Donna Muelver, Showhomes Milaukee

Donna Muelver, her husband Rick and their son Wayne run Showhomes Southeast Wisconsin, a Milwaukee home staging franchise. Donna is a prolific franchisee and often makes  the top 10 Performers list:
Showhomes: How long have you been a Showhomes franchisee?
Donna Muelver:  I purchased our franchise in 2003, so a little over seven years.

SH: Why Showhomes?
DM: Purchasing a Showhomes franchise was pretty much a ‘no brainer‘ once we took a serious look at it.  We were already in a real estate related business and had 100’s of contacts in the market. Vacant homes are a big problem in the real estate market. We wanted to be a part of the solution.

SH: How did you hear about us?
DM: I was introduced to Showhomes by Thomas Scott, the current Vp of Marketing, who was a franchisee at the time and a colleague we’d known for several years.  Thomas discovered Showhomes at the National Association of Realtors Convention and thought we’d be interested.  I kept putting him off, but he was persistent.  Once we took the time to examine the specifics of Showhomes, we were sold.  About a month later, I flew to Georgia to sign our papers to purchase southeast Wisconsin, a territory that covers seven counties.

Before Staging by Donna Muelver

After Staging by Donna Muelver

SH: What’s your background?
DM:  I was a wife and mom for our three children and also a foster mom for over 17 years. We adopted one of the children who came to us through foster care. We had 97 infants go through our home during that time in our lives. I home schooled our children and volunteered at the foster care agency and at church.

Before Showhomes, my husband and had our own sign installation company, Second Day Services. I was also published a real estate trade publication, Broker Agent Magazine and ran a virtual tour business that catered to Realtors.

SH: What do you like best about the Showhomes franchise opportunity?
DM: It’s the opportunity to take a home that is just sitting and languishing on the market and create a warm and inviting space that totally changes the way buyers view the house. Watching the transformation is fantastic, and then to see it sell quickly is thrilling! What we do is really amazing and its very fulfilling to have a business that helps so many people.

SH: What keeps you active in your free time?
DM:  I am the children’s ministry director at our church here in the Milwaukee area. I also mentor moms with infants and young children and do some counseling.  I spend time with my 12 grandchildren and hang out with Rick, my awesome husband and supporter. I also mentor other Showhomes franchisees as they grow their business.  I truly love helping other people get to where they want to be and Showhomes has a really active franchisee community where everyone helps each other.

SH: Why would you recommend Showhomes to someone interested in owning a business?
DM:  The Showhomes concept has potential that has barely been tapped.  With Showhomes’ current growth rate and the improvements we’re always making to the system, the sky is the limit.

I have been with the company for seven years. I’ve come through both a fantastic market and low market. Showhomes is a company that does very well in both markets; but it’s phenomenal in a down market.  It truly seems to be a recession proof business.  How can you beat that?

SH: Can you share one of your secrets? What really works for you in your market?
Long-term networking and relationship building has been huge for us.  Getting the client to come to us is the easiest way to make sure we are able to sign contracts without having to do much work once we are in the discussion process.    A ‘secret’, if that is what you want to call it, is to join the local real estate board right off the bat and become an active member.

SH: What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned?
DM:  How dramatically a home can change when beautifully staged and how it changes the impression so dramatically to a prospective buyer.

Want to learn more about Showhomes Home Staging? Fill out the request information form above.

Showhomes – a home staging company – allows a hired home manager to live within vacant homes for sale with the intent of making the environment more welcoming to potential buyers.
By Nicole DeCosta

The West Linn Tidings, Aug 19, 2010

Vern Uyetake / West Linn Tidings

Edie Moll with Showhomes in West Linn — a home staging company — visits the house for sale at 2335 Oswego Glen Court in Lake Oswego. Her company places home managers and furniture within vacant homes for sale. The home manager pays for the landscaping, utilities and housekeeping services while assisting real estate agents in the sale of the home.

Who is living in your vacant house for sale?

Edie Moll, a general manager with Showhomes in West Linn, said that her company – a national brand in home staging – revolutionizes the way residential real estate is marketed by turning a vacant house into a valuable home.

Home staging – preparing a private residence for sale in the real estate marketplace through furnishings and décor – is used to attract buyers by making a home look and feel appealing. Through staging, once vacant homes are transformed into welcoming spaces with furniture, making them more appealing to buyers and hopefully selling the home more quickly and for more money than if it were left vacant.

At least that’s the idea.

But when selling a staged home it costs money to make money and Moll explained the fees associated with the service. She said her company provides a way to offset these fees.

The secret?

A home manager.

