Staging Expert Debra Gould's blog for real estate agents

How far do you go bending the truth in real estate listings?

Debra Gould (Six Elements Inc.) — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 12:46:44 -0500

We all know what "quaint", "cosy", "gem", "first time on the market in 25 years" mean in real estate ads.

But how far do you go to try and make your latest listing sound attractive to potential buyers?

I'm writing this not as a home stager or home staging trainer. I'm writing as someone who personally bought 6 homes in 8 years. I lived in and staged all of them which is how I got into staging. I'm always on the look out for my next house so I'm an active reader of real estate ads, visitor to real estate agents' websites and open houses, etc. Besides my own desire to find my next home, I keep up on what sells and for how much so that I can better serve my staging clients.

This house was promoted as being "steps to Lake Ontario... sit back and listen to the waves... lake views... walk out to balconies/veranda from almost every room..."

By now you're probably imagining (as I was) a house on the water (or pretty darn close to it), listening to waves from all those balconies!

This house in fact several blocks from Lake Ontario making it completely impossible to hear any waves without walking for 5 - 10 minutes down a hill on a busy street, and then making your way around a large water filtration plant.

Yes, technically there was a lake view if you define that as the ability to see a thin band of blue in the distance beyond what appears to be government subsidized low cost apartment buildings. I am not naive enough to think that this wouldn't qualify for "lake view" in an ad. BUT, when "lake view" is combined with a description of hearing waves, an entirely different expectation is created in the buyer's mind.

All that said, it IS a lovely house both inside and out (and it did sell quickly - in no small part because it was priced way below market value in an already hot market). So my question to agents is:

What is the point of creating a completely false impression in an ad to promote a listing? If the potential buyer ends up annoyed at being lied to, are they likely to respect your professionalism or trust your claims in the future?

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva
President, Six Elements Inc. Home Staging

Home Staging isn't quite what you see on TV!

Debra Gould (Six Elements Inc.) — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 14:01:54 -0600

I love that home staging TV shows are boosting the average person's awareness of the importance of presenting their home in the best possible way when it's time to sell. It's also increasing awareness that "home staging" is actually a service.

But, it's a service that comes with a cost.

My concern with shows like "Buy Me," "Sell This House", etc. is that they present a completely unrealistic view of what can be accomplished over a weekend and for how much. They have huge teams that descend on a place and work night and day for free. Of course a house can be transformed for $2,000 with no labor cost and no cost for the home stager's expertise, time to come up with the ideas and implementing them!

Check out the email I received to see what I mean:

"How does one manage to get one's home on TV where the staging is done for
free? Can real people qualify for this or are the families pre-selected? How
much does staging cost? Is there a service in Maryland? Please help? My home
is rather new and in good shape. A four bedroom, 3.5 bath colonial., that we
need to sell due to change of circumstances. We need to get top dollar. Our
furniture is nice as well and most of it is fairly new but the house does not
look like it could. I don't know what is wrong. My home used to look like a
model but no longer. A good stager could make this a showplace. There are
little things that need to be done but nobody is handy and contractors want to
gouge you for something that takes five or ten minutes. Most people on TV
live on the West coast in tiny homes. I live on the East coast in a nice sized
home. Is TV an option for people like me? If not, can my house be staged for
a small amount of money like they do on the shows?"

This was my reply:

"Those TV shows are completely unrealistic because the significant labor they use is all free. You might be able to get your home on one, but you'll have no control over when that is. So if you have to sell at a certain time, this might not be a realistic objective.

Yes there are stagers in Maryland. But if free or little or no cost is your most important criteria, I can't recommend anyone."

I watched Extreme Makeover Home Edition a couple of weeks ago. They built an entire house over a few days. I wonder if silly viewers ask real life contractors and architects whether they can have that too?!

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva
President Six Elements Inc. Home Staging

Sometimes home staging won't work

Debra Gould (Six Elements Inc.) — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 08:53:50 -0600

If a home is staged well it will sell faster and for more money than one that isn't staged. This assumes:

the stager did a good job
the home is priced and marketed properly

This won't happen unless:

the homeowner follows through on the recommendations of both the agent and stager

I've seen some very badly staged homes and I've seen beautifully staged homes priced $100,000 above where they should be. This may be the fault of the stager, the agent, the homeowner or any combination thereof.

