KGCI: Real Estate on Air - How Professional Staging and Organizing Drive Higher Home Sales Prices

Episode Date: October 1, 2026

Summary:In this episode of Real Estate Riches, host Kathy Byrnes interviews professional organizer and stagers Deb Seiler, founder of Breathing Room. Seiler explains how professional staging and home organizing can elevate property valuations by 3% to 5%, streamline sensitive listing transitions such as divorces or downsizings, and provide rapid unpack-and-settle services for luxury clients. She emphasizes the importance of hiring NAPO-trained professionals, protecting seller privacy during high-stakes moves, and creating emotional appeal through curated home presentation.

A properly staged home will sell for 3 to 5% higher on average than a non-staged home. I've seen people lose deals because they threw all their pillows into a closet and shut it, thinking, oh, that won't make a difference. It absolutely makes a difference. Hey, everybody's Kathy Burns here with Real Estate Riches. And today, my guest is a good friend, Deb Seiler. And she is with Breathing Room. So for your realtors out there, you better listen up because what she's got to talk about,

even though she's in my territory, you need to find a Deb or see if she can come to your area. You never know. So hey Deb. Hey, Kathy. How are you today? Great. So you have a unique business that I think especially realtors in a luxury market need, wouldn't you say? Absolutely. Absolutely. They need an organizer in their life. Well, tell us a little bit about your business, your background, and let's get at it. Okay, so I'm a natural-born organizer. I've been organizing since I was a little girl, actually started my grandmother's kitchen. And then I went into a career where I was organizing multi-million dollar deals, global organizations, and dealing in productivity management mostly. So it was just, for me, it was kind of a natural transition into, you know, how can I help people kind of where their hearts are?

And the home is absolutely the heart for most people. And so organizing, I wanted to make sure that it wasn't just a natural thing I could do. I also wanted to make sure that I had proper training behind me. So I joined NAPO, which is the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals. And I got trained because there are techniques out there that are specific to NAPO as a NAPO-trained organizer. You have to teach your clients the systems and routines you put in place. so that they're learning how to live in that environment. So again, just kind of natural.

When I was in murders and acquisitions, you taught the new organization kind of how to stand up and live on their own after a carve-out. Same thing in people's homes. You know, you want to make dinner faster. You want to sell your home faster. You want to, you know, have time to play with the kids or the grandkids. And that's really what Breathing Room does.

we're coming up on our fourth anniversary this October, which is very exciting. The Lake Norman market has changed so much in that time. And I'm just really happy to serve the community. Yeah, we should probably mention our territory. We're in North Carolina. We're north of Charlotte in the Lake Norman area. Okay, good. And so you and I work together a long time.

Well, it was about two years ago with this one specific client that just rings in my head. As a matter of fact, I got a call from her son yesterday, which is really interesting because this was a situation where I had a divorcing couple where the wife did not want to sell her house. It's where she raised her kids. It was their dream home. And she was ticked at me because I was the one that was going to help make this happen. It wasn't that she didn't like me or not like my work. She just didn't want to sell that house. And so she was hostile and made it pretty hostile for me. Well, fortunately, after we got it under contract, it all knew.

needed to be packed up. And this was a luxury home. And I knew that Deb, you can even hear it when she's talking in here. Her calming voice is amazing, right? She talks like that all the time. So she just calmed this woman down. Tell us how you just handled her because this woman raved about you. I mean, and she was moving to Virginia and tell that story because you turned her around like crazy. She was even nice to me. I'm so happy to hear that. Yes. So, So my team and I, we deal with difficult clients all the time. And this was a situation where everyone was still in the home. And I actually employed one of our proprietary processes to make sure that the packup was secure for each one of the individuals.

Because again, the movers are taking this to two different houses, make it easy for the movers to discern what box goes with whom so that there's no confusion. each client received their own inventory list of what was in each box. So it wasn't, you know, kitchen box one, two, three, four with the contents in it. The contents were held privately. So not even the movers knew what was in those boxes. I liked having a meeting with each of them separately as we opened the day and as we closed the day. So that if there were any concerns or any questions, they were able to, have that private moment with me where everything they talked about was confidential.

I also separated the team so that each one was assigned to a different part of the room and a different spouse. So they basically had their own team that they could, if they wanted to vent to, they could vent to. So I think they really enjoyed that part of the experience. Both of them loved it, but the woman who was really angry loved you, was calm and I think she felt very respected she finally settled in this is happening and I'm being respected I'm being honored for how I feel about this and I don't have to have my husband in the room with us and I have my own people like you said to be able to talk to that that was powerful did you also go to Virginia where she moved to and unpack her she invited us but she

She wanted to take time and really reflect on that. You know, we told her we were always willing to come and visit. But she did. She wanted to take the time to just be there in that moment and process. She bought a lovely home. And the last time she and I spoke, she was just having a good time doing that. Oh, good. So, yeah.

