Home Staging Turns Stale Real Estate Listing Into Hot Property After Two Long Years

Debra Gould
In this slow real estate market, how long would you let your home sit on the market with no offers before looking for a solution? Would you accept your real estate agent's advice and cut your listing price dramatically to generate interest? What if giving up all your equity by selling at a rock bottom price still wasn't enough to generate a sale?

After completing her home staging business training, Staging Diva Graduate Kathy Vernon of Texas-based Staged by Dream Weavers staged a house that had been on and off the market for two years and was attracting no interest.

Like many home sellers who haven´t decorated their homes to sell quickly, the owner of this home was enduring a significant inconvenience by not being able to sell his house. In this case, commuting to and from work required 3 hours in the car every day.

The first couple to see the home after it was decorated to sell ended up making an offer and there was a back up buyer in place in case the first offer didn´t go through. The homeowners were thrilled and relieved that their lives could go on without being stuck with their non-selling house. "As a new home stager, it was wonderful to see that I could use my natural talent to change a family´s life," said Kathy Vernon.


A professionally staged home speaks to buyers on an emotional level and allows them to picture their lives there. The house Kathy staged hadn´t pick up and moved to a different "hotter" location, and there were no renovations done. If that same home had been staged two years prior it probably would have sold just as quickly (but for a whole lot more) because home staging works.

With results like this, you have to question why a home seller would not invest in home staging to get a quick sale for the best price possible.
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Debra Gould

Debra Gould, aka The Staging DivaŽ, 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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