As with any profession, there are people at the top of their game and others who aren't. That's why the top 20% usually do 80% of the business. This applies to real estate agents and home stagers alike.

Another thing to keep in mind is that home staging is a completely unregulated field. There are no controls over whether someone is professional or not and there are no independently accredited programs. Before hiring any stager, you should consider a number of factors which you can read about at How To Hire a Home Stager.

As with most things:

hiring the right person for the job can make all the difference between success and failure
often you get what you pay for
professional advice is great but if it isn't followed, it becomes irrelevant

Home staging expert Debra Gould, also known as The Staging Diva is president of home staging firm Six Elements Inc. and has been featured on HGTV, CBS Radio, GlobalTV, CityTV, CNNMoney, MoneySense, Entrepreneur Magazine, Reader's Digest, Woman's Day, Style at Home, House & Home and more. She has staged hundreds of homes in the $190,000 to $1.5 million price range and taught close to 400 women and men all over North America and in Australia, England, Wales, The Philippines and South Africa to start and grow their own home staging businesses.

Should Real Estate Agents Be Home Stagers?

Debra Gould (Six Elements Inc.) — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 19:48:29 -0600

Here's a typical inquiry I get from realtors:

"I am a 20+ year veteran of Real Estate in the Tampa area. I have been staging homes for years! The problem is that I did it to help sell the listings...and now people expect it from me.... and of course I am not getting paid to "Stage". Do you think trying to now charge $$$ tostage is going to be a conflict with my real estate career?

I just want to know if you feel these two careers can co-exist....... real estate is very very slow in Florida, and I felt with all the people trying to sell... now would be a perfect opportunity to jump into staging for $$$$ since they all need help!"

The quick answer to whether an agent should also be a stager is "that depends!"

I think you need to sort out whether you want to be a home stager who happens to also have a real estate license or whether you want to be a realtor who also stages houses. The answer to that question will determine how you approach your business.

I have many agents who take the Staging Diva Program because they're tired of the 24/7 demands of real estate and want to earn their living more from staging. I can also tell you that most of my projects come directly from homeowners before listing their homes (that's where the real money is in staging), and most of them would have happily given me their listing after I staged their homes. I'm not an agent so I referred them to others.

If you're an agent who is providing FREE home staging for your clients and you're doing that work yourself, I think your time is better spent on what presumably you do best, finding and selling listings!

Imagine spending an extra two or three hours with each client discussing what junk to get rid of, what colors to repaint, how to rearrange the furniture. That's two or three hours you didn't spend getting a new listing, running an open house for agents or home buyers, doing showings for buyers, etc. There's a significant opportunity cost to any time you don't spend on revenue generating activities.

Furthermore, you've risked jeopardizing your listing by telling your client about problems and deficiencies they might not be ready to hear, or worse getting in the middle of a disagreement between a husband and wife about what needs to done to sell the home.

You're much better off leaving all that to an independent third party, a professional home stager.

If on the other hand you're tired of being on call 24/7, you see the clouds on the horizon of your profession created by open access to all the information you used to control through MLS and a softening market, you might want to consider reshifting your priorities so that you're a home stager who happens to also sell real estate.

In other words, your efforts are more focussed on promoting your home staging business and along the way you also pick up listings. In that way, you're competing with other realtors on a different level. Considerable trust is built up between a home stager and their client. It's quite an intimate process working with a homeowner and going through all of their personal posessions! At the end of it, if you can continue that relationship by also taking their listing, many of them will be yours. Notice in this scenario, you're getting paid to stage the house and the rewards can be considerable!

By the way, the small home pictured above was a renovation site when I saw it before decorating it the way you see here. I made over $3,000 on the project, visited the house only twice and did not need to own any of the items I put into it. Imagine also the agent's delight at being able to show up to do her agent's open house and all she had to do was open the door and put her sign out front. Everything else was picture perfect and ready for "show time!"

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva
President, Six Elements Inc.

Internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould, also known as The Staging Diva, has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, CNNMoney, CBS Radio, Reader's Digest, Woman's Day, MoneySense, National Post, Globe & Mail, and HGTV, CityTV, GlobalTV, among others. She created the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program and has almost 400 graduates across the US, Canada and in Australia, Wales, England, The Philippines and South Africa. Contact sales@stagingdiva.com for help finding a home stager in your area. For more information on home staging and training, visit: stagingdiva.com and sixelements.com

Should real estate agents pay for home staging?

