PRES staging has been receiving a lot of fantastic PR the past few months about the benefits of home staging. Dana Smithers, founder & creative director of the PRES Staging Resource Centre has been interviewed for newsprint and television since her new book Start & Run a Home Staging Business was published by Self-Counsel Press.

The Vancouver Sun article – Setting The Stage To Sell gave some great tips to home sellers about what they need to focus on when they are selling. Alison Applebe a freelance writer for the Sun also interviewed Patti Houston of Fluff Rentals and Susan Evans of Home Suite Home Staging.

Van Sun At HOME - Setting The Stage To Sell

Van Sun AT HOME - Setting the Stage (2)

There are lots of resources on the PRES website for home sellers to tap into. If you are thinking about selling your house you can also check out Dana Smithers’ ebook DIY Home Staging – Getting Ready for An Open House in 10 Easy Steps! And something we hope you picked up from the article is that hiring a PRES home stager is not expensive. Especially when you compare it to the cost of not-staging your home and having it sit on the market!

During the 5 day PRES Staging & Redesign Training course, students are taken into real clients’ homes to apply the theory they learned in the classroom. Our training home clients are carefully selected by the PRES Resource Centre Founder & Creative Director, Dana J. Smithers. What’s essential in the training homes is that there are at least 3 major rooms to transform, enough art and accessories to work with. Some homes may have more opportunity for learning proper furniture placement and others may provide the perfect opportunity for teaching the ‘art of hanging art’. Whether we are staging the home to sell, or transforming the home by redesigning it for living the outcome for the client is the same – they LOVE the transformation!

In this home the client was struggling with how to make everything she loved look good together. When you are redesigning the home for living it’s important to transform the home by using as many of the client’s things as you can. Having said that not everything goes back into a room once we start building it back up using our 10 Step Secret Formula!

The Living Room BEFORE:

A Living Room That Needs to Breathe!

The Living Room AFTER:

A living room that captures her personal style!

This her testimonial. When I walked in my home all I could say was “Wow!” I was taken aback immediately by the sense of being welcomed into my own home, stunned by the spaciousness and a feeling that the rooms can breathe again. With styled shelves, walls complimented with art, properly placed furniture and treasured items beautifully displayed, it became the space I wanted it to be. If you want your home staged or redesigned invite PRES Staging program in the door because you won’t be disappointed!

If this is something you are interested in participating in let us know by going to our PRES Training Home Page. Just click on this link and we will be in touch! Sorry, this offer is only for home owners in the Lower Mainland BC (for now).

The Meet Up City Stagers group is comprised of enthusiastic professional home stagers and other industry related professionals who meet once a month to share, grow and encourage each other. Tonight I am speaking to the group about ‘Starting, Growing & Sustaining Their Home Staging Business’.

Since my new book Start & Run a Home Staging Business has been published, it is a good time to get speaking engagements and share my knowledge to help others. I do not do this not to impress, I do it to impress upon them how necessary it is to continue to grow their business and to establish themselves as experts in their field. However, in doing this I also continue to establish myself as the home staging expert or as I have been called the ‘Staging Guru’. (I like the ‘guru’ part because I bring in a lot of the Law of Attraction principles to my work.)

Look for speaking engagements in your area and you will find there are people out there who want to hear what you have to say! As a home stager libraries and community centres as well as private groups are always looking for good content for their patrons and clients.

PS If you can’t join us tonight, I will also be speaking at the Vancouver Public Library on May 26th at 7pm. I am truly hoping the Canucks will win before Game 6 as this will certainly lesson the attendance – in fact, I might not be there. (joking…)

There are 2 things in my life that make me feel totally over-joyed with life and both involve transformations. One of them is the transformation that happens when we do home makeovers for living or selling AND the momentum that we created continues throughout the home. The other is coaching PRES graduates after they take the PRES 5 day staging and redesign course to continue building on that momentum.

During one of my last PRES courses we transformed the rooms we agreed to do for our client. When she came home for the ‘reveal’ just like on television, she was totally overwhelmed and cried. I left her with a suggestion that she continue to do these 2 rooms that you see below. She also wanted a colour consultation and I referred Judith Lowe of Twiques, a PRES member to her. Well GREAT NEWS! She got the family together to clean out these last two rooms – the guest bedroom and the ‘pile up’ room. They sorted into piles of what they wanted to keep, throw out, sell and give away! AND, she had her colour consultation with a painter on his way to totally complete this home transformation!

I don’t have any ‘After’ photos but I know these rooms don’t look like this anymore and that is such a good thing! PRES stagers and redesigners are simply AMAZING CHANGE AGENTS!

For almost a decade now, I have been teaching either interior decorating, home redesign and/or home staging almost exclusively to women just like you who have a dream. My role is to educate you in these disciplines. Your role is take what you have learned and make your dream business a reality.

Interestingly enough over this time period, I would say over 50% of the students that I have taught let the dream die. Why? Why is it that some soar with their dream and create exciting businesses for themselves? I teach the same things to all the students so what happens?

