Maryland Home Stager Takes Property From Stale to Must-See

Debra Gould
Imagine the case that could be made for home staging if an offer came in from a buyer who had seen a property prior to staging without having any interest in purchasing it at that time.

That´s exactly what happened when home stager and Staging Diva Graduate, Holly Battaglia transformed a Maryland property.

Her clients hadn´t received a single offer on their property despite having been on the market for most of 2009 and part of 2007. After finding Holly online, they hired her to stage their home.

They had 7 showings in as many days – one resulting in an offer.

The sellers didn´t accept that offer because it was too low. They knew with all the activity happening on their property thanks to Holly, they wouldn´t have trouble selling it this time around.

Holly thinks the offer was a result of the prospective buyer feeling the need to take action since the property improved so much after home staging, out of fear someone else would buy it first. This was a person who had been through the property prior to staging without having any interest in buying it.


"That´s what home staging is all about," states Debra Gould, founder of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. She adds, "It´s about the perception of how desirable a property is. And that´s why it works."

"Holly, besides working full time as a home stager, works part time as a nurse and is a busy mother of four. With a hectic schedule like hers, it makes perfect sense to market online because she´s able to promote her staging business 24/7 while she carries on with her full life," says Gould.

Holly says the fee she made on this one project, a direct result of her online marketing efforts, covered the cost of her home staging training program and her listing in the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers.

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 4000 home stagers to start and grow their own businesses.
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Debra Gould

Debra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program.

Gould has trained 7,000+ Staging Diva students in over 21 countries to start their own businesses. All shared a natural talent for decorating and interest in real estate, but didn't know how to make a living in their own house staging business before learning her secrets.

Debra Gould's mission is to inspire and empower others to use their natural talents to earn a living. She followed her dreams and wants to teach others to be able to do the same.

Gould pursued an MBA in Marketing and began a corporate career before moving to advertising. In the 1980s, she launched one of the first integrated marketing firms, which she ran for 10 years. Wanting a more creative life, Debra gave it up to design home accessories. She created the Debra Gould Home Collection, landing a magazine cover story and book feature, followed by her first of several HGTV appearances.

Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a new staging career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since that time she has staged homes for hundreds of clients in addition to providing home staging training.

Gould is the author of "Staging Diva Ultimate Design Guide: Home staging tips, tricks and floor plans", "Staging Diva Ultimate Color Guide: The easy way to pick colors for home staging projects", and "Staging Diva Ultimate Portfolio Guide: Winning clients with the perfect home staging portfolio".

In addition to HGTV, Debra Gould's media coverage includes: CityTV, GlobalTV, CBC, CBS Radio, CNNMoney, Wall Street Journal, Woman's Day, Reader's Digest, MoneySense, Entrepreneur, House and Home, Home & Decor, Style at Home, Centre of the City, USAA Magazine, FabJob Guide to Become a Home Stager, Home Style, National Post Homes, This Old House, Home Business Magazine, Globe & Mail and others.

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