The Australian, July 30, 2011
Guy Allenby

Styled Up and Ready to Sell

Home staging expert Debra Gould, founder of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, was recently featured in The Australian, which is the biggest-selling national newspaper in the country.

The article focuses on the importance of home staging, especially in a sluggish housing market.

In Australia, “home staging” is known as “property styling,” and has become increasingly popular in recent years.

Gould is quoted several times in the story:

“In the US they call it ‘home staging’ and the queen is Debra Gould (aka the Staging Diva) who writes endlessly on the subject and runs training programs for people looking to set themselves up as professional home stagers.”

“As Gould puts it: ‘A house is a product that has to be packaged and marketed to the right target audience at the right price. In a slow or buyer’s market, any house is just one of many for sale in a neighborhood. Real estate agents may say the only way to sell is to drop the price, but this ignores the positive sales impact of improving the product.’”

“Gould, the Staging Diva, has likened the process to speed dating. You may see eight houses one weekend but ‘you’ll reject most and possibly choose one property to go back to for a second look’, she says. ‘Home staging or house fluffing is all about creating the best first impression, paving the way for potential buyers to fall in love.’”

> For free tips on attracting media attention, home stagers are encouraged to visit the Home Staging Business Report.

Michiana House & Home
August 2011 issue

Home Staging: Make Your Home a Show Home

Staging Diva was featured in the cover story in the August 2011 issue of Michiana House & Home magazine.

Debra Gould, founder of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, was particularly pleased that StagingDiva.com was included in the resources section at the end of the story. Members of the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers will benefit from this as readers search out local home stagers.

Many of Gould’s home staging tips were included in the story, as well as these highlights:

“At her website, stagingdiva.com, Debra Gould has listed 10 tips to help any homeowner transform one’s house into a show home that will catch buyers’ attention.”

“All those little touches can add up big when it comes to selling your home. Gould, who lives in Toronto but trains home stagers worldwide, said homes can sell for thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars more, when properly staged. ‘It’s the best way to stand out from all the other homes on the market, get maximum equity out of your house, and sell it faster,’ she said.”

“‘People buy on emotion. You walk into a house and you decide within a minute or two whether you like it or you don’t. We know people are going to form a first impression visually, and to fail to optimize on that with your single biggest investment is crazy,’ said Gould, who likens home staging to dressing up for a first date or detailing a car to be sold. ‘Obviously the more visually appealing a house is, the more likely people are going to be to put in an offer.’”

Home stagers can learn how to get media attention like this in Course 4 of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, “Staging Diva Sales & Marketing Secrets to Boost Your Business.”

REALTOR®: Magazine – July/August 2010
“8 Camera Tips to Capture a Room’s Size” by Melissa Dittmann Tracey

Home staging expert Debra Gould provides 8 Camera Tips for Real Estate Agents to Capture a Room’s Size in the July/August 2010 issue of Realtor Magazine. These are:

1. Remove area rugs
2. Use a wide-angle camera
3. Get creative with furniture
4. Fill up empty space
5. Use mirrors to your advantage
6. Lighten up
7. Shoot at an angle
8. Remove clutter

Many of these can be done by the real estate agent on their own, however the photographs will be that much stronger, and take far less effort for the agent, if a home stager is there to ensure everything within the frame looks at its best.

Excerpt from REALTOR®: Magazine:

Buyers love spacious homes. They also love to look at online property photos. But it’s not always easy to squeeze square footage into a camera shot—and sometimes furniture arrangements or floor coverings actually do a disservice to the way your listing is presented online or in marketing photos, says Debra Gould, president of home staging company Six Elements Inc. in Toronto and creator of the Staging Diva training program.

She offers these tips for making sure that every room of your listing looks as large in photos as it does in real life.

1. Remove area rugs. Rugs break up the expanse of the floor and can make rooms look smaller. Keep the floor as clear as possible.

> Read the full camera tips for real estate agents story at Realtor.org

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