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First Ever Home Staging Conference Sold Out and Complete Success!

By
Home Stager with Home Staging Resource
First Ever Home Staging Conference is a Huge Success for the Industry!  Here's My Highlights, What Were Yours?

By Audra Slinkey

What an amazing time I had at the RESA home staging conference in Vegas this week!  It was incredible to finally meet many of the HSR folks face-to-face and everyone was just so...LOVELY!  This industry is filled with the most inspiring, generous and gracious individuals that when we all finally got together, IT WAS MAGICAL!

My hope is that everyone within the home staging industry sets aside $50 a month for the next year in order to attend the conference next year in Vegas because I can promise you that you will be inspired, learn a ton, get MORE than you money's worth and come back refreshed and motivated in your business!

Special thanks to Shell Brodnax and Kathy Nielsen who literally moved mountains to make this incredibly successful event an event to remember!

And the winners are...

Michelle Minch of Moving Mountains Design - An amazingly, talented stager in Los Angeles for RESA Professional Stager of the Year!

Paige Earles of Pearle Staging and Design - Check out Paige's incredible home staging portfolio from Atlanta where she won the well-earned award of RESA Rookie Stager of the Year!

Both of these gals are HSR Certified Professional graduates...WAHOO!

Here were some of my personal highlights:

 

Matthew Finlason, the true "Stager" brought humor and sparkle immediately to the conference when Shell our RESA Super Woman had to literally yank him off the stage.  Matthew spoke of the importance of being unique, standing out and taking the time to know your message and your brand...we all fell in love with Matthew!
Ricardo Bueno my Wordpress, Social Media Guru spoke in clear, understandable language the importance of being socially connected and using Wordpress for your website...Ricardo is one very cool cat!
David Avrin the very lovable, teddy bear kind of guy and Visibility Coach reminded me of the importance of finding and being the expert of your niche and focusing on that one true thing...David was an extremely, motivating speaker!
Ginny Mees the Women Homeowner's champion spoke on networking and giving graciously to gain relationships by testimonials, referrals, etc..  Ginny, do you love my special, key word links on this page?
Bethany Souza from HGTV's Designed to Sell gave an excellent analogy of vacant homes being like asking the buyers to imagine what a gorgeous wedding cake would look like on an empty cake stand...can't be done!
Lori Kim Polk a home staging extraordinaire in Sacramento spoke generously on working with real estate investors to stage and flip homes...a fantastic staging target market for those depressed areas throughout the country!  Lori I loved your topic and hope to have you as a guest speaker for the HSR training!  Ryan, I missed you!
Melissa Marro, an uber-successful stager in Charleston shared some great tips on working with agents and making them look good.  Loved
her business model which was similar to Dekora's...great job Melissa!
Michelle and Kathy - I'm just going to call these gals the staging super duo!  Their staging photography techniques and tips were so helpful...everybody squat down and take off the flash the next time you photograph a room!
Terrylynn Fisher who is officially our industries staging Realtor representative spoke eloquently on collaboration and agent partnering.
Ashley Whittenberger an Austin premier stager, gave a number crunching performance on the importance of strategic pricing.  I learned a ton from Ashley and personally loved her energy and magnetism.

I could go on and on about every wonderful person I met at that conference!  In all honesty, every conversation I had was enlightening and I loved to hear the many different ways people have modeled their businesses!

I am privileged and humbled to be in an industry with such an extraordinary group of individuals!

Here is a fun photo of me with a bunch of HSR folks and to see the rest of my conference photos, go to my Facebook page!

 
 
Show All Comments
Michelle Minch
Moving Mountains Design Home Staging, Pasadena, CA - Los Angeles, CA
Home Staging Los Angeles and Orange County, CA

Hi Audra: Thank you for your very kind comments about Kathy & me. It was great to spend time with you (and everyone else) at the conference.

BTW, you left out one of my favorite speakers...YOU!

Jan 27, 2010 08:14 AM
Audra Slinkey
Home Staging Resource - San Diego, CA

Thanks Michelle and congratulations again on your much-earned Staging Pro award!

Jan 27, 2010 08:58 AM
Patti Glover
Stage It In A Day! - Moorpark, CA
CISS,RESA, Home Staging, Ventura County CA, Conejo Valley, LA

Hi Audra-

It was so nice to meet you and thanks for summing up all the great contributors (including you!) from the RESA conference.  It was fantastic and I'm excited, motivated and ready to take on the (staging) world.  Can't wait until next year!

Jan 27, 2010 09:55 AM
Audra Slinkey
Home Staging Resource - San Diego, CA

Thanks Patti, it was wonderful meeting you too!  I came back completely re-charged as well.  The conference was at the perfect time of year because it allows me to plan out my 2010 and make goals for my business.  I think there will be twice as many people there next year:)

Jan 27, 2010 10:12 AM
David Peterson
Synergy Staging ~ specializing in vacant home staging - Portland, OR
Home Stager Portland OR-Synergy Staging-Portland Oregon

Thanks for the great synopsis on all the speakers at the conference.  Hopefully we can make it next year!

