Debra Gould

Home stagers and the bed bug epidemic

Are you taking all necessary precautions in your home staging business to avoid perpetuating the spread of bed bugs? By the very nature of your career as a home stager, you’re in and out of houses all the time to make your living. You’re at a pretty gr... Read >

Home staging lessons from HGTV’s Property Virgins

As I was on the treadmill at the gym the other day watching another episode of HGTV’s Property Virgins, I was thinking again about how amazing it is that what comes naturally to professional home stagers doesn’t seem to cross the minds of real estate agen... Read >

Home Stagers, do you know how long it takes Google to find you?

One common misconception I hear from home stagers about search engines is that they expect their new website to be on the first or second page of Google within a few days. Wouldn’t it be great if it were as easy as that? Unfortunately, though, it’s no... Read >

Home stagers make more money than real estate agents

I read a post on Active Rain written by a real estate agent fed up with people trying to work out his paycheck by multiplying the price of a house he was selling by 6%. Everyone assumes he must be filthy rich and he said in his post that many agents do th... Read >

Staging Diva Graduate Proves One Room Can Make all the Difference

Even though Staging Diva Graduate Lisa Liberatore is no longer a teacher in the public elementary school system she’s still teaching in her new full-time career as a home stager. Her staging business Brown Butterfly Interiors is based in Bay Head, New... Read >

What happened to that home staging prospect?

Your home staging business will have natural ups and downs. This is a reality of any business really. Sometimes this is due to the season. For example, there is less demand for home staging services in December, just because that’s not a big time for peop... Read >

Convincing staging clients to invest in a house they’re selling

As a home stager, part of your job is to convince your clients why they have to spend money on a house they’re selling, an unattractive notion for many homeowners you’ll encounter. Your job is to demonstrate how the money they spend on their home now i... Read >

Tough Home Staging Competition

I often hear form aspiring home stagers who say, “There are no home stagers in my area, so there must not be a demand for this service." Just as often, I am told the exact opposite by others, “There are already home stagers in my area. I’m sure there will... Read >

Home Stager To Do Items

I’m trying to dig through all the piles and stacks of paper in my office to figure out where the good stuff is, and what I can finally give myself permission to let go of. It’s not easy. I’ve always been an information hoarder, that’s my personal fo... Read >

How Home Stagers Can Approach FSBO Properties

With FSBO properties being so common in the marketplace nowadays, you’re probably wondering how to attract some of them to your home staging business. Targeting FSBOs or “For Sale by Owner" properties is a great idea but remember, they’re selling their ho... Read >

Home Stager Income and Lifestyle Changes Depend on Starting Point

Do you imagine yourself scrimping, saving and starving during your first and second year in business as a home stager? While it’s true that you may have to make some adjustments in your lifestyle when you set out to be your own boss, it’s important to ... Read >

Home Staging Business Lessons From a Brisket

I remember sitting in my cousin's kitchen a few years ago, watching as she prepared a brisket for Sunday dinner. It was the first time she was going to cook the meal on her own as the torch was being passed down from her mother. The first thing my cous... Read >

Staging Diva Graduate Featured in Yahoo! Shine and Newsday

In January, Staging Diva Graduate and New York Home stager, Donna Dazzo, was featured in Yahoo! Shine with her inexpensive and easy design tricks for selling and she was also recently featured in Newsday's weekly paper and online in the "Long Island Makeo... Read >

Ontario Home Stager Proves Real Estate Agent Wrong

With two very young children at home it was a risky move on Fabia MacNair's part to quit her job in the residential development field to run her Ontario home staging business, Styling Spaces, full-time. But it's a risk that continues to pay off for her an... Read >

Home Stagers, Realize Your Own Power in Real Estate

There are a lot of real estate agents who: • don't understand why an empty, disorganized or ugly home is harder to sell • list a property as is, put a few bad pictures on MLS and then talk their client into subsequent price reductions when the p... Read >