Liability Waivers, Insurance and Contracts, Oh My!!
The Best of the Best
This beautiful, cosmetic renovation transformed a late 90's safari style home into a more welcoming, stunning, functional space. Built for entertaining friends and family, this home update was mostly simple and straightforward. Many improvements made the space more open and practical. Take a look. What do you think?
It doesn’t seem possible, but we started Transformations in 2004. We’ve won a lot of awards and we’ve seen a lot of changes in the industry and we are very encouraged about the future! Home staging has evolved into a massive industry and there is a place for you. Numerous people advised me to keep my reliable full-time job and not risk the unknowns of entrepreneurship. Even good friends and family encouraged me to make the safe choice. With friends like that... who needs enemies! L O L. So glad we took the leap!!! Over the years, we added renovations, curb appeal consultations, vacation home furnishing and move management. We’ve consulted and staged homes from a 1000 ft.² flip home to 10,000 ft.² homes on the ocean and the river. Baby, we’ve done it all! The Transformations School started in 2006 and this is where you come in. We have made many costly of mistakes along the way. Mistakes that you can avoid. We pioneered home staging in a very real sense. This class has been lovingly updated and also condensed down to the most valuable and essential elements. It’s short but comprehensive. No fluff; just the nitty gritty of all that you will need to become a home stager or if you are already a stager or designer... raise your current image and income to a higher level. I think Covid had a way of helping people prioritize their lives. We saw a lot of nurses and teachers reevaluating their career choice and opting for doing what they have always loved.... design. After 30 years as an ASID interior designer, I believe it has never been easier to enter this industry. It’s easier to buy wholesale, tap into interior design perks and have a home-based business today than in the past. The inexperienced, untrained hobby stagers are fading into the background or disappearing. The public is more discerning. They want to see credentials, such as a certification by a nationally recognized and awarded company. The barriers are gone and the demand is rising. In our city alone, we have roughly 12,000 realtors/agents and only about 10 - 15 seriously competitive stagers. The industry needs you! YOU CAN DO THIS!!! We are spilling the beans on everything you need to walk away from a dead-end career. OK, is that voice in your head telling you to keep your safe, reliable job? I know… I was that person listening to the wrong voice for a long time. A friend invited me to a one-day motivational seminar by Robert Allen, who made a fortune in real estate. He said a lot over the course of the day but the biggest take-away, “You will never become a millionaire working for someone else.” Transformations is the chic boutique of home staging and redesign training. We are not Macy's; we're Lily Pulitzer!! We are not trying to be the generic big guy. Just the design-oriented, high-end specialty source for exclusive, make-it-happen people!! Where are those people who got in trouble for talking too much in school and were not afraid to color outside the lines. You doodle and dream big. You may be caught rearranging the shelves at Home Goods or rehanging your friend's art. You love color and texture. You go to model homes to satisfy your inner designer... waiting to get out. Let her/him out!!! You don't belong in a corporate desk. Let’s talk about it!! Email Becky to set up a free brain-storm session. becky@beckyharmon.com For those of you who graduated from our school, we are looking for stagers with a successful business from different parts of the country. We need class trainers!! We will only partner with one company in any geographical location. We have Boston and Tennessee and maybe Missouri and North Carolina, so far. Claim your area. There is no franchise fee or cost. Hurry to reserve your opportunity! As for now... I am opening some champagne.
A Day in the Life People often ask me what it’s like to be a Home Stager/re-designer. I can take you along with me on a typical day. Here goes... I start out at our wholesale granite and quartz supplier and spend two hours choosing some options for a kitchen renovation. Then, I hop over to the nearby plumbing/kitchen/bath/lighting supplier to preview all of the kitchen appliances and some lighting fixtures for our appointment the next day. After that, I stopped by a different client’s home for a color consultation and a brainstorming session on a room refresh. $450 and $375 At the end of the day I coordinate/plan a $6500 staging with a lot of custom solutions. The homeowner wants to use some of her own furniture that she hopes to sell with the house. Then, some of our furniture and all of our accessories will transform the house. This was a lucrative day for the business. Of course, every day is not like this. We have to spend time networking and planning. 50% of the certification class is business and marketing.
Do you still shop for magazines in a bookstore or the grocery store. I am always looking at them in the design/home category? I can’t resist a beautiful cover page. When it has vibrant color and striking graphics, I have to pick it up and thumb through it. I will usually buy it regardless of the content because I know it will be pretty on my coffee table. As a home stager, I am always thinking… 'Will this be pretty on the cocktail table in one of our beach community homes or our more traditional St. John’s River area.' I have collected 10 years worth of Coastal Living magazine and dozens of Florida Design. What is the trigger behind this expensive habit? As for me, I am triggered by color and beautiful composition. We all are! The right side of the brain lights up and is hungry for more. When we stage a clean, neutralized interior, we cause the home buyer to be subconsciously drawn into a room. A thread of similar colors will pull them from room to room and calm their soul. An ordinary interior comes to life with just the right art and greenery, furniture and rugs. It’s like an oasis of beauty in the middle of an arid desert. Before your homebuyers step into your staged home, they must pass through the curb appeal area. Is it speaking to them? What does it say? “Come right in. A special surprise is waiting for you inside that front door.” Or is it totally forgettable! Is it not speaking at all or does it say, “No one cares about this house.” Find out how to create stunning exteriors, pick the perfect house paint colors, landscape like a pro with our free Curb Appeal presentation this Monday, 10-16-23 at 3 PM EDT. Limited number of spaces are available so gain access by replying to this email and then you will be sent an invitation Monday morning. There will be a replay for those who attend. This is a $100 value class. Yay!!