Jan 27, 2010 10:30 AM
Karen Otto
Home Star Staging - Plano, TX
Plano Home Staging, Dallas Home Staging, www.homes

It was super Audra! So nice to meet you and learn from your expertise too!

Jan 27, 2010 01:37 PM
Gary Barnett
Home Matters - Indianapolis, IN
Home Matters Property Stylist Group, Indianapolis

Audra, I can't begin to tell you what a pleasure it was for Linda and I to finally meet you.  Can't wait to see everyone again next year.

Jan 27, 2010 03:06 PM
Luci Terhune
Bungalow Home Staging & Redesign - Nutley, NJ
NJ Home Stager 973 896-6489

Audra,

This Conference was so unbelievable and worth every penny! I'm so glad I got to meet you and all the other incredible stagers in our industry. I learned so much my head is spinning... I will see you again next year..

Jan 28, 2010 12:22 AM
Valerie Sagheddu
Apostle Art Home Staging & Design - Stroudsburg, PA
~Home Staging Professional, Poconos, PA

Yes, thank You for the synopsis...I am putting my $50 away right now..although I think it might need more like $100 per month coming from the East Coast.

Jan 28, 2010 12:37 AM
Audra Slinkey
Home Staging Resource - San Diego, CA

Karen, Gary and Luci, it was so great to meet you!  Was it just me or were you blown away at the incredible, quality of people that are in our industry!  I was very inspired and encouraged by you all!

Valerie, I promise it will be worth it for you:).

Jan 28, 2010 02:47 AM
Anne Vigneri
CASA VERO Staging & Redesign - Albuquerque, CA
Serving the Mariposa California

Audra,, Thank you for your time and talent that was so generously given in Las Vegas !..  I will fully admit to being a bit on overlaod at the moment.. SO much info,, So many wonderfully delightful and positive people..  

 

Jan 28, 2010 06:31 AM
Anonymous
Matthew Finlason

Thanks Audra!    It was great learning from the other experts and fans of staging!  What a riot!   i'm still here.

Jan 28, 2010 06:40 AM
#13
Lucinda Long
Seaside Home Stagers LLC - Pawleys Island, SC

Dear Audra:  It was a great pleasure meeting you in Las Vegas!  Like all the others, I had a fabulous time at the RESA conference and learned so much about the keys to successful staging as well as successful business.  Your presentation on websites was top-notch as were all the presentations.  This quality of this conference far and away exceeded my expectations given that it was the first of its kind.  It usually takes trade associations many years to perfect such meetings.  Kudos to you, Shell and all the others who contributed so much to make this meeting a success.  Lucinda

Jan 28, 2010 09:45 AM
Beth Lester
Beth Lester Designs - Torrance, CA
Home Staging & Interior Decorating

Great summary of the conference, Audra.  I agree totallly with everyone's comments!

Jan 29, 2010 11:47 AM
Ashley Whittenberger
Ashley Whittenberger Fine Art - Austin, TX

Thank you for the wonderful re-cap, Audra. The event was indeed incredible. I've attended LOTS of conferences, and I would rank this one among the best. Kudos to Shell and everyone for their hard work in pulling together such an amazing event!

Feb 01, 2010 09:04 AM
Melissa Marro
Keller Williams First Coast Realty - The Marro Team - Orange Park, FL
Jacksonville Real Estate and Home Staging

Thanks for the great recap of the RESA event!  It was a pleasure finally meeting you in person after always hearing such great things about you.  You were warm, personable and friendly - which is always great to find in a person of your stature in the industry! 

I'll be seeing you next year...

Feb 06, 2010 10:47 PM
Adam Malachi
A 2 Z Realty LLC - Castle Rock, CO
QSC,CDPE,CIPS,CNE,CRB,CRS,GRI,MRE,SFR

Excellent post! Very good information's! Home staging do works the listing broker/agent need to make the seller understand that!

Thank you very much for sharing!

Adam

Apr 10, 2010 05:05 AM
James A. Browning
Browning Real Estate School/REO Institute - International, IT
MRE REOCertified(R) SSCertified

Thanks for the information you posted. Please, join our group on LinkedIn, ‘REO Institute’. We share real estate information regarding market trends, Short Sales, BPOs, REOs, ideas, education/training, and Commercial education. We value you your comments, opinions about the real estate industry.

Thanks

James A. Browning MRE, CEO & Founder, REO Institute

Jul 22, 2012 02:52 AM
Roy Kelley
Retired - Gaithersburg, MD

I hope all is going well for you and we will soon see your current posts.

Have an outstanding August.

Aug 09, 2023 11:26 AM
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