Monica Murphy is an Accredited Home Stager (ASP) with a Masters Degree in Art and Architectural History. She is an expert in preparing a home for sale and brings a unique perspective to her clients as she guides them through the various steps of preparing to sell their home. In 2014, 2015 and again in 2017 Monica was named one of the Top 10 Professional Stagers in the United States by the Real Estate Staging Association.

Monica grew up in Erie, PA in her family’s furniture store surrounded by parents and siblings who were interior designers and consultants. After earning her Masters Degree at the American University in Washington, DC, she worked at the Historic American Buildings Survey/ Historic American Engineering Record, a prestigious unit within the Historic Preservation Division of the National Park Service.

Monica decided to go back to work when her children were in school full time, and it was her husband, Steve, who hit upon the idea of home staging, seeing it as a perfect extension of Monica’s education, background and innate creativity. After researching the industry and realizing that this was indeed a natural fit, Monica worked non-stop to get her company up and running, and is still going strong. She received her Accredited Staging Professional designation in July 2007 and Preferred Staging, LLC officially established just one week later. The company has grown about 25% every year since, offering consultations, and completing occupied and vacant stagings throughout the entire Washington DC metro area with outstanding results.

In this episode, Karen and Monica Murphy discuss:

• Monica’s journey to success
• Monica’s business development
• Monica’s commitment to get leads
• Monica’s strategies
• How Monica connects to build and grow

Key Takeaways and Actionable Success Principles:

• Staged homes have always sold faster and for more than non-staged homes
• HGTV is a double-edged sword for stagers — it’s given people insight into what staging is, but they also make it look really easy… and it’s not that easy
• A stager has the ability to make people love where they are
• Monica runs her business similarly to a broker — each stager is an independent contractor
• It’s a quickly changing world in regards to design and it’s important to stay current