Staging Diva Graduate Tara Hansen of Closing Stage WI, is featured in an article on home staging in today’s issue of the Appleton Post-Crescent.

In the story Tara answers Maureen Wallenfang’s questions about what home staging is, what home staging costs and one of the key things she learned from me about the business of real estate staging. Tara’s answer:

“Debra Gould said people don’t know what to expect from a home stager. You need to be very upfront with people. Explain exactly what is being done, what costs are involved and when those costs are due. She taught the business side.”

In course 4 of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, Staging Diva Sales and Marketing Secrets to Boost Your Home Staging Business, I discuss many marketing ideas, including how to get media coverage like Tara’s. It’s so important to building awareness of home staging with home sellers and real estate agents and also to establishing yourself as the local expert.

Tara Hansen is a member of the Staging Diva Directory Of Home Stagers, which is a great vehicle to help the media find you when they’re writing stories about home staging.

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 home staging business success in the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Free quiz to see if a home staging business is right for you!

Technorati Tags: home staging, home stager, real estate staging, Wisconsin home staging, decorate to sell, Tara Hansen, Closing Stage LLC, Appleton Post Crescent, Staging Diva

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

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.

Members of the Staging Diva Network enjoy a supportive environment online, but there’s another benefit. Members have the opportunity to arrange to meet in the real world.

New Staging Diva Graduate Kelly Davis of The Royal Redo, LTD. in Flathead Valley Montana met Lea-Ann Virnig of Home Beautiful Staging and Design over coffee while visiting Minneapolis. Kelly writes, “it was fun to chat with another Staging Diva Graduate and have face-to-face contact with someone with the same goals and passions!”

Lea-Ann made this comment, “Getting together with a fellow Staging Diva Graduate and sharing stories and inspirations is really motivating and encouraging! Networking with other Stagers has been a huge key in the success of my business - I have learned so much and now I have been able to enjoy passing on a little of my knowledge to others! Working together we can grow our businesses successfully and help to increase awareness about the Home Staging Industry.”

This was only one of many meetings in the real world between Staging Diva Graduates. Last year four Staging Diva Graduates from New York, Maryland, Virginia and New Jersey met in New York on the set of the Martha Stewart Show and enjoyed lunch and an evening out.

There’s nothing like connecting with others going through similar challenges, especially in the early days of growing a new business. That’s why I created the Staging Diva Network. For only $20 a month, members participate in an online discussion group where they can have their questions answered by me as well as fellow members.

All the discussion threads have been archived dating back to January 2006, so there is a wealth of information in addition to the new discussions going on.

Learn how to get a month FREE membership on the Staging Diva Network

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.

Technorati Tags: home staging, home stager, online discussion, Staging Diva Network, Home Beautiful Staging and Design, Kelly Davis, Lea-Ann Virnig, Debra Gould, Staging Diva

It’s not easy being a Mom and starting your own home staging business, but it can be done. It takes, among other things:

• real commitment
• focusing on the important stuff
• knowing what to keep on your “stop doing list”
• establishing deadlines and sticking to them
• being efficient
• being willing to let someone else help with childcare now and then

I found these two Moms’ stories inspiring and thought you would too!

Tara Hansen of Closing Stage LLC ordered the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program course recordings in May. Within a month, this mother of three young kids (aged 5 and under) already had a business name, logo, her LLC, portfolio of before and after photos, a write up about what she does and an internet presence with her page on the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers. The Staging Diva Directory already has traffic from homeowners and real estate agents actively looking for home stagers, so Tara doesn’t have to add “building site traffic” to her To Do List since I do that for her.

Here’s what Tara says about getting her business together so quickly:

“I set short term goals and think about what I want to accomplish by the end of each week. I also followed your advice and while lying in bed, I think about five things I did that day to improve my business. If I can’t think of five things, I vow to do better the next day. Some days this is very difficult considering I have three small children home with me all day. My husband is very supportive, though, and occupies the kids many evenings so I can get my work done. I also hire a babysitter for three hours every Wednesday afternoon to allow myself an opportunity to get out during business hours. I know that with my Staging Diva training and the practices I have put into place, I am well prepared for my first projects.”

