Today, I’m focusing on a home stager who wants to make the bulk of her income from home staging, but who also happen to have a real estate license.

You can catch up on Part One where I talked about real estate agents who happen to be home stagers. In other words, they rely primarily on earning real estate commissions.

 A home stager who happens to have a real estate license

Generally, you’ll fall into this category if your primary interest and passion is in the art of home staging. You’d rather decorate homes to sell, then find the clients to buy them.

You’d rather stage homes than have your own real estate listings and all the costs that come with marketing them.

If you want to be a home stager who happens to have a real estate license, that can be an advantage, though its certainly not essential. I don’t have a real estate license and I’ve made a great living staging homes since 2002.

This discussion is aimed at people who already do both and are trying to decide whether they should maintain their real estate license. Typical reasons they might think of are:

• Greater credibility.
• Access to information and leads.
• Being taken seriously by other real estate agents who can be less friendly to home stagers.

It’s worth considering that many people don’t love or trust real estate agents. It’s a 100% commission position, which by its very nature has to make you question whose interests will ultimately come first in a potential transaction.

Sure, you may know individual agents who you respect and like. But in general, most people don’t have a lot of respect or trust for real estate agents. I know I’ll get flamed for saying that, but it’s true.

You might enjoy this article I wrote on 5 real estate agent warning signs.

My point is that if you happen to be a real estate agent, it’s not necessarily going to give you instant credibility with the general public. It might with other real estate agents, but not with the general public.

That said, having your real estate license does give you easy access to real estate information that your average home stager would have a harder time digging up. At least for now, but that is changing quickly!

Many people hire home stagers before they’ve hired a real estate agent

Since 2002, I’ve personally discovered that most home sellers hire me before they’ve even decided who their real estate agent will be. This means your home staging business can be an excellent lead generator for your real estate business. I’ll discuss this further in my next post in this series.

Until then, please share you comments on the discussion so far and post any questions related to this overall topic that I can tackle in a future articles. I’d also love more points of view so feel free to click the “Share” buttons below and invite your home staging friends to comment too!

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®

Debra Gould isn’t a real estate agent because she never wanted to be on call 24/7 the way agents are. Being a home stager earns her a higher income, gives her the real estate buzz she craves, and means she only has to go to an open house when she wants to.

The post When You’re a Home Stager With a Real Estate License appeared first on Home Staging Business Report.

Almost everyone has an opinion, not necessarily an educated opinion.

Your online “friends” may have no business experience and/or they could be going broke as home stagers. So if you’re hoping to make money in your own home staging business, do you really want to follow the advice of people who may not be qualified to give it?

Bad advice might appear “free” but it’s very expensive!

When you get bits and pieces of advice without the whole picture of how it fits together, you waste time stumbling around in the dark because you don’t know what pieces of the puzzle you’re missing.

Or worse, if it’s actually bad advice you’ll be headed in the wrong direction entirely. That can turn “free” advice into really expensive advice— costing you tens of thousands of dollars in costs and lost income.

Plus, you might not realize what it’s really costing you until it’s too late.

One well-meaning home stager said the best way to build a staging business is to focus all your attention on real estate agents. This is simply not true. In fact it’s a path to great frustration which is why I’ve written so many articles about this topic. For example:

Stagers, Don’t Let Real Estate Agents Discourage You

5 Secrets Real Estate Agents Need to Hear From Home Stagers

Home Stagers, Realize Your Power in Real Estate

Another stager advises doing lots of magazine advertising to make it look like you’re established.

This is completely erroneous advice and based on zero knowledge of how paid advertising actually works. It’s also really costly because no small business owner will have enough budget to get the “reach”and “frequency” needed. These are advertising terms I learned working in the field in the 1980s.

“Reach” refers to how many people see the ad. Clearly you’d want a lot of reach, but the more people a publication goes out to the higher the rates.

“Frequency” refers to how often someone sees your ad. Did you know your audience needs to see your ad 7 to 10 times before they’ll notice it? Don’t advertise if you can’t afford to run your ad at least this often!

