Several weeks ago, I was contacted by Michelle Boggs, Interior Design Teacher at the Art Institute of Indianapolis. Michelle was inquiring about me putting on a brief presentation to her Interior Design students regarding home staging. I saw this as an opportunity to spend time with some impressionable minds that had already made a strong commitment to working towards a degree in the related field of Interior Design. Once I had finalized the arrangements and set the date and time with Michelle, I took some time to reflect on how far we have come in the arena of home staging.
When I started Home Matters in 2004, it was the first Home Staging Company in all of central Indiana. Approximately 1.5 million People in the Indianapolis area and me, one lone stager. Even with having been a former Real Estate Agent, in 2004 I would talk to my old Real Estate colleagues and they would squint and reply, "What is it your doing?" And now, here we are 5 years and eight hundred plus staged homes later, the Art Institute of Indianapolis wants me to educate their students about Home Staging. Gary simply smiles and says "You've come a long way baby." There are moments like this that it feels like a long way, but then again, so much of my time these days is still spent on the education of; Realtors on how to use a Home Stager, new stagers on how to stage homes and run a home staging business and the general public on the psychology and value of home staging. Eight hundred homes seems huge to me, but then again, it is really just a drop in the bucket considering how many homes have been on the market here in Indianapolis area over these past 5 years. My take on this business is as the educational journey continues, the evolution of our companies will continue.
To my delight, last Tuesday, the day of the presentation, Michelle and 13 of her students, along with Fabiola Malerbi, Academic Director-Interior Design for the Art Institute, battled a treacherous storm to come to our training facility to participate in a 2 hour discussion about Home Staging. What a great bunch of students they were. So involved in home fashion and so many questions. Without a doubt they were the most informed and yet inquisitive group I have ever had the pleasure of talking with. I'm hopeful that we may even have converted a few of them to become future Home Stagers. Thanks to Michelle, Fabiola and all of the Students from the Art Institute of Indianapolis for being such a great group to spend the afternoon with.
So, what does this all mean, besides the fact that I had a really great experience with them? Well it simply means that I am more convinced now than ever before that we have to keep on teaching about home staging. We have to teach them and then teach them again and again and then teach them some more! We have to teach our communities and most importantly, we have to teach each other. And if we do this really well, then we can all be known as stager just like we planned to be.
Home Matters Home Staging, Training and Rental, a professional home staging company "Servicing the needs of our Real Estate community here in Metro Indianapolis and all of central Indiana" We help real estate professionals, home sellers, builders and investors with their home staging needs as well as helping real estate professionals and stagers to develop their home staging and re-design skills through expert training. For more information regarding our services, please contact us at 317-209-9801 or visit us on the web. http://www.homemattersllc.com/
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