The Home Staging Show

Color is one of the most essential aspects of home staging and interior design, and lucky for us we have a total rockstar with us on the podcast today to talk about all things color.

JoAnne Lenart-Weary is a Professional Interior Decorator and 40 year industry veteran who was staging and redesigning before the terms were even coined. She's also the creator of many industry tools such as the Confident Consultation, Decorating in the Zone, the Confident Color System, the DIY series and How to Decorate and Stage. She believes in arming you with information you can implement with a client immediately.

JoAnne delivers a total masterclass on choosing colors, color saturation, picking the right lighting, and so much more. We talk about why color is such a powerful presence in our lives and thus such an important tool for home stagers and designers to wield well. JoAnne and I also get into detail about which paints she prefers and how she picks them, her thoughts on different paint finishes, and why you shouldn't be scared to bring color into your staging.

Find more info at staged4more.com/podcast.

For our first interview of season 10, I'm joined by the wonderful Kristy Craig Anderson of Dwell Staging to talk about staging luxury homes and working with a different type of client.

Kristy started Dwell Staging in 2014 with the goal to bring fresh, contemporary staging to the Tampa Bay area. Since its humble beginnings as a sole proprietorship, Dwell has grown into a 9,000 square foot warehouse with a talented team of 13 who stage hundreds of homes per year.

Kristy and I talk about how she got into home staging as a second career and how she made the leap to start staging luxury homes. We chat about how to make luxury styling feel livable, the differences between working with your usual clients versus luxury clients, and how to make sure you're making sound business decisions when trying out new markets. Kristy also shares her top tips for stagers and agents who want to stage and sell luxury homes in the most efficient, beautiful way possible.

Find more info at staged4more.com/podcast.

This week, I am answering a few listener's questions on the business of home staging. In the episode, I talked about a few key design principles when it comes to staging homes, dealing with your self-doubt as a new home stager, how occupied home stagers can build portfolios, the importance of clarity and mindset in your work, and tips on buying home staging inventory.

For the final episode of season 9, we're talking about the business side of home staging and why it's so important to focus not just on your revenue, but on your profit margins. I speak to a lot of new stagers with questions about how much profit they should be making, whether they should buy or rent furniture, and other important business considerations. To talk all about profit and building a sustainable, healthy business, we're joined by the brilliant Michele Williams!

Michele Williams is sought after for her ability to easily explain complex business principles and processes in a simple, straightforward way. With a varied background in working in small, medium and large businesses, Michele has a great grasp on the scalability factors that are essential to growing a business.

Michele offers up so much great advice in this episode. She shares her background in business and explains how the Profit First model works and why she thinks it's such an effective way to manage the cash flow of your business. We also discuss whether new stagers should buy their own inventory and why you should classify your inventory as an asset. And we get into some super useful stuff about mindset, things that hold us back in business, and how you can increase your net profit.

You can find complete show notes and more information at https://www.staged4more.com/podcast

Today's show is all about real estate photography! We talked a lot about the technical side of photography, like white balance, exposure, ISO, etc. We also talked about the styling side of things, especially how differently the camera sees the room vs. the human eyes and how that impact the way we place things in the room.

On today's show, I am interviewing Kris Kandel, a photographer in the Fargo area, specializing in weddings and real estate photography since 2001. She has always been drawn to architecture in her photography work, so it was a natural step to include home photography in her business. A few years ago she bought a little 1948 fixer up and loved getting her hands dirty with DIY projects to make this old house an adorable home. In her free time she enjoys volunteering at her local AKC dog club teaching the Canine Good Citizen classes with her beautiful dog Bokeh. She also runs a podcast on courage and curiosity with her sister. It's her passion to create, bringing light and joy into the world in any way she can.

You only get one chance to make a good first impression, and nowhere is this more obvious than when we're looking at a house. I've seen it plenty of times: clients pull up to a house for a viewing, but are so put off by the outside that they don't even want to go in! Having a landscape that's tidy, beautiful, and welcoming can do wonders for your happiness while living in your home and be a boost when you're ready to sell it, too. And our guest today is an expert on exactly that!

Ben Hale is a DIY landscape design coach and owner of Easy Living Yards. His work helps busy homeowners create the beautiful yard they deserve with the least maintenance possible. He teaches his clients through the Easy Living Yards Podcast and membership, so they can have more time to enjoy their yard with pride.