I saw a discussion about marketing strategies in an online group that could put most stagers out of business, but they don’t know any better. One home staging trainer actually gave this advice about building a database or email list:

“Make sure you take a picture of all the real estate agent cards on the counters when you de-stage or check on a home you’ve staged while it’s on the real estate market. Enter their information into your email list of potential clients.”

You could use this idea to contact real estate agents one by one. But that’s pretty time-consuming and who wants to cold-call REALTORs? I know I would hate doing that and I also know you’d get very few of them to actually talk to you.

But if you use her advice to grab their contact information and then subscribe the real estate agents to your email list, you’ll be violating the CAN-SPAM Act. This is grounds to have your account closed by email providers like iContact, Constant Contact, aWeber, MailChimp, etc., not to mention the trouble you can get into with the Federal Trade Commission.

Unless someone specifically gives you permission to email them on an ongoing basis, you aren’t allowed to do it. That’s considered spam, and none of us want to be in the same category as scammers and “you know what” enhancement.

The knowledge I share is NOT based on a best guess of what works in the real world.

I explain why these free ideas you’ll find in online discussion groups don’t work, and replace them with powerful business building strategies, inside the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program and in coaching thousands of stagers.

I’d love to hear your examples of bad home staging business advice you’ve seen online. Or advice you’re not sure about and want me to elaborate on. Please share in the comment section and I’ll answer your questions there and address the best ones in future posts.

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements Home Staging and Voice Of Possibility Group Inc.

Debra Gould has an MBA in Marketing and is a published author on the topic. She worked in advertising and communications before creating her own home staging business. Later she developed the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program to teach others how to earn a living doing something they love. Debra is frequently profiled in the media for her home staging expertise.

The post Bad Home Staging Business Advice appeared first on Home Staging Business Report.

They discover their passion for color and decorating, and then question what benefits they’ll have from keeping their real estate license. I’ll address these issues here.

Real Estate or Home Staging, Which Comes First?

One of the things you’re going to have to think about is whether you want to be:

A real estate agent who happens to stage homes.

OR

A home stager who happens to have a real estate license.

This is not as subtle a distinction as you might think!

A real estate agent who happens to stage homes

If you chose “a real estate agent who happens to stage homes,” then your focus will be on earning your living from real estate commissions. You might stage your listings for free, or you might charge for it.

But, either way, you’ll be looking at home staging as your secondary business.

More of your time will be spent on trying to get your own listings or sell other people’s listings as a buyers agent.

With this route, your “pay day” only comes after a deal closes. You have many expenses along the way to market your own (or others’) real estate listings.

Plus you have expenses driving clients around to showing appointments. This can go on for months or years before your real estate clients actually buy, or sell, anything!

Remember you don’t get paid until they do. That’s why home stagers make more money than real estate agents.

In my next post in this series, I’ll discuss the choice of being a home stager who happens to have a real estate license. In other words, whether it’s a benefit to be a Realtor at all when your real love (and the focus of your business) is decorating homes to sell, instead of getting (or selling) real estate listings.

Until then, please share you comments on the discussion so far and post any questions related to this overall topic that I can tackle in future articles in this series.

I’d also love more points of view so feel free to click the “Share” buttons below and invite your Facebook or LinkedIn staging friends to comment too!

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®

Home staging and marketing expert Debra Gould isn’t a real estate agent but she loves buying, staging and flipping properties. Her most personally profitable real estate transactions have been with beginner listing agents who didn’t know the tricks to getting the highest price for a property.

The post What If I Have a Real Estate License and I Prefer Home Staging? appeared first on Home Staging Business Report.

Most clients are fine with the idea of you taking photos after you’ve staged their home. However, when you want to shoot the before staging images they often say something like, “Oh no, it’s too messy. I don’t want my home to be seen this way.”

That’s a problem for any home stager, because the strength of our home staging portfolio lies in capturing a dramatic before and after transformation and you can’t do that without both halves of the pair.

