Home Staging Tips December 2010

How to Stage a Kitchen

Kitchens and bathrooms are key to selling a home because they're the most expensive rooms to renovate, plus they're the easiest place to turn buyers off with what I call the "yuck factor."

If you've been out looking at homes on the real estate market, you know what I mean. You'll find anything from sticky floors and filthy appliances to countertops and refrigerator doors covered in clutter.

Then there are the factors that go beyond neatness and cleanliness. These might be expensive things like cabinets and countertops that need replacing or less-expensive eyesores that only need cosmetic changes.

The projects where I get to solve cosmetic issues quickly and inexpensively are among the most satisfying projects for me as a home stager. After all, anyone (with taste!) can throw $20,000 or more at a kitchen and make it look better. But transforming an ugly kitchen for a few hundred dollars (or even a few thousand) is where home stagers really earn their fees! It's also where our clients make the biggest bang for their buck!


Photos provided by Karen's Finishing Touches
On occasion, home stagers also have the opportunity to coordinate more extensive kitchen renovations. Karen Totten of Karen's Finishing Touches (ON) took a dated 1980s-style kitchen and completely transformed it into something that looks like it's right out of a magazine. Updating the floor and removing the Florida ceiling were an important first step. Repainting the existing cabinets (a huge savings over replacing them), adding an island and new stainless steel appliances completed the redesign. While this is a bigger project than some, it's obvious that Karen has increased the value of this home considerably!

If you'd like to expand your knowledge about decorating homes to sell, check out the Staging Diva Ultimate Design Guide: Home Staging Tips, Tricks and Floor Plans.

How to Protect Your Family and Staging Business

In November I traveled to check out colleges with my teen, who also wanted to see the latest Harry Potter movie. At the same time, the news was filled with stories about how bed bugs were taking over homes, hotels, movie theaters, etc.

This got me thinking about what this means for home stagers, since we're constantly in and out of people's homes. Also, many stagers have their own accessories like pillows and throws that they move from one house to another.

Staging Diva students who have taken Course 2, The Business of Home Staging: What You Need to Start and How to Grow, know that I don't recommend investing in your own inventory for a whole bunch of reasons, but the bed bug scare certainly adds another important consideration!

In this new free report Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite: What Home Stagers Need to Know Right Now! you'll learn how to separate the facts from bed bug hysteria, and what you need to know to protect both your family and your home staging business.

It's a quick read, filled with practical tips for both new and established home stagers!

> Get your FREE copy of Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite: What Home Stagers Need to Know Right Now! and please drop me an email and let me know what you think of it!

Seasonal Decorating and Staging

Seasonal Urn for Home Staging

When planting seasonal urns for homes that will be on the market in late fall/winter, I prefer something that doesn't scream "Christmas" while still being appropriate for the season.

With Christmas almost upon us, I'm starting to get those inevitable "seasonal decorating" questions from new home stagers that go something like this:

"Is it normal to be less busy at this time of year? Should I look at seasonal decorating to keep me busy now?"

Home staging is definitely a seasonal business because it follows real estate cycles. That's why it works well to combine your staging business with things like:

Interior Redesign
Color Consulting
Professional Organizing
Seasonal Decorating

Choose what you're interested in

If you love holiday decorating and have a natural talent for it, then why not go for it? There are no rules when you're an entrepreneur. If you see an opportunity that inspires you then why not take advantage of it?

That's one of the very cool things about having your own business— you don't need anyone else's permission to take action on your ideas.

The concept that you should only build a business that you'll REALLY want to work in, is a theme that runs throughout the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program.

As an entrepreneur, you should be thinking creatively about how to increase your business with new target markets. This topic is also discussed in detail in Course 4: Staging Diva Sales & Marketing Secrets to Grow Your Home Staging Business.

Save the Date

Times indicated are Eastern (NY time).
Please adjust for your time zone.

Dec 8 (8 PM) - 5 Simple Secrets to a Home Staging Business: How to Make Money Doing What You Love
(free for new subscribers, by invitation)

If you subscribed to Staging Diva Dispatch in the last 3 months you will receive an invitation.

Dec 9 (noon) - Staging Diva Dialog
(Graduates Only - $47 for recording and live call)

Staging Diva Graduates have a chance to ask Debra Gould questions in a small group. Here are some of the many topics from our last call:

Online newsletter services

Finding the best painters, handymen, etc.

When to tell agents that you're a stager

Competing with cheap home stagers

New marketing ideas for the right neighborhoods

How to build an email list to boost your business

And more!

> Learn how to join the next call on Dec 9!

Dec 13 (11 AM to 4 PM) - Open Coaching Day
(free, by invitation only - a $75 value)

Staging Diva Quiz Challenge Winners get a 15- minute one-on-one coaching session with Debra Gould.

