Summary

Home staging expert Debra Gould, president of Six Elements Inc. was recently hired to write an article for HGTV’s FrontDoor website on the topic of silly home staging tactics sometimes used by home sellers who decide to stage their own home rather than bringing in an expert.

In the story, Debra Gould provides room by room advice on what mistakes to avoid.

Excerpt from “4 Silly Home Staging Ideas to Avoid” by Debra Gould:

“The current economy has many homeowners trying to hold on to as much equity in their home as they can. If you’re trying to save money by staging your own home, real estate staging expert Debra Gould advises you tread carefully, as many staging tactics do nothing but work against you in your goal to sell faster and for more money.”

Read the entire story here on HGTV FrontDoor.

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

Summary

Home staging expert Debra Gould was one of the experts quoted in a story on MSN Real Estate’s website in a feature article about decluttering.

Excerpt from “The slacker’s guide to decluttering your home before a sale or move ” by Melinda Fulmer:

“With most homes, you could get rid of 30% of its contents and never miss it for a second,” says Debra Gould, aka The Staging Diva. One family Gould worked with got rid of 6,000 pounds of clutter that they didn’t have to pay to move.”

Read the entire decluttering story here on MSN Real Estate.

Summary

Home staging expert Debra Gould offers five tips for handling walls in home staging, in a story on one of NAR’s (National Association of Realtors) highly visited websites.

Excerpt from “Staging Tips: 5 Tips for Tackling Walls” by Erica Christoffer, Contributing Editor, REALTOR® Magazine:

“Walls are a key element of home staging. They are the canvas showcasing the greatest attributes of a house. But where do you start when preparing a home for sale? Staging Diva Debra Gould, president of Toronto-based Six Elements Inc., offers up five rules of thumb for handling walls in home staging.

1. Remove personal pictures: Those wedding portraits and baby pictures have to come down, as do diplomas and awards. Personal items such as these are distracting to potential buyers. You want them to focus on the home itself, not who the current home owners are.”

Read all five tips for tackling walls at Styled, Staged, Sold.

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

Summary

A functional home office makes it easier to get the job done. Debra Gould, The Staging Diva shares her top 10 tips to making a home office more functional with writer Jackie Burns.

Excerpt from MSN’s Shopping Cart Confidential by Jackie Burns

“If anyone knows a thing (or ten) about building an effective home office it’s Debra Gould. The Staging Diva is renowned for her home decorating skills, but she also has first-hand experience with her own home office, having built her successful international company from the comfort of her spare bedroom.

Here are Debra’s 10 tips for making your home office more functional:

1: Work at an L-shaped desk: If you put your computer in the corner and you’re sitting at the apex of the L-shaped desk, it gives you lots of space on either side to work and spread out files. It also makes a small space work much better.

> Read the full 10 home office tips on MSN Shopping Cart Confidential

MSN features numerous home staging tips from home staging expert Debra Gould, also known as The Staging Diva®.

Excerpt from MSN story by Jackie Burns:

“Putting a ‘For Sale’ sign on your home can be an emotional experience, but selling it quickly and for top dollar can cut down on the tears. Making sure your home is warm and inviting to potential buyers can make a huge difference in the price you end up fetching.

Home staging expert Debra Gould, President of SixElements.com and creator of the Stagingdiva.com, says her clients have earned anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000 more on their final sale thanks to staging. She offers several simple tips for improving the look and feel of your home before putting it on the market.

Less is More

“Less is more when you’re staging,” says Gould. She suggests taking some of the furniture out of your home to make the rooms appear more spacious and warns against layouts that force you to walk around pieces of furniture. “When you’re walking into a room, you should have an open feeling,” she says. “You don’t want to be bumping into the back of a couch or walking into the side of a tall-boy dresser.” She even recommends . . .

> Read all the Staging Diva’s home staging tips on MSN

Summary

Intrepid Entrepreneur, Debra Gould, is announcing the launch of her Online Media Room, DebraGould.com. This new site makes it easier than ever for members of the media to find information fast when up against tight deadlines for real estate or home staging stories.

Online Media Room Puts Current Real Estate and Home Staging Info at Journalists’ Fingertips

(UNITED STATES) July 7, 2009 – DebraGould.com is making it easy for journalists up against tight deadlines to find information for their next story about real estate or home staging.

Soon after starting her home staging business Six Elements Inc., Debra Gould started attracting media attention. Now, with more than 4000 students of the Staging Diva® Home Staging Business Training Program spanning five continents, The Staging Diva®, Debra Gould, is recognized world-wide as a home staging expert and industry leader, and is sought after for media interviews to lend her expertise.

“I’ve done many media interviews over the years for print, television, radio and online sites and there’s always a tight deadline involved,” states Gould. “When a journalist or producer wants information, they want it five minutes ago. DebraGould.com was created to make it easy for anyone wanting to learn more about me or the home staging industry to be able to get information fast saving time and making the process easier for everyone involved!”

DebraGould.com is an online media room containing all the information producers, reporters and journalists need if considering an interview with Gould for an upcoming story about real estate, home staging, entrepreneurship or any of Gould’s other areas of expertise.

The media room has been built on a blog platform with information organized in easy to browse categories including: Debra Gould in Print, Debra Gould on Radio, Debra Gould on TV, Entrepreneur articles, home staging articles, interior redesign articles, real estate articles and staging business articles.

The downloadable media kit available at DebraGould.com includes Gould’s short and long bios, an overview of her businesses, product and service reviews, key facts about the Staging Diva® brand and Gould’s home staging company, Six Elements Inc. There are photos of Gould and her products to be used with articles, story ideas and clips from her past media appearances.

Visit http://debragould.com to learn more.

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
Email
http://www.stagingdiva.com

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Debra Gould, The Staging Diva’s home staging secrets are featured on AOL Real Estate.

Excerpt from AOL Real Estate:

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

See all the Staging Diva’s home staging photos on AOL Real Estate.