“Staging can be expensive. It’s a monthly fee, whether the home sells or not,” Moll said, noting that homeowners or real estate agents typically pay for the service. “But when you have a home manager, they offset that.”

Managing and Staging a home

Home managers with Showhomes live in staged homes for sale and keep the home tidy so Realtors can show the home to prospective buyers. Home managers pay the utilities, landscaping and housekeeping fees, which offsets the cost of the staging, Moll said. The homes are kept in immaculate condition.

“They’re ready all day, everyday – which makes it easy to show,” said Re/Max Equity Group, Inc. Broker Laurie Thiel, who is marketing a listing at 2335 Oswego Glen Court in Lake Oswego staged by Showhomes and occupied by a home manager. “It shows like an occupied home but with the ease of a vacant home.”

Home managers typically have fine furniture, pass several background checks, do not smoke or own pets and agree to move when the home sells, which can happen at any time.

“They could live there a week or a few months,” Moll said. “When they do move we actually move them to the new house. In some cases they may be at work and we’ll move everything and have the home decorated and staged and put away by the time they get home from work, but they’re just at a different address,” Moll said.

It takes a certain person or family to fit the mold for this lifestyle.

Oftentimes, hoping to familiarize themselves with the city, business professionals become home managers.

“Not everybody has the ability to be able to change like that,” Moll said, snapping her fingers. “And more often than not, the home managers are entrepreneurs. They’re used to change. They’re flexible. They like change.”

If a home manager has children, Moll said, they would be moved to another home within the same school district. Single father Thomas Iizuka, who lives in the home on Oswego Glen Court, is an architect and found out about Showhomes in a newspaper ad two years ago. And he’s lived in two staged homes since then.

Iizuka described his living situation as “keeping decorations intact.”

“A lot of people can’t live that way, but the way I looked at it was sort of like when you go to a really nice hotel or you’re renting a vacation home in the desert,” he said. “You have to be in the frame of mine that (in order) to make it look nice and enjoy the experience, you have to be respectful of the other person’s place.”

The concept is set up to be a win-win-win – allow the homeowner to stage the home, help the real estate agent to sell it and provide housing for the home manager.

Setting the stage

Instead of being tenants, the home managers are contractors to Showhomes, Moll said, so “if they leave something in the sink or there is laundry out they have to pay a fine.”

Home managers must have renters insurance and provide photographs of their furniture before being approved.

“Oftentimes they bring their own furnishings and artwork,” Moll said, who noted that her company also provides upscale furniture and décor items to display.

“Each home is unique. Not every home (on the market) is contemporary or traditional. We use whatever pieces would work in their home and add to it.”

The home on Oswego Glen Court utilizes mostly furniture that belongs to Iizuka.

“But these (bar) stools are ours,” Moll said, who houses furniture items not in use in an 11,000 square foot warehouse in Gladstone.

“Part of the requirement is to have nice furniture because most people that have nice furniture live well and live neatly. So if you have worn out things it (can be) indicative of how they probably live,” Moll said.

And while the furniture is nice, the presentation must be also.

A real estate agent and prospective buyer could drop by at any time to view the home for sale. And Thiel said that having the home furnished and orderly at all times helps her business and clients.

“Most people don’t have a lot of vision. So, if you give them an empty space they have trouble trying to fill it with size and quantity. ‘Will my sectional or easy chair fit there?’” she said. Having the home furnished “gives some space dimension.”

Clean living

Another draw for home managers is the price point. Home managers often live in luxurious homes at a cost lower than their mortgages would be, Moll said.

“If (the home) is $850,000 (the mortgage is) going to be about $6,000 or $7,000 a month plus utilities,” Moll said. But living in the same home and serving as a home manager could cost about $2,000, which is what Iizuka pays on his home listed at $849,900. Moll said she has provided this service to clients in Oregon for two years.

“I was doing this in Phoenix before. And I was a home manager for almost eight years. The homes (I lived in) there were 7,500 to 10,000 square feet,” she said.

An added value, Moll said, for homeowners allowing a home manager to live within their vacant home?

Protecting the valuables inside.

“Security is a big deal. You don’t want to leave a vacant home for too long because your appliances can disappear,” Moll said of what thieves often steal from vacant residences.

Having a home manager live within a home “also reduces insurance costs,” Moll said, noting that vacant homes could cost more.

For new housing developments, having homeowners already moved into several homes is valuable for those looking to buy, Moll said.

“People don’t want to be the first in the neighborhood,” she said. “This way, it feels comfortable.”

But when the home is shown, home managers must leave the home and make sure everything is neat and orderly.

