When many home sellers ask for free home staging estimates, what they really want is your expertise and advice for free. The brand new Staging Diva Sales Script will teach home stagers how to avoid getting caught in the ‘free estimate trap’ and turn homeowners into home staging customers with one concise phone conversation.

June 11, 2008 – A new resource called the Staging Diva Sales Script has been created by home staging expert Debra Gould, also known as the Staging Diva, which will help home stagers avoid bankruptcy and burn out by not falling into the ‘free estimate trap’.

With the dismal state of the real estate market today, desperate homeowners are scrambling for an edge when the time comes to sell. Many of these individuals are turning to home stagers to advise them on how to best decorate their homes to stand out from the others in their community that will be in competition with theirs when it gets listed.

That line between ‘free estimate’ and ‘free advice’ becomes blurry when a home stager agrees to visit with a home seller to estimate what staging will cost. From the moment a stager enters the home, they are bombarded with questions; ‘What color should I paint this room?’, ‘Do you think I should move this furniture to the basement?’, ‘Is it okay to leave my dining room as the children’s playroom?’ While these questions are very important for any home seller to consider, asking them of a home stager is the same as asking for free home staging advice.

“A professional home stager can increase the perceived value of a home by between $10,000 and $70,000,” says Gould. “Home stagers deserve to be paid for their expertise and advice since the home seller stands to make a handsome profit from their services.”

In a fierce race for new clients, too many home stagers agree to visit home sellers to provide a free estimate for staging their home. This will almost inevitably end up in “a fast road to burn out and bankruptcy”, according to Gould, who teaches home stagers how to build a profitable staging business. Instead, Gould advises home stagers build a rapport over the phone with a potential new client, carefully explaining what home staging is, why it works, and how their expertise can benefit the home seller.

“It’s not necessary to visit a home to know what staging will cost, especially if the house is furnished,” explains Gould. She goes on to say, “Most home sellers are living in their homes and a stager will be working with what’s already there. If the home stager has any experience at all, they’ll know from a telephone interview, approximately how long it will take and roughly what staging will cost. But they have to be confident enough to explain it thoroughly to a home seller who has probably never hired a real estate stager before.”

Serious home sellers looking for expert home staging advice should be willing to pay for a service that will result in a quick sale for top dollar. Home stagers considering themselves professionals should not be wasting their time and gas running the roads for free. To help both stagers and sellers understand each other better, Debra Gould has created the ‘Staging Diva Sales Script: How to Avoid the Free Estimate Trap and Turn Homeowners Into Home Staging Customers in One Phone Conversation’. This resource enables home stagers to effectively communicate what they do in that initial phone call. This Staging Diva Sales Script is available at http://www.stagingdiva.com/homestagingsalesscript.html.

For more information about The Staging Diva, visit her website www.StagingDiva.com or reach her by phone at 416-691-6615.

About Debra Gould – ‘The Staging Diva’
The creator of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, Debra Gould has staged millions of dollars worth of real estate, including seven of her own homes. She is the president of home staging firm SixElements.com and has trained over 800 home stagers to start and grow their own businesses through http://www.StagingDiva.com.

Debra has gained international recognition through features in major media in the US and Canada including: HGTV, CNN Money, CBC National News, CBS Radio, Global TV, City TV, The Wall Street Journal, Women’s Day, Reader’s Digest and more.

The Guide also contains 8 do-it-yourself home decor projects with step-by-step instructions for: refreshing wood, faux finishing, painting kitchen cabinets, creating a linen texture with paint, creating your own color-coordinated artwork, window treatments, pillows, and replacing worn chair seats. In addition to these projects, you get a painting checklist and a painting order chart for goof-proof painting.

I have also included a frequently asked questions section that answers your top 9 questions about painting and choosing a color palette. I even wrote about how to deal with special situations like — what to do with that retro blue bathtub, how to update 80s kitchen cabinets, how to handle ugly wallpaper, how to properly stain a deck, and how to deal with paneling and popcorn ceilings.

Just head on over to http://Home-Staging-Secrets.com to check it out!

