Christi Bond

I had a voice mail from a client. She was an older woman who had never used a home stager. In her voice mail she told me the first people who saw her condo bought it, and that her realtor couldn't believe the positive change staging brought to the property. The best part of the voice mail was the sign-off. She said, "Thank you dear…you made all the difference".

I started Home Staging Coaches in 2007. I am the sole employee working out of my home office. I rent a large nearby storage unit for staging props. Except for administrative tasks associated with the business, all my work is done in client’s homes. Staging is a win, win, win situation. I get to do the work I love; homeowners feel good understanding what needs to be done to help them sell their property; and realtors are thrilled the properties show well and are easy to market. Everyone wins!

Here’s a bit of what we can cover in our PivotPlanet session(s):
• How to market yourself to real estate professionals.
• How to pick the right business model.
• How to maintain inventory of staging props.
• How to engage clients and get their trust.
• How to grow your business.

I will share with you some of the challenges of getting a small business launched and profitable and help you identify resources in your community that can help you along your path. Some years ago, I earned my MBA at George Washington University. I take business seriously. And home staging IS a business. I will also help you see the whole picture. Many people have a view of home staging formed by watching HGTV. In the real world, we usually don't have large budgets to work with and a team of workers lugging staging props in and out for us.

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One of the reasons I made a career change was time demands. Before I started my home staging business, I was in the human resources field. I worked as a corporate employee for many years and then as an independent consultant for about five years.

In a high pressure corporate environment there is a lot of pressure. It is not uncommon to work 50+ hours a week. Every morning I was hustling the kids into the car telling them, “Hurry up, hurry up, we are going to be late!” It didn't feel right. My sister died in her sleep when she was 49. Her death shook me to my core. I realized with great clarity life is short, and you need to make the most of every single day.

When people ask me how I got into the home staging business, I always tell them I had years of experience telling employees, without devastating them, their co-workers thought they smelled. That was great experience for telling sellers their homes are in need of some changes to make them appealing to buyers.