How do you build your home staging portfolio in this situation?

One of the things I always tell my home staging clients is, “I won’t use any of these pictures until your house is sold and no longer on the market. It won’t even be your house anymore.” That’s an important distinction for them.

I don’t use my home staging portfolio photos of a given property until after the house is sold.

We don’t want a potential buyer to see our photos and think, “That’s what it really looks like?” It ruins the magic of all the home staging work you’ve done. That’s the same reason I tell my clients all the home staging should remain in place until after any home inspections or other conditions have been removed.

I always tell my home staging clients, “It’s won’t even be your house by the time I use these pictures. Don’t worry, you’ll be in your new home by then.” This eliminates their fear that someone is going to say, “Oh my God! That’s how they live?”

Have you ever had someone who thought their home was too messy for your before photos? How did you handle it? Please share your experiences in the comment section.

Debra Gould is the author of several guides, including the Staging Diva Ultimate Portfolio Guide: Winning Clients with the Perfect Home Staging Portfolio. A leading authority on making money in home staging, she created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program with students in 22 countries.

The post Home Staging Portfolio Challenge – “My House is Too Messy!” appeared first on Home Staging Business Report.

The house is furnished as you can see from this photo. After viewing all her MLS photos I can see numerous ways you could help her during a home staging consultation.

The house is 1,776 square feet and currently listed at $339,000, which is above the median list price for her area of $249,700. Turning this non selling property around will make a fabulous addition to your home staging portfolio and a great success story to share with future clients and real estate agents.

If you’re a Graduate of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program and you work in the Sacramento area, this could be the right home staging job for you.

Home Staging Job – How to Apply

It’s easy for you to apply for this home staging job. All you need to do is complete the form at the Staging Diva Home Staging Project Referral Service. Please be sure to include “Home Staging Job Sacramento California” as the project location in the first line of the form.

This home staging job will be referred first to members of the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers at no charge.

If there’s not a Directory member available for this project, it will be open to any Staging Diva Graduate with a professional Internet presence. (It’s difficult to convince a client to hire you if they can’t review your staging portfolio, after all!)

If you get any paid work through this referral (and you’re not already a Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers member), there will be a $250 referral fee, which you can build into your home staging consultation fees. It’s entirely up to you.

4th Home Staging Job

This is the fourth home staging job I’ve written about in the last month or so. There’s a reason home sellers turn to me for help finding home stagers. If you’re not already part of my inner circle of Staging Diva Graduates and you’re not as busy staging homes as you would like, perhaps it’s time to consider the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program.

I generate tons of traffic for anyone listed on the Directory. Just one good project would more than pay for your entire training program plus building and hosting your web page on the high-traffic Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers for an entire year! When clients find you from your listing in the Staging Diva Directory, I do not charge you a referral fee.

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements Home Staging and Voice of Possibility Group Inc.

Home staging and marketing expert Debra Gould developed The Staging Diva Program to create opportunities for others to grow their own money-making home staging businesses.

This one project is the perfect example of why your company should be listed in the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers. We build your page and all the code to help search engines find you and it only takes 7 days from when you provide your materials!

Learn more about the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers

The post Home Staging Job Sacramento California for Staging Diva Grad appeared first on Home Staging Business Report.

So if picking the right company name is holding you back from getting your home staging business started, pick something you’re reasonably happy with and go for it!

Otherwise the weeks and months will continue to tick by and you’ll be no closer to making a living doing what you love.

While we’re on the topic of “big” business decisions that aren’t permanent, did you know that you’re also not stuck with your decision to be a sole proprietorship or corporation (ie: LLC, provincially registered corporation, etc.) ? While this is an important decision too, you can change and adapt later if need be.

Now, I’m not a corporate lawyer or an accountant so make sure you consult with appropriate experts before making any of your own decisions. I’m simply sharing my personal experience in case it’s helpful to you in your own home staging business.