This is what I think happens:

* you do not get the support in your home life that you need
* you lose your focus too quickly
* you did not realize that you would be a solo-preneur and that means working on your own most of the time – you may need to be part of a team or with people on a regular basis
* you give up too quickly
* you have negative self-talk that takes you down
* you don’t get out and market yourself enough
* you think because you have a website and your business cards that is all you need
* you lack faith in your ability and you do not trust that the Universe is supporting you

Well ladies, this is what I know to be true about you:

* you have the talent and skills to create a successful business
* you came to me with your dream – it is your dream and only you can live it
* you can find a part time industry-related job that keeps you connected with other people and can be a way to find clients WHILE you are building your business
* you are smart enough to know that you need to get help when you need it – whether this means more education, signing up for inspiring newsletters or daily inspirational quotes, working part time in your field, hiring a coach, etc.
* you can change your negative self-talk by consciously saying ‘STOP’ when those thoughts come in – immediately recite a positive affirmation
* you can start hanging around and connecting with positive successful women (in any business) find out what makes them tick
* you can remind yourself of WHY you wanted to do this in the first place
* you can set some realistic goals in the new year – keep them short term goals by starting with 3 month goals
* you can find out HOW you can achieve those goals
* you can START BELIEVING IN YOURSELF because I know the Universe wants you to have what you want

These are some of the home stagers and redesigners I have been blessed to have come into my life this year – see yourself SUCCESSFUL AND YOU WILL BE!

PS My new book Start & Run a Home Staging Business is ready to be preordered due date February 2011. I wrote the book for people like you in mind – to get inspired and remember what you already know.

What an exciting time ahead for 11 new students who have been dreaming about becoming home stagers!

We have 2 fantastic training homes this week – one has been on the market for awhile but it is not moving so Lois of Lois Interiors is loaning us her gorgeous inventory so we can get this property to a WOW stage. (photos to follow soon).

Our other home is a home makeover for living. A single women has a large townhouse that just needs a lift. She has beautiful furnishings and lots of original art – not necessarily in the right places. Once we are finished she is going to be ecstatic! She has a guest room…that well isn’t too inviting but once we are finished she won’t be able to get rid of her guests!

That’s it for now as I am off to get set up for the new class! 2011 Staging & Redesign dates will be posted soon.

Last year the PRES community had a fantastic time learning, laughing and loving all the goodies and prizes.

This year the PRES members are getting ready to enjoy a full day of education and then some fun! The conference will be held on October 16th at the Executive Hotel in Coquitlam BC.

We have a fantastic line up of speakers: Marlie Oden of Bridge Communications – Defining Your Personal Brand, Carolyn Cooper-McQuatt of Inspired Business, Susan Friesen of eVision Media – How to Create a Low-cost & Effective Marketing Funnel Through Newsletters, Kathy Forbes of A New Paige Event - I’m This and You’re That…So What? Learning your personality type and how to work with the other types and Michelle Bellerose of She Hoops providing Fitness that Rocks.

Dana J. Smithers the Founder & Creative Director of PRES Staging Resource Centre will open the conference and welcome the PRES members.

Every month the PRES members have a monthly mentoring meeting. For members outside of the Lower Mainland area, PRES members connect via teleconference calls or webinars. Our meetings consist of networking, a monthly topic which could be an expert in a particular field coming in to teach us more, or may be a field trip to a strategic alliance for the PRES home stagers.

We had a lot of fun and chose topics for our next meetings coming up. One of our new members went so far as to think we are kind of a ‘sisterhood’ since we are all women! PRES entrepreneurs benefit from connecting and belonging to the PRES community.

PRES Monthly Mentoring Meeting - September

PRES Members

Enjoy the photos, below, that capture the unbelievable difference that Lois of Lois interiors made in this Shaughnessy home. The previous owners are busy professionals who also own two additional properties outside of Vancouver. They have lived and raised their children in this home for 20 years. They remarked that they had allowed their belongings to overtake their home and that they hadn’t realized the result until their realtor discussed it with them. It was decided that they needed to bring in the professionals, hence Lois’ involvement.

The incredible amount of work that it took to get this property ready for sale is a story in itself. Clearing away 20 years of life’s accumulation included: the arrangement of house cleaners, carpet cleaners, furniture movers, throughout the 3 floors of the home, and the purchasing of items on the client’s behalf. The happy ending is that this home sold within 10 days!

Foyer - BEFORE

Foyer - AFTER

Living Room - BEFORE

Living Room - AFTER

Kitchen - BEFORE

Kitchen - AFTER

Family Room - BEFORE

Family Room - AFTER

Louise Henry, of Pair Home Design, shares her recent success:

In the living room, the present furniture was out of proportion for the existing space. Louise wanted to update the look to feel more modern while using as much of the client’s furniture as possible. She brought in the small chaise-type seating from the office, used one of the client’s reclining chairs, and added a leather chair of her own. Pair Design also provided an accessory package which used metallic art to bring some of the colder tones together.
The existing ‘frilly’ curtains were removed and by editing much of the furniture, she created space and spaciousness in the condo.

Before - Living Room

After - Living Room

In the bedroom, the colors were far too heavy and quite masculine. The client was open to bringing in some of Louise’s own inventory to create a softer and lighter feeling to the room. Louise moved the dresser to the far wall to create a sense of spaciousness and lighter feeling. She also incorporated some elements of feng shui – adding things in two’s for ‘togetherness’. Pictures were used to pick up some tones from the wall.

Before - Bedroom

After - Bedroom