What It Is Like Working as a Home Stager and Interior Decorator

Transcription

(Music)

Sarah Sullivan: There's a lot of opportunity out there, which is great because there are many multiple revenue streams just waiting to be pursued. And...

Dan: Today on Time We Discuss, I want to welcome Sarah Sullivan and it's time we discuss what it's like working as an interior decorator and home stager. Sarah, thank you for joining me today.

Sarah: Thanks so much, Dan. It's a pleasure and an honor to be here.

Dan: Oh, I love that. This is going to be good. Home Stager, the whole idea that I saw your website and it just was like, this is really cool. So let's start there. Talk to me about what exactly a home stager does.

Sarah: Well, home staging is essentially preparing a house for sale. I offer different services. Some of them are consultations, just going into a home, taking inventory of the entire home, making recommendations of what the homeowner can do to better present the house to the market. I do vacant stagings, which are people move out of the house. There's no furniture. Buyers tend to have a really hard time visualizing what a house will look like with furniture in it. Oftentimes vacant homes look smaller. So I bring all the furniture in and do that. And then staging is marketing at its finest, really. It's just preparing a house to be market ready to appeal to the widest variety of potential buyers to allow people to really envision themselves living there as potential next chapter.

Dan: Now you talked about consulting. So I'm curious, do you do any kind of consulting remotely where someone says, I'm looking to sell my house. Look, this is what my room looks like. Do you do anything like that, or this is no, it's because it's a physical space we're talking about. You have to be there in person.

Sarah: I have not done a virtual consulting yet, but I am definitely open to it. But I have enough on my plate, honestly, where I am that I'm not seeking that kind of work. But if it were to happen, I think it's something that can definitely be done.

Dan: Talk to me about the furniture. Okay. You said that sometimes you deal with a vacant house, you have to bring the furniture in. Where did you even go to get this furniture to bring into a house?

Sarah: Well, all kinds of places. I'm always looking. I am often on Facebook marketplace or, you know, in my local Home Goods. I do purchase a lot of items wholesale. And I have made multiple trips to North Carolina. The outlets right outside of Asheville for furniture, West Elm, Crate and Barrel. I'm always looking for a good deal, obviously. It's an eclectic bunch of furniture, but all very aesthetically neutral. And they all work together. I'm always obviously trying to curate something that, you know, a collection that works well in multiple different spaces, essentially. So all over the place. I'm all over the place.

Dan: So you get a house that you need to fill up with furniture. Okay. So people come in, they look at the house, they buy the house. Now you have to get rid of all the stuff. Yes. Now what happens?

Sarah: I typically sign a 45 day contract. Oftentimes the house sells much quicker than that. Staged homes sell very fast usually. You know, we just coordinate with the realtor and the homeowner. When the house is under contract, we come in and remove everything.

Dan: And where does it go?

Sarah: I have a very small warehouse. It's 1500 square feet and it goes back there. I'm constantly moving stuff out and bringing things in. And it's an influx of many different things all the time.

Dan: Wow. Okay. All right. So fascinating. Okay. So how did you actually get started doing this? I'm assuming, we'll see how wrong I am. I'm assuming that you maybe have some kind of real estate background, some kind of design background. How did you actually get into this industry?

Sarah: Well, I've always had a passion for it, honestly, making my own home feel comfortable and welcoming. That started at a very young age. But in my adult life, my ex-husband and I, we had a contracting business together and I did all of the admin and he was sales and coordination of construction and everything. And in that role, I wound up sort of starting to explore helping pick out finishes and all of the things that go along with the final touches of homes, the paint colors and accessories and what have you. And so I started my interest there and it really, that's sort of where the seed sort of was planted and I did a couple homes with him and projects through that company. And when we decided to move forward from that adventure and we moved, I grew up down here in the Lowcountry, but we were living in Chicago and then for many years and then a little while in Northwest Indiana. And we decided to move back down here and my children were at a more older age where I could start an endeavor on my own. And that's when I decided that I really wanted to pursue this in particular and give it a go. Just based on the market down here and the need for home stagers and my interest. And that's just kind of how it began.

Dan: Talk to me about how you actually got started. Did you partner with realtors? Did you have a friend that needed this kind of service? How did you actually get this business up off the ground?

Sarah: That's also interesting. I do have a business admin experience and so when I decided that I wanted to really move forward with this career, I started taking a certification class through Emory in Georgia and I started working on all of the back of the end organization of this business, setting up QuickBooks and joining professional organizations. I joined the Real Estate Staging Association and started gaining resources and education through them. I started networking with other home stagers, learning how they got started. And then I was at one point homeschooling my children and while I was doing that, I was educating myself and getting all of the back end set up. But once they went off to school, I started really getting out there and networking and I was going to real estate offices, educating realtors about my services and how I could be beneficial to them, joining the local chamber of commerce, going to networking events. I got my first job and then I got another one and then I just started snowballing from there so it's been good. There's been a lot of interest and I've had a lot of success off the get go. Floré Home Staging & Design is a fairly young company. We're just over a year old.

