We recently bought our house and I really enjoyed the process. Although we didn’t look at as many houses as I suppose we could have in real life, I looked at thousands of houses on Trulia.
I felt during that time that I could say, “Oh, have you met my new best friend? Her name is Trulia.”
After we were moved in, I thought briefly about becoming a Realtor. But I see how hard our Realtor works and, although I’m not averse to hard work, my life is kind of crazy and I just wasn’t sure it was a good fit for me.
Looking at the houses and photos and having a love for HGTV, I saw a lot of things that I thought a seller could do to make their home more appealing to the buyer. I particularly love the HGTV shows about staging a home. The other day, I thought maybe I should consider being a home stager.
It would work well with my crazy life and I would love to do it. I started surfing around the net and came across an organization that certifies home stagers. I actually have a friend in Oklahoma City (a twitter friend, whom I hadn’t met in real life) that stages homes. So I contacted her to see if she knew whether the organization was legitimate.
Turns out, she was certified through that company but she told me she was having a three hour class and maybe I’d like to come to that and see if I really think it’s something I’d like to do. What a great idea! I’d invest three house and $15 to see if I really wanted to make the heavy investment of being certified. As a bonus, I’d get to meet Lisa in real life. I signed up.
Yesterday, I attended the course with two other ladies. Although it was a course geared toward continuing education for Realtors, none of us was a Realtor. One lady was like me. She thought she might like to stage homes for a living and was trying to get some more information. The other lady was getting ready to put her house on the market and thought this would give her good ideas for that.
The class was great. Lisa was very forthcoming telling us about her career, giving us the ups and downs, actual situations that have occurred and then giving us some items and having us stage a kitchen counter.
The three hours flew by and I texted David and said, “I want to do this.”
His reply:
Two words. Business plan.
As if I should have expected anything else.
Staging your home can help it to sell quickly. A lot of people just don’t have the vision to see the best parts of a house without a little help. Staging helps to turn a home back into a house, put it on the market, and then get the most money for the sale. I don’t think people are used to having their homes staged in Oklahoma yet. But I imagine if more people knew the benefits to them, they would want their home staged.
Awesome! And it was so great to meet Lisa in real life, too. If you need a home staged in Oklahoma City, she is your gal!