Warmly,
Rebecca Wolfe

RISMEDIA, August 22, 2007—The real estate industry, while morphing through its tough time adjusting from a sellers’ market to a buyers’ market, has created quite a buzz surrounding home staging. While home staging isn’t a new concept, it has certainly found new life in the eyes of today’s sellers and real estate professionals.

Although there have been many quality courses around for many years, and being a “Professional Home Stager” is unquestionably a unique and full-time career for many people, there is a growing need for agents to improve their general knowledge about this subject to effectively serve their clients.

According to Thomas M. Mitchell, SVP of RealtyU, many of today’s sellers are anxiously looking to use every advantage they can get to ensure both the highest possible price and the fewest number of days on the market. Many may opt to use a fulltime stager to “re-make” their house from a home to live in to a house to sell, while many others are just looking to their real estate agent to provide general staging tips and guidelines on how to make their home show better.

“For that very reason, the one-day Accredited Home-Staging Specialist (AHS) course was created,” says Mitchell. “At RealtyU and its school network in over 42 states it’s all about helping the agent become more knowledgeable and better prepared to provide the home buyer and seller the best and most professional experience they can.” The AHS course provides an excellent overview of staging and guides the agent through the entire process providing hundreds of tips, suggestions and solutions to every staging issue.

The AHS course does an excellent job of preparing the agent to not only intelligently explain the process to the client but also assist them in putting together a staging plan. In some cases this may require the assistance of a professional stager and in others it may just involve showing the client how to “de-clutter” and “clean” to their greatest advantage.

Asked if this course is designed to make the real estate agent a professional stager Mitchell noted, “The AHS course is basic and fundamental in its format. It was designed with one purpose in mind – clearly and effectively provide real estate professionals with a solid understanding of the staging process and the elements involved. They need to be able to respond effectively when the sellers ask the question – what about staging? Real estate professionals are consummate facilitators and staging has become just one more part of the process they help their client through,” Mitchell said

The course is now available in over 200 classroom locations from one of the accredited RealtyU Affiliates (visit www.RealtyUSchools.com to locate the location nearest you) or online through a cutting edge, multi-media format at www.RealtyUOnline.com (check under (Designations).

If you’d like more detailed information on how to stage a house for sale quickly, check out the Do-It-Yourself Home Staging Kit at: http://home-staging-secrets.com

It has 97 pages worth of step-by-step instructions on when to stage and how to stage, plus detailed staging checklists, remodeling checklists, and home inspection checklists to make your house fluffing job even easier.

I hope you enjoy it!
Rebecca

Stagers in Scottsdale, Arizona have teamed up with local artists for a winning combination. Rather than paying to rent artwork, professional home stagers use the art of local talent in their staged homes. Not only does it benefit the homeowner and the home stager, but it gives the artists free exposure and the opportunity to make more sales.

If you carefully match up your artwork with the houses you are preparing to sell, what better arena could an artist ask for to showcase how beautifully their work looks in someone’s house! Ideally, the new homeowners just can’t picture their new home without the work of art.

Just another house fluffing tip to save time and money for the professional home stager!
Rebecca

Very informative article that describes WHY professional pictures of your home are so important and HOW to ensure that your Agent helps you GET them. It also has some useful tips on how to take your own real estate photos. A timely article for those competing to sell a home in this Buyer’s Market!

There is a special course on Real Estate photography in the Home-Staging-Secret’s DIY Home Staging Kit. It’s cheaper than hiring a professional photographer, too! http://home-staging-secrets.com

Enjoy,
Rebecca Wolfe

Enjoy,

Rebecca Wolfe

You can try it for FREE online and see what you think!

All the best,

Rebecca

I have to say after reading the book, I noticed that she repeated herself in the last 30 pages, almost verbatim. Apart from that, just glancing at the pictures in the middle of the book gave me a great idea of what TO do and what NOT to do when staging. She also pushes her ASP certification agenda a lot. As Debra Gould told us in her interview, you don’t need a certified Home Stager, but an experienced one! Overall, if you can get this book from your library, that’s definitely the way to go.

Rebecca

Read another review here:

Click here to read the entire article.

http://home-staging-secrets.com/action.html

All the Best,

Rebecca

Click here to read the entire article.