House Selling Secrets of a Home Stager
by Debra Snoonian

Excerpt:

When this story first hit the This Old House website, it was on their front page for a week, as shown above.

Based in Toronto, Gould has trained a network of 1400+ home stagers across the U.S. “Most owners aren’t seeing bidding wars the way they were a few years ago,” she says. “But with the right staging, you can get close to your asking price.”

Here are before-and-after photos of rooms in houses Gould has staged in the Toronto area, along with information about fees paid and sales prices. . . ”

Read the full story here

Home Business Magazine – Debra Gould Success Story

Excerpt:

“Debra Gould bought, decorated and sold six of her own homes in eight years while she ran her marketing consulting business from home. This led her into a new career as a home stager. It was the perfect way to combine her passions for decorating and real estate without being on call 24/7 the way agents are.

Gould finally found a way to fully use her creativity without becoming a starving artist. In fact, she was able to earn up to $10,000 a month staging homes by her second year in business.

During those first two years, Gould heard from so many others who wanted advice on how they could have the same success and recognition she had. That prompted her to create the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. . . ”

National Post Homes Magazine
by Rebecca Vogt

Ready, Stage, Sell: Hiring a pro to primp your pad before it goes on the market could reap you thousands of dollars

Excerpt:

“‘Every house has a soul’ says Staging Diva Debra Gould, a petite woman in hipster black with a shock of dark hair and an engaging smile. We’re chatting on the second floor of her airy home.

As president of Six Elements Inc., and the force behind Staging Diva, a six-year-old company, which as primped hundreds of homes variously priced from $190,000 to $1.7-million — in addition to seven of her own (she’s also taught home staging from Spain to New Zealand)— Ms. Gould knows what it takes to sell a house quickly and for a hefty sum. A good stager, she says, ‘will set the scene so that the highest number of potential buyers fall in love the the space.’ At her web site, StagingDiva.com, she offers information on services and products geared toward the home seller, before-and-after photos of past clients’ homes and even training for those interested in starting their own staging business— a field that’s been garnering more and more attention in the real estate industry.”. . .

Summary

For the fourth consecutive year, Debra Gould’s Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program has been featured in the bi-annual Entrepreneur Magazine Startups Guide. Gould’s is the only home staging training program to be featured in all of the past eight issues of this popular resource.

Staging Diva Recognized by Entrepreneur Magazine for Fourth Consecutive Year

(UNITED STATES) January 8, 2010 – Anyone considering a career in home staging today has lots of options as far as obtaining their training goes. However, with the virtual nature of the majority of these home staging courses, it can be difficult for an aspiring home stager to determine which courses are legitimate, which really are too good to be true and which will actually provide the caliber of training they’re seeking.

For the fourth year in a row, the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program has been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine’s Business Startups Guide. The Staging Diva program is the only home staging course to be included in all of the past eight issues of this respected guide.

About being featured in the Startups Guide for the fourth consecutive year, The Staging Diva says, “In this day and age, it’s difficult to obtain the trust of consumers. There are a few ill-reputed home staging courses that do not deliver what they promise. Unfortunately, not everyone researches a company properly before investing with them. Since others have had bad experiences, this makes some aspiring stagers understandably gun shy when it comes to selecting home staging courses. Seeing Staging Diva featured in Entrepreneur Magazine Startups Guide for the eighth time should inspire confidence that this program is the real deal.”

To learn more about the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program and to read reviews from people who have taken the program, visit stagingdiva.com for full details.

About Staging Diva

The creator of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, Debra Gould has staged millions of dollars worth of real estate, including seven of her own homes. She is the president of home staging firm SixElements.com and has trained over 4000 home stagers to start and grow their own businesses.

Debra has gained international recognition through features in major media in the US and Canada including: This Old House, HGTV, CNN Money, CBC National News, CBS Radio, Global TV, City TV, The Wall Street Journal, Women’s Day, Reader’s Digest and more.

Contact

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva
Six Elements Inc.
416-691-6615
debragould@stagingdiva.com
http://www.stagingdiva.com

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Pittsburgh Tribune Review – August 28, 2009
“Setting the Stage: Telling a Home’s Story Helps It Sell”
by Bob Karlovits

Excerpt from Pittsburgh Tribune Review:

. . . Debra Gould, a Toronto, Canada-based stager, author and staging instructor, says staging can be known as “house fluffing” or “home merchandising,” but basically it’s the effort to make a house irresistible.

“The better job you do, the better chance you create that someone will just fall in love with the house,” says Gould, the author of several guides to staging whose ideas are on three Web sites: debragould.com, stagingdiva.com and sixelements.com.

. . . Gould admits there is an element of theatricality in the term “staging.” It hints at setting the stage in a home and suggesting action and events that could happen there.

“A well-staged home will not look staged,” she insists. “Take the dining room table that is set for a dinner. That isn’t realistic. You suggest things. You take a lamp, a chair, a book and hint it would be a good place to read. But I don’t add the tea set on a folding table.”

It is important to make statements mildly enough that you “don’t tell people how to live,” but suggest what could happen in a space, Gould says. . . .