Changing my home staging business name and corporate structure

When I started my first business in 1989 (a marketing communications firm), I was a sole proprietor. I realized after I had to pay my taxes for the first year that my decision to “save money and not incorporate” was the single costliest mistake I made.

I saved about $1,500 at the beginning of my business by not incorporating (it probably costs less now with online services). The other reason I chose that route was because it meant I didn’t have to file two tax returns (one personal and one for my corporation ), which I assumed would be a huge pain.

But I paid an extra $30,000 in taxes in year one. Talk about “penny wise and pound foolish”!

After that, I took the same company name and changed from a sole proprietorship to a corporation (which included adding ” Inc.” to the name.  I’ve been incorporated ever since, for whatever business ventures I’ve started over the years. At times I’ve even kept my same corporate name, changing the actual activities/type of business I was in.

At other times, I’ve changed the corporate name because I felt I’d grown out of it.

Six Elements Inc. started as my company that was designing and creating custom home accessories for clients.  When I became a home stager, color consultant and interior redesigner Six Elements became my home staging company. I still liked the name and it still fit with my vision of the six elements which I defined as: energy, form, style, design, color and passion.

When I created the Staging Diva Training Program, I registered that as a trademark of Six Elements Inc.

In 2012, I decided to rename my corporation so my corporate name is actually now Voice of Possibility Group Inc. It’s still the same corporation. I just filed a form to change the name of it.

Staging Diva is my home staging training company, Six Elements is my home staging business and both are divisions of Voice of Possibility Group Inc.

All of this is to say that once you have your sole proprietorship, LLC or incorporated company with whatever structure or name you choose, it’s not cast in stone. There are things you can do along the way to update or amend it as your needs and ideas grow and evolve.

Please share your experiences in the comment section. Has the fear of picking the wrong name or corporate structure held you back? Have you ever changed your company name before? Was it a big deal?

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements Home Staging and Voice of Possibility Group Inc.

Entrepreneur and marketing expert Debra Gould has reinvented her life many times—building 6-figure businesses around her passions— and she’ll teach you how to do it too! Providing inspiration and practical steps, Debra has taught, mentored and coached 7,000+ home stagers in 22 countries.

The post Stuck With a Home Staging Business Name You Don’t Like? appeared first on Home Staging Business Report.

1. Find home staging jobs through the contacts you already have.

This is the perfect time of year to contact everyone on your client, prospect and real estate agent list. Don’t panic, I’m not suggesting you get on the phone and call everyone. This is painful and even the thought of it makes me want to pull a tub of ice cream out of the freezer!

Instead send them an email newsletter. You have been building your email list I hope!

Make your email look attractive and keep it short.

Highlight testimonials, photos, and/or success stories from past projects. Ideally, include one project each from: home staging, color consultation and redesign. That way, if the recipient has just moved, is thinking of moving, or is fed up with what their house looks like, you’ve got them covered.

After all, you can’t assume even past clients will remember all the services you offer in your home staging business.

If you’re not sure how to get your own email newsletter started, I hope you’ll join me in the next Staging Diva Dialog call. It’s a small group coaching call, where I dive deep on topics you want to learn more about.

2. Speak about your home staging business at an event.

Once you get out there in front of enough people in the right demographic, you’ll be amazed at how many home staging jobs they know about.

You might be talking to a home seller who is frustrated because her home has been sitting on the market for months with no offers.

Or, there could be someone who is just getting ready to put their house on the real estate market who never thought of home staging until they meet you.

Consider how many in the audience may know someone in either of these situations.

Studies have supposedly shown that people are more afraid of public speaking than dying, how nuts is that when you think about it? Really public speaking won’t kill you. In the absolute worst case, you’ll be more nervous than you want to be. We’ve all seen bad or boring speeches. Do you remember who gave them? Did it forever color your opinion of that person? Or did you forget about it almost as soon as it was over?

You don’t need to deliver a keynote speech at an event with hundreds of people.

Start small. How about speaking about home staging and taking interior decorating questions at a local mom’s group? Maybe the local paint store would like you to appear one Saturday and help people with color recommendations?