Staging Diva Graduates get a 15-minute one-on-one laser coaching session with Debra Gould. Invitations sent to Staging Diva Directory members.

Ongoing Monday by appointment - Staging Diva Business Accelerator Coaching

Open to all.

If you only want to focus on home staging, you should know that despite the fact that December is a bad month to put a house on the market, there are always homeowners who will do it anyway.

Plus, all the desperate sellers that have been sitting on the market for 3 months or more are realizing that if they don't do something fast, they'll be sitting on the market right into spring.

That's why it's important for home stagers to keep getting the word out about their businesses.

Check out these free related stories, and please add your comments!

Seasonality of Home Staging

Home Stagers: Don't Let Santa Upstage Your Decorating Projects This Month

Home Staging Services Enhance Home Organizing Business

Key Marketing Resources

If you don't put focused effort into marketing your business, nobody will ever know how talented you are as a home stager! Here at Staging Diva, we offer several marketing resources for new and experienced home stagers:

Staging Diva Sales and Marketing Secrets to Boost Your Staging Business

Course 4 of the Staging Diva Program includes detailed course study notes plus 2 hours of audio recordings cover all the basics you need to know about marketing a home staging business from overcoming the top 5 reasons people don't buy to finding the right audiences for your message. You'll learn how to promote your business on a shoestring budget and stop wasting money on tactics that don't work! This is the only comprehensive marketing course for stagers in the whole world that's taught by someone with a masters degree in marketing and almost 9 years' experience running a staging business!

> Learn more about this marketing course.

14 Marketing Ideas to Rev Up Your Staging Business

This special report provides 14 no-cost and low-cost ways to start attracting new clients right now. You can act on any of these ideas immediately, without feeling like you need to write a whole business or marketing plan first.

> Learn more about the 14 marketing ideas for home stagers

Graduates Have Their Say

Georgia home stager

"With all the valuable free information Debra shares on a regular basis, I knew taking the Staging Diva Training Program would address every question I had about starting my career in home staging.

Despite this, I foolishly waited and second-guessed myself for over a year.

When I finally accepted the fact that it was better to move forward than to stand still, I purchased the Staging Diva Program. Today I can happily call myself a graduate, and I couldn't be happier. The only regret I have is waiting so long!

I am a mother of a 2-year-old and 11-year-old, working full-time in corporate America, and pursuing my home staging career part-time. It may sound overwhelming, but it truly is not. The feeling of doing work that I love and on my own terms is priceless!" Natasha Liburd, Heart of Décor (GA)

Florida home stager

"I can't tell you how much I've benefitted from the Staging Diva course recordings. When I have an appointment for a consult, I set aside a bit of time to listen to one of your recordings before the meeting. They are such a great source of reference and boost my confidence in my ability to be of real help to the homeowner." Dolly DeWald, D3 Dolly DeWald Designs (NE)

> There are over 4,000 Staging Diva students on 5 continents. Read more student comments.

Staging Success Spotlight

Congratulations to Staging Diva Graduate Pat McArthur of Home Definition (ON) on her current project to stage a business office for an upcoming customer party. She's keeping it simple to ensure that her client's products remain center stage. Lots of fresh evergreens, holiday decorations and hurricane lanters will set the party mood. This is a great example of the different ways home stagers can use their creative talents to expand their business. In addition to home staging and holiday decorating, Pat offers organizing, color consulting, and interior redesign services.

Congratulations also to Staging Diva Graduate and Staging Diva Dialog member Susan O'Connor who has given notice from her corporate job to focus on building her home staging business. Be sure to mark your "independence day" on your calendar Susan!

I did the same thing in 1989 to start my first full-time business (which happened to coincide with the beginning of an earlier recession) and I remember how big and scary that decision seemed at the time. But what I kept noticing afterward was that when I embraced my decision and stopped wasting my energy on "should I/shouldn't I" and "what if," life actually got easier because I was finally in control of my career. All my creative energy and ambition became laser-focused on building my business and that's what made it work. In fact, in my first year I made more money than I had in my full-time corporate job, and I paid far less in taxes as a business owner.

Susan reports that to ease her transition into her new life as a full-time stager she's already lined up a consulting job to give her income while her business gets going. This is a wise strategy. So many people forget that becoming a home stager doesn't haven to be an all-or-nothing decision. There are many ways to ease into this new phase of your life!

Is There a Market for Home Staging?

When you talk with real estate agents about your staging services, some will tell you that "No one will spend money on home staging!" Listening to comments like this is a surefire way to get discouraged especially when you're a new home stager!

Part of the problem is that real estate agents are really hurting right now, and often what they mean is THEY won't spend money on the service for their clients! I've written several articles related to real estate agents, but the latest one got tons of comments. You can read Home Stagers Make More Money Than Real Estate Agents and add your thoughts too.