“Buyers will look at everything. They must keep it this way all the time,” Moll said. “Even closets must be organized.”

Iizuka said he lives neatly because it’s how he’s “wired” but for many, living this way would just be good practice, he said.

“You’ve got to make your bed and take the dishes out of the sink,” Iizuka said. “There should be Showhomes for teenagers. Sort of a, ‘you can live here as long as you clean your room.’”

Iizuka continued, “I wish there were more Showhomes because I think there are a lot of people in my situation who either (went) through divorce or job misplacement (and) would like to be in a home like this because they still have their furnishings – nice things – and want to be able to enjoy them.”

Moll said she typically oversees between half a dozen and a dozen home managers at a time.

At the beginning of the summer, Moll said, she was overseeing 12 home managers, “but those homes sold.”

For more information about Showhomes visit www.showhomes.com.

]]> http://showhomesfranchise.com/showhomes-new-vacant-home-staging-franchise/feed/ 0 http://showhomesfranchise.com/2010-showhomes-home-staging-national-conference/ http://showhomesfranchise.com/2010-showhomes-home-staging-national-conference/#comments Tue, 11 May 2010 11:35:00 +0000 Thomas Scott http://showhomesfranchise.com/?p=894 One of the keys to any successful business is Momentum.

At Showhomes Home Staging, we have a tradition of celebrating wins by ringing bells. We do this when we add new franchise owners, we do it when we contract new homes to stage, we do it when we move in our live-in home stagers and we do it when we help home owners sell their homes. Ringing the bell increases our energy level, helps us focus on progress and helps everyone in our company pick up the momentum. When you move faster than everyone else in business, your business thrives. Most of all, ringing loud bells is just plain fun.

At our national conference in Nashville this month, we took our bell ringing to a new level. Matt Kelton, Showhomes’ COO, is a fan of Saturday Night Live and in particular of this famous skit featuring Will Farrel and Christopher Walken:

Kelton had the brilliant idea to hand out cowbells to everyone at the conference and when they heard a great idea, ring the bell and yell out ‘I need more cowbell!” It worked and throughout our high energy gathering, cowbells were a-ringing (if ringing is the right word for the dull thonk a cowbell makes.)

Showhomes has lots to ring bells about: Our franchise system has expanded greatly, our overall revenue numbers are way up despite the slow real estate market and recession and most importantly, we are succeeding at helping home owners all over the country sell homes faster and for higher prices.

It may be a ring, a ding or a donk – we’ll take it!

Take a look at our group as they Thrive in 2010:

For more information, visit: www.showhomesfranchise.com
Interested in a franchise? Fill out our request info form.

The builder of this home graciously agreed to open the home for our group of talented stagers to transform and the results speak for themselves:

Dining room before (above) Master Bedroom before (Below)

Staging class prior to the hands-on

Sandra Racz, staging intructor from the Decorating and Staging Academy talks with over 30 Showhomes franchise owners and stagers. Talk about some strong opinions in one room! I learned a ton myself listening to so much talent.

Dining Room after (Above) and Living Room after (below)

Master Bedroom above and below – Showhomes stagers Carla Chiefetz from Princeton, NJ and Sandra Wicks from LA

This is an actual home for sale and all training aside, we staged this home in an unbelivable 3 hours (having 30 expereinced people helps.) Just in time – a Realtor showed up for a surprise showing as we put the finishing touches on the home followed by the listing agent and the builder and his wife.

The buyer spent over an hour in the home and at least 30 minutes in the master – it was calm and serene. This was their second showing and it made a real impact; we bet it sells!

This event was both educational for our group and clearly beneficial for the builder and Realtor – we’re planning to make this an annual event in Nashville so stay tuned!

What do you think?

Thomas Scott

Showhomes

Home Staging Franchise Showhomes listed as best bet in down market by The Street.com:

The Great Recession has made some would-be entrepreneurs skittish about starting a business from scratch.

For them, it may make sense to buy a business franchise. While franchises have taken a hit, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) forecasts that the number of franchises will expand 2% from 883,292 last year to 901,093 in 2010.

“Franchising lets people get into business for themselves, but not by themselves,” says Alisa Harrison, vice president of communications and marketing at the International Franchise Association in Washington. Here are a few things to keep in mind when considering becoming a franchisee.

Advantages over entrepreneurship: Unlike a typical startup, a franchise comes with automatic brand recognition, meaning the franchisee doesn’t have to invest in getting the word out. Franchisees also receive operational assistance and management support from headquarters.

