Episode 59: How to Start a Home Staging Business with Stacey Shelby

Acquania Escarne 0:03

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Hey guys, welcome back to the Purpose of Money Podcast. I'm super excited. This week, we have special guests Stacey Shelby. She began her career as a real estate agent in 2003. After successfully staging and selling her listing, she realized that homes enhance through staging sold faster and at a higher price. So she launched her own home staging company, Three Element Designs, LLC. This venture not only allowed her the ability to offer cost effective staging services to her clients, but also the ability to offer them a one stop shop. Stacey now offers hand on staging, DIY and design consultations to sellers, realtors, and investors. Today on the show, we're gonna talk about her staging business and her career as a real estate agent.

Stacey, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for joining us.

Stacey Shelby 1:46

Hi, Acquania. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited.

Acquania Escarne 1:51

I am to I honestly, I feel like kind of new to this whole staging world. The last time I actually noticed how it worked on me was a couple of years ago, before we bought our house, we returned from Dubai. And we're looking for rentals because we were moving from overseas and didn't know where we wanted to settle. So we decided to rent first. And one of the houses that we went to go see was this gorgeous, it was an older house in Virginia. But with the funky furniture, it looked really fun. And of course ended up being the one we rented. And then when we moved in and the furniture wasn't there, The true colors of the house came out. But it's okay, we had a good time. We had a good time for a year. But it didn't take much for us to realize that there is something to be said about the appearance, the first appearance of a home, and how it can sell you and it makes you not necessarily look at other things. Because you're so focused on seeing yourself, there envisioning yourself there. So let's talk. Let's talk a little bit more about you. And what inspired you to go from selling real estate or helping buyers and sellers. So creating a community and a course for house stages?

Stacey Shelby 3:16

Well, I think I saw first of all, I saw the need. But what happened was as high was um, as I was staging houses, my own listings, and I was finding that they were selling quick because I I had I've always had this passion for interiors. And I've always had this eye think for knowing what a house should look like. And when I would meet with my clients, and they would have like misplaced furniture or they'd have too much stuff in house. I was like, You know what, we really need to make this house look great. And staging wasn't a thing back then. It was it no one was really talking about it like they do now. And so when I decided that I was going to start this business, it kind of grew organically. And then I started getting people wanting to shadow me. And people were like, you know, what, can I come? See? Because people would see my work, I post on social and they're, you know, texting me and messaging me and can I come shadow you and I'm thinking about staging. And I was like you know what? Sure, you can come shadow shadow me. And then I was telling one of my coaches, and she was just like you need to start a coaching program. And I'm like, no, I don't know about all that. But then the more we talked through it, she just kind of kept reminding me you like to teach and you like to educate. So what better thing to do. So I did. I started teaching people how to how to build a staging business, and then staging for other real estate agents as well as investors. So that's kind of the little mix up of how it kind of happened.

Acquania Escarne 4:56

That's a pretty cool story, but I could totally see that happening since I know you're a coach, and she does think like that through things so you can execute love it. Shout out to Shaniece M Wise, check her out on Instagram guys, she is a business coach for women and is amazing. So I want to ask you a little bit more about your business now, because now you actually still sell real estate and you help buyers, sellers and investors. But you're also like you said, you have your staging business, and you're helping people coaching people and creating a course. So where does most of your revenue come from now?

Stacey Shelby 5:35

Um, it's weird, because the majority of my revenue there, there, it's kind of like an up and down. So there's really no majority. There are times when I'm seeing that most of its coming from real estate. And then I see most of it's coming from from staging. Because, you know, the fact that, you know, I'm marketing to sellers that want to sell their homes, I can also list their homes, I've also listed some of my investors homes as well. So whenever I list with someone, I offer low to no cost staging. So I then you know, become a one stop shop for them. Right. So they don't have to, they don't have to go somewhere else to find another stager. So I feel like just looking at it now it. When I actually was asked that question by someone else several months ago, and I'm like, Well, you know, I never really thought about that. And then I just started looking at my numbers more closely. I'm like, it's almost like neck and neck. It's almost like neck and neck. And I will say that I do get this year, um, it's been more more real estate, because real estate has kept going even though we're in this pandemic, right. But the staging piece has kind of slowed up a little bit, not because people don't want to stage. But because I predominantly work for investors, and some of their guys, their contractors have gotten COVID. So because of that their projects have been put on hold. So that kind of, you know, took a little, it took a little backseat made our business take a little bit of a backseat. So we were staging less than than we normally had been,

