Summary

Real estate agents are important sources of referrals for home stagers. Home staging expert Debra Gould shares warning signs to watch out for.

Home Stagers Receive Advice for Vetting Real Estate Agents

(UNITED STATES) March 19, 2012 – On the Home Staging Business Report blog, expert home stager Debra Gould recently provided advice to home stagers for finding the best real estate agents to work with.

Gould, who founded the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, has written a series of free articles about how home stagers can market to real estate agents at open houses. She says, “You have a captive audience to introduce your services, and if you handle it well, it can lead to many future home staging projects.”

Gould also advises home stagers to visit open houses to evaluate whether particular agents would be ideal to work with. She recommends that home stagers pay attention to the real estate agent’s behavior and demeanor. In doing so, home stagers can look for warning signs and ultimately opt against introducing themselves in a business capacity.

“First, does the real estate agent greet people nicely when they enter the home, and do they get them to sign in?” Gould asks. “A professional real estate agent will care about the first impression he/she creates and ensure that any visitor feels welcome. After all, the whole reason they are giving up a couple of hours on a weekend to sit in this house is in hopes of generating some business out of it!”

When visitors aren’t greeted warmly by agents, Gould questions how caring the agent will be when working with actual clients or with home stagers. If visitors aren’t required to sign in, she believes the agent is either apathetic or afraid of asserting themselves, neither of which bodes well for a future business relationship.

Next, Gould suggests reviewing whether the feature sheet for the property is attractive and includes proper photos.

“If the house is a total pigpen, don’t expect to see lots of interior shots,” Gould says. “However, if the house looks reasonable and there are no decent photos of it, you have to wonder how much care the agent takes to market the home effectively. If they don’t care or don’t bother, you can’t reasonably expect them to go out of their way to recommend staging to their clients, especially when they’ll be worried about being asked to help pay for it.”

According to Gould, home stagers should also analyze whether the real estate agent’s coat, shoes and other possessions make an otherwise neat home look messy.

“This shows a total lack of respect for the home seller,” says Gould. “The real estate agent is unlikely to appreciate the attention you’ll pay to staging and will never be a source of referrals.”

Gould states that her intent in writing these articles is not to bash real estate agents: “I have total respect for the truly professional REALTORS®. Unfortunately, there are many agents who aren’t, and they need to be called out for this kind of behavior.”

By visiting open houses, Gould believes home stagers can learn a lot about real estate agents in their locale: “By observing how an agent handles an open house, you’ll know whether this is an agent you might want to work with, and then you can take the next step in introducing your services to them.”

For additional tips on working with real estate agents, home stagers are encouraged to visit the Home Staging Business Report on the Staging Diva website.

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 7 of her own homes. She is the president of Voice of Possibility Group Inc., which operates a home staging division, SixElements.com, in addition to StagingDiva.com, which has trained over 7,000 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®
Voice of Possibility Group Inc.
416-691-6615
debragould@stagingdiva.com
http://www.stagingdiva.com

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Summary

A group of home stagers discuss the negative effect that poor photos have on real estate listings and sales potential.

Home Stagers Discuss Issues with Real Estate Listings

(UNITED STATES) February 20, 2012 – On her blog, the Home Staging Business Report, home staging expert Debra Gould invited home stagers to share their pet peeves related to real estate listings.

Gould, who is the founder of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, kicked off the discussion by describing what irks her most: “My pet peeve is the real estate agent who walks into a home I’ve just carefully arranged for photography and throws his coat over a chair, leaves his shoes in the middle of the hallway, dumps papers all over the dining room table and THEN takes the listing shots!”

A number of home stagers joined the discussion, and the common theme behind most of their complaints was poor listing photos, as was the case in Gould’s example.

“My peeve is when I get called in to stage after the property has been on the market for a while and then the real estate agent does not retake pictures,” says home stager Kathryn Wilson of HomeReady Home Staging and Interior Redesign in Ontario. “How will prospective buyers or other agents know then what has been done to improve the look of the property?”

