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You might be a stager if.........................

By
Home Stager with Luxury-Domain to Home Stage

1.  You have newspapers/magazines with ads from decorator stores  stacked up by your chair till it is a bonafide fire hazard.

2.  You are pulled into yard sales and au ctions against your mortal will.

3.  You are in a doctor's waiting room and there are artificial plants that need dusting or rearranging, or real plants that need water and you have to do it.   You don't care if people think you are crazy or not, it HAS to be done.

4.  You look around at your own house and can't believe you are a Stager

5.  You get a queasy feeling in your gut when you see a house and you know it will never sell the way it is and you're almost tempted to do it for free

6.  You don't get why everybody else "don't get it "about staging

7.  You feel like saying to people who don't get it "Go look in the mirror and tell me what you would do to improve what you see."  Thats STAGING!    Can you hear me NOW?

8.  Even though you have 25 "silK" trees you could always use another one

9.  That dresser sitting out on the curb could really look great with a little TLC and you just cannot leave it

10. You wonder if you are creative or have obsessive compuslive disorder 

11. You have your business credit card taped to your laptop so you can online shop without interruption

 

 

Face it, we are a breed apart.  I have found stagers to be generous to a fault, very, very resourceful, original,(that is you could give 5 stagers a room and each one would be completely different, but great).  I have not had the fortunate opportunity to work with other stagers personally, but the synergy on AR is terrific. 

 Feel free to add your own slant on You might be a stager if..........have fun with it!

The above are just a few of the things I notice in my own psyche. 

 

 

 

 

Kathy Passarette
Creative Home Expressions - Mount Sinai, NY
L.I. Staging/Decorating
Excellent post Carol.  I give you 5 stars!  I also notice that I can't surf the MLS without talking out loud to myself, usually with a "What were they thinking!?!  Do they not look at these pictures before posting them!"
Sep 11, 2007 04:49 AM
Ann Krewson
A.L.I. Designs, Inc. - Houston, TX
A.L.I. Designs; Staging Houston Homes; Allied Member of A.S.I.D.
Too funny Carol and so true!
Sep 11, 2007 08:35 AM
Sam White
College Station, TX
Integrated Marketing - Bryan College Station,

3.  You are in a doctor's waiting room and there are artificial plants that need dusting or rearranging, or real plants that need water and you have to do it.   You don't care if people think you are crazy or not, it HAS to be done.

That's me!

Sep 11, 2007 08:51 AM
Nancy Maurer
Whitehall Interiors & Home Staging LLC - Sparta, NJ
Home Stager - Serving No. NJ

Carol,  This post really hit home with me and made me laugh out loud!!  Each and every point has something we can all relate to!

Nancy

Sep 11, 2007 09:18 AM
Carol Ellis
Luxury-Domain to Home Stage - Charlottesville, VA

Sam, there can't be 2 of us!!!  Woe unto the world- but hey we make it prettier and cleaner-so there!  Its a great feeling to leave somewhere better than you found it.

Nancy, I am so glad I made you laugh.  Its my favorite thing to do when I am in a long line in the grocery store and people are grouchy.  I love to make people laugh!  I have been known to crack up a whole line of people and they leave the store laughing and not realizing how the line speeded up.

Sep 11, 2007 09:44 AM
Charlottesville Solutions
Charlottesville Solutions - Charlottesville, VA

Carol

This is really funny! I see you are close to Charlottesville!

regards, Charles

Sep 11, 2007 09:59 AM
Juliet Johnson
Vizzitopia - St Johns, FL
Jacksonville Photography & Digital Marketing

Gosh, this is ALL me.

You know you're a stager when you suddenly realizing you're doing a  vignette at the town pool with the beach towels just so, the chairs at an angle, a book open, face down, the sun lotion....

You know you're a stager, when you start sorting all the matching items into sets aat HomeGoods/TJ Maxx/etc.

You know you're a stager when you arrive at your daughter's college room with extra plants, fabric for the windows and a shoji screen...even though they insisted they were set up and everything is fine!!!

And I could go on!  Like absent-mindedly rearranging a girlfriend's LR horizontal surfaces....

I gotta stop.

And every realtor I meet I wanna talk shop!

Sep 11, 2007 10:57 AM
Juliet Johnson
Vizzitopia - St Johns, FL
Jacksonville Photography & Digital Marketing
However, I did just make $700 at my own Yardsale!!!
Sep 11, 2007 10:57 AM
Carol Ellis
Luxury-Domain to Home Stage - Charlottesville, VA

Hey Charles, the class I taught last Thursday was at the CAAR trade show.  I did the blog about "Talking to Realtors about staging." based on that class.  The Mardi Gra theme was well carried out by the CAAR staff.  I was sooooo impressed

I was born at UVa and graduated from the McIntyre School at Uva.  I am one of the somewhat rare natives.  I hope to meet you and work with Real Estate III.