LeaAnn Virnig of Home Beautiful Staging and Design ordered the Staging Diva Course recordings and completed all 5 within 4 days. Within three weeks, this mother of four kids, aged 8 and under also completed the “Staging Diva Ultimate Color Guide: the easy way to pick colors for home staging projects” and the “Staging Diva Ultimate Guide: Creating The Perfect Portfolio to Sell Your Home Staging Services“, did the paperwork to register her business, created a logo and business cards, got her portfolio together, re-staged a home that had been done badly by someone else, and completed a color consultation for another. She even had time to put some advertising together and talk to a few real estate agents!
That’s what I call momentum!

I’m so proud of what these two women have managed to achieve in such a short time. Clearly they are jumping in with both feet and using the tools I’ve given them. But it’s THEIR taking action that will grow their businesses.

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.

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

Technorati Tags: entrepreneur, work from home, working moms, home staging, home stagers, real estate staging, real estate staging business, home staging training, home staging business, staging diva, Debra Gould

I’m really proud of Staging Diva Graduate Kris O’Neill of Marietta Georgia who completed the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program in July (only 6 months ago!).

She wrote today with fabulous news of media exposure for her new company A Cents of Design Inc.

Not only has she already been written up in the Lifestyle section of the Marietta Daily Journal; High Noon Productions which produces a show for HGTV called “My First Place” is hiring Kris to decorate a room for the show.

The premise of “My First Place” is that a new homeowner chooses a room that they’d like decorated. Kris will be designing the space and shopping for all the furniture and accessories. Once her work is done, the TV show will be taping the finished room and the great “reveal” as the homeowners see their room for the first time and gush, scream, cry, laugh and jump up and down about the transformation.

We’ve all watched those HGTV shows, imagine knowing the excitement was all for a room that YOU had created!

I’m sure if you’d told Kris 6 months ago as she was starting the Staging Diva program that she’d be decorating a room for an HGTV show and getting profiled in a local major newspaper, she wouldn’t have believed it.

Kris writes:

“How about that for the first six months of business! I really owe a lot to you Debra and the Staging Diva marketing tools I have applied. I especially used the “7 to 10 rule” you taught us in course 4. Your training instilled so much determination and confidence in me. I did not give up, I kept on networking and promoting my company anyway I could. It definitely pays off!”

Nothing happens unless you take action to acheive your dreams and if you do, there’s no telling where it can lead you. Imagine how Kris can now leverage these two media successes in her future marketing. She’s successfully positioned herself as a local home staging expert, something we talk about throughout the 10 hours of the Staging Diva Training Program.

Way to go Kris! By the way, the photo above is from a living room that Kris staged. It’s part of her portfolio in the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers.

Many Graduates with listings in the Staging Diva Directory have been contacted by the media. That’s because the Staging Diva site is easier to find then many of the millions of smaller home staging web sites.

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.

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

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 Marietta, home staging Georgia, The Business of Home Staging, HGTV, My First Place, Marietta Daily Journal, home staging training, home staging business, Directory of Home Stagers, staging diva, Debra Gould, Kris O’Neill, A Cents of Design

A Milwaukee realtor cancelled the guest speaker she had previously lined up for her real estate training course when she found someone better on the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers.

Congratulations to Leah Fritz of Perfect Place Home Staging who spoke for two hours to a group of almost 20 real estate agents about the benefits of home staging as part of their real estate training course.

The group had tons of questions and Leah reports, “thanks to my Staging Diva Training I was able to confidently share the value of home staging with an audience eager to learn. It was even worth the drive home to Kenosha in a snow storm!”

Leah’s success story is only one of many examples of the sometimes unexpected benefits that come from joining the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers. Other Staging Diva Graduates have been contacted by major media like The Wall Street Journal for interviews; and of course there are the hundreds of staging projects that have been filled by Staging Diva Graduates throughout the US and Canada because homeowners and agents were able to find home stagers when they needed help!

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

How to join The Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers

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

I’m really proud of my newest Staging Diva Graduate, Adam Luttrell. Check out the amazing job he did in his own home which will be featured in a major daily newspaper in Tasmania. His home staging company Shift By Design is located in Hobart, Tasmania.

