Elizabeth DeMarco

It's a rainy Friday in all of the Philadelphia/Montgomery County area. Warm, but frequent downpours, the creek that runs behind our home is mighty high. But I digress with chatter on the weather, the bottom line is I didn't have too much work today, accessories etc are are piled in little vignettes on my dining table, waiting to join the rest of the lot which is packed and ready for a staging on Saturday. So mostly I've been surfing the web, more specifically Florida real estate listings. We are going to purchase a home there in the not too distant future. We've narrowed down the area to two that I vacilate back and forth between. Needless to say, I've looked at a zillion listings. I like most I'm sure go gravitate towards listings with many pictures. I have been appalled by some, romanced by some, and some left me just wanting more. I've come to appreciate sellers who stage their homes. I think I'm pretty good at telling they've been staged and I'd like to thank them. I don't want to guess how much room that giant curio of Trolls is in your dining room, I want to see cohesive conversation areas, clean uncluttered bedrooms, that while maybe not my taste allow me to mentally "place" the things I'd want in their space. So right now I'm realizing I see this thing from both sides now, and anywhere I stand staging seems like a fantastic idea!

Ok so here I am, having finally taken the plunge and started home staging as an official business of my own. God knows I've done it often, but until now it was tied to my other job or was done for family and friends. I know how important marketing is. And I know I keep hearing to "network network network". Now I understand the concept...buy where ? With whom ? I'd love suggestions and tips from all you people that are doing so well! I want to join your ranks. HELP!!!

In my own way I've been staging for a number of years. I've been a Home Furnishings Consultant for a large furniture company for quite some time. I've worked on sales worth $40,000 to stage and sell upscale beach houses at the Jersey shore. I've worked with any number of stagers and decorators, many who I feel have come to greatly value my input over the years. I love helping young couples building their first home together find their style, select what will work for them space and budget wise.

So now after all these years I took a leap of faith and attended a wonderful class and got my staging certification. One of the things I enjoyed the most in this course was the hands on experience it gave us. We staged four homes, two high-end listings and two properties that would be wonderful starter homes. In the one I'm speaking of in particular we cleared A LOT of clutter away, rearranged the furniture and added some plants. Most of what we used were things we "shopped" the rest of the house for. There were 4 in our group and I felt myself to be a strong presence in the group.

Imagine how excited we were to learn that 2 days after our staging they had yet another showing... but this time an OFFER!!

I can't wait to do it again!