When your home is on the market, it becomes a product for sale and just like other products for sale, shoppers will be heavily weighing where to invest their hard-earned dollars. As they will be comparing your property with others, it is critical to be objective about anything in your home that they may perceive as a reason “not to buy”.

In a 2007 survey of over 2,000 Realtors, agents estimated that staging your home for better presentation yielded a 343% return on investment. Sure you can also lower your asking price instead but typically it is less costly to replace, update or clean the area and present a fresh new space.

Check out the dramatic changes you can make in 5 simple steps. 

#1 Leverage your homes attributes

Did you know that your property already contains things buyers are willing to pay more money for? Just like the bells and whistles on a sports car, these home features need to be showcased to their full potential so buyers can make their best and highest offer.

-         attractive curb appeal and yard

-         fireplaces

-         windows with views of mountains, water, skyline, nature, cityscapes

-         high ceilings

-         spacious rooms that feel luxurious

-         eat-in kitchen bars

-         updated or new features

Showcase these areas by drawing attention to them with pops of color and a clear line of sight to the area.

#2  Fix Potential Reasons Not to Buy

Repair, clean or replace the things that could deter a potential buyer from making an offer such as:

-         carpet that needs cleaning or replacing

-         outdated fixtures or flooring

-         chipped, scuffed or dark colored paint

-         anything in the home that is dirty or stained

-         deferred maintenance issues

#3 Show a Light, Bright and Spacious Home

Nothing sells faster than an environment that replicates a restful retreat from busy lives. You can create that feeling in your home by:

-         opening up all windows to let in as much light as possible

-         add plants to bring the “outdoors in”

-         lighten dark areas with no windows with lamp lighting – even during a daytime showing!

-         Showcase more space by removing excess furniture, anything being stored on the floor and eliminating countertop clutter. Remember my personal quote, “Expansive Feels Expensive!

#4 Depersonalize!!

Did you know that by removing some of the items in your home you can actually attract more buyers?

-         remove family photos that remind buyers that they are a visitor in someone else’s home rather than envisioning themselves in the space

-         remove personal collections that can make a space feel cluttered and un-relatable to buyers who have different tastes

-         tone down “extreme themes” with a little more of the mainstream to appeal to a broader scope of buyers

#5 Create a Designer Interior that sells 67% faster

You only have 1 chance to make a first impression. Potential buyers are looking to make one of the biggest investments of their lives and they are hoping to find the one gem within their budget that looks and feels as if they paid a fortune. Creating designer touches throughout the home will help you sell for more money. Things like:

-         a sophisticated, warm paint palette – if you will be painting anyway, you can create an expensive feeling with the right color paint in a neutral base.

-         creating warm and inviting seating areas that help buyers envision spending time with family and friends

-         utilizing accent colors sparingly and to draw attention features. Too much or too many colors make a space feel cluttered and not pulled together

-         remove outdated pieces of furniture to create a fresher look to the home

-         update kitchen and bath areas with simple, inexpensive changes such as new knobs, paint, new flooring, lighting or faucets.

Get paid to stage your home by increasing your return on investment by 343%. If you would like help creating an upscale, designer environment that will appeal to more buyers and sell your home for more money, consider hiring a professional stager. For more information, visit http://www.StyleMySpace.com

Are you going to miss the window of opportunity?

The Home Staging industry is wide open and CNN and Career Builder are saying that Home Staging is the #1 Career poised for growth. There has been so much talk the past few years about home staging and there are over 10 televisions shows that feature home staging, and yet few have jumped on the band wagon - no wonder CNN is predicting Home Staging as the #1 career for growth! (http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/worklife/08/04/cb.7.emerging.jobs/#ContentArea)

Home Staging is a fun and rewarding career that allows you the freedom to create your own schedule, pick and choose the jobs you want to work and earn a fantastic living, being your own boss!

Home Stagers arrange furniture and accessories in a creative and strategic way that sells homes 67% faster and for 10% higher offers. And according to a 2007 HomeGain study, Home Staging yields a 343% return on investment to the home owner. This means that home owners actually MAKE money every time they hire a home stager!

If you have been longing to design interiors for a living, this is the perfect time to get into the industry and establish yourself as your area’s expert. While others are sitting on the fence, you will have the opportunity to build your name and client base before the competition arrives.

The amazing thing about home staging is that it is the fastest growing segment of interior design and while training for interior design can take 2-4 years to complete, Home Staging Certification can be achieved in just 40 hours.

