Summary
Debra Gould, also known as The Staging Diva, discusses the details of a home staging project and explains why tradeoffs were required for practical reasons.
Staging Diva Explains Why Home Staging Projects Require Compromise
(UNITED STATES) October 25, 2011 – It is very rare that a home stager has the opportunity to work with a blank canvas or a blank check. Instead, home stagers are asked to work within certain constraints, such as the client’s budget, the listing date, and the price point and target market for the house. It is also common for homeowners to put a house on the market while they are still living in it, which makes certain staging recommendations impractical.
“There is really no end to the ideas we can dream up when staging a real estate property, but there are many factors that will limit us as stagers,” says Debra Gould, founder of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. “That’s not necessarily a bad thing though. In fact, I’ve often found it makes my own home staging projects more creatively challenging because not only do I have to find visually appealing solutions, I also have to find solutions that work for everyone concerned.”
In a recent post on her blog, the Home Staging Business Report, Gould shared photos of a specific client’s home staging project and explained how home stagers are often required to make tradeoffs when providing home staging recommendations. Gould described how the basement in her client’s house was painted a dark color, and while she would have preferred to repaint the entire basement, there were many factors indicating that it would be best to work with the existing paint color.
“In this particular case, the client’s house had to be listed on the market very quickly, so the time constraint was uppermost in my mind as I went through every room during the home staging consultation,” Gould says “There’s a delicate balance we have to walk as home stagers. We need to recommend the most important things while also not overwhelming the client to the point where they think it’s hopeless and decide not to implement our suggestions at all.”
Gould explained that the homeowners also had two small children, and she felt there were limits to what she could expect from the busy family just days before the first open house. Changing the dark wall color would have required priming and several coats of paint, making the children’s play space unusable during this time. In addition, the paint odor likely would have lingered since the basement had no windows for ventilation.
“While the wall color in the basement wasn’t optimal, it was a pleasing color and had been well maintained. With the other changes I had recommended, I was able to work with it,” says Gould. “This allowed for a safe and out-of-the-way place for the children to play while other changes were being made to the rest of the house. I made a tradeoff: I gave up a new wall color in the basement in order to implement more important changes in other parts of the home.”
Gould provides detailed information about how she conducts home staging consultations in Course 3 of the Staging Diva Program, “Taking the Mystery Out of Home Staging Consultations.” The course also includes a free consultation checklist with client planning forms.
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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