Perhaps you’re more interested in speaking to a group of real estate agents at their weekly meeting? You can even host your own home staging event at the local library.

Here are 5 tips to boost your home staging confidence.

3. Reward past clients and remind them what else you do.

Strategic use of business gifts can be very effective in getting home staging jobs and building your overall business. I’m not suggesting you give out a bunch of pens or coffee mugs with your logo on them. That’s just clutter and home stagers are all about getting rid of clutter, right?

Don’t go crazy and blow your budget.

You can be very selective about who you send a gift to and don’t spend too much per client/prospect.

For example, a bunch of tulips are under $5. They will brighten someone’s day and their environment with a splash of color. This reminds them what you do best— make a room more beautiful then what it was before, often with simple touches!

Possible “targets” include past home staging clients who have moved into their new home. What a great opportunity to remind them you can help with paint color or furniture arrangement. Or how about sending them to a real estate agent congratulating them on the sale of a house you staged? That will jog their memory to think of other home staging jobs they may have for you with their current, or upcoming real estate listings.

4. Send out a home staging press release.

Pick something newsworthy to talk about in your press release. It can’t just be all about your business. Remember readers want to know what’s in it for them. Perhaps you’ll provide de-cluttering tips or a story about how color can pull a room together even when the furniture is less than ideal.

Writing a story about how staging actually helps a person get ready to move can also be a source of home staging jobs.

5. Give your home staging portfolio a face lift.

Is your home staging portfolio ready for some staging of it’s own? Perhaps you’ve included some weak before and after photos that can now be replaced with better home staging job photos. Maybe your photos are in need of retouching to get rid of the blur or improve the brightness and contrast. These are all things I teach you how to do inside the Home Staging Portfolio Guide.

How do you get home staging jobs?

If you’ve got a home staging business boosting idea you’ve tried, or are thinking of trying, please share in the comments below. I know you’ll inspire other home stagers and who knows, I might feature your home staging business in an upcoming article and get you some free publicity!

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements Home Staging and Voice Of Possibility Group Inc.

Debra Gould has an MBA in Marketing and knows from personal experience how to make money as a home stager. She is the author of several guides, including 14 Marketing Ideas to Rev Up Your Home Staging Business.

The post Home Staging Jobs Easier to Get with These 5 Business Building Tips appeared first on Home Staging Business Report.

An aerial view showed a very long private driveway and lovely pool in the back yard. Isn’t it crazy what you can learn online with just an address?

The home seller wrote me looking for a Staging Diva Graduate to stage her 2,000 square foot vacant home in Youngsville. European furnishings, that were made for the home are sitting in storage. You can draw on some of this inventory if you need to.

No doubt the client’s furnishings are exquisite as she’s an interior designer herself. She writes, “I am out of the country and I need a Staging Diva Graduate’s assistance!”

Isabelle would like to put her home on the real estate market within the next few weeks so timing is of the essence. The property will be listed at just under half a million dollars and will make an awesome addition to your home staging portfolio.

Home Staging Fee Tip

I’ve worked with overseas clients before. Make sure you build in extra time for communicating with your client since she won’t be there to see the progress you are making in person. Just work that into your home staging fee, following the pricing formula you learned in Course 2 and 3 of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program.

Naturally, you’ll also want to get your money upfront along the way as you complete each step of the project. That’s covered in your Course 2 recording. Also take a look at the Invoice Templates that come with your Course 2 notes for help in how you can break this project out into segments to bill along the way.

North Carolina Home Staging Job — How to Apply

Apply for this North Caroline home staging job couldn’t be easier. Simply complete the form at the Staging Diva Home Staging Project Referral Service. Please be sure to include “Youngsville NC Home Staging Job” as the project location in the first line of the form.

This North Carolina home staging job will be referred first to members of the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers for free. In other words, there will be no referral fee for Directory members even though we’re playing “match maker” for you.