What strikes me about this photo from his home office is how this interior could as easily be from a home anywhere in Canada or the US.

When Adam first registered for the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, I wondered whether there would be great differences between homes in Tasmania and in North America. I knew my home staging business training would translate there (solid business and marketing thinking works anywhere), I just wondered how different the interiors would look.

From what I see here and the other photos Adam has shared with me, great style and an absence of clutter present a home well no matter where it is!

Adam is the second Staging Diva Graduate in Australia. The first one, Lorraine Baxter of Living Trends Property Staging, is located just outside of Sydney. Lorraine has had an interior design business for over a year but recently decided to focus more on home staging so she took the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program in July of this year.

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, The Business of Home Staging, working from home, home staging training, home staging business, staging diva, Debra Gould, home staging Tasmania, home staging Sydney, home stager Australia

Please don’t take the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program unless you are serious about building a home staging business. I don’t want to waste my time and resources on people who like taking courses but never actually take action in their lives.

I’m serious about helping aspiring home stagers build financially successful and creatively satisfying businesses. So it frankly drives me crazy when I see people do nothing with the tools I give them.

It also drives me crazy when six months into their business, they wonder why they don’t have enough work, yet they have still not even put the time into developing a proper portfolio. I tell them how to build a portfolio in course 2 of the program. So it’s not an issue of not knowing what to do, it’s an issue of not actually doing it.

One Graduate turned down a project I had for her because she didn’t have a brochure yet. Hello? Getting your first project is the hardest (because you have no track record), so when someone is ready to hand you a real live client that lives 10 minutes from your house, TAKE IT!

Another Graduate wanted me to stop referring projects to her because it interfered with dating. She had a job and was staging homes on the side. Well of course building a business will cut into your social time if you already have a full-time day job!

I’ve had Graduates take a full week to act on a lead. Call me crazy, but I have a thriving business and a life, and I still manage to get back to any lead within 24 hours!

Building a business takes time, focus and energy

The world does not beat a path to your door with fists full of cash just because you’re there. Especially when they can’t find you and you can’t articulate what you have to offer in a compelling way!

In the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program I give you all the tools you need to get started and grow your business, but you do actually have to do the work of putting what I tell you into action!

Nothing will make you skinny or successful overnight

There is no fitness equipment that will make you skinny and keep you that way, unless you watch your diet and use the equipment every other day. Yet millions of people spend billions of dollars for the latest gadget, only to have it collect dust under the bed or act as a very expensive place to dump clothes.

Similarly, there’s no such thing as a “business in a box” or a successful “get rich quick” scheme. While there are millions of people ready to spend money on these instant and easy solutions, I don’t promise one (for the same reason I don’t offer fake home staging credentials).

Here are some results Staging Diva Graduates have acheived. But make no mistake, they did the work with what I gave them to make it happen:

“Within weeks of completing the program and getting my listing on The Staging Diva Directory, I got two projects worth $3,500!” Linda Schleihauf (ON)

“Thank you for the home staging project referral on that $1.6 million dollar home. The staging went well and I felt confident and comfortable working with the clients thanks to what I learned in the Staging Diva Program.” Anne Counard (WI)

“I took what I learned in The Staging Diva Program and made over $4,000 profit on my first project!” Kathleen Fischbein (NY)

“My first project was worth $5,000 and thanks to you I knew how to handle it!” Erin Rhindress (MA)

“I’ve just finished staging my sixth house and I’m loving every minute of it. Thank you Debra, I couldn’t have done it without you!” Mandy Cosentino (ON)

It won’t be “easy” to build your business, but it will be “infinitely easier” than if you hadn’t done the Staging Diva Program.

When you’re ready to work for what you want, I can show you the road that will turn your passion for decorating into a thriving home staging business. If you follow what I tell you, you’ll save years of trial and error and you’ll be focussed on the techniques that will yield the best results.

It won’t be easy, but I can make it infinitely easier! Besides, isn’t following your dreams, and finding a way to use your natural talents to make money doing something you love, worth some effort?

P.S. ORDER THE STAGING DIVA TRAINING PROGRAM BY OCTOBER 31 and SAVE $100!

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, Debra Gould