> Read the full story at Pittsburgh Tribune Review

Center of The City Magazine, May 2006
“Debra Gould is The Staging Diva”

Story by Karen Bridson-Boyczuk
Photography by Jill Kitchener

Excerpt from Centre of the City Magazine:

They are known as “fluffers.”

They are the creative minds realtors depend on in their effort to make top dollar on the sale of a home. With a bit of paint, a few selected touches, an imaginative eye and a lot of elbow grease, the work of these “home stagers,” as they are more commonly known, can quite dramatically increase the selling price of a home. . . .

Staging Diva Debra Gould, says homeowners without any plans for selling can make drastic improvements to the look of their homes simply by following a few ‘home fluffing’ techniques.

“So often my clients say, ‘wow, and to think, (my house) could have looked like this for the last five years,” says Gould, president of Six Elements Inc. (www.stagingdiva.com).

Gould says there are some very basic steps people can take to ‘fluff’ their homes for themselves.

“The biggest problem I see in people’s homes is inadequate lighting,” she says. “Many people live in very dark, dingy homes and they don’t even know it.” . . .

Beyond small clutter items, many homes have too much furniture for the size of the rooms, she says. . . .

“So it’s important to take a look at how else the furniture can be arranged in a room,” she says. “Often people will say, ‘oh, it never occurred to me to put that there.’ . . .

Mismatched bedding and towels are another pet peeve of Gould’s. . . . “I’m always buying sheets and duvets and towels to go into the homes I stage,” she says. “It gives you a nice focal point and can make such a huge difference to the way a room looks.” . . .

“If you’ve got a basement filled with things you are planning to fix one day, just get rid of them. People feel liberated when they knock those things off of their to-do lists. It’s very freeing.” . . .

Gould has staged hundreds of homes, ranging in price from $190,000 to $1.5 million. . . .

BUILDER Magazine
“Spiff Up Your Standing Inventory: Builders share their strategies for moving houses that need to be sold”
by Pat Curry

Excerpt from BUILDER Magazine:

SET THE STAGE
Many builders have found that staging inventory homes helps buyers visualize living there. Plus, when buyers walk into a furnished room, they’re looking at how the house lives instead of nitpicking where the light fixtures are located. Debra Gould, a home staging trainer known as The Staging Diva, says that builders can achieve the goals of staging without spending a fortune, just by paying attention to some basic principles.

“You could probably do the average three-bedroom home for about $5,000,” she says. “We’re not talking about huge sums of money, if it makes the difference between people walking in and falling in love with it and picking it apart. … It’s all about perception and context. You can buy a cotton T-shirt at WalMart for $5 or a fancy one for $150. They’re similar, but one of them is in a fancy boutique.”

When you’re staging, take a minimalist approach to the amount of furniture you put in the house. You need a focal point in each room, but the idea is to show off the house, not sell knickknacks and linens.

“You don’t need to cram it with as much stuff as someone who is living there,” she says. “You don’t want it to feel vacant, but you don’t need as much seating as you would normally have in a home. … Set up little scenarios where people can see themselves. If you have an empty corner, make it a little reading corner. If there’s an eat-in kitchen, put a table there, but you don’t need to set the table.”

Where you do want to go a bit over the top is the master suite.

“Bedrooms are important,” Gould says. “Dress the bed really well. I hate going to houses that are half a million dollars and the bed has nothing on it. If you go to a bedding store, see how the beds are dressed. That’s what you want.”

The master bath can be warmed up with a stack of nice, fluffy towels. Gould says her idea of staging a bathroom is “what a bathroom in a Four Seasons hotel looks like before you unpack all your junk.” That means it’s sparkling clean with decorative soaps, a shower curtain if it’s not an enclosed stall, art on the walls, and, yes, toilet paper.

In a family neighborhood, make sure one of the bedrooms is staged as a child’s room. “It doesn’t take much to create that ambiance—one twin bed, one table, a lamp, some stuffed animals, and kid bedding,” she says. If you’re selling to young families, show a nursery. “It gets Mom all excited,” Gould says.

> Read the full story in Builder Magazine

Entrepreneur’s StartUps Guide – Winter 2008
101 Great Ideas to Get You Started Today

The Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program is featured in the Winter Entrepreneur Magazine Business Start Ups Guide and is the ONLY home staging business opportunity recognized by Entrepreneur Magazine for three years running.

> More about the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program

Together Magazine
“Primping Pointers,” by Julia Aitken

Excerpt from Together Magazine:

Debra Gould, known as The Staging Diva, specializes in finessing clients’ houses so they look their best for the real estate market.

But Gould’s tips work just as well if you’re in the mood for a kitchen makeover.

Chuck that clutter

If you use your food processor only once a month, purge your cabinets of unwanted items to make more room inside for it and other counter top appliances you rarely use.

Colour Your World

Cabinets, drawers, walls, even a laminate backsplash and countertop can be re-painted (use melamine paint for laminate) to give your kitchen a whole new look.

Pull Together

Replace cabinet knobs and drawer pulls . . .