The following areas are needed skill sets in the Home Staging arena and you will want to choose a certification program that offers the most complete training in the following areas:

- Insider Home Staging and Design Techniques including staging tricks and techniques, space planning and color theory

- How to obtain and retain a client base

- How to build your business step by step from the ground up

- What services to offer and how to price your services

- How to stage lived-in and vacant homes with in-field, hands-on staging training

- Insurance, contracts and forms

- The opportunity to ask questions of the instructor and small class size

- Ongoing training and support

If you are considering a career in Home Staging, I recommend you check out http://www.TheAcademyOfHomeStaging.com for the most in-depth and complete training system available.

So many people ask me what the best type of Home Staging training is and if they can really learn all they need to know in a Home Staging Training program to start a successful Home Staging business.

As a Home Staging educator, I have compiled the differences for easy evaluation between the different types of trainings available:

• Online
• 3 day Workshops
• 5 Day Hands-On Private Training

Online Training is available for those who feel confident in their design aptitude and learn better from audio and visual, rather than by doing. Although many of these programs may be more affordable than a hands-on training experience, the trade off is this type of training has the least hands-on and instructor interaction. If you are a self starter, committed to finishing this type of program, this may be for you. We rate this type of training a Bronze.

Three day Workshops (24 hour trainings). You will likely learn a good amount about starting your business however, there is typically not enough time for much experiential learning and you will have little or no personal instructor interaction as these events can be quite large with upwards of 30 or 40 people. These workshops are great for people who like condensed, fast paced, hands-on learning but are not concerned about having an experiential journey, design training or personal coaching. We rate this type of training a Silver.

Five Day Courses (40 hour trainings) receive the Gold in terms of Home Staging Training. These types of courses generally produce the most skilled Home Staging Designers as they typically cover everything from business and marketing, to hands on design exercises that allow you to experience and learn the skill while receiving personal coaching and mentoring from the instructor along the way. Be sure to find a program that only accepts a handful of students to ensure your personal success. Speaking with the instructor by telephone prior to registering, will give you a good sense of how personal a journey the trainer will deliver.

In all cases, be sure to investigate thoroughly before making a decision. For more information, including the 8 things you must know before choosing a Home Staging Training Program, visit http://www.theacademyofhomestaging.com/8qs.html

Have a prosperous and joyous 2010.

Kim Kapellusch

818.726.6429

How much do Home Stagers make?

Have you ever wondered about entering a design field but thought it would take too long or cost too much money? Typical design schools take 2-4 years and can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Many people who dreamed of doing something creative for a living have discovered a lucrative and rewarding career in the field home staging. Home Staging is a design marketing tool that has been utilized by home owners and real estate professionals for over 30 years. With multiple t.v. shows featuring home staging these days, it is now becoming the fastest growing real estate marketing tool.

Home Stagers around the country average anywhere from $50 - $150 per hour for their talents which include redesigning interiors to facilitate a faster sale, design consultations for staging, redesign or new design, and staging of vacant and model homes including furniture and accessory selection and design installation.

How can I become a Home Stager?

Home Staging is best learned from experience in the field. Because Home Staging is so specific in nature, there is little training available that teaches all the aspects necessary to excel in this exclusive industry. When comparing, you will want to find a certification program that covers the following areas that affect your success:

• Design skills such as space planning, color theory and accessorizing
• Home Staging tips, secrets and how to’s
• Marketing and advertising your staging business
• Insurance, contracts and forms
• Pricing your business and how to make additional streams of income utilizing your new Home Staging design knowledge.

For more information on becoming a home stager, visit http://www.homestagingcourses.net

Have you always dreamed of having an exciting career in design but didn’t want to spend tens of thousands of dollars and years in training?

Are you like me? Watching all the design shows on tv and wondering, how can I do something that is rewarding, challenging, fun, creative, and here’s the big one……….get paid for it? Preferably, enough money to make a good living…..

How I discovered Home Staging

One day, my Mom was telling me how my cousin had hired a stager to come in and stage her home for sale. She said it sold in less than 2 weeks while others in the area had been sitting for months. Many of her neighbors had taken price reductions of ten to fifteen thousand dollars per adjustment while my cousin had only spent 2,000 getting her home ready and sold in 12 days for almost full price. I was happy for my cousin, but why all the talk about home staging?

Then the conversation took an interesting twist. My Mom told me that my cousin was thinking about becoming a home stager and that anyone could become a stager in just 5 days of training!!!

Could this be true? 5 days?? I could hardly believe my ears. Could I really become a designer of homes in 5 days? Sure enough, after researching, I discovered many “schools” delivering a complete ‘business in a box’ program for home staging and never looked back.

Today I am a successful home stager with a school of my own located in the beautiful town of Valencia, located in northern Los Angeles County in California. I have incorporated all of the things I thought were missing from other training programs and have what I consider to be the most comprehensive home staging program available. For a fraction of the time and cost of traditional design schools, you too, can learn the craft of home staging and be paid handsomely for your professional skills that help homeowners retain as much profit for their home as possible.