“Becoming a franchisee is a natural for someone willing to let other people make mistakes on their behalf in advance,” says Jason Earle, founder of 1-800-GOT-MOLD, a mold-detection company best known for the mold-sniffing Labrador retrievers it employs. Founded in 2003, the company recently secured its first franchisee and is looking for more. (Earle, incidentally, holds a Guinness record for acquiring his stockbroker’s license at age 17.)

“We’ve really built something that’s turn-key,” Earle says. “You walk through the door, and you get a four-legged partner who becomes your calling card.” Disadvantages compared with entrepreneurship: The difference between starting a business and buying a franchise is analogous to the difference between building a house and buying a condo. Much as condo owners must adhere to the rules of the condo board, franchisees are required to operate their franchises according to a franchisor’s preexisting restrictions and procedures. Thus, the franchise model doesn’t leave much room for creativity, which may rankle entrepreneurs who are used to making and breaking their own rules. In the franchise model, they are required to play by the rules of the brand.

“You don’t buy a McDonald’s and decide you want to sell hot dogs,” says Alisa Harrison, vice president of communications and marketing at the International Franchise Association in Washington. “You have to follow the system that has been laid out. Veterans make awesome franchisees because they’re very disciplined and are used to following a system.”

Investment requirements: The initial investment that franchisors require depends on overhead and the complexity of running the business. The commercial cleaning company Jani-King, which boasts more than 12,000 franchise owners worldwide, offers investment opportunities for as little as $3,000. McDonald’s, on the other hand, requires a minimum of $500,000 in non-borrowed assets before it will consider a potential restaurant franchisee.

What to look for before you leap: All franchisors are legally required to provide a disclosure statement, also known as the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) at least 10 days before the signing of a franchise agreement. Potential franchisees should read through the document for basic information such as additional fees, designated sales territories and available training programs. But they should also look for red flags such as litigation and bankruptcy histories. It makes sense to scour the Web for chat group discussions about any given franchises. “If a group of franchisees isn’t happy, they’re going to talk about it,” Harrison says.

Best bets: The fastest-growing franchise fields include quick-service restaurants, real estate and retail food, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. Franchisors in these fields include Great American Cookies, which requires an investment between $170,000 and $300,000; the home-staging company Showhomes, which requires an investment of $43,800 to $74,000; and the drive-through coffee franchise Mountain Mudd Espresso, which requires an investment of $105,000 to $1.9 million.

For more information, visit www.showhomesfranchise.com

Think home staging is a career choice only for creative people who love to decorate?

Think again.

Careerbuilder.com listed Home Stager as the top emerging career in the down economy and the remarkable sales results home staging produces is creating potential for enormous growth throughout the coming decade.  Ironically, to grow, the industry needs fewer hands on designers and more traditional business operators, who can operate, manage and market scalable businesses.

Here are five reasons to start a home staging business in today’s market:

1. There are large numbers of houses for sale today and higher percentages of houses are vacant and need staging. Furthermore, research shows that staged homes sell 78% faster while vacant houses often sell for 15-20% lower prices than fully staged homes.
2. There are far fewer home staging companies than people who need staging. Part-time and hobbyist home stagers, who currently dominate the industry, barely put a dent in the need for the service. Full service home staging businesses and franchises are few and far between, which leaves a large niche of potential customers, most of whom prefer to work with a reputable, full-time company.

3. It’s only going to get better. Shell Brodnax, President of the Real Estate Staging Association had this to say about the future of staging: “Since home staging has had so much exposure over the last few years more and more people are aware of it, home stagers have an easier time starting their businesses.”

4. Think the home staging business is just for decorators? Wrong. Home staging is just like any other service business: it requires sales, systems, customer service and product quality. The industry needs more business-oriented operators who can run and manage a scalable business.
5. Using a home staging company to prepare a home for sale and even manage it while it is on the market for sale is becoming more and more common. Trade associations such as the Real Estate Staging Association are focused on educating both Realtors and home owners about the benefits of using a staging company so it becomes as normal as using a Realtor or title company to sell a home. This effort already has significant momentum and will continue to grow.

Nashville based Showhomes, a nationally franchised home staging company, has experienced positive growth for the past six years and is rapidly expanding in today’s real estate market.

“What we are looking for is someone with the drive and skills to manage a business,” said Showhomes CEO Bert Lyles. “To take advantage of the growth opportunity, staging businesses need much larger scale than most part time stagers have in today’s market. We’re expanding and recruiting business owners who might never have staged a home themselves but have the skills to hire and manage stagers. It’s an amazing opportunity for positive growth in a niche business.”