Debra Gould (Six Elements Inc.) — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 13:08:25 -0600

Some agents will pay for a home staging consultation as part of the service they offer homeowners when they get a new listing. Clearly there are several points in favor of this:

helps differentiate the agent from others who don't offer this service
provides a value added service that may build customer loyalty
the agent may end up with a listing that shows better than if they hadn't provided this
the agent gets an independent third party to say things they may not want to tell their client themselves
the agents gets an independent third party to be in the middle of a disagreeing husband and wife so they won't have to
the agent frees up their own time to do what they do best, getting and promoting listings.

All that said, I don't think homeowners or home stagers should necessarily expect real estate agents to pick up the tab for a home staging consultation.

Just because an agent recommends a home stager does not mean they have to pay for it; in the same way we wouldn't expect them to pay for a real estate lawyer or home inspector they recommended to a client.

I'd much prefer dealing with homewoners directly who understand the value of home staging and are prepared to invest in it, because they understand that they'll likely make a profit on my services. In fact, most of my clients make anywhere from $10,000 to $70,000 profit on my staging services (even when all I've done is a consultation!).

Homeowners who pay for the initial consultation themselves are most receptive to what we have to recommend, unlike homeowners who only have us there because their agent is paying. There's nothing like doing a consultation while the homeowner keeps looking at their watch hoping you don't go overtime because they have no interest in investing any of their own money in the process. These homeowners are less likely to act on many of our recommendations because they're just "playing along." For them it's free advice so they don't necessarily value it.

Home staging makes a HUGE difference in the presentation of a home. It will sell more quickly and for a higher amount. It's only common sense that more buyers will be attracted to a fabulously presented home and be more willing to pay more for it. Snap decisions, first impressions... these are human nature. It applies to how we judge people we meet, the restaurants we dine in, dates we go on, books we read, movies we see, used cars we buy, and of course the homes we purchase!

I'll be sharing my top home staging tips on Bob McCormick's Money 101, CBS NewsRadio's Los Angeles affiliate KNX1070 at 10:30 AM Pacific time, Monday November 6.

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva
President, Six Elements Inc.

Home Staging expert Debra Gould also known as The Staging Diva is president of Six Elements Inc., a leading home staging company that provides free information to raise the standards in the industry and build awareness amongst homeowners and their real estate agents about the benefits of decorating a house to sell. She also offers a referral service that is free to homeowners and agents looking for a home stager anywhere in the US, Canada, Australia, the UK and South Africa.

Debra Gould developed The Staging Diva Program to create opportunities for others to grow their own profitable home staging, real estate enhancement businesses.

Virtual tours versus still photos to market a property

Debra Gould (Six Elements Inc.) — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 08:43:41 -0500

Many agents wonder about the the value of virtual tours to market their listings. Obviously they add yet another cost and it's money right out of the agent's pocket.

When I'm house hunting (which I do often, I bought 6 houses in about 9 years) I like virtual tours because it really gives me a better sense of the home and whether I want to go see it. In most cases, they help me rule out visiting the property, whereas excellent still shots might have drawn me in!

Clearly there's an expense to having a virtual tour made and you'd have to weigh that versus the benefits. If I were a realtor I'd ONLY use them in large, open and very well staged houses! I don't think the average listing would benefit greatly from a virtual tour versus properly composed and well-lit stills.

Many agents do a poor job of photographing their properties. There aren't enough shots or the ones they have don't show the rooms well. Or they haven't taken the time to have someone photoshop (retouch) the images before using them in a feature sheet or putting them up on the web.

Don't let anyone try and convince you that such retouching is a big deal. Anyone that knows what they're doing could spend under 3 minutes per shot and make them look a whole lot better by straightening the images, improving the brightness/contrast, fixing the cropping and even blurring out distracting bits (eg: all those unsightly dish towels hanging over the oven door).

Another pet peeve of mine is shots taken without anyone bothering to move distracting clutter out of the way for a better shot (how many photos have you seen with the toilet seat up?!).

I staged a house and when the realtor showed up to take his photos, he dumped all his paperwork on the dining room table (for a meeting he was going to have with the homeowner) and his coat over the living room chair and THEN took his photos! In other words, he actually messed up my perfectly arranged rooms and then shot them for his feature sheets! Clearly not all agents are guilty of this, but if you visit enough realtor's sites, you'll see it happens more than it should!