Ben shares a wealth of information with us today about how to design a landscape that looks beautiful and saves you money, time, and headaches. He shares some specific advice for home stagers and sellers about how to stage your landscape so it looks as welcoming and tidy, and we talk about some simple curb-checks you can do to make sure your house looks great to prospective buyers.

You can find complete show notes and more information at https://www.staged4more.com/podcast

The home staging industry has experienced a lot of change in the past few years, especially with HGTV's explosion in popularity, ever-savvier buyers and sellers, and the entrance of millennials into the real estate market. It's no wonder that now more than ever, communities of home stagers are popping up around the globe. These communities are valuable sources of information, mentorship, and inspiration - and today's guest is a huge advocate for teaming up with other stagers in your market and around the country.

Krisztina Bell is an Atlanta-based home stager, vacant properties specialist, and the pioneer of "virtual staging". She provides her clients with over 14 years of experience in the real estate and home staging industries.

Krisztina and I had so much fun talking about how she started and grew her business into a thriving home staging & virtual staging powerhouse. We discuss the importance of good staging for selling vacant properties, how millennials are changing the home staging game, and how DIY culture is affecting the role of stagers in the buying & selling process. Krisztina also shares some awesome advice about tools & apps you can use to choose paint colors, marketing for properties, and what millennials in particular are looking for in her home housing market of Atlanta.

You can find complete show notes and more information at https://www.staged4more.com/podcast

There's so much that goes into buying a house: finding a great real estate agent, combing through listings, competing with other offers, and the psychological freakout that often accompanies actually putting down the cash for a home. But buying a house is one of the best investments you can make, and a really talented, attentive real estate agent can make the process a LOT easier for you.

Courtney Poulos is the broker/owner of ACME Real Estate, a design-savvy boutique brokerage focusing on brand marketing and real estate sales. She also has a mission to help women achieve financial independence through real estate investment. Her latest book, Break Up! With Your Rental: The Professional Woman's Guide to Building Wealth through Real Estate, is available nationwide at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Courtney shares SO much fantastic, actionable advice in this episode about finding (and being) an amazing real estate agent, how she picks great home stagers, and how to make your home stand out on the market. We also dive into the subject of Courtney's new book and talk about why women are the perfect candidates for building wealth through real estate investment.

You can find complete show notes and more information at https://www.staged4more.com/podcast

Hiring an interior designer can be a tricky sell for many homeowners and renters. For many people, interior design feels like it's way outside of their budget.

The lack of affordable interior design was a gap in the market that today's guest, Betsy Helmuth, saw and realized she was meant to fill.

Betsy Helmuth is the owner of Affordable Interior Design and a nationally celebrated interior designer. She wrote a popular DIY design book, "Big Design, Small Budget: Create a Glamorous Home in Nine Thrifty Steps", and hosts a weekly home decorating podcast by the same name.

Betsy and I talk about the structure of the interior design industry and why Betsy wanted to offer a more affordable design service so that clients of any budget could afford to hire a designer. She also shares her tips for budgeting, creating a high-end look with wallet-friendly pieces, and some of the common design mistakes she sees homeowners (and even fellow designers!) make when designing a home. Betsy is incredibly generous with her advice in this episode – don't miss out!

You can find complete show notes and more information at https://www.staged4more.com/podcast

I've wanted to have someone on the podcast for a long time who bridges the gap between stager & real estate agent – even though the industries are related, there's a relatively small amount of crossover between the work of prepping a home to sell and the job of helping buyers and sellers make the actual sale. So you can imagine how excited I am to have Kelly Williams on today's episode!

Kelly Williams has owned and operated her staging company, Creative Touch Interiors, since 2003 and has been a real estate agent for the past 6 years. As a stager, she frequently mentored new home stagers as they found their feet in the industry, even winning the CSP's Mentor of the Year Award in 2006. Kelly also authored Home Staging Secrets, was featured on an episode of HGTV's Buy Me, and writes for the Staging Standard Magazine. Once her kids left home, she jumped into real estate and has been helping buyers and sellers ever since.

Now that she's an experienced real estate agent in addition to her staging expertise, Kelly possesses a unique perspective that makes her the perfect person to ask about how staging really affects the buying and selling of homes.

Kelly and I talk about how being a home stager prepared her for being a real estate agent and debunk some common misconceptions about real estate and home staging. We then dive into all the ways that staging can affect a buyer's choice to purchase a home, what sellers need to know about prepping a house for the market, and mistakes that home sellers often make. And we talk about what today's buyers are looking for and how staging can make a huge difference in the home-buying process.