About Showhomes

Showhomes is a home staging business with a twist: the company uses live-in caretakers to manage vacant homes while they are on the market for sale and offset a home owner’s expense to stage a home. The innovative marketing strategy has been producing results since 1986 and the company has helped over 25,000 home owners sell vacant houses valued at over $8 billion. For franchise opportunities and more information, please visit www.showhomesfranchise.com.



Six Reasons Why the Housing Market Peaks Can Not Return

Recent conflicting reports about the housing market and whether or not it is truly in recovery have left consumers as well as those in the real estate business more than a bit confused; those whose business plan is dependent upon a full or quick recovery should proceed with caution. I believe the housing market is far from recovered, and, in fact, will not return to the levels of the past decade for many years—if ever. I see six reasons why the housing market peaks can not return, that it will never regain its past “glory days.”

● Robust home sales are dependent upon consumer confidence in the economy. Consumers must feel that both their personal economy as well as that of the nation is on sound footing before committing to such a major, long-term purchase, especially on the heels of the longest recession in more than half a century. Thus far, consumers are far from confident.

● A vigorous recovery of the housing market cannot occur as long as we have unusually high unemployment. While there is much disagreement on when and how our recovery will occur, the financial experts all agree that unemployment will remain at higher than normal levels for several years, and some projections do not indicate a recovery to “full” employment for as much as ten years. With at least 20 million unemployed or underemployed, and with awareness that many of the jobs lost will never return, a high rate of joblessness could possibly become the norm.

● The dramatic loss of home equity will significantly limit the pool of available move-up buyers. In the past, move-up buyers used the equity from their former home to help them purchase a larger/more expensive one; however, declining home values with the associated loss of trillions in equity means fewer sellers will have the resources to purchase another home.

● A continued high rate of foreclosures will depress both the housing market and the hopes of many potential buyers. The millions who have experienced foreclosure will be automatically ousted from the buying pool. For some, several years of damage to their credit rating will be the defining factor; and others will become permanent renters, avoiding the potential for further pain and the trauma associated with foreclosure.

● A slow increase in mortgage rates will reduce the number of qualified buyers. As we experience the higher mortgage payments associated with rising interest rates, many will fail to qualify for loans on the homes of their choice. Others, having been “spoiled” by the low rates of the past decade, will stay out of the market hoping for a return to those rates.

● Tighter lending restrictions will also result in fewer buyers qualifying for home loans. And the restrictions, combined with the declines in credit scores experienced by millions of consumers will only further reduce the number of buyers.

Additionally, there are other factors such as: high levels of consumer debt, changing demographics, and a diminishing of the appeal of home ownership as a result of experiences during the current recession, will only serve to dramatically alter the housing market for the foreseeable future. While there will always be a group committed to home ownership and will always be homes available for them to purchase, an expectation that the housing market will soon recoup its losses and regain its momentum, for me, seems extremely unlikely.

The Housing Guru: The one source for all your housing questions

Thomas Scott, Showhomes

Subscribe to this blog and get our posts in your email inbox

Franchised businesses, which typically outperform independent small businesses, were not immune to the downward pressure. The Franchise Business Review, which surveys individual franchise owners in franchise systems all over the country, reported that overall satisfaction scores dropped from the previous year.

One company, Nashville based home staging franchisor Showhomes, bucked the downward trend and posted sizable gains in the 2010 report. The company moved up from the #13 to the #6 spot in the exclusive Franchise Top 50 ranking and ranked #3 in the real estate franchise category. Showhomes placed behind real estate category leader Sotheby’s and ahead of Coldwell Banker for the second year in a row.

Kyle Stites, FBR marketing manager, said many of the 500 franchises surveyed are struggling in the down economy. “This is an outstanding showing for Showhomes,” Stites said. “They’ve earned some bragging rights.”
Showhomes is positioned to do well, if the company continues to respond to franchisees and embrace changes that affect their industry, Stites said. Of the 500 franchise companies surveyed, only 133 made FBR’s list of winners and only a handful placed as high as Showhomes.
Stites sees a pattern among franchises on the rise. “The best franchises communicate well,” she said. “They beat the competition by reaching out to franchisees, and by continually striving to get better through innovation. They are honest with themselves and embrace anything they can to continue to get better.”

Franchise Business Review, a New Hampshire-based franchise market research firm, is the only organization that publishes a rankings based on overall satisfaction of franchise owners.

“We’re extremely proud of Showhomes rankings, especially since Franchise Business Review has such a strong emphasis on the franchisee,” said Bert Lyles, CEO of Showhomes. “We believe owner satisfaction is critical to the success of Showhomes. We listen to our franchisees: if something needs to be improved, the franchisee will tell you. Our job is to listen. If they rank us highly, then we must be doing something right.”