Home stager Jodi Whalen of Pear Tree Home Designs in New Jersey has had a similar experience: “My pet peeve is when I’ve staged AND taken photos and they don’t use my photos. Just finished a house where I got great sunny exterior shots and the Realtor® posted pictures from a RAINY day! Because of this frustration I’ve added a new service of Photo Styling.”

Stacy Goade of Alaska Premier Home Staging also shared her concerns about listing photos. “After recently removing wall paper, painting, decluttering, repairing, and adding accessories and furnishings, the real estate agent took shots of rooms where none of the staging work was obvious or emphasized. I took great digital photos after we finished staging the home and sent those photos to my client so she could forward them to the agent.”

According to Gould, real estate agents who don’t retake photos after staging are wasting money the client invested: “A key reason to stage is so that top notch photos are on MLS so that there will be more showings. More showings means more potential buyers, which means a faster sale and potentially for more money. Home sellers should INSIST that their agent take new photos and tell them that they will find another agent who will if they don’t comply.”

For more advice regarding home staging and real estate, visit the Home Staging Business Report on the Staging Diva website.

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 7 of her own homes. She is the president of Voice of Possibility Group Inc., which operates a home staging division, SixElements.com, in addition to StagingDiva.com, which has trained over 7,000 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®
Voice of Possibility Group Inc.
416-691-6615
debragould@stagingdiva.com
http://www.stagingdiva.com

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Summary

Expert home stager Debra Gould explains the role that home staging can play in short sales.

Staging Diva Explains How Home Staging Can Benefit Short Sales

(UNITED STATES) November 28, 2011 – With home values down significantly in many areas of North America, “short sales” have become much more common. Expert home stager and entrepreneur Debra Gould illustrates how home sellers can get better results from their short sale with the help of a home stager, but timing is key.

“A short sale occurs when a lender agrees to allow a homeowner to sell a home for less than what is owed on the property,” Gould explains. “This typically happens because the seller has a hardship or because the mortgage is more than the home is worth. A short sale allows both parties to avoid the lengthy and expensive foreclosure process, and while a short sale often has a negative effect on a homeowner’s credit, the impact is typically less than that of a bankruptcy or foreclosure.”

According to Gould, home staging can play an important role in short sales, but timing is a critical factor. She explains that lenders often require that a buyer submit an offer at the same time the seller submits the short sale paperwork to the bank. In these situations, Gould believes that it may not be in the seller’s best interest to stage the property since the lender will likely require an appraisal before approving the short sale.

“Home staging has been proven to raise the value of a home, so it could work against a seller who is counting on a low appraisal in order to obtain short sale approval from the bank,” says Gould.

Gould, who founded the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, explains that in other cases, a lender might approve a short sale before the home is put on the market. A home might also be considered an “approved short sale” if it has already gone through the required process but the buyer chooses to cancel the contract.

“In situations like these, home staging can be beneficial for the seller in order to better compete with other properties on the market,” Gould says. “While the seller will not benefit directly from an increased sales price since the bank receives all proceeds of the sale, there is still an important reason for homeowners to put their best foot forward. The short sale process can take a long time with many frustrated buyers dropping out along the way, so it’s important to create a scenario where a serious buyer falls in love with the home and is willing to see the process through from beginning to end.”

As an example of how home staging can improve short sale results, Gould tells the story of Staging Diva student Peggy Harrington of Wow Factor Home Staging. Harrington staged her property after it was approved for a short sale, and she received four offers within one day.

Harrington says, “We did not get anything at closing nor did we bring anything to the table. We did, however, get out from under the financial burden and were able to move on with our lives very quickly. To us, that was priceless!”

Gould covers the topic of short sales in her free report: “Ask Staging Diva: Should I start a home staging business in this economy?” which can be downloaded from the Staging Diva website.

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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Summary

Home staging expert Debra Gould describes the lessons that home stagers can learn from watching home staging programs on TV.

Home Staging TV Shows Offer Lessons for New Stagers

(UNITED STATES) August 17, 2011 – What comes naturally to professional home stagers often doesn’t cross the minds of real estate agents and home sellers. According to Debra Gould, The Staging Diva, this fact becomes quite evident when watching various home staging shows on television.

