Ep. 5 Home Staging Secrets: Transform Any Space to Boost Your Home Sale

Great staging doesn’t just make homes look better—it helps them sell faster and for more. In this episode of The Real Estate of Things, Scott sits down with Andrea Foxman, owner of Home Ingredients and Social Ingredients, to unpack what it actually takes to prepare a home for sale—and why staging matters more than most sellers realize.

Andrea shares how she built her staging business from the ground up, what makes buyers emotionally connect to a space, and how to handle the awkward moments when personal style gets in the way of selling. They talk ROI, market timing, decluttering, design trends, and the misconceptions around virtual staging and AI. Along the way, Andrea offers practical advice for sellers, agents, and anyone curious about the work behind great listings. Honest, insightful, and full of real-world stories, this episode is a behind-the-scenes look at how homes are staged to sell—and why first impressions still matter most.

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Creators and Guests

Host

Scott Dempster

Scott Dempster is a Vancouver REALTOR® who offers tailored services to exceptional clients.

Guest

Andrea Foxman

Owner of Home Ingredients and Social Ingredients

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