Dan: That is awesome. It's interesting. I've spoken to several to many entrepreneurs at this point and it seems like that networking is so key to starting the businesses or to the success of the businesses, which I never would have thought. I'm not a business person really per se, but it's interesting that all the different professional organizations and the networking and how much business can come through those networks that you create. So, so cool. You said that your business is a year old. You have a warehouse. How big is your organization? Is it just you? Do you have, I mean, there are other people from, I hear you're moving furniture and stuff, but are they contractors? Are they employees? What is your organization like from that perspective?

Sarah: I do have a lot of help, but all of my help our 1099. It's all contract work. I'm really the only organizer of the business at this point. I am really reaching a point now though, where that is changing, you know, which is great, but I definitely see in my future that I will have some employees, but I'm not quite there yet. There's a whole other level of organization that is involved with that, that I'm just again, getting ready for behind the scenes so that I, you know, can organize the help that I need essentially.

Dan: With any business hiring that first employee to me seems like a very daunting task. And I remember talking to Zach, I think it was Zachary Leyden back in 2024. He had a horse business out on the West Coast, California, I think. And I remember he was saying that I think him and his wife were out driving and they were supposed to be back in time. They were doing these horse trainings or horse tours or something like that. And they weren't going to get back in time. And they ended up calling, I think it was a volunteer and they asked them like, could you take these people out on like this tour or whatever? I said, "Hey, sure, no problem." And the guy gets off the phone with the person, he says to his wife, he's like, "I think we just hired our first person." And then I remember asking him about that and he said, "Well, how did it go from there? Was it a difficult process?" And now, you know, it's like any other, you know, it's not too bad. And I've spoken to several other people on the show, similar idea, hiring that first employee to me seems like a very daunting task, but it doesn't seem too painful once you get into it, which is nice, which is nice. So let's talk about your typical day at this stage. What is a typical day like for Sarah as a home stager?

Sarah: It's funny that you ask that because honestly, it is, it's very organized chaos, really. And I say that, you know, just every day is different. And one of the reasons that I chose to, you know, have my own business and this one in particular was that it was something I was passionate about, but also would offer me flexibility to be with my children and, you know, make my own schedule and all of the things. So I am a single mother of three and I am constantly, you know, multitasking their activities into my business and what I'm doing. And every day is different. You know, I am sometimes working remotely, doing the books and in the warehouse, getting ready for new projects. And you know, in between I'm picking them up from school and, you know, taking them somewhere to find the finishing touches of my next project or whatever it is that I'm doing. And it is always, it's always different and it's always exciting. And there really isn't a lot of consistency, I guess, in that way. It's not very typical.

Dan: So someone likes a variety. This could be a good opportunity for them.

Sarah: Yes. Yes.

Dan: So when it comes to the home decorating and staging, do you do any, does your company do any kind of repairs as well? Or no, you are strictly just the decorating?

Sarah: We are just, yes. And I will say this too. I do do decorating, but it is very different than staging. So staging is really just focused on presenting a house that is appealing to the widest number of potential buyers and really making the home feel welcoming. It is trying to accentuate, you know, the highlights and also, you know, just really make a space feel warm and inviting and ready for the next buyer. Decorating is a completely different service where I work with the homeowner and their particular taste and what they like. And I curate the home to be something that is very personal and warm to them. You know, staging is a lot of depersonalization so that anyone can envision themselves there and decorating is something very different. So I do offer both services, but they are not the same.

Dan: That makes complete sense. Now how often does this happen where you stage a home and you may or may not be working with a realtor? I can't remember if you sometimes partner with realtors.

Sarah: Yes. Yes.

Dan: So this scenario here, you stage a home for a realtor. The house sells. How often does the realtor then say to the buyer, "Hey, if you're looking for a home decorator, I have a person for you." How often does that happen?

Sarah: It has happened a few times. Not necessarily the realtor, but even homeowners have, you know, said, "I really like what you do. I would like for you to help me decorate the home that I'm moving into." So that, yeah, that has happened. Whether or not realtors are recommending me. I'm not sure about that to be perfectly honest, but the homeowners, yes, have done that, have reached out to me and wanted me to help them create their new space.

Dan: Sarah, let's switch gears and talk about education. How important has your education been in doing what you do? Has it helped you a lot, not helped you? Tell me about your education background.

