I love this video testimonial from Michelle Minch of Moving Mountain Designs who is also a RESA Stager of the Year and is killing it in the Los Angeles Area as a home stager! Michelle started out as an Interior Designer and took the HSR home staging certification training thinking she would add staging to her business...boy did she get more than she bargained for!

Here's 5 HUGE Reasons Why Every Interior Designer Should Be a Home Stager...

Who is an Interior Designer's business target market?  New home owners and people considering a remodel or design project.  Are these people easy to find?  Not really. 

The Home Stager on the other hand has a target market of Real Estate Agents who are very easy to find online (and off) and very easy to target.

Did I mention that having a handful of Real Estate Agents who use you on every listing they get means you are continually getting new business without having to lift a finger?

That's right, the HUGE business model benefit to working with agents is that this target market will actually do the marketing for you since they will need you multiple times.  The interior designer's target markets do not continually feed them new business.

Every GREAT staging job should turn into a new move-in design job when positioned correctly!  The home stager has the best opportunity at connecting with the home seller who very soon will be a new home owner and want help remodeling their new space.

This is one of the biggest reasons the HSR Certification Training program goes over BOTH the staging and design business models.  This HUGE advantage is what makes us different from other training companies because we understand that beautiful staging leads to new design business and we want you to be able to handle all of it!

Remember when no one was spending on "luxury items and services" during the down turn?  Guess what?  They were still spending on home staging because if they didn't professionally stage their home, it simply would not sell.

As the longest running, online staging and design training provider who has been through every economy I can safely tell you that staging is an "economy proof" business when positioned correctly.

Many of my HSR members have left the interior design industry and jumped in the home staging industry because they said it was just A LOT more fun! Design typically is a higher risk, higher capital, bigger stress profession that has a longer sales cycle whereas staging is an "in and out" profession where clients see huge results right away.

My X-Designer members tell me they like creatively working with what their client's have to make rooms beautiful rather than the tedium of completely redoing a client's space or measuring the exact cabinet size to fit a kitchen, etc....

There are many more benefits of adding staging to the Interior Design business model but those are just a few "biggies".

FREE Video on What it Takes to Be a Stager...

Could “ Home Staging" be a Career for You?

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Don’t miss this..!!

• 7 Key Questions to Ask Yourself
  
• What the Cost is to Starting this Business
  
• Do You Have the Personality for This Industry?
  
• How You Know If You Have the Design Talent?
  

Watch it Now »

My Office Remodel - 5 Design Lessons Learned

Have you ever known that you have to do something with a space but feel a bit stumped?

I shouldn't have shown you the "after photo" so soon because once you scroll and see the before photos, you will see why this room was the bane of my home's existence! I did NOT want this ugly room as my office but since my kids were sharing a bedroom and turning into teenagers...it was time to remodel. Keep in mind, these photos were taken with my camera and not a professional.

Here are five lessons I learned from my office remodel...

1. You Cannot Make a Dark Space Lighter with Paint!

Office BEFORE

This room inside of my house was a constant, nagging irritation to me because I had no idea what to do with it! First off, it's SUPER dark and gets very little natural light. In fact, there is just the one little window that emits no light and the doorway in which I am standing to take the photo is the only light source...soon to become a door. In the past, we attempted to paint the room my favorite brightening color from the Benjamin Moore Affinity Deck called Jicama but it looked drab in this space...thus lesson #1.

Office AFTER

To combat the darkness, I added lots of artificial lighting in all of it's forms, lots of bling from the mirrored desk, mirrored frames, table and gold lamp in order to brighten it up. The key to dark spaces is to embrace them with paint and rely on artificial lighting to do the rest. Embraced the darkness I did with Benjamin Moore's Historical Collection, Newburyport Blue HC-155 which is the ignored color next to the very popular Hale Navy. It's a warmer navy than Hale Navy without looking too blueberryish like Van Deusen Blue.

2. You Have to Splurge When You LOVE Something Sometimes:)

BEFORE

The window seat was begging for something and since you already know that I am a HUGE pillow lover, I felt it was time for me to splurge on some of my favorite Schumacher fabrics even though I have kids and animals that have NO respect for my furnishings...alas!

Splurging is hard for me since I am very practical but splurge I did on each one of these pillow (even though I got them wholesale), knowing they would probably have a lifespan of a year in my house.

3. You Have to be Practical When It Comes to Your Comfort

My office chair is the ugliest thing ever and I'm sure you noticed it right away my stager/designer readers! But here's the thing, I have to sit there for many hours everyday and do my job, so I have to be comfortable. Have you ever looked at rooms in magazines and asked yourself whether you would FEEL comfortable there? We are staging and designing for real people in real situations, so comfort and practicality does matter.

The little brown, leather chair is a comfortable, recliner that I do use quite often at night to watch the TV in this room...who can ever agree with their husband on TV viewing preferences?

4. You Have to Get Personal

I'm one of the few staging trainers who believes your "lived in" home should NOT look staged. I have family photos everywhere in my home, as well as kids artwork and awards on display. Even in my new office you can see that I have a wall of my boys artwork and a mirror-framed, wall of my latest family photos taken on the beach in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

5. Adding ANY Kind of Architectural Element Will Boost the Space

I was on a limited budget but wanted shelves for my MANY books and cabinets to hide my ugly, office "stuff". Here's another tip, make sure you are crystal clear on exactly how you want those cabinets built! I was armed with photos of both the mill work and cabinet I wanted, so this was easy and boy does it make a difference!