Yes, we were invited to travel. We do travel for clients. And she knows that anytime she needs us. be there for her. That's great. That's great. Well, what you did for me was you turned me from the villain to the hero. And that that was so important for me to have a relationship with these clients because even though she was moving out of town, he was not. And so you saved a relationship that I was basically innocent, just the median to make the process happen. And that was powerful for me. Now tell us some of the other things that you do because I know that you go in and

you'll stage homes. Tell us some of the other things. Well, we actually settled the husband in to his new home locally and we settled him in so quickly. He was actually able to getting a round of golf that day that he hadn't expected. So quick settleings, we love doing that. We love working with people that are moving into the area. We had a client. They had been looking for a home for four months. Now, understand. This wasn't, this wasn't one of your clients. They were looking for a home for four months, and the school district had changed for the kids, so they're nomadic at this point. They're, you know, living in verbos and trying to find a house and, oh, you know, the choice between are we going to build or not. And we settled them in in a day into their 6,000 square foot home so that they

were just able to sit and enjoy their lakehouse instead of looking at boxes and figuring out. out what was going to be made for dinner. They could just relax. So we love a quick settle in too. Yeah. 6,000 square feet. That's not a little task. Shoot, I can think of people in a thousand square foot house. They're still unpacking, you know, much later. I do too. I do too. I have a wonderful crew of ladies who, you know, we work fast and we stage the home. And again, a quick settle in is almost like a stage in reverse. So we set up the wife's closet where she could basically just shop her closet if she wanted to. So she was able to just come home and be.

So yeah, quick settle in. We do staging, which helps homes sell faster. I have a designer on the team who's, so she's a designer first, organizer, second. And all of my ladies are trained in staging, understanding the art and the sign of behind it, you know, the math. So yeah, they're all properly trained on that as well. Boy, and staging is so important, especially in a luxury home. Sometimes people have moved out. And so

do you do that where you can bring in furniture and stuff or do you work in harmony with somebody? No, I have partnerships. If furniture is needed, I prefer working in occupied homes. Again, that comes down more to maintaining the aesthetic. As you know, equestrian homes are different than lake homes. And if they already have the lake aesthetic. I don't want to bring in something else. I'll leave that up to apartment of mine. Love that. Love that. Well, and I know that, you know, in the beginning, when I was first started out on my beer budget, I was at garage sales, and then I moved on up to tag sales, which were all these luxury properties being liquidated, whole houses because they just didn't need anything in that house for the next house. So you could get bargain prices on

some incredible things. So I started building an arsenal for a whole room that I was creating to stage out homes. Just kind of switch out different things that they had, not trained, just going with my gut. And those little things helped a lot. But when as my income changed, we would bring in different stages to do things. I'm like, well, that made a huge difference. And you know, which makes it your pictures better because the pictures are the sedentia. The pictures are the seduction that brings them in. And now you, and it's one thing to have a picture of like an AI picture of here's what it could look like versus now they walk into an empty house. And you get a picture on the wall of what it could look like. It's better than nothing. But it's not

the same as having it the feel. And that's what you do is create the feel. Absolutely. Absolutely. I think that's so important when you're telling the buyer's story is to have the tactile and emotional response to a room. When you can walk into a bedroom and just feel relaxed, when you can walk into a bathroom and feel like you're in the middle of a spa, or after a long, hard day, I'm going to be in my gorgeous kitchen and everything is where it's supposed to be. You know, it's such a great, wonderful story to speak to someone's heart like that. And nothing does that like furniture and decor. And you know, another thing is when I walk with clients through a house,

now I'm not the most organized person. I need someone to train me. But what I recognize when you walk into a house that's chaotic, I instantly wonder what's the maintenance on this house? And have you maintain things? I start looking at the registers. I start looking at different things automatically. But when you walk into a house where the pantry is perfect,

or the bedroom closets are perfect. And you instantly feel this house has been maintained, this house, these people have taken care of their house. It's one we can have a better trust factor with right off the bat before we even do our inspections. There's that going for it, which makes the buyer willing to pay possibly a higher price, potentially, because they're seeing quality it's being taken care of.

They want it. They've got that feeling. Like, yeah, and the wife is saying, yeah, honey, we want this. Absolutely. And a properly staged home will sell for three to five percent higher on average than a non-staged home. I've seen people lose deals because they threw all their pillows into a closet and shut it, thinking, oh, that won't make a difference. It absolutely makes a difference.

Even the garage. Do you do the garage? Oh, absolutely. We do the garage. We're not even a messy garage. No, no, absolutely. You know, I've seen some gorgeous garages that are cleaner than the most pigeons.

And you want that story. You want that story of yes, it was used. Yes, it was loved and it was well cared for. Right. And now we're ready for you to take care of that home today. And there's a message in there. There's an unwritten agreement. between the seller and the buyer when the buyer can look and say they've really taken care of

this home. Yep. Yep. And that's what we want to. In our area, this is Ray City around here. So there's classic cars. You and I are both car lovers. So a garage, you know, and you've got to read your territory too.