These problems would only be worse in a virtual tour. You can't shoot 360 degrees in a room unless ALL 360 degrees are immaculate!

In summary the realtors that do a good job with stills, probably don't need virtual tours unless they want to go "over and above" for that really special (expensive) listing.

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva
President, Six Elements Inc. Home Staging

Internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould, also known as The Staging Diva, has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, CNNMoney, Reader's Digest, Woman's Day, MoneySense, National Post, Globe & Mail, and HGTV, CityTV, GlobalTV, among others. She created the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program and has over 300 graduates across the US, Canada and in Australia, Wales and South Africa. Contact sales@stagingdiva.com for help finding a home stager in your area. For more information on home staging and training, visit: stagingdiva.com and sixelements.com

Why Home Staging Ups the Selling Price of a Home

Debra Gould (Six Elements Inc.) — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 16:09:02 -0500

People imagine they can look past ugly decor or empty rooms and see 'potential', but usually they can't! That's why successful builders use Model Homes and Model Suites to sell their projects.

Savvy home sellers realize that the same principals apply in the resale market and turn to Professional Home Stagers or House Fluffers to ensure they sell quickly and for top dollar.

People start house hunting with a logical list of criteria, but the home they actually buy is chosen largely for emotional reasons.

The principal aim in a house fluffing or home staging project is to allow potential buyers to walk into the house and have that "this is it, this is home" feeling.

Once they can say, "I love it," they are willing to look past some of the criteria they had on their list before they walked in the door. That's why it is critical to pay attention to even the smallest detail when staging a home to sell.

"Little" things like over-crowded rooms, personal memorabilia, dripping taps or doors that stick, all help the buyer emotionally disengage from the house. To sell a home fast, for top dollar, you want buyers to lose their hearts. Then the competition doesn't stand a chance!

If a house doesn't sell within those first critical weeks when one hopes for lots of activity, interest and multiple offers, most agents recommend a price "adjustment" of at least $5,000 on a modest home and easily 10 times that on a more expensive one. This is money right out of the homeowner's pocket!

It is much more preferable to stage or fluff your home right from Day 1, and never go down the "New Price!" road.

Done right, home staging / house fluffing provides an excellent return on investment — helping you sell your home more quickly and for top dollar (forget weeks/months of endless and inconvenient showings).

The before and after of this family room I staged shows how much more space can be created by adding furniture. Many people have the mistaken belief that an empty room looks bigger.

To learn more about why trying to sell an empty home is a bad idea, check out "Home Staging Empty Rooms or an Empty House."

You'll also find an entry form there to receive a free subscription to Six Elements News, with lots of free tips and more before and after photos of home transformations.

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva
President Six Elements Inc. Home Staging

Will home staging work in a conservative market?

Debra Gould (Six Elements Inc.) — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 12:09:55 -0500

Home Staging is an effective strategy and business to operate anywhere because what home stagers offer is not a frill. It's a service that homeowners will make huge profits from. And, with real estate slowing down in so many markets, of course homeowners and their agents will be looking for an edge.

If you don't decorate the house to sell quickly and for top dollar, the only other alternative is to keep dropping the price until someone buys! That's not a scenario that sits well with homeowners because it's money right out of their pockets.

Also, an increasing number of savvy real estate agents are realizing the benefits home staging provides them, namely:

saving their time to focus on what they do best (getting and selling listings)
turning their listings more quickly (no more endless "why haven't I sold yet?" calls from frustrated clients)
reducing their costs of promoting a listing
having great looking listings that photograph well to promote on their own websites
knowing their listings show well and will sell more quickly and at a higher price than it otherwise would have
avoiding getting in between a husband and wife who don't agree
having an outside expert say things they don't want to for fear of jeopardizing their listing
allowing them to show up for their open house knowing the house will show as well as possible (imagine just putting out your sign and unlocking the door and everything else is ready for "show time")

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva
President of Six Elements Inc.

Home staging expert Debra Gould, also known as The Staging Diva is president of home staging firm Six Elements Inc. and has been featured on HGTV, GlobalTV, CityTV, CNNMoney, MoneySense, Entrepreneur Magazine, Reader’s Digest, Woman’s Day and more. She has staged hundreds of homes in the $190,000 to $1.5 million price range and taught close to 300 women all over North America and in Wales, Australia and South Africa to start and grow their own home staging businesses.