Acquania Escarne 7:21

Wow, that's deep, but I totally get it. I mean, a lot of people have had to slow down because of COVID-19. But I like what you said how you had to take a look at the numbers and pay attention. So what I get that to mean is, this could be a really good side hustle for someone, if they're not licensed to be a realtor, but they want to make income, they can network with realtors, right, and offer this service just like you are to help home sell faster and look better when they're being presented for buyers.

Stacey Shelby 7:54

Absolutely, absolutely. I think it is a good side hustle. And that's what I teach in my course, I have a mini course and I have a larger course. And I didn't my courses weren't on, they were not online until recently with COVID and everything it was like, okay, you know, well, let's take this online. And then I could scale it better, right. And I can serve more more people that way. And that's one of the things that I teach is, you know, if you just want to do it, just as a side hustle, you can and grow it the way I grew mine. And so that's what I teach in my course is how to start the business from scratch with nothing, and grow the business. And you can either do it full time, do it part time, or just do it as a hobby. A lot of times people will go through the program and see how much work that is involved. And they're like, yeah, no, I don't think I want to do this business thing. I think I just want to Sage so and some people do, right, that's what some people they all they want to do is they just want to make houses pretty. They don't want to worry about the taxes and you know, having to get hire employees and hire contractors and get a warehouse, you know, they don't want to do all that. All they want to do is just go in there, take some pretty stuff and make the house pretty.

Acquania Escarne 9:19

That's a good point. So that kind of gets me on to another question that I didn't think about asking but I do want to ask now, when you're pricing out your rate for someone, are you including the costs to get the house pretty or is that something that you present separately like here homeowner, if you really want this house to pop? Here's some of the things I suggest you do this is what I can do. This is what a contractor has to do. Is that kind of how it works, the discussions?

Stacey Shelby 9:48

It is, so when when we go into stage or look at a property for a staging project when we're doing a preview so it'll start it may start with a consultation and we do offer it Just consultations. That's my DIY consultation, where the seller says, Okay, I don't want to pay for staging, I want you to tell me what to do. So I go in, and I tell them exactly what to do. And that could include, this is what needs to happen. paint, carpet, you need to, you know, upgrade your kitchen cabinets or whatever. And I always go high level with them. And I say, Okay, you're, I'm going to give you high level, and then you take it down and do what your budget can afford. And they can pay for that service for me to tell them what to do, right. And I'll literally even tell them, you know, where to move artwork and how to place the furniture and all of that stuff. And then they will do it themselves. A lot of times, what happens is they end up going, Oh, my gosh, that's a whole lot. Can you just come in and do it. And then we end up coming in there and doing it. So it's an interesting business, because I always say we can do as little or as much as the client likes. So it could be that if there is a contractor that needs to do some work. We don't we don't. We don't call the contractor. We don't get involved in any of that. All we do is we do the staging piece only, but we can recommend different contracting projects and contractors to actually do the work for the client as well.

Acquania Escarne 11:21

Yeah, okay, that makes sense. And I really liked that. I like what you said you can do as much as the client wants, and giving them options to the point where they're like, oh you just do it. So that's actually that's pretty dope. So how does someone get started? I think you kind of talked about this a little bit people that you know, started to shadow you. But let's say they're not in the same area as you or they want to just get started, but they're not really sure I'm sure part of your answers. Take your course. Right? Like, your course outlines a lot of things you need to get started. But what are the maybe financial aspects behind it? Is it really true, you did say no money to get started in this business? Do you really stand behind that statement?