Like a garage in our area is a big deal. And, you know, you just slop things all around and I got a classic car and I own it. I'm like, I got to redo this garage. And nowadays, it's nothing to have a minimum of a three-car garage. Everybody's got so many cars. And the higher up your price point, the more that those cars are actually being used in the garage versus as a storage unit. Yes. Absolutely.

Absolutely. So any tips for sellers to start shopping around, you mentioned that credentials that you've got, that would be very, important for people to pay attention to, I would think. It is because non-trained people can do a lot of damage in their home. You know, I'm also trained to work with ADHD clients and hoarders. And that specialty training, you know, you can do more damage to a client by not being properly trained and just kind of winging it. You know, I feel like I can help this person or, oh, we clicked.

And I think training is so important. And so NAPO actually has a directory of organizers throughout the country. So if you're looking for a specialty, paper organization or staging or downsizing, senior management, move management, the specialties are out there. So I would encourage people to look in the NAPO directory for a local resource. I highly recommend that you find someone who is trained. A lot of people fall into, I hired an organizer and they're going to put me on a maintenance package, which means in in my mind they didn't do it right the first time a lot of people get trapped into this

oh i saw this cute thing on youtube and i'm going to do it and the reason that fails is because it wasn't built for how you live your life yes i have so many clients who said oh i did the tiger pay i did the home edit and i did you know marie con and they're trying to do all of these things that don't fit who they are or how they want to live their life. So interesting, Deb, because I am that disorganized ADD person. And my daughter is a you. She's disorganized and precises everything. And she comes over to my house.

She says, oh, my gosh. And so as a gift, she bought me organizers to come in and organize my house. And it was a disaster within a week or two, right? because like and I picked up on that early on where you taught them how to then live in it because I just saw where you just neaten it up and now life goes on and I need to put this here in this stack here and so the chaos continues and I think that's very important piece yeah but I wanted to touch on something that you mentioned before about that when you stage a house you rattled off some numbers three to I think three to five or three to seven percent

three to five percent three to five percent and those are real numbers aren't they those are real numbers yes right so if you've got a million dollar house and you got a three or five percent deal it basically pays for your fees yeah our our fees are actually less than one percent of the value of the home see so yes they make money they they absolutely make money by staging their home absolutely yeah it's smart because one that's not that's hectic you'll get less money money than typically your list. Unless we get a crazy thing where interest rates were two and two and a half percent and the whole world was overpricing. Right. They created chaos for themselves and consequences for themselves. So the truth is you want a house that you can price it right because it's show ready.

And it feels like the home that they want to walk into and they fall in love with right off the bat. They know that's their house. It's not like, could I make this work? It's almost always. because I've seen what your work. It's been amazing. And I know the difference. And you take, you take homes that are some toughies too. You know,

I've seen some of your miracle work. And I'm like, wow. And you change it around. You just change it around. So I highly recommend Deb. Thank you. Thank you.

Now the fun part of, thank you, Kathy. That's so wonderful. I appreciate that. Sure. The one thing that Breeding Room does not do is post our before and after pictures. You will only see our before and after pictures if I'm at a speaking engagement. The reason for that is because our client's privacy is more important than our publicity.

How would a buyer feel if they went online and they looked at breathing room and they saw the three-car garage they're currently looking at because the sconces match, the house they just toured? And they saw the before pictures. Yeah. You're right. And the after pictures and then the realtors pictures professionally done. So we don't post our before and afters. Those are only for my speaking engagements. I don't use anything that's personally identifiable in the pictures.

So your family photos are blurred out. And if I use anything in a speaking engagement, I always check with the client first. Yeah, that's great. And they appreciate that. Well, that's integrity too, which I love. It's a key component for me. So talk about your speaking. You do like to different real estate agencies or who are you speaking to?

Yeah. So my speaking engagements have included so far seniors groups, about 100 people in the room, the Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce Women's Conference. I was the closing speaker two years ago. And industry organizations, realtors have made. They like having me for downsizing events and over 55s because there's a movement coming with millennials and Gen Z where previously they didn't want

downsizers items and now they do so I'm speaking a lot about that Kathy. Interesting. So yeah I talk about everything from organizing, staging, boarding ADHD, my ADHD clients remodels. I also front load renovations

so talk about that a little bit and that's really where the before and afters show up. Yeah, that's awesome. Well this has been great. Any last word you want to share? get an organizer hire one you need one get the stress out of your life get some breathing room yeah i appreciate that deb so much and like i said we've known each other for years now and i really respect your work and i thought it was important to bring you on the podcast even though realtors all around may not

have access to you they need to know about that organization and how they can do this as well and they need to pay attention to how important it can be for the sale of the property because that is the thing. Let's get top dollar for our clients. We all win when that happens. We all do. Absolutely. All right. Well, thanks, girl. I really appreciate having you on here. Thanks. Bye. All right. Well, that's a wrap for real estate riches today. I hope you subscribe and share the word and stay tuned for the next one.