wales, England, Italy, Portugal, The Philippines and South Africa. Discover her secrets to business success in the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program, here’s a FREE 90 minute preview.

Technorati Tags: home staging, home stager, real estate staging, how to home stage, HGTV, Ambrose Price, HGTV Designer Superstar Challenge, Debra Gould, Staging Diva

Home remolding, design and decorating have become national pastimes in part because of the phenomenal success of Home & Garden Television or HGTV. Shows such as Designed to Sell, House Doctor and Sell This House allow armchair decorators a way to indulge their passion.

For all the viewers of these shows who say to themselves “I can do that” or “I want to do that”, I offer the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. This program provides individuals with an eye for design the opportunity to combine a passion for decorating with the tools to make money as a home stager.

Home Staging (House Staging, House Fluffing, Real Estate Staging, Interior Redesign for Real Estate) is the art of decorating a home to sell quickly and for top dollar. Staging Diva Graduate, Heather Ray Ryan says:

“The Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program gave me the knowledge, power and confidence to quit my job of eight years and start doing something I have only dreamed of. Family and friends have a new found respect for me for being an example to my children by stepping outside my comfort zone and going for what I really want!”

In the Staging Diva Training Program, I focus on the business side of home staging. This is not a “decorating” course because I believe anyone considering this field should already have a natural talent for decorating. If you have no taste and no sense of what looks good in a room, I don’t believe anyone can really teach you that especially in a day. Instead, I emphasize best business practices, marketing strategies and pricing of services, and all the things you need to take your natural talent and turn it into a lucrative business.

January is often a time when individuals look to make improvements in their lives particularly in their careers. For those who are ready to take the first step toward a career in decorating, the next live Home Staging Training Program is scheduled for January 9, 2008.

Students of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program are quite diverse. Male and female, ranging in age from mid 20s to mid 70s, they differ in background experience, nationality and current income. However, the common denominator among all students is their enthusiasm for decorating, and yes, most would consider themselves HGTV Addicts!

Seventy-six year old Jean Smith says, “I’m so happy to be starting a new business at my age. Thank you Debra for everything you have done to make my dreams come true!”

Maybe it’s time for others to get off the couch and put their decorating talent to work for them too. For those who are not sure if this program is right for them, why don’t you join me for a FREE STAGING DIVA PREVIEW January 7, 2008? I’ll spend an hour answering questions from the audience about the training and what it’s like being a home stager.

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

Entrepreneur and Home Staging expert Debra Gould, The Staging Diva, knows how to make money as a home stager. Discover her secrets to business success in the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Free quiz to see if a home staging business is right for you!

[tags]home staging, home stager, make money in staging, home based business, business for decorators, real estate staging, entrepreneur, HGTV, Staging Diva, Debra Gould[tags]

It’s that time of year when we all struggle for meaningful gift ideas and the time to go shopping. If you know anyone with a talent for decorating who might enjoy learning how they can make money in their own home based business, check out the new Staging Diva Gift Certificates.

Even established home stagers or decorators will find products that can help boost their business success.

Available in denominations of $20, $40 and $100, you buy them online and your friend or family member can redeem them on a slew of Staging Diva products and services starting at only $20.

All designed to provide inspiration and practical tools to turn creative talent into a lucrative business, these products include:

• “Home Staging Business Quick-Start Checklist: 20 steps to start your home staging business”

• “Home Staging Checklist”

• “Home Staging Business Booster I eCourse”

• “Ultimate Color Guide: the easy way to pick colors for home staging projects”

• “Ultimate Guide: creating the perfect portfolio to sell your home staging services”

• “Home Staging Business Training Program”

• “Business Coaching”

• “Network On Line Discussion Group Membership”

• “Directory of Home Stagers”

Learn more about Staging Diva Gift Certificates

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

Home Staging expert Debra Gould also known as The Staging Diva is president of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company that is frequently profiled in the media in both the US and Canada. 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.

Technorati Tags: home staging, home stager, learn staging, home staging business, real estate enhancement, staging gift certificate, Staging Diva, Debra Gould

The last live Staging Diva course series for 2007 starts the evening of Tuesday, November 20. I’ve already got a great group of women from California, Alberta, Arizona, Hawaii, Ontario, Colorado and the UK. But, there are still a few spots open to join me live in the Staging Diva Home Staging Training TeleClasses.

Staging Diva Training is unique in that I don’t try and teach you how to decorate, I teach you how to take the natural talent you’ve got and turn it into a lucrative home staging business.

I focus on what you need to start your business, how you’ll deal with clients, price your services, market yourself, form alliances so you don’t need employees but you won’t have to do any heavy lifting (or cleaning, or painting, or whatever else you’d rather delegate to others).

I’m also one of very few trainers who has actually grown my own home staging business. In fact, within two years of starting my home staging company Six Elements Inc., I was making a six figure income working from my home office with no employees.

I teach my students how I did this using real world examples, not theories that have never been proven. I don’t teach in person because my students are all over the world and I continue to run a home staging business. Besides, without the need for travel and hotel accommodations, the Staging Diva Training Program can be offered at a much lower price than many programs. It also allows me to personally teach my students, rather than delegating this to others with less experience.

Learn more about Staging Diva Training and how to join me live over five Tuesday and Thursday evenings beginning November 20 and ending December 6. There are no classes over Thanksgiving.

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

Home Staging expert Debra Gould also known as The Staging Diva is president of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company that is frequently profiled in the media in both the US and Canada. Debra Gould developed The Staging Diva Program to create opportunities for others to grow their own profitable home staging, real estate enhancement businesses.

Technorati Tags: home staging, home stager, home staging training, how to be a home stager, home staging business, Debra Gould, Staging Diva