At IIHS we love having the opportunity to showcase the work of our Shine members as one of our many membership perks! This month, our Home Stager of the Month is the lovely Dimitra Oldham from Staging Designs.
Dimitra has been in the industry for almost a whole 9 years and has been running Staging Designs in Sydney since 2013!
What made you get into the industry?
After a long career in the Corporate Sector in senior management, we moved the family to the US where my husband took up a new role. I was at home with my little one who was a year old and my daughter was at pre-school.
I always had a passion for property and had worked in a buyers agency in Australia helping clients find their ideal property, so I knew how important it was to have a well presented home for sale. I came across Home Staging and after doing some research I completed the Home Staging course.
At first I set about helping friends and then worked with a local stager. Whilst I was in the US, Home staging was starting to hit the shores of Sydney. So naturally when we decided to come back to Australia it was a no-brainer to build my business here.
Staging was in its early days back then so it was a slow start, but I kept persisting with it. During this time I was also helping investors renovate their properties to increase their returns, so that kept me quite busy too.
Of course now staging has really changed the way property is sold today which fortunately is keeping us extremely busy!
What is your favourite part of working in home staging?
I absolutely love helping clients transform their property and really fall in love with it again. It is great when the client sees the completed home for the first time and they realise the potential their home had. Most clients say ‘I should have had you in sooner so we could enjoy it a little’. But at the end of the day ensuring that our clients get the benefit of the full potential value from their home is the best part.
I also love that no two days or properties are the same. Each property is different and presents its own possibilities and challenges. Seeing the look on the clients faces when we have completed our recommendations..is priceless… and the satisfaction I get that moment, never gets old! That’s what keeps me doing this everyday!
What advice would you give someone wanting to enter the industry?
Watching the home renovation shows people get the impression that it’s easy and fun. And yes whilst I do absolutely love what I do and have fun it is also a lot of hard work. To build a successful Styling business you need more than just a creative eye. It’s about building relationships, solving complex problems, being flexible and adaptive, learning to run a business, requires some real estate understanding and can also be quite a physical job.
The best advice I can give is find someone you can work with so you can get first hand knowledge of what’s involved. If its what you want to do then educate yourself in Home Staging as this is very different to just Interiors training.
To get in touch with Dimitra, head over to Staging Designs at www.stagingdesigns.com.au.