Juliet, you got it bad too!!  Ain't we lucky!  I had one yard sale in my life-made $6 and swore off yard sales forever.  I like to shop them but will not have another one!  You must be good at it, I guess I'm not, but I am very happy for you, that is a great return for a yard sale!

Sep 11, 2007 11:21 AM
Teresa Granado-Staging-Redesign-Fontana,CA.
Granado Design - Fontana, CA

You nailed that one to the wall!  I'm SOOOO guilty of that whole list.  Hubby says no more purchases until we "build up".  He bought an attic access ladder last week saying we are now officially out of storage space and I can sleep in the yard.  'Course he winked and smiled at me when he said that.

 

Sep 11, 2007 03:07 PM
Tina Maraj
RE/MAX One - Fullerton, CA
Celebrating 30 Years of Real Estate Sales

Carol,

My life long friend is thinking of becoming a stager. How long did it take you to get your business going?

Sep 11, 2007 03:55 PM
Cindy Lin
Staged4more School of Home Staging - South San Francisco, CA
Host, The Home Staging Show podcast

Dang, guilty on all charges.... oy!

Cheers,

Cindy 

Sep 11, 2007 04:37 PM
Betty Haney
Haney Consulting - Calgary, AB
Carol, yesterday we had a stager's lunch in Calgary and one of the newbies was telling me about how she finds herself staging the lunches she takes out to her husband and workers harvesting in the field.  I laughed out loud.  Can't you just picture it?  She sets a table, puts up an umbrella and apparently uses fab place settings.  Betty 
Sep 11, 2007 06:16 PM
Kathy Nielsen
http://atlantahomestaging.net - Marietta, GA
Atlanta Georgia Home Stager

Carol - Excellent post.  I can relate too to each one of them and found myself LOL at all of them.  Here's a couple more:

You know you're a stager when.... you drive by a listing that's been on the market for over a year and say to yourself tsk, tsk, if only they'd stage it.

When,,,,  you get home from a day of shopping and your feet are aching; wait, I mean pounding.

When your 15 year old son can cite, verbatim, my responses to clients when they contact me on my home office.

Katy

 

 

Sep 11, 2007 10:27 PM
Anonymous
Carol Ellis Luxury-Domain to Home Stage

Tina, I had a biz up and going for a year before I started the staging biz and I'd say  that with taking the classes for staging, getting my contract , procuring inventory, advertising and designing promo materials, getting biz credit card and credit line, making personal Realtor contacts, writing news releases,  writing proposals,all in all it has taken a solid 2 years.  I could write a book on each element of getting the business going.  More than how long it takes is the absolute determination that this is what you want to do and failure is NOT an option.  It is a full time plus commitment.

 

Teresa, I feel your pain.  What would we do without supportive spouses!  You think you have a lot of stuff and then you get several stagings going and you are out of stuff and have to get more, and then you de-stage and have no place to put it all!  Sigh.

Sep 11, 2007 10:50 PM
#20
Becca Briggs
Rochester, NY

How about this one.

You know your a stager when you are reworking the pictures on the wall at the restaurant you are eating at, and when you rent a cabin in the mountains you can't relax because the room is lay-ed out all wrong, and the accessories - what were they thinking!! 

Fortunately the last place we rented was new and well done - so I could relax.  It's really does affect my ability to relax - so crazy.

Becky

PS  I am really enjoying all your new post - keep them coming!!!

Sep 12, 2007 12:32 AM
Jaynee Acevedo
Capital Style Home Staging - Kensington, MD
Capital Style Home Staging

Guilty!

Guilty!

Guilty!

Guilty!

Guilty!

Guilty!

and how about this one:  You KNOW you're a stager when you can no longer remember the color of your car's upholstery or carpet!

Cheers! from DC...

    Jaynee

Sep 12, 2007 10:53 AM
Carol Ellis
Luxury-Domain to Home Stage - Charlottesville, VA
I can't remember anything anymore.  My house is getting out of control and the car is complete chaos!
Sep 12, 2007 11:22 AM
Charlottesville Solutions
Charlottesville Solutions - Charlottesville, VA

Carol

 

Sorry I missed you at the trade show, I annouced it on AR... see post:

http://activerain.com/blogsview/195138/Mardi-Gras-CAAR-Trade

I even won a prize....see post:

http://activerain.com/blogsview/200984/IPOD-Shuffle-HOW-I

regards, Charles

 

Sep 12, 2007 11:53 AM
Tina Parker
EXP Realty Canada Inc. - Halifax, NS
Managing Associate Broker

I love these kind of posts; it makes me feel like I'm not alone in this after all.

You know you are a stager when you become an accessories junky - you can't use it right now, but wow, it would look great when you do! or  "I'll make it work - it's 60% off!"

 

Sep 12, 2007 12:13 PM