Stacey Shelby 12:06

So when I tell people that they can start with no money, they typically can because you can start with what you have. And my mini course I actually I build that. And in the bigger course we go through in depth. But I always tell people, you can start with what you have. Maybe you don't have a warehouse, right? You don't need a warehouse of furniture, right? Does it help? Yeah, because that's where you make your money from, because you're renting out your furniture. But if you don't have if you don't have, you know, $10,000 to start the business, then that's what I do is I show people how to do it without having that big amount of money to start. So there are ways that they can do it. And there's tons of things that there's staging is not just making houses pretty staging is doing other things too, like set design, that staging. And people could do set design if they would like. And you don't necessarily have to have money to do that. Now, what you do need as far as cash is, you know, if you're going to create a business thing, you got to register your business name, so you will need money for that. But it's not this big, expansive, you know, expensive project in order to start this business.

Acquania Escarne 13:24

I like that. And I appreciate your honesty. And I didn't even think about that. But yeah, when you go to plays, when we used to go to plays, doing sets, setting production, you get to go and decide and design and then you spend that theatres budget to take the stage. So I really like that that's a great way to think outside of real estate, where could these skills be useful? I love when you can use your skill sets for more than one thing. So that's really helpful. So based on everything we talked about today, what do you think the direction of your business is going? Since you're about half and half between real estate revenue and staging revenue? What's next for you?

Stacey Shelby 14:05

Well, I would say from the staging perspective, and actually real estate as well, I'm actually growing, growing my team. So for my staging business, I'm growing my team so that I can have more stagers actually working for me, working in the business with me, so that I don't have to be as much working in the business but more working on the business. And it gives me the opportunity to start training others right so that they it gives them the opportunity to continue to train others train more people on how to start staging businesses. And so that's probably what I would say the answer to that question is, what's next for my business is, is that growth that next level of growth, because I have assistance right now, but it's, I see something totally bigger and I see something where I can serve more people. Where even our staging company can serve more people, not necessarily just from a staging aspect, but from a community service aspect where we're giving back to the community. So I've got all these things on my on my plate that I want to do in regards to service. But I just need to get this thing right where I need it so that I can start implementing some of those service, things that I want to do.

And then as far as real estate, it's the same thing, just growing my team. Because I'm, I've got an assistant, I've got two assistants now. And I also have a buyer's agent, potentially. So that will be someone who will actually work with more of the buyers. So I won't be working with buyers, I will just be working on listings solely. So we're creating that team so that we then can actually move more into some real estate serve community service as well. So that's kind of where we're both those businesses are going,

Acquania Escarne 16:01

Oh, I'm excited for you. Congrats on just being able to envision being larger than yourself. I know, a lot of entrepreneurs sometimes are so stuck in being a solo entrepreneur, they're afraid to spend money to expand their team. But I will tell you in the last year, as I've added assistance to my team to help with social media, and a podcast, and even life insurance, because I sell life insurance as well, it has given me so much more time to focus on my vision for my company, and then give me more time to be me to be a mom to be a wife. It's amazing how when you delegate just a little bit, it frees up you. And I know it's hard because it took me three years to finally realize like you need help. And so kudos to you and expanding your team and, and empowering them to do more right, encouraging them to learn the staging business so that they can help you help more people.

I think you and I both share that passion that we're here to serve our communities. I'm trying to get families of color life insurance to protect their generational wealth and the income if the worst happens, and you're helping bring together communities into what could be their first home, second home, you know, or just a home that they can pass down to other generations. So I think that's amazing and super powerful.

So the name of the podcast is called the Purpose of Money. And I asked all my guests this because we all are working really hard for money for different reasons. You know, I'm working this hard for my family to build generational wealth and to help other women of color do the same. What is your purpose for money? And why have you chosen to be an entrepreneur?

Stacey Shelby 17:55

My purpose for money is so that I can serve. Because, you know, I'm reading this book that our coach gave gave us. And um, and I'm not sure if you've got this one yet. But it's a book by Jen Sincero. And I love this book. And I read it when I first got it, but I just wasn't in that headspace. And then I started reading it again recently. And I'm like, that's, that's what I'm talking about. You know, having money is not a bad thing. Right? Having money is not a bad thing. And I think sometimes people think that having money is a bad thing. And if you have money, oh my gosh, you have money. So that makes you evil that makes you a bad person, you're selfish and all this other stuff, right? But there's so much that can be done with money, so much good, that can be done.