6. Animals LOVE Animal Skin Rugs Even If They Are Fake

I have spent the last four months going through every inch of our 21-Day Home Staging Certification Training and migrating it to a cutting edge, online training system.  Every form, guide, page, link and resource or our staging certification program has been updated to reflect our changing staging, design and real estate industries.  I'm so proud of this new training area which members are RAVING about.

If you are shopping for staging and design training, then watch this video and compare it to anything else you've seen...I promise you will LOVE it!

Last Week's Raves...

I never get tired of hearing people's "stories"...

In fact, every time someone signs up for my home staging certification program, I interview them to get a picture of what their background is and what their hopes and goals are for their business.   I am always so inspired and humbled by the responses I get!  Here are just a few that I've gotten in the last month:

"I've been rearranging rooms since I was a child, so I can't wait to finally follow my dream of design and make money at it!"

"My mother was my design inspiration and when she passed away last year, I knew I had to pursue this"

"My goal is to create a staging empire!"

"I got bored of being retired and wanted to do something I loved and that would make my children proud"

"I'm a real estate agent who has always LOVED design, so my goal is to dial in my own listings, as well as help other agents stage theirs"

"I have had an Interior Design business for over ten years and wanted to incorporate home staging as an additional service"

"I hate my full time job and feel stuck...my goal is to work hard, learn like crazy and do staging and design full time!"

At the RESA Convention last month, Tori Toth was kind enough to take some of my HSR grads aside and interview them to get their stories...you will love what they have to say!

Over the next few months, I'm excited to share some more homestager stories along with their before-and-after photos.   You will be in "awe" of their transformations!

We had so much fun in Las Vegas last month at the RESA Convention last month!   We had amazing speakers (Sabrina Soto), the coolest group of vendors (Ashley Furniture, Cort, Surya, Paragon), the largest attendance of home stagers of any Convention and the most competitive awards grouping I've ever seen!  Our industry is hot and when we get together...amazing things happen. 

Here are just a few of the many highlights from that event...

We filled the bar with over 50 HSR peeps, so I had to take a selfie:)

Who doesn't love a good happy hour?  Before the Convention began, I treated all my HSR Members, Grads and Staging Mentors to free drinks at the Center Bar in the casino and it was a great way for stagers to meet, network and connect before the big event.

I got to thank my amazing members for inspiring me every day!

For the third time I've been privileged to win the "RESA Most Innovative Product and Service of the Year Award"!  I was blown away since the competition this year was fierce and there were so many great finalists.

I'm very proud of this training because I believe Color Consultations are becoming more essential and I'm excited to help stagers and designers create a market for this service (much like I did when staging was brand new).

I also spoke on the subject of choosing "Ideal Color Schemes" and am doing a FREE live webinar on color, so sign-up by clicking on the image below if you LOVE color.

Just a few of the many HSR staging winners!

Victoria (www.VictoriaStaging.com), Audra Slinkey, Emily and Yvette (www.orchidinteriorsllc.com), Arti (www.studiortdesign.com), Cynthia (www.transitionshomestagingtulsa.com), Monica (www.preferredstaging.com), and Laurie (www.roomswithimpact.com)

In every category there were many HSR Grad award winning finalists!  The body of work was better than I've ever seen in the history of staging awards!  Over the next few months, I'm going to be sharing these incredible photos on this blog and on the NAR staging blog. 

Seeing is believing, and when you see these incredibly talented stagers work their magic...it will give you goosebumps!

HSR Alumni Kristine (www.elitestagingandredesign.com) and Birgit (www.birgitanich.com)

Orlando won the Kathy Neilson Award for everything he does for the staging industry!

I shared a bit about Orlando (www.thehomestagingguy.com) in a prior blog post about "How to Get a Staging Job", because he is also one of my wonderful staging mentors, is State President of RESA for Florida and regularly jumps into my live, training webinars in the HSR Members Area to motivate and comment...I love this guy!

Don't you love a good story?  Sabrina Soto was an incredible speaker and we had an hour long "chat" question and answer session that inspired, illuminated and motivated all of us.  She's as down to earth as you would think, very kind, genuine and had some excellent insights on trends in the industry.  She even gave us a little "HGTV gossip":).

Hurray, I even got to take a picture with her!

Look at this good looking group of HSR Grads & Staging Mentors!

My staging and design certification training is online, so while I get to talk and email HSR members daily...I don't get to see them in person (unless they come to a San Diego RESA event).  The RESA Convention allowed us to pre-party, celebrate the industry and get to know each other better.

 The Staging Industry is FILLED with the most AMAZING group of people!

I was so blessed to have both my sisters fly out and support me at the convention!

My REAL Sisters got to meet my "Staging Sisters"... How cool is that?!

Corrine, Suzanne and Me

So...save up your pennies and make sure to attend next years, RESA Convention with me if you are a home stager! 

If you're not a home stager but thinking about it, then watch my free video about the industry, "Is Staging for You?"