What can you expect to learn in a Home Staging Program?

The investment in home staging training can save you thousands in costly business mistakes. In a good home staging program, you will learn trade secrets that take years to learn and develop, along with staging specific business and marketing essentials that enable you to start a staging business immediately upon graduation. In addition, some programs teach space planning, color theory, design essentials, and have multiple in-field exercises where you will gain invaluable design and critical thinking skills. Small class size, and a format that allows you to ask questions, is also a plus.

Research is the key. Many programs are 3 days instead of 5, or only have 1 in-field exercise or assume you already have a design background and gloss over this area. There are online programs as well but if you are a person that learns by doing, then reading a book or watching a video about how to be creative, rather than experiencing the actual creative process, may not be for you.

Click here for more information about choosing the right home staging design course for you. http://www.theacademyofhomestaging.com/8qs.html.

Awaken the inner designer in you and start a new career in 5 days!  

Click here for more information on choosing the right home staging design course for you

http://www.theacademyofhomestaging.com/8qs.html

Phillip was a successful realtor for over 15 years. He enjoyed his work, and attributed his success to good customer service. Phillip made it a point to coach his clients on how to sell quickly and more likely get their asking price. One of those ways was to make aesthetic improvements that would offer more value to their home and impress potential buyers. His suggestions worked. Phillips clients often sold their homes twice as fast as others in their neighborhoods.

Realizing that his flair for creativity was an asset, Phillip decided to become certified as a home stager. He soon began making more money as he learned how to increase revenue with affiliate vendors. Since the main target market for staging is real estate agents, Phillip was able to build rapport easily with colleagues he had interfaced with over the years. He also built new relationships with companies that had a specific “Realtor Partner” marketing plan that encouraged strategic partnerships between agents and stagers. Phillip enjoyed diversifying his career, and the skills he acquired made him one of the most successful realtors in his market.

If you have a real estate background and would like to explore home staging as another stream of income, call Kim Kapellusch of The Academy of Home Staging at 800.574.5576.

Sally H. was a stay at home mom for 20 years. She put everything she had into her family. When the youngest of her 3 children left for college two years ago, she had a lot of extra time on her hands. Visiting with a neighbor one day, she met a home stager who had come to help the woman prepare her home for sale. Sally was awed by the difference made by a few small changes. She had always enjoyed working on projects and was inspired to look into home staging as a part time career. She trained and was certified and 30 days later, Sally had her first client. Referrals from friends have kept her busy ever since.

Home Staging is a fun and lucrative business for anyone with a creative flair. In this buyer’s market, opportunities abound. Sellers always want to get top dollar and staging has proven not only to increase sale price, but these homes also sell 2 to 3 times faster.

For more details on Professional Home Staging or Home Staging Training, call Kim Kapellusch at 800.574.5576.

Not only will you learn staging secrets to apply when staging a home for sale, but a certification program will also prepare you to run a successful business. You’ll learn what to charge for your services, and how to practice proven networking techniques to generate new business.

Linda P. was really impressed by improvements made in her friend Lucy’s home by a home stager. She was surprised that the attention paid to a few small details could create a totally different look and feeling in Lucy’s house. With all of the homes on the market, Linda, who had always dreamed of being self employed, decided to start her own home staging business. When Linda enrolled for certification with Kim Kapellusch she got more than she bargained for. Along with skills for residential decorating, design and redesign, Linda learned how to create a successful business. First, she learned what would be the foundation of her successful business: Writing a business plan. Linda had always worked for others, so writing a business plan energized her dream to start her own business. She learned about insurance, contracts and financing fundamentals, and how to increase her income through affiliate programs.

The target market for residential decorating, design and redesign is invariably the end-user or homeowner who is looking to improve their surroundings. In order for Linda to be successful, she needed to learn more than hands-on skills. She needed to know how to sustain and grow her practice. Kim Kapellusch provided her with all of the tools necessary to do so, and Linda is on her way to a successful new career doing something she loves.

For more details on Professional Home Staging, call Accredited Home Staging Professional Kim Kapellusch of Prepared to Sell at 800.574.5576.

Kim Kapellusch is the owner of Prepared to Sell Home Design Company, located in the Santa Clarita Valley. Kim has over 15 years experience in design fields including home staging, model home design, consulting for remodel projects and investment flips, set design, art direction and former real estate agent. Kim specializes in improving the appeal of the home through the BUYERS perspective. Designing a home from this vantage point targets the largest pool of potential buyers thereby selling homes in the shortest amount of time for top dollar.

Kim started The Academy of Home Staging course which teaches people how to start, market and grow a successful home staging business. For more information on the training course or any of the services Kim provides, please call her directly at 800.574.5576.