“There are many invaluable lessons that real estate professionals, including new home stagers, can pick up from staging shows,” Gould writes on her blog, the Home Staging Business Report. “As a home stager, my favorite part is seeing the décor of the homes and imagining what I would do to make the spaces more appealing to the potential buyers who are viewing them.”

Founder of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, Gould explains that watching home staging programs on TV can give stagers a good sense of what buyers are looking for and what scares them off. For instance, in vacant or partially-furnished homes, buyers often have a hard time figuring out how they’d use a certain space, and as a result, they perceive the home as having an awkward layout. Cosmetic issues are also a big turn-off, especially if the buyers assume a bathroom or kitchen needs to be renovated because the space doesn’t show well.

“If the properties in these types of scenarios had been staged, several mental barriers would have been removed for these buyers, and that is the entire point of home staging,” Gould explains. “You’ll notice that on home staging shows, almost everyone ends up floundering around a vacant home wondering where their furniture would go or how they would make good use of the space. That’s because when a room is vacant, it’s almost impossible for a potential buyer to get a good sense of scale. Believe it or not, this can prevent someone from making an offer, especially in a buyer’s market. If someone has made up their mind that their furniture won’t fit, they might just decide to move on to the next property.”

Gould also encourages stagers to watch home staging programs to get an idea of what people expect when they’re looking at homes in different price points. For example, as buyers look at higher-end homes, you hear them talk about changing out the builder’s light fixtures, but that is a total non-issue in a less expensive property.

Gould believes that watching home staging shows is great preparation for home stagers. “You’ll hear right from home buyers’ mouths what small things turn them off and might prevent them from making an offer on a home that’s perfect for them otherwise. In well-furnished homes, you can see how buyers are immediately attracted and often guess the value at much higher than the actual list price. It’s so obvious how buyers can be romanced by a well-staged home.”

Gould discusses the importance of home staging at length in her free special report called “Ask Staging Diva: Should I start a home staging business in this economy?” which can be downloaded from the Staging Diva website.

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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Summary:

According to Debra Gould, The Staging Diva, home stagers often earn more money than real estate agents because expenses are lower and stagers don’t work for free like real estate agents do.

Home Staging Expert Claims Home Stagers Can Out-Earn Real Estate Agents

(UNITED STATES) June 27, 2011 – With real estate agents making a percentage of each home they sell, many people assume they earn a substantial income. However, according to expert home stager Debra Gould, even top sellers may make less than $20 per hour after accounting for all their business expenses.

“Home stagers have a much higher earning potential than this,” explains Gould in the Home Staging Business Report. “In my second year as a home stager, I was earning up to $10,000 a month.”

According to Gould, who founded the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, home stagers can command a premium for their services. “Depending on the location, home stagers can charge from $300 to $600 for a single home staging consultation, with full-blown staging projects bringing in much more,” says Gould. “Fuel is the only major expense, because everything else is billed to the client.”

Gould also explains that the home staging industry remains stable even in a bad economy: “Unlike real estate agents, home stagers don’t have to worry about starving to death in a slow real estate market, because no matter what the market is doing, home staging still works.”

Gould believes that some real estate agents should consider a career change. “Many agents offer free staging services to their clients, but for agents who have a passion for interior design, it may make sense to switch gears to home staging in order to bring in more income.”

For more comparisons between the earning potential of agents and home stagers, visit the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Report.

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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It’s true that all realtors are real estate agents but it may surprise you to know that the opposite is not true – real estate agents aren’t always realtors. Debra Gould has made the distinction between the two terms in the Home Staging Glossary by Staging Diva.

“If you look closely,” says Gould, “you’ll see that the word Realtor has a ® symbol after it – an important detail to note.”

The entry for Realtor® in the Home Staging Glossary reads:

People often assume that the term realtor can be used interchangeably with real estate agent. REALTOR® is actually a registered trademark of the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and only their members can properly be referred to as a REALTOR®.