It's true that everyone is being more careful about spending money these days, but if someone really wants something, they WILL spend money on it.

As a perfect example, Apple released their new iPad in April, despite the economic downturn. iPads range in price from $499 to $829 before factoring in the cost of required accessories. Yet people have lined up to get their hands on this gadget that nobody had ever heard of before and nobody truly needs.

By September, Apple had sold 3.27 million of them! That's over $2 billion, a huge amount of money being spent within a few months on a nonessential!

Just like Apple did an excellent job of convincing over 3 million people they need their new gadget, as home stagers, we have to make homeowners understand that we can improve their bottom line! Then the converstation becomes "How can you afford NOT to stage the house you're selling?"

So stop thinking that nobody will spend money on home staging because there's no money out there. It's simply not true. Apple just proved people are willing to spend a lot on things they believe they "need"!

> This free report explains how to figure out the demand for staging in your area

As Wayne Dyer says, "What we think determines what happens to us," so if you walk around believing you can't sell home staging, you'll be right! That's not magical thinking— the reality is you can't be effective when you keep telling yourself that what you're doing will fail.

Home sellers will pay for your staging services when you show them why they need them and why you're the right person for the job. That's where your marketing comes in, and an important part of that is educating your audience as I discuss in Course 4!

One way to do this is to remind homeowners of the difference between a cost and an investment.

When something costs you money, the money is gone and that's that. But when you make an investment, you plan to see a return on your money. Home staging is an investment in your client's largest financial asset, just like home staging courses that teach you how to make money from your talent are an investment in your future.

> Get 12 pre-written articles about why home staging works, why sellers need to hire a home stager and more in Staging Diva Chronicles Volume 2. This is a great product if you're trying to write press releases, a newsletter, your website or blog posts, because having quality content written for you and ready to go will save you a ton of time!

Hats Off to New Members

Congratulations to these Staging Diva Graduates who got their portfolios together and joined the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers (or renewed their annual listing) to promote their businesses.

Jessica Woodard (NM)
Showing the Best, LLC

home stager

Gloria Salvetti (MA)
Renewed for Year 3!
East Coast Stager

home stager

Allison Gyles (ON)
Stage for Success

Did you know?

You can be listed under 4 states or provinces, plus 10 city, county or neighborhood names! Your Directory listing will show up for all of these areas when potential clients type them into the handy search box on the Directory home page!

Get a free brochure!

Brochure Sample (front):

home staging brochure front

Brochure Sample (back):

home staging brochure back

Whether Directory members have a Profile Page or a Mini Listing, it's easy for agents and home sellers to find them when they need to! Once you're a Staging Diva Directory member, you can be listed under 10 cities/counties/towns plus 4 states/provinces. Then when a potential client types any of these locations into the search box on the Directory site, your listing will pop up!

This is great if you live close to a number of areas you want to serve, or if you spend a chunk of the year at a vacation home and you'd like to continue staging there too!

Sample of the Directory of Home Stagers search box

Save $135 and Get a free Brochure

All Profile Page listings and Mini Listings are 25% less when you join the Directory for a year. When you order, you pay the cost of building your page and you don't have to pay for hosting for another 37 days!

Here's how that works:

Let's say you place your order on Dec 5. You would pay the cost of building your page right away (that's a one-time cost of $395 for a Profile Listing OR $95 for a Mini Listing).

Your listing in the Directory would be active by Dec 12. In other words, you would be on the Internet, ready to be found by potential customers within 7 days of when you order and submit your material!

Then on Jan 12, you would pay $450 for annual hosting. If you have a Profile Page, this is also when we create your free brochure. See below for the button we'll add to your listing for free so that people can download your brochure right from your page:

Sample download button that goes on your Directory listing Profile Page

Mini Listings do not get a free brochure because there is not enough information in the listing to create one.

Regardless of whether you have a Profile Page or a Mini Listing, you would not be billed for hosting again until 12 months later, on Jan 12, 2012, when you'd pay the cost to renew for another 12 months at the rate of $450 (assuming you wanted to renew for a second year). To qualify for a Mini Listing, you must already have your own website.

If your website is hard to find, doesn't look as professional as you'd like, or you don't have one at all, isn't it time you learned how you can join the Directory of Home Stagers?

> Learn how to get your own Profile Page (if you don't have your own site, or it doesn't look professional)

> Learn how to get a Mini Listing (if you already have your own professional website but need more visitors)

Meet Victoria

Victoria is the Staging Diva Manager of Client Relations. She takes care of students, Graduates and anyone else who contacts us.

If you ask Victoria something that needs my attention, she will forward your message to me. The fastest way to get an answer to your question is to email Victoria directly at info@stagingdiva.com