house to home staging & interior design a company designed with passion, gratitude and purpose

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1 a company designed with passion, gratitude and purpose Linda Turner, owner of house to home staging & interior design in Los Angeles, is honored to be a finalist for the 2011 Rookie Stager of the Year in the RESA Awards Competition. Her company is 21 months old, and while it took three weeks for her first consult and eight weeks for her first staging job, she recently announced completion of her 77th staging project! Proudly trained and certified in Staging & Redesign by HSR, the Home Staging Resource, Linda believes strongly that she would not have been successful without the assistance and ongoing support from Audra Slinkey and her team.

2 For Linda, one of the most appealing elements of staging is every listing agent, home seller and property is different. While some homeowners, and even agents, call on the phone only looking for the lowest bid, many others want to take the time to meet in person and understand the who, what, how, where and why of staging. Those times of sharing and listening create strong bonds. With her regular listing agent clients, it is shown by the trust they offer by not needing to be there when Linda meets with the sellers. For the home sellers, she is proud of the lasting personal relationships that have been created because of being there to help at a time of change. To connect with agents, Linda s most successful outreach efforts have been to real estate offices. She has made dozens of presentations to offices in her area and is invited back on a regular basis to many of them. The purpose of her presentations is not selling her own company, but explaining and illustrating the power of staging. Helping an agent that has never used staging before then hearing them brag about the results back at the office is worth all the effort.

3 For Home Sellers, Linda writes an ever expanding number of blogs which she shares as widely as possible through activerain, linkedin and other blogging sites. The purpose of each blog is education over advertising. She believes the more people understand and know how impactful staging is, the more work will be available for every stager. Some of her recent blogs: In LA, the Age of the Stager has Dawned Beautiful Bookcase Secrets from Los Angeles In LA, Staging Is Soo Much More Than Decluttering Windows, Walls and Furniture Staging Tips and Photos from Los Angeles In addition, she has begun a series of blogs with stories and photos about staging in various areas around Los Angeles (10 so far) and many thanks to her 13 year-old daughter Erin, who suggested doing the series after listening to her gripe about what to do with the thousands of photos she s taken. (all photos copyright 2010 House to Home Staging) Linda recently transformed her company s website into a blog (WordPress free template Twenty Ten) and has received hundreds of positive comments from readers around the world (and actually there in LA where it counts). Being a tech newbie when she started her company, she is (almost) beginning to feel competent on her computer. An indispensable skill when you own your own company and can t afford to hire people to do things for you.

4 As an example of Linda s work, this property, and project, is special. She is often asked to recommend paint color, new counter tops, hardware, floor covering etc. But no home was as extensively transformed as this 4,000 square foot family home. The owners had lived there for 34 years and had a highly personal sense of style. It had been on the market twice before with very little traffic and zero offers. The listing agent had listened to one of Linda s real estate office presentations and recommended her. Thank you Doris Abrams! Some Before and After Photos are shown here. The result after an intense bidding war: the home sold for $76,000 over asking price in 72 hours. Since then, Linda has designed the owner s temporary apartment and is now the designer for a whole home remodel for their new house which will be finished in January That and becoming lifelong friends, makes this just about the finest career there is. Thanks Alan and Bonnie!

5 The most significant event in the short life of Linda s staging company is last January s RESA convention. The first few months for any company are spent figuring out what the heck needs to be done and how on earth to do it. Somehow she survived. Then she attended the convention. It was like your first trip abroad: so many different points of view, so many beautiful things to see, so many interesting stories to hear, so many inspiring gifts were offered. Linda works with a number of investor/flippers plus competed and won the staging assignment for a luxury senior living developer staging the previous homes of the people who are moving into his properties. 15 homes have been staged for this developer since July with 8 more before the end of the year (yes it s mid-november). She has also developed a roster of over a dozen Brokers and agents who turn to her for their staging needs, while happily receiving requests from home sellers via her website several times a week. Since the convention, one of Linda s goals has been to take a more active role in the organization, and she is beginning the process of starting a local chapter of RESA in her area of Los Angeles. With a husband, 2 kids, three dogs and a growing business, Linda hopes to be able to add an assistant in 2011 (yes she has done everything by herself except the taxes thanks to hubby Steve for that!) Her passion for staging is unbridled and her goal for the future is to mentor, share and represent the Business of Staging and help it expand and grow in acceptance throughout the United States and beyond. Be grateful for all that you have, and thanks. Your professional resource to transform a house for sale into a home to own. HouseToHomeStaging.com