Gould, founder of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, cautions home stagers against using the word realtor in your website content. She says, “You can get in trouble because it is a trademarked phrase. When you make mention of a real estate agent and you know they are, in fact, a REALTOR® then you must type the word in capital letters with the ® symbol after it.”

The Home Staging Glossary contains many useful tidbits of information like this. Gould recommends that home stagers take a few minutes to peruse the glossary entries because she has attempted to breathe more life into each entry by adding tips and links to additional articles of interest.

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 in over 20 countries 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.

Halloween is still weeks away but decorating magazines are already featuring ideas for the holidays.

Debra Gould, the Staging Diva, says the approach of Halloween is signaling sellers to get their homes sold before the holiday season which is infamous for being one of the slowest real estate seasons in the calendar year.

If you’ve been considering a change in your own life or career by investing in your education and becoming a home stager, this is a good time to do it!

The Staging Diva says, “With the fall real estate season in full swing those home sellers who have had their homes listed since Labor Day are starting to worry about the prospect of still being on the market during the holidays. If they don’t sell within the next month or two, they’ll likely be stuck waiting until February or March at least. Not to mention, anyone seriously thinking of buying a home right now is going to want to move before winter approaches.”

Homes that didn’t sell during the spring real estate season were listed again around Labor Day, in most cases with a new agent and a new price and if they’re still trying to sell, they’ll be wise to find a home stager as soon as possible. Many of those home sellers learned the hard way that lowering their price and selling “as is” isn’t the winning strategy in a slow real estate market.

“To learn more about why that’s the case, check out my FREE special report, Ask Staging Diva: Can I grow a home staging business in a depressed economy?,” suggests Gould. She adds, “Anyone who has friends telling them how talented they are at decorating who’s ready to learn how to make money from that talent should know the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program can be completed within a few days because it’s made up of 10 hours of audio recordings plus downloadable notes and checklists that you can study from your own home.”

With the homework assignment provided between course 1 and course 2 of the Staging Diva Program, many students get their first home staging client. “In other words,” says Gould, “your new career can be way closer than you think!”

By following the formula for starting and growing a home staging business that Gould teaches in her home staging courses, you’ll be well on your way to taking advantage of the busy fall real estate market and getting yourself into a great position to start 2011 knowing exactly what you’ll be doing for the year ahead.

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.

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, shares a story about a real estate agent who was given proof that home staging works in an unexpected way.

Real estate agent proven wrong by home stager

Home stager Fabia McNair of Styling Spaces received a call from a homeowner last December who was listing his home and despite the fact that his real estate agent did not feel the home needed to be staged, he called in Styling Spaces to do the job.

Founder of the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program, Debra Gould says, “After being a home stager for 7 years, I can assure you what happened to Fabia in this case is common. Savvy home sellers use their own common sense even if their Realtor® isn’t a believer in staging.”

When the agent came back and saw the transformation she was “wowed” and immediately hired Styling Spaces to stage four of her other listings.

One of those listings had been on the market on and off for a year before staging and it sold that same weekend.  Two of the homes sold same day and one that had been overpriced for its market sold for $15,000 over market value.

That skeptical real estate agent became a big fan of Styling Spaces and spread the word around her office leading to lots more work for Fabia.

Gould says, “This story proves you cannot depend on real estate agents for your business. Obviously the homeowner in this case had been educated about the value of staging and look at the snowball effect that followed.”

Having two very young children at home to take care of, it was quite a risk for Fabia McNair to take when she decided to quit a good job in the residential development field to start up her own home staging business full time. But it’s a risk that continues to pay off for her and her family as her company continues to grow.

Having given up a steady job, Fabia was very motivated to make her business work and put to use everything she learned in the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program into practice. She has even been mentioned in her local newspaper after giving a staging seminar to local members of the community.

Fabia writes, “The Staging Diva Program, hands down, has given me the answers I need to run my business. My class notes still guide me when I am stuck. Debra Gould is very knowledgeable about this industry and is willing to teach it. When you have spent enough time with those other courses and you are ready to get to work call The Staging Diva.”

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.

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.