Sarah: I have an undergrad degree in philosophy and a master's in elementary education. I worked for a very long time in the service industry and wound up, after getting my master's degree, working for a wine distribution company as their operations manager. Essentially, it was me and my boss that were behind the scenes. Then we had a sales team. He was in charge of the sales team and I did everything administrative. That was a baptism of fire for me. I was accounts payable, accounts receivable, secretary, warehouse manager. I oversaw all of our shipments coming in and all of our deliveries going out. I worked for that company for a very long time and it gave me the confidence to go into the business with my ex-husband where I was the administrator there. Of course, I learned more by doing. Then that gave me the confidence to step into this role. As far as a home-stager, I would say you definitely have to have some creative passion, perhaps even a natural inclination. I think that the training that I received was excellent from Emory. I am very grateful for it and I think it has definitely helped me for sure, both with decorating and staging. I would definitely recommend some formal training. I'm still pursuing ongoing education through the Real Estate Staging Association and to further develop and refine what I'm doing. I'm always looking for better ways to do things. I'm always engaged in learning, especially from other people, my peers. I found that the Real Estate Stagers Association is very supportive. It's a wonderful community of home-stagers that are truly supporting one another and helping to elevate the industry as a whole rather than competing with each other. It's very nice. I'm always looking for ways to learn and grow and educate myself, perhaps not always in the traditional sense.

Dan: I just thought of this. You said you're obviously a home-stager and you're a decorator. Did you deliberately go down both those paths because they are somewhat related and it only made sense? If someone is going into the home staging industry, does it make sense for them to also maybe dabble into a home interior decorating? But they don't necessarily have to, but it makes sense to. Where does that all overlap?

Sarah: I think it's personal preference. Like I said, they're very different services. I think you have to be comfortable doing both creatively. They're very different as well. Often times when you're helping decorate someone's home, it's maybe not your personal expression but theirs. You really have to embrace a different frame of mind, which is exciting. I always love helping people to... essentially helping someone to become more comfortable and enjoy their home more is such a pleasure. That's very rewarding in and of itself. With the staging, you have a little bit more of your own personal freedom within the confines of also trying to make it appealing to the masses. You don't really get to always show all of your personal flair, I suppose. That itself is rewarding in a completely different way. When a house, for example, that's been on the market forever and the homeowner is struggling to sell it and then reaches out to stage, I've had multiple instances where as soon as I have staged the home, the house has gone under contract within days or a week or two. That in itself is just so rewarding to take that burden off of the homeowner and get the house sold and help progress the sale and the moving forward.

Dan: What other opportunities are there for someone that is in the home staging industry? Is it just specifically homes? Do you ever do new construction and they're doing photo shoots or anything like that? What other opportunities are there aside from houses that are on the market, if any?

Sarah: I'm actually working on a few new construction projects right now. I am interested in doing vacation rental. I have not done that yet, but I have done it personally in my own life. I had an Airbnb and so I have done that previously and I would like to dive into that. Let's see there. You could do vacation rental, new construction, spec homes. Oh gosh, I mean, commercial, residential, there's a lot of opportunity out there, which is great because there are many multiple revenue streams just waiting to be pursued. I'm ready at some point, I will be ready to pursue all of them I hope, but I have big dreams for my business. It's a baby right now, but it's going well and I hope to eventually pursue all of them.

Dan: One question I'd like to ask is this. For instance, I was speaking with Tara Thistlethwaite. She is an event planner. I asked her, I said, "Being an event planner, when it comes to family and friends, if they're planning something, are you the go-to person? Do you get roped into these things?" For me, I'm the tech guy in my family, so invariably, tech problems, I'm the guy. You, being the home-stager and interior decorator, how often are you pulled into the friends and family arena when it comes to decorating?

Sarah: All the time. It's fun. I love it. Yes, people do ask me a lot, "Do you think this looks good?" or "What do you think about these colors?" or "How should I do this?" I'm always happy to help in that way.

Dan: And what about some of the unexpected perks that come along with this job, if any?

Sarah: I love helping people. I was in the service industry for many years, and my business is very service-oriented. And I really want people to have a good experience when they work with me on either side, the home staging or the decorating. And for me, a perk of this business is just helping people either sell their home or make their home what they want it to be. And that's the greatest gift for me, honestly, is to be able to do that. And it's a very personal space, right? I mean, it's very... So in that way, it's very rewarding. I mean, if you can help someone make their home a place that they want to be, I mean, that I think that's the biggest perk for me.

Dan: Sarah, that's awesome. And so humbling, so I love that. Unfortunately, I am running out of time. But before I hand the floor over to you, I want to take a second and thank Martha Kester for introducing us. Martha was episode 27 as a board certified health coach. So everyone, please go check out that video. Link is in the description. Sarah, as part of the show, I'd like to offer my guests the opportunity to talk about a project they're working on, a cause they believe in, more about their business. So if there's something specific you'd like to discuss, the floor is yours.

Sarah: I would love for everyone to visit my website. And if you are interested in my services to just reach out.

Dan: That is awesome. I'll get those links from you. They'll be in the show notes. They'll be in the website that we all over the place. So when people are trying to find you, they can easily find you.

Sarah: Great.

Dan: Sarah, it's been absolutely awesome having you on Time We Discuss and we learned what it's like to be a home stager and interior decorator.

Sarah: Thank you. Thank you so much.