Is Home Staging Just a Fad?

Debra Gould (Six Elements Inc.) — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 12:10:30 -0500

As long as there are homeowners with any of these characteristics or in these situations, there will be a need for home stagers:

too much clutter
too much furniture
blank walls
furniture that doesn't suit the price point of their home
furniture that doesn't suit the lifestyle of the likely buyer for their home
not enough time on their hands to make their home look showing ready
poor taste or an outdated idea of what current homes look like
husbands and wives that can't agree on what to do
empty homes that need to sell fast
empty rooms because they couldn't afford furniture or a partner moved out and took it with him/her

Home staging is only a fad if you believe that we'll all go back to wanting to buy homes that show badly! With all the interior decorating magazines and TV shows and an increasing number of homes being staged, that's not likely to happen. Let's face it, the average person can hardly help but have their awareness of better design raised. Decorating is not a fringe interest, it's solidly in the mainstream as evidenced by all the prime time shows on major TV networks, Oprah's many shows featuring designers and decorators and "designer" home furnishings lines in every major retailer (even the low-end ones).

It's interesting to remember that it wasn't that long ago that getting a home inspection was something new. Now it's completely common place. Another "fad" might be getting title insurance... but I doubt it with all the news of people having their homes fraudulently sold right out from under them. But that's another subject.

My point is, "new ideas" aren't fads unless they have no solid foundation or reason for being.

Once homeowners realize the tens of thousands of dollars that can be made from having their homes staged, they'll realize it's an investment they'd be crazy not to make.

And once more agents realize how much time using a professional home stager can save them, how their listings will turn faster, not to mention how well it reflects on them that their listings show well, why wouldn't they recommend home staging to their clients?

Answers to common questons homeowners have about staging

Answers to questions real estate agents have about how home staging can boost their profits

Answers to common questions aspiring home stagers have about going into the business of house staging

Debra Gould also developed The Staging Diva Program to create opportunities for others to grow their own profitable home staging, real estate enhancement businesses. She has personally trained over 300 women and men in the US, Canada, Australia, Wales and South Africa and refers hundreds of home staging projects to them once they graduate from the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program.

Home Staging Sets Condo Apart From Others

Debra Gould (Six Elements Inc.) — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 11:35:17 -0500

This fall will see a lot of condos sitting for too long in markets that were previously hot. Many agents cling to the belief that it's all about dollars per square foot. That might be true if buyers only shopped with logic. But we all know they actually buy on emotion.

It’s really tough to make a condo stand out from the many others for sale in the same building. That’s why home staging is so critical.

This client had to put their condo on the market in the slow summer season and on top of that they were competing with dozens of others in the same complex of four towers.

With condos, color recommendations are especially important as nothing warms up a space faster than the right coat of paint. Most new condos are painted sterile white, which does nothing to enhance their often boxy environment.

Look at the drama achieved in this typical condo. I used Benjamin Moore Huntington Beige (HC-21) because the living room faced south and was flooded with light from floor to ceiling windows. There's nothing especially unique about the space, but the wall color pulls the look together and gives it the contemporary edge it needed because of the target market for that location.

One of the gratifying things about home staging is the real difference you can make in people’s lives, here’s what my client wrote me last week:

“I would like to thank you for your help in staging our condo. Everyone that has passed through our home, be it friends, family, or prospective buyers, absolutely loved it. Most importantly, we were able to distinguish our condo unit from the several other comparable ones in our building and, as a result, were able to sell it in only six days, at 98% of our asking price! Thanks again!” (Roman Rozanec)

I have to say it’s really nice starting my day reading an email like that! When I was working in the corporate sector it was rare to receive such heartfelt appreciation. Roman and his wife are now off to start a new life in Australia with way more cash than they would have had if they hadn't had their condo staged to sell.

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva
President, Six Elements Inc.

Internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould (also known as The Staging Diva), is President of home staging firm Six Elements Inc. She's staged hundreds of homes to sell in the $190,000 to $1.5 million range for clients who made anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000 profit on her services. Debra's expertise in decorating homes to sell has been featured in major media like: The Wall Street Journal, CNNMoney, MoneySense Magazine, HGTV, CityTV, GlobalTV, Reader's Digest, Financial Post, Globe & Mail, House & Home, Style at Home and more.

Realtor's question about ROI from Home Staging

Debra Gould (Six Elements Inc.) — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 13:28:18 -0500

Realtor's Question

A realtor just wrote to ask me:

Can you direct me to a resource that will help me accurately advise my clients as to where to spend thier home improvement dollars for the highest return? I do of course advise to clean, de clutter, tidy the yard and garden, paint and so on but if it comes down to a choice between say a new living room carpet or a new kitchen counter, which one to choose? Should a seller upgrade lighting fixtures or replace the dated taps in the bathroom. Those are the kinds of questions I get. Sometimes the answers are clear. I would prefer to use an expert opinion for my clients.

My Answer

Hi Bill, I think the accurate answer is "it depends". These are judgement calls that professional home stagers make every day. In some homes I recommend changing taps, in others I'd change the lighting, and in many I'd do both! Factors I consider are:

- how dated, worn or just plain ugly the current items look
- the price point of the house
- how the house compares to others in a similar location/price range
- the target market of the particular home and what they'd likely find important
- how much time is available until the house hits the market
- how much a homeowner is prepared to invest in staging

Any home has a myriad of things that could be improved upon, prior to selling. I don't believe there are any hard rules that say don't bother with X, but absolutely to Y.

We do know that home buyers are particularly interested in the state of kitchens and bathrooms because these are typically the most expensive to renovate. However, a talented home stager can often recommend relatively inexpensive cosmetic improvements that will make a huge difference to how these important rooms look. For examples of before and after shots, please visit:

http://www.sixelements.com/kitchensandbathrooms.html
http://www.sixelements.com/bathroommakeover.html
http://www.sixelements.com/hiringahomestager.html

While a definitive To Do list might be nice, it would not be an accurate way to answer the real estate agent's question.

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva
President, Six Elements Inc.

Home staging expert Debra Gould, also known as The Staging Diva is president of home staging firm Six Elements Inc. and has been featured on HGTV, GlobalTV, CityTV, CNNMoney, MoneySense, Entrepreneur Magazine, Reader's Digest, Woman's Day and more. She has staged hundreds of homes in the $190,000 to $1.5 million price range and taught close to 300 women all over North America and in Australia and South Africa to start and grow their own home staging businesses.

How to Hire a Home Stager

Debra Gould (Six Elements Inc.) — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 13:49:21 -0500

Here are some tips for homeowners thinking of hiring a home stager:

- A true home staging expert will stage your home for your particular target market. Home stagers aren't merely decorators, they should understand real estate and how and why people buy the homes they do.

- Home staging is a completely unregulated field with no official credentials. Beware of anyone who claims to have official "certification" or recognized "accreditation".

- Review before and after photos of the home stager's work. Some training programs provide portfolio photos, so ask questions to determine if the photos you're looking at are their own.

- Professional home stagers should have an Internet presence that allows you to review their work, read client testimonials and articles they've written, and learn about their background or experience.

- Ask your agent or neighbors for referrals to home stagers in your area. You can also locate someone at the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers.

- Be suspicious of any home stager who will do a free consultation. This indicates lack of experience. True professionals expect to be paid for their expertise.

- Don't base your selection on the lowest price. Saving a few hundred dollars on staging services can cost you tens of thousands when you sell your home if the stager doesn't give you the right advice.

- Home stagers usually base their fees on time. Some will price by the room or square footage. For a consultation, expect to pay anywhere from $200 for someone new, to $700 or $800 for a seasoned pro.

- Home staging services can range anywhere from: a consultation where you get recommendations for what's needed and you complete the work on your own; to a full-blown staging that might include repainting, minor property improvements and the stager bringing in new furniture, accessories and art. The average 3 bedroom empty home in a middle class neighborhood, can be staged for about $6,000 and boost the selling price by $10,000 to $70,000.

- During a home staging consultation, keep an open mind and don't take the recommendations personally. The home stager is there to transform your home into a hot property that will appeal to the greatest number of potential buyers. Decorating a house to sell is very different than how you live in it on a day-to-day basis.

Home staging expert Debra Gould, also known as The Staging Diva is president of home staging firm Six Elements Inc. and has been featured on HGTV, GlobalTV, CityTV, CNNMoney, MoneySense, Entrepreneur Magazine, Reader's Digest, Woman's Day and more. She has staged hundreds of homes in the $190,000 to $1.5 million price range and taught close to 300 women all over North America and in Australia and South Africa to start and grow their own home staging businesses.