Tales from the Home Staging Trenches with Daniel Coffman
About Today’s Guest: Daniel Coffman
Daniel Coffman and his partner Jason run Staged Spaces out of Los Angeles, California. Their style is west coast meets boho and with over 12 years of expertise, their goal is to visually create a story within a space to help buyers instantly connect and feel at home. Always on top of current trends, patterns, colors, and textures, Daniel brings his elevated home staging services to real estate professionals and private homeowners alike.
This conversation was SO MUCH fun. Daniel and I share our experiences starting out as new stagers, how to price your home staging projects, our struggles with inventory and staging clients, using fake food, why you should frame your home staging services as “experiences” and lots of tales from the trenches!
This interview was previously recorded on Instagram Live. If you prefer to watch the replay, click here.
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This Week on The Home Staging Show Podcast
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I share more about our new home staging certification program (00:05:45)
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Daniel shares the scrappy way he got started in home staging when he was broke (00:07:17)
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I share about my “2nd life” as a photographer and some of the long-term research and personal projects I do (00:09:25)
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The difference of being a self-taught home stager vs. someone who has graduated from a program (00:10:41)
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Daniel shares how Jason is the “yin” to his “yang” in their business and how they complement one another (00:13:59)
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Daniel shares the behind the scenes realities of running a small team that completes 4-5 projects per week (and why he had an “epic meltdown” at a recent job site) (00:16:28)
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Daniel and I share whether we use real or fake foods on our staging projects (00:18:17)
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Reflections on the crazy San Francisco Bay Area real estate market (including how cheap the houses used to be over a decade ago) (00:19:29)
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Daniel shares how he opened escrow on his first house (00:21:27)
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Daniel’s background as a dance teacher before he got into home staging (00:23:22)
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The high pressure, high stress elements of home staging (00:25:27)
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I share how I handled go backs in the past and why it’s important to diffuse these situations with an honest conversation (00:26:45)
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The importance of establishing close relationships with agents to have better client interactions (00:28:54)
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What your home staging clients actually care about (and it’s not having the most stunning design) (00:30:40)
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How to navigate when a team member, client, or agent isn’t the right fit (00:31:40)
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How Daniel and I navigated our staging businesses in the beginning: from the risky financial moves, to accepting every job (00:33:19)
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The dangers of getting taking advantage of in the staging industry (00:36:26)
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Daniel spills his pricing minimums, how they handle shopping, and how many jobs they take at once (00:38:10)
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Daniel asks a juicier question from listeners: what is the most he’s gotten paid for a home staging job? (00:43:25)
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The early fears we experienced when we first started our home staging careers (00:45:39)
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Daniel explains why he shares starting prices online and why it’s worked for Staged Spaces (00:47:03)
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Why staging should be framed as an experience and how some stagers are reaching a level of popularity on Instagram, amassing into influencers (00:49:01)
Connect with DANIEL
Daniel’s Website: https://www.stagedspaces.com/
Daniel’s Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/stagedspaces/
Daniel’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stagedspaces/
Daniel’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/stagedspaces
Daniel’s YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiMbPsKLE0PxlVu5PXWtepw
Resources Mentioned On Today’s Show
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Join our free Monthly Staging Challenge for a chance to win a $100 Staged4more gift card. Click on this link to find out this month’s theme and enter your home staging project!
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Register for our free online workshop to learn more about how to start a new home staging business.
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Enroll in our comprehensive Home Staging Professional Career Certification Program.
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If you want to support the show and keep it going, you can do so by leaving a review and rating on Apple Podcasts, that will help other people to find our show. If you find the podcast helpful to your home sale and would like to donate a few bucks to help with the hosting of the show, there’s now a donation button on the blog sidebar to your right, you can donate $5 or more to help with costs associated with the show.
