Why I Started A Home Staging Business
Back in 2005 we sold our first home through a local realtor friend. When we first met with her and and she came to our home and met with us, we talked through the preliminary listing specifics and she said she would come back with a stager. I don’t know the specifics on timelines but thinking back those were the days of DIY shows on HGTV including Trading Spaces, burgundy & olive green was on trend. Being our first home, we had done a lot of DIY projects (nothing too crazy or terrible except a RED bathroom) so we definitely needed some guidance about how best to present our home in pictures and showings to potential buyers. I really wish I had some before and after pictures (besides the ones taken in the home on special occasions) but sadly I don’t. I didn’t know anything about selling a house but since we had put a contract on a new construction home, we knew we wanted to get this one sold so we were open to any suggestions about how to best sell our house.
The stager came and met with us and we went from room to room making suggestions about touching up paint, changing a few colors (the dining room had burgundy under the chair rail, the kitchen YELLOW was a little bright, and I already mentioned the RED bathroom). Let’s just say thanks to Trading Spaces colorful rooms were a bit popular but not necessarily good for selling a house and appealing to the largest audience. She also recommended removing a few large pieces of furniture and how best to rearrange our living room to remove the competing focal points. She also asked us to pick up some “staging towels” and a couple of medium rugs to soften a couple of spaces.
We went to work: a lighter yellow for the kitchen, painting over the burgundy and the RED with a neutral beige (again, this was a little ahead of the grey/greige trend). We also touched up paint and trim in the entry areas that had experienced the most wear and tear. The stager returned a couple of weeks later the day before the photographer was scheduled and using the things I had and towels we had purchased, set up the kitchen counters, china cabinets, and bookshelves to be decorated but minimal and simple.
Let’s just say I was hooked! I loved the difference that this made it our home. I guess I’m glad we needed more space because I really loved the results. I guess I was fortunate that I got a hands on training in the world of staging. We had an offer in just a few weeks and were on our way to packing and moving! I was so thankful the realtor had provided the stager to give us her wisdom and know how and that the realtor knew what a difference it would make in selling the home in a short about of time for a great price!
I’ve always been into decorating and home projects but as s we designed our new home and chose finishes and paint colors, the experience with staging really helped me to start to refine my selections and make my new home more of a cohesive space.
Fast forward seven years, and it was time to move again due to my husband’s job change that was requiring him to commute to the other side of Atlanta for quite a number of hours (due to Atlanta traffic) in the morning and evening. I had been teaching high school math since 2003 and in the process of this move we were able to structure our new home purchase and finances in such a way that I could take a leap into a new career path. I enjoyed teaching and was good at communicating math to students at all levels, but since I’m an All In Kind of A Girl it consumed my days and evenings (grading papers & communicating with parents) and sometimes weekends. There was always more and more to do in order to live up to the expectations plus we were on the end of the implementation of the Common Core Curriculum so it had been quite a ride for a number of years. Long story short…this was my opportunity for a change if I was going to make one.
Knowing the move was coming, I had a little time to think about what I might enjoy doing (I’m definitely a doer with multiple projects of all sorts going on at all times) so I knew I wanted to do something that would fuel my passion, keep me engaged with people, and help people in some way (those were the things I liked about teaching without the set hours and endless to do list). I had decorated my current home, refining it over the last few years, changing artwork, pillows, and accessories, and swapping up bedrooms. I thought about interior design but not wanting to go back to school (again- I got a master’s in secondary math education in order to teach since I have a bachelor’s textile engineering degree). I really wanted something where I could hit the ground running with a business and have short term projects helping people get results right away without breaking the bank. Drawing upon my encounter with our stager seven years prior, I began to investigate how to become a home stager.
Here I am another seven years later and I’ve been fortunate enough to stage hundreds of occupied homes, scores of vacant houses, a dozen model homes, help homeowners with small and large design projects, provide color consultations, and stage an Airbnb.
If you want to know more about how I started my business, Click here to read the post where I spill the beans on how I got started and the benefits owning my own business has provided for me and my family.
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