And I believe for me, God has given me this gift of, of this passion for real estate, and staging, which there it's really all the same thing because staging is actually in the real estate industry. But he's given me that to do something with and I have this big vision of what I would like to do, but I have to have money to do it. And when I do that, then I actually I actually can create this, this community service piece, not only for my business, but I can now help more people. I can help people get into their first home, I can help people start flipping homes and investment homes, I can provide housing for people my husband and I want to what we would like to do ultimately is give houses away and we don't want to give like you know, thousands of houses away but if God calls us to do it then great, but we would like to be in a position to be able to buy a house, rehab it, and just give gift it. That's what we want to do. My husband has a passion for children. He loves children and education. And so he wants to be able to pay for kids college education. Well, we can't do that if we don't have the money to do it, right. So when you ask what is the purpose of money for me, that's, that's what it is for me. That's the purpose of money for me. Obviously, I want to take care of my family, too. And I want to make sure I'm debt free, because that comes first, right? Because once I get myself debt free, then I can start helping other people.

Acquania Escarne 20:29

Exactly. I love that answer. And now I'm curious, like, Is your husband a part of your business? Are you doing real estate together? Or does he's just your super cheerleader and visionary as well.

Stacey Shelby 20:43

He's a cheerleader. He does not do real estate with me, he is in the industry. He works for a development company. And he's an asset manager for for development. One of the actually, it's a really prominent development company here in Columbus. And that's what he does for them. He and I, when we first met, we talked about doing real estate together. And we kind of started because he had his license, he thought he needed his luck with it would help him in his job to have his license when he found that it didn't. And he doesn't like this business, he, he's the guy that I want to go to work, get a paycheck. So be it an entrepreneur and not know where you're, you know, if you got to make, you know, $10,000 this month or $5000 This month, that doesn't work for him.

Acquania Escarne 21:33

Totally get it. But it's nice to have a balance where the two of you have stability, because you're both pursuing your passions, and you have one stable income and one that's limitless if you asked me.

Stacey Shelby 21:45

Yeah, yeah. And that works for us. You know, as far as our, our passion for, you know, the real estate piece and getting houses, I mean, he wants to, we're talking about buying investment property too. And we can't buy investment property without money. You know, you can, you actually can, but you got to have some money, right? But um, you know, those are things that we want to do together, right. But as far as him working in the business, that's something he wouldn't do. But he will support me, he'll go show houses because he has, if I wasn't available to show a home, he would take a client out and show them home, he has helped me in my staging business, where if if my mover was sick, or one of the guys couldn't make it, he was there loading up furniture. So yeah,

Acquania Escarne 22:30

I love that I'm totally going to drop some hints to my husband. No i'm just kidding. My husband is the best, he is the most supportive husband. And he always supports my crazy adventures, whether it's podcasts selling insurance, and then oh, this new cool idea. So I love my husband for that. And I appreciate him because he's helped me in the past as well. I do have rental properties. And I have in the past needed to put flooring down or go check on it before the contractors say they're done and making sure they do what they're supposed to do. He's right there with me like Alright, let's do this drive. So I really appreciate you sharing that.

Thank you so much, Stacey for being on the show. Before we head out, I want you to tell all my listeners how they can connect with you. So please tell us where can we find you on social media and the web.

Stacey Shelby 23:23

Email is a good way to reach me but the best way to reach me is probably Facebook, Instagram, I'm on LinkedIn, you can go to my website, um, which is also another good space, that space to go to to reach me because on my website, you can actually go to either there's two buttons on my site, real estate and staging and you can get information about either and send me a message via the contact sheet and that website is StaceyShelby.com and it's s t a c e y s h e l b y .com

Acquania Escarne 24:03

Excellent guys, don't worry, I will make sure to link all of that in the show notes so I know that you'll be able to visit Shelby's Stacey Shelby's website and get connected. Thank you so much again for being on the show. I want you guys to check out her course. And if you think staging is for you get started. This is a great way for side hustle income that could potentially become your full time gig.

Thanks guys for listening next episode comes out in two weeks and as always, keep building generational wealth.

Thank you for listening to the Purpose of Money podcast. For more resources and information check out my website ThePurposeofMoney.com And while you're there, please sign up for our newsletter so you have the latest information on new episodes and blog posts. Until next time, keep creating freedom in your life today.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai