I get approximately five calls a week from people interested in following me around for a day (or more) to see how I work as a home stager. Sadly most of these job shadowing requests are from aspiring stagers who spent a lot of money with a certain company that they believed promised them a guaranteed home staging job.

There are many reasons I’m not interested in having someone shadow me. First of all, I would have to screen them beforehand because that person would be a direct reflection on me. We would have have to meet ahead of time and then try to coordinate times to meet a the consultation and staging day and I’m not getting anything out of this arrangement. Also, the fact that someone in my market wants my help in entering my market isn’t very attractive.

I’m sure if you’re looking to shadow someone, there’s no malicious intent there, you’re probably thinking it would be a lot less scary if you could follow someone around and see what there is to it. But the thing is, what you do when you get to a client’s house is the easiest part of operating a home staging business. What you do there has everything to do with the natural talent you possess. The difficult part of running a successful home staging business is figuring out how to get those clients and how to get paid for your time. Nobody you shadow is going to teach you those things. That’s why I created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, to teach the nuts and bolts of starting a home staging business. It’s valuable information and nobody is going to give it away.

Remember, if you’re considering starting a home staging business, you must already have the talent. Since I’m betting nobody is going to want you to job shadow them, a better way to gain confidence that you will be able to do this is to go around to open houses on the weekends. You don’t have to say anything when you’re there, you don’t even necessarily need to introduce yourself. Just walk through and pretend you’re in a client’s house for a home staging consultation. Imagine what you would be recommending for different rooms.

The more houses you go into, the more comfortable you’ll become. Go around to other cities to get a feel for real estate prices and different types of properties. Every house you go into, you’ll learn something new. You’ll encounter all kinds of “don’ts” that you can figure out how to correct. You will never encounter a house that is completely perfect and that will help you learn that there’s always something to be done.

If you’re feeling very nervous about your first home staging consultation, consider ordering Course 3 of the Staging Diva Program. It’s the one where you learn how to conduct yourself at consultations including what to wear and what to bring. It takes the mystery out of home staging consultations.

Home stagers, did you spend time touring open houses before you started your home staging business? Did you use it as a tool to ease your anxiety? Did you spend time shadowing other stagers or do you allow others to shadow you on the job? Please share your experiences by leaving a comment below.

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

Debra Gould knows how to make money as a home stager and she developed the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program to teach others how to earn a living doing something they love. In course 3 of the Staging Diva Program, Debra teaches her students everything they need to know to conduct a home staging consultation. There are over 4000 Staging Diva students around the world.

I'm often asked by home staging professionals whether they should just accept checks, cash or take credit cards too. The ability to accept credit card payments is appealing to home stagers, especially since the amounts you’re getting paid are usually quite high (assuming you're not one of those bargain basement stagers who fly in and out of this business within 3 to 6 months).

Setting up a merchant account, however, is very expensive. Not only do you have to pay a large sum to the bank just to apply for and then set up the account, you also have to pay a certain amount each month regardless of whether or not you have any transactions. In addition to paying these fixed fees when you do make a sale, they usually get to keep about 5% of it.

I don’t recommend you get your own merchant account, but I do suggest you set up a PayPal account for your business that will allow you to take credit card payments.

PayPal is essentially an online bank that allows you to accept and send payments and transfer funds to your regular business bank account. There are no fees to set it up and there are no monthly costs. If you have a client who also has a PayPal account, they can send money from their own account or they have the option to use their credit card instead. This is an easy and less costly solution then having your own merchant account.

Even if your client doesn’t have their own PayPal account, they can still pay you using a credit card through PayPal.

By the way, it doesn’t matter where you live since you can choose the currency you want to use when you set up your account. But beware of switching your PayPal balance between different currencies. Their rates are awful! This is not an issue if you’re doing all your business in one country.

Of course, PayPal will keep a percentage of your sales, but it’s roughly what you’d be paying for your own merchant account through the bank to accept credit card payments. In some cases PayPal takes an even smaller percentage of sales than your bank would with a normal merchant account. But because there are no set up or monthly fees to worry about, I feel it’s less costly to go this route.

Cash is king and if you can get your clients to pay by cash or check you get to keep all your sales rather than giving a percentage over to a bank or PayPal. So that’s always the best route in my opinion.

Home stagers, what has your experience been with using PayPal to accept payments? Or have you been using one of those costly merchant accounts to accept credit card payments? Please share your experiences by leaving a comment below.

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

Through the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, Debra Gould has taught more than 4000 people around the world how to make money as home stagers.

In tough economic times, it's easy to jump to the conclusion that you should lower your price to attract clients and that you should be promoting how cheap your home staging services are. If you find yourself heading down that road, please stop! It's a dead end and it will put you out of business.

Here's the thing, if you promote your services as being cheap, you’ll attract penny-pinching clients who don’t value what you have to offer.

People who only care about price will argue every step of the way about any recommendation you might make that might cost extra. You’ll get the people who haven’t spent money maintaining their homes over the years and will balk at repainting over their 1965 decor. You’ll get people who say, “why should I replace that rusted out mailbox or the cracked front window, the new owners can worry about it.”

If you’ve gone into the home staging business because you’re a creative person, I can tell you that sort of client will completely stifle your creativity and suck all the joy out of giving advice and envisioning the potential of a property. You’ll also have to worry more about bounced checks and chasing your money.

Marketing is more than telling people what you charge for your services. You have to position yourself, properly explain the benefits of your services in a way that is meaningful to the potential customer, learn how to convey the right image and relate to people in a way that makes them want to work with you. You really should have a prospect sold on you long before you start talking price. They should want you bad enough that your rate is not an issue.

Of course price enters into a buying decision, but the point is you want it to be far down the list after other considerations, not your client’s number one concern.

Home stagers, do you have a good example about how marketing based on low rates can lead to nightmare clients? Please share by leaving a comment below!

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

Home Staging Debra Gould knows how to make money as a home stager and she developed the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program to teach others how to earn a living doing something they love. In course 2 of the Staging Diva Program, Debra teaches her students how to have an effective pricing strategy and build credibility with potential clients. There are over 4000 Staging Diva students around the world.

Who was it that said, when others are excited that's the time to sell and when everyone else is scared, that's the time to buy? Warren Buffet? It might have been said about the stock market, but it totally applies to making money in real estate in my opinion. I'm not a real estate agent, but I have bought 8 homes in both slow and hot real estate markets.

If I hadn't bought my dream home on Mother's Day two years ago, I'd be selling and trading up right now. This is a great market to buy in if you're ready to trade up to a better property or you're a first time buyer. If I was a real estate agent, I'd really be pushing this idea hard. Let's do the math:

If you currently own a $300,000 home, when the market goes up 10%, you'll be ahead $30,000.

If you currently own a $500,000 home, when the market goes up 10%, you'll be ahead $50,000.

In other words, if you're sitting in a $300,000 house right now, and you can afford the increased mortgage payments of owning a $500,000 home (which may not be hard at current historically low interest rates), when the market does rebound, you'd be ahead $20,000 if the market only goes up 10% (and it will likely go up way more than that). That $20,000 would offset the costs of moving and you would be living in a way nicer house.

This assumes you've been living within your means up until now of course. If you haven't, consider how much less power you have because of it and resolve to dig yourself out of debt. But that's a subject for a whole other post!

For first time buyers, housing prices are finally within the realm of affordable and interest rates are ridiculously low, so it's no surprise that first time buyers represent over 40% of the market right now. As a home stager, that's great news, because this is the crowd that would be most influenced by home staging.

Looking at attractively decorated and well-maintained properties is way less scary for a first time buyer.

I'm reminded of this every time I go to the gym and my trainer tells me about all the house showings he's been on. Like 90% of people, he can't see past cracked walls, ugly carpet, burned out light bulbs, overcrowded furniture and clutter. To him a house is exactly what it looks like, no imagination required. One of these days he's going to walk into a house that's staged for a young guy looking to put down some roots.

As soon as that happens, he'll stop throwing over $1000/month down the drain in rent and sign on the dotted line.

With over 5.2 million houses projected to sell in the US in 2009, there's a huge need for quality home staging. If you're a home stager, I recommend looking at how you can use the current market conditions to your advantage rather than letting them discourage you. For more information on how the current economy and slow housing market will affect the home staging industry, check out this free report.

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

A compulsive home buyer, Debra Gould took her passions for real estate and decorating and turned it into an internationally recognized home staging company featured on CNNMoney, MoneySense, HGTV, The Wall Street Journal and more. Since 2005, she's been teaching others how to become successful home stagers in the Staging Diva Training Program. There are currently over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates on 5 continents. Debra encourages anyone concerned about starting or growing a home staging business in today’s economy to download her free special report: “Ask Staging Diva: Can I grow a home staging business in a depressed economy?”

There's nothing like being interviewed by a reporter who is stuck with his own non-selling house to make for an information-filled discussion about home staging. We covered practical ideas to help home sellers and real estate agents understand what home staging is and why it's important to help sell a home quickly. Many of my home staging tips could be used by home sellers on their own.