If there’s not a Directory member available for this project, it will be open to any Staging Diva Graduate with a professional Internet presence. (It’s difficult to convince a client to hire you if they can’t review your staging portfolio, after all!)

If you get any paid work through this referral (and you’re not already a Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers member), there will be a $250 referral fee, which you can build into your staging consultation fees. It’s entirely up to you.

This is the third home staging job I’ve posted in 10 days

If you’re not already a Staging Diva Graduate consider that just one good project would more than pay for your entire training program plus building and hosting your web page on the high-traffic Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers for an entire year!

Unless you have more home staging projects than you can handle, what are you waiting for? Get the training and marketing you need to ensure the steady growth of your home staging business.

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®

Staging and marketing expert Debra Gould operates the only home staging job board in the world and has a network of over 7,000 Staging Diva students in 22 countries. Come and join us!

The post Home Staging Job North Carolina in Youngsville appeared first on Home Staging Business Report.

The home in Chelmsford, MA is listed for around $420,000 and in urgent need of a home staging consultation since it’s already on the market. After looking at the listing, I can say that it will definitely need some new listing photos after you’re done!

It won’t be hard for the right home stager to show a pretty dramatic transformation without it costing the client too much. That’s why this is such a great project to boost your home staging before and after photos.

The client says, “We’re looking for someone to give us some ideas on staging our home. We’ve been depersonalizing and packing, but I feel I need help so we can get the best possible price for our house.”

I have no idea whether her real estate agent recommended home staging or not, but it’s great to work with a client who understands the value of home staging and recognizes when she needs help.

The 3 bedroom home sits on a private cul-de-sac and is perfect for a family. You’ll probably recommend adding some furniture and accessories to complement (or replace) some of what the owner currently has.

If you’re a Massachusetts Graduate of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program and you work in Middlesex County, this could be the right home staging job for you. Real estate prices have fallen in Chelmsford and this home is priced at double the median price range for that area. Clearly, this is a great chance to help the home seller get the most possible equity from their real estate sale.

Massachusetts Home Staging Job – How to Apply

It’s easy for you to apply for this Massachusetts home staging job. All you need to do is complete the form at the Staging Diva Home Staging Project Referral Service. Please be sure to include “Massachusetts Home Staging Job in Chelmsford” as the project location in the first line of the form.

This Massachusetts home staging job will be referred first to members of the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers for free. In other words, there will be no referral fee for Directory members even though we’re playing “match maker” for you.

If there’s not a Directory member available for this project, it will be open to any Staging Diva Graduate with a professional Internet presence. (It’s difficult to convince a client to hire you if they can’t review your staging portfolio, after all!)

If you get any paid work through this referral (and you’re not already a Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers member), there will be a $250 referral fee, which you can build into your staging consultation fees. It’s entirely up to you. You’ll be making money on this project from not only your consulting and shopping time, plus you can make a commission on furniture rental, repairs, and painting if you follow the advice I give you in Course 5 of the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program!

I generate tons of traffic for anyone listed on the Directory. Just one good project would more than pay for your entire training program plus building and hosting your web page on the high-traffic Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers for an entire year! When clients find you from your listing in the Staging Diva Directory, I do not charge you a referral fee.

This Massachusetts home staging job demonstrates why your company should be listed in the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers. We build your page and all the code to help search engines find you and it only takes 7 days from when you provide your materials!

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements and Voice of Possibility Group Inc.

Staging and marketing expert Debra Gould operates the only home staging job board in the world and has a network of over 7,000 Staging Diva students in 22 countries.

The post Massachusetts Home Staging Job in Chelmsford appeared first on Home Staging Business Report.

In under 2 minutes, this short video explains how to print articles from any site you visit:

If you found this video helpful, please share it with your friends using the handy social buttons below!

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements Home Staging and Voice of Possibility Group Inc.

Debra Gould, creator of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, shares home staging website tips in her blog, Home Staging Business Report.

The post Home Staging Business Articles You Want to Print appeared first on Home Staging Business Report.