We were lucky to catch up with Vannessa Rhoades recently and have shared our conversation below.
Vannessa, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
Since 2013, we have staged or consulted on hundreds of properties in Houston’s western suburbs. In late 2019, we made the decision to focus on consultations for occupied homes. Over the years, we recognized there was a huge need for a home staging company that specialized in positive, empowering, practical consultations for home sellers who planned to occupy their homes while on the market. By shifting our focus, we have been able to meet those needs and help even more homeowners learn how to maximize what they already have in order to sell their homes faster and more profitably!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
Vannessa Rhoades, author of “Just Right! Easy DIY Home Staging: Second Edition” and one of America’s leaders in the real estate staging industry, is the founder of one of its most extraordinary companies. Vannessa, an HSR Certified Professional Home Stager and Certified Expert E-Designer, has staged and consulted on hundreds of properties for sale in Houston’s western suburbs. Her company, Three Bears Home Staging, specializes in providing positive and empowering virtual consultations, helping more homeowners sell more quickly and for more money. She is an award-winning professional known for her positive, no-nonsense approach and for the exceptional customer service she provides homeowners. Clients use words like “professional,” “resourceful,” and “an excellent investment” to describe her. One Realtor characterizes her as being able to “transform even the simplest room to make it look like a showplace.” Vannessa is recognized by the Real Estate Staging Association (RESA) as one of the nation’s Top 100 Most Influential People in Real Estate Staging. Her company is consistently honored on Houzz, the country’s leading platform for home remodeling and design, for its achievements in customer service. Among Vannessa’s newest endeavors are the creation of two new online courses designed specifically for homeowners, Easy DIY Home Staging for Home Sellers™ and Color By the Numbers™. Vannessa’s rise in the real estate staging industry began in 2013 when she began to hone in on design and real estate marketing. She became involved in the industry after a successful career as a public relations and marketing consultant, for numerous groups and individuals, from non-profit organizations and local businesses to musicians and politicians. Earlier she studied Radio-Television-Film at the University of Texas at Austin, graduating with Highest Honors.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
The beginning of the pandemic brought huge shifts to the way many entrepreneurs do business and ours was no exception! In 2020, we created a system that allowed us to provide our one-on-one home staging consultations entirely online. This transition came with huge benefits, primarily in that allowed homeowners more flexibility in scheduling and more comfort and security in their surroundings. We also implemented a new system that allows us to provide accurate, effective virtual paint color consultations as well. Our virtual systems have the added benefit of allowing us to expand our home staging and paint color consultation services to sellers all across the country. In 2020, we also began creating a huge library of digital download products, all designed to help sell homes faster and more profitably. Our library includes helpful e-books, workbooks, cheat sheets, and an extensive selection of Canva templates for real estate agents and fellow home stagers. We published an updated edition of our book “Just Right! Easy DIY Home Staging: Second Edition,” available on Amazon. We also launched two online, on-demand courses: Easy DIY Home Staging for Home Sellers™ and Color By The Numbers™. (Needless to say, we’ve stayed busy the last couple of years!)
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I had three fully-staged vacant homes on the market when Hurricane Harvey hit in 2017. Two of those homes flooded 3 to 5 feet, and everything was a total loss. Fortunately, we had insured the rental furniture, but it was a complete mess that took weeks to deal with. The hurricane experience forced me to re-evaluate my business model and my professional goals. I didn’t enjoy hauling furniture and making beds. I didn’t enjoy tracking inventory. What I did love was teaching. I loved teaching sellers how to use what they already had and how to work around a budget. I loved explaining why to use certain lighting or furniture arrangements or color choices. I loved helping homeowners find practical solutions that would help them sell faster and more profitably. My experience with the hurricane ended up being a great springboard for me to begin focusing exclusively on consultations for occupied homes, and ultimately, virtual consultations.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://threebearshomestaging.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/threebearshomestaging/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThreeBearsHomeStaging/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/3BearsStaging
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDvmJ7VWQ54DnQMiJjUuCiQ/
- Other: Pinterest: https://pinterest.com/3bearsstaging
Image Credits
Profile Photo Only: Destinee Raquel Photography