I love both of these quotes. In fact, they are on my website. Don’t we all want a little magic in our lives... it could be a beautiful new business or meeting that famous person you’ve always admired, or one of many seemingly impossible things that are waiting for you. Perhaps, not that far away. I don’t know about you, but a lot of people in my circle of friends are feeling stuck since Covid. And I feel that way sometimes also. All of the life-changing and pivotal moments in my life came with a preliminary difficult first step. One big move in the direction of a dream, then, the next steps seem effortless!! When I started my company in 2004, I had to leave a successful design position of 11 years. It took me nearly a year to finally close that door and open another. It felt like pulling my feet out of quicksand. But once I left my old job and the business essentials were set up, things started happening fast and my dream job turned into way more than I ever expected. And it continues on today, 19 years later. Thanks to a great staging crew, I’ve won numerous industry awards and we continue to make national connections through the Real Estate Staging Association. I was on their leadership committee for three years, and I speak occasionally at trade association conventions around the country. I met Marcus Lemonis here in Jacksonville last year. I had connected his production team with homeowners who needed the reno. It’s episode #8 of the Renovators on Discovery+. Healing a House is the title. Who knew? I also met Candace Olson from HGTV at a conference. Add to that list Carson Kressley and Vern Yip. Many other high-profile people. It has been a joyful roller coaster experience, especially through Covid, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. It has provided income for 19 years and when I’m ready to sell it, it will be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, up to a million dollars. I make a minimum of $125 or more an hour plus quite a significant amount for leasing my design inventory for vacant homes. It’s a wonderful thing to get paid well to shop with other people’s money. We are diving into the short-term vacation rental industry, because there is a big demand for it. Styling Airbnb’s has become a great side hustle, and in some ways, more lucrative than anything we’ve done before. Just yesterday, I got a call from Amy Powers, who is the current president of the International Association of Home Staging Professionals. More about that later. I want to encourage any of you who are still on the fence about changing the trajectory of your life. It’s quite easy. The road map has been created for you and is frequently updated with all the newest industry opportunities. There is a place for you. Is your heart beating a little faster? Is your soul stirring? Maybe you are one of us!!!
OK, OK!! We are at the 2023 halftime show!! The 4th of July!! What great goal did you accomplish from January through June? July marks a passage of time but also whispers words of encouragement... that the last 6 months can change your life. Enjoy your holiday with friends and family but let your 'beach read' be motivational. I have a great book recommendation. 168 Hours by Laura Vanderkam The book makes a compelling argument that we do, indeed, have more time than we think. Also, I am sharing a short passage from one of my mentors, Dan S. Kennedy's book titled, No BS Time Management . It will scare you or motivate you. One or the other.
One of my favorite things about our home staging and redesign industry is the flexibility to take a vacation and celebrate special occasions. My landmark birthday marked a 20-year career in our wonderful industry. It seems hard to imagine that much time has passed. Our local Jacksonville/Ponte Vedra newspaper published a sweet article about my journey. See it below. One thing I've noticed from colleagues in the industry... no one retires. Just like RE agents who continue selling homes into the twilight years, we can keep staging and designing houses until the day we leave earth.... that is, if we want to. Why not stay engaged, go the gorgeous wholesale markets and let your stagers do the lion share of the work. The day before my actual birthday, we staged a $2M dollar, 6,000 sq. ft. house in beautiful Ponte Vedra. It sold in a day for cash. That same week, we almost completely furnished an oceanfront vacation rental and our company has been hired to evaluate vacation rentals for the largest management property in St. Augustine. When you have good people, anything is possible.
About a year ago, I was contacted by one of the HGTV casting department agents. They occasionally email all the ASID interior designers in Jacksonville asking for candidates for renovations. They were looking for homeowners in the Jacksonville area that were desperate for a renovation and had already started the process. They were looking for odd floorplans and challenging spaces. At the same time, my son and his family, who live about four blocks from the beach, had just bought the house they have been renting for 10 years and we’re planning to renovate the dysfunctional kitchen. So, obviously, I put their name in as a candidate for an HGTV Reno. They were being interviewed along with numerous other homeowners for this particular renovation. After several conversations with the casting person and some preliminary firming of the house and the family… they were chosen for this slot. The fact that we have hundreds of designers who are ASID members in Jacksonville, and the fact that there were numerous homeowners who were being considered, it seems pretty incredible that they were chosen for this particular Reno.