Here's what we covered during this radio morning show:

• what home staging is
  
• why home staging works (logic versus emotion when house hunting)
• why "less is more" in home staging
  
• curb appeal - how to get it and why it’s critical when selling a home
• garages
• whether it is important to stage all rooms in a home
• do home stagers disguise defects?
• importance of color when decorating a house to sell
• low cost kitchen makeover ideas
  
• tips on what homeowners can do on their own to decorate their homes to sell

You can listen here or download this 22 minute radio interview here:

Your feedback and additional ideas are always appreciated!

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

Home Staging expert Debra Gould also known as The Staging Diva is president of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company that is frequently profiled in the media in both the US and Canada. Debra developed the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program to teach others how to succeed in their home staging, real estate staging businesses. She is the author of several guides and is the founder of the Directory of Home Stagers which helps homeowners and real estate agents locate home stagers to decorate homes to sell quickly and for more money.

Since home staging is a completely unregulated field without official qualifications, it's difficult to know who to hire and whether they are "qualified." This difficulty is compounded by the fact that it is possible for home stagers to acquire a ready-made home staging portfolio to present as their own work, since some training programs offer this.

When reviewing a home staging portfolio, ask questions about the photos to satisfy yourself that these are the stager's own work.

If the stager can't tell you anything about the home or client, why they made the changes they did, or where the house was, these are warning signs that you're looking at a fake portfolio. If it turns out the photos are from the stager's own home, that is fine as long as the before and after shots demonstrate their ability to decorate a house to sell.

There should be an obvious transformation between the before and after photos in a portfolio. If all the stager has done is turn on the lights and clean off the kitchen counters, this does not communicate an ability to actually stage a home.

Conduct a telephone interview with any Home Stager before deciding to hire them.

Here are some things you should be listening for during the interview:

• Do I feel comfortable speaking with this person?

• Does the stager seem to understand my needs? A good stager will listen well and respond appropriately. If there are obvious difficulties in both of you understanding each other, this will only get worse once you are actually working together.

• Does the Home Stager sound confident and interested in my project? If the stager is obviously insecure or sounds distracted or bored, do not expect this to improve once you are a paying client.

• Does the Home Stager come well-recommended or does the staging portfolio suggest that he or she knows what to do?

• Does the stager speak confidently and knowledgeably about real estate? Home staging is about decorating a house to sell on the real estate market, if they know nothing about real estate this is a problem.

• Is the stager clear when explaining how he or she works and what the fees are? If the stager is unable to explain this clearly this suggest a lack of experience and confidence.

• Do the fees make sense and suggest someone who is astute about money and your potential return on an investment in staging? If the rates are too cheap or worse, if they work for free, don't expect much value. Also do not be lured in by promises of a certain selling price for your home. This is not the stager's proper role.

• Is the Home Stager available when I need them?

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

Internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould, is the author of Staging Diva® Ultimate Portfolio Guide: Winning Clients With The Perfect Home Staging Portfolio and creator of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. She has staged millions of dollars worth of real estate, including seven of her own homes. She is president of home staging firm Six Elements Inc. and has trained over 1000 home stagers to start and grow their own businesses. Debra offers a Directory of Home Stagers to help homeowners and real estate agents locate home stagers who will decorate homes to sell quickly and for more money.

I can't imagine spending weeks on end driving clients around to see one disappointing property after another. One peak inside and you know you probably wouldn't buy any of these houses either! Yet there you are flicking on the lights and stepping over the clutter, hoping against hope that someone will actually make a decision and you'll actually see a payday in a few months.

I can't imagine spending money on desk fees, fliers and advertising month after month, no closer to unloading those listings despite the price reductions. Knowing these are dead listings, yet having to put on a cheery and optimistic voice for your clients who keep asking why their home hasn't sold already.

I can't imagine what it's like to try and ignore the reality that there are about 1.4 million real estate agents in North America. if we assume that the top 20% are doing about 80% of the business, that's a lot of "employed" but "broke" people!

Home buyers are in control in this real estate market and they feel no urgency to buy, unless you give them a compelling product!

Agents, wouldn't you like to stop showing and listing disappointing product? Wouldn't you like to show something that people can walk into and say "wow"? Aside from being less depressing and more inspiring, can you see how showing well staged homes would also be a short cut to your pay day as an agent?

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

Internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould, creator of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, has staged millions of dollars worth of real estate, including seven of her own homes. She is president of home staging firm Six Elements Inc. and has trained over 1000 home stagers to start and grow their own businesses. Debra is the author of three home staging guides and offers a Directory of Home Stagers to help homeowners and real estate agents locate home stagers who will decorate homes to sell quickly and for top dollar.

"Home staging doesn't work," says the group of real estate agents sitting before the home stager trying to talk about her business.

It's amazing to me how many agents are still resistant to having their clients' homes decorated to sell. I challenge anyone to spend 4 minutes watching this video and then tell me that it wouldn't be easier to sell the staged property than how the home looked before. Which version of this property would you rather show on your own website when promoting your services?

Some facts to note before watching:

• this Westport Connecticut house has sat on the market for 6 months with no offers
• staging took place over a single day, using what the homeowner already had (plus two lamps and fresh flowers)

 
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If you're an agent with a listing you've been carrying for months on end, isn't it time you explored another strategy besides just dropping the asking price? What is carrying this listing costing you?

I would really welcome any agents resistant to staging to post their objections to the practice here. That way we can get them out in the open and deal with them.

Thanks!

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

Internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould, creator of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, has staged millions of dollars worth of real estate, including seven of her own homes. She is president of home staging firm Six Elements Inc. and has trained over 1000 home stagers to start and grow their own businesses. Debra is the author of three home staging guides and offers a Directory of Home Stagers to help homeowners and real estate agents locate home stagers who will decorate homes to sell quickly and for top dollar.

I'm committed to ending this practice of free home staging because it lowers the perceived value of a stager's expertise and does a disservice to all of us.

My students don't stage homes for free "just to get their business started," they get paid for their time and expertise because they are providing a valuable service and should be compensated for it.

I know many new home stagers, afraid that they can't get their first client, will disagree with me. But hear me out for a moment:

Picture this ... there's a new restaurant...

The chef's on the sidewalk, saying "come in and have a free dinner so I can get some experience cooking for customers."

Now picture this... there's a new restaurant....

You've read an article (not an ad) about it in the newspaper announcing it's opening, you were at an event and there were some samples, you heard a bunch of different people mention this new restaurant, you've heard it's hard to get a reservation.....

So, where would you rather eat?

Stagers, I don't believe working for free belongs on your menu of services. It may get you volunteer work but it only positions you as new and inexperienced to those you are trying to impress.

The only exception being this: you need some before and after photos for your home staging portfolio so you offer to do a project for free for a friend or family member.

With a professional image, the right presentation of your services (how you explain it in writing and when you're actually speaking to someone) and great before and after photos (which can even be from your own house), you should come across as experience and knowledgeable.

In the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, I teach my students how to "burst on the scene" (like the second restaurant example described above did) so they don't have to work for free to get a real estate agent to "try them out."

Related posts:

The Stench of Desperation

The Wrong Pricing Strategy Can Kill Your Home Staging Business

Stagers: Are You on the Path to Burnout and Bankruptcy?

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

Home Staging expert Debra Gould also known as The Staging Diva knows how to make money as a home stager and is determined to inspire and teach others to do the same. There are over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates who have learned to use their decorating talents and run their own home staging business in the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Frequently profiled in the media in both the US and Canada, Debra is the author of of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide.

One trait that separates the successful from the unsuccessful is the ability to look at change with an eye to opportunity, and Americans in general are good at this.

At the end of 2008, an international survey by the Worldwide Independent Network of Market Research studied the impact of the global financial crisis on 17 different countries.

The study revealed that Americans, despite the overwhelming tide of negative indicators, are among the most positive in the world when asked about their economic prospects, ranking well above Canada even though the Canadian economy is stronger right now.

The most pessimistic nations were Britain, France and Iceland.

Analysts generally agree that this U.S. optimism and can-do attitude (which leads to a willingness to invest and spend in hard times) will help turn the U.S. economy around, which will, in turn, affect economies throughout the rest of the world.

According to CIBC World Markets economist Meny Grauman, while the U.S. economy has never been in such rough shape in modern times, there has also never been such an unprecedented response from the U.S. government to deal with the crisis.

According to the National Association of Realtors® (NAR), there were 4.9 million homes sold in the U.S. in 2008, and the projection for 2009 sees that number growing by 6.6% to 5.2 million.Considering the numbers of real estate agents are declining, that means more homes sold per agent this year!

Calvin Lindberg, president Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) says, "The increase in the Home Buyers’ Plan and the First-Time Home Buyers’ Tax Credit to cover closing costs are both important for first-time home buyers, and they are an important factor in an active housing market."

You'll find additional information to shine a light on the brighter side of what's happening in real estate and home staging today in a new free special report: "Ask Staging Diva: Can I grow a home staging business in a depressed economy?"

I spent a ton of time researching and writing this report because I'm tired of watching all the doom and gloom in the media suck the energy out of entrepreneurs.

There are real opportunities today, you just need to look at the bigger picture. I hope you'll download this free report and send me your feedback.

How are you keeping your spirits up? What new things are you doing to take advantage of what's happening in real estate today?

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

Entrepreneur and Home Staging expert Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®, knows how to make money as a home stager and has taught over 1000 others to do the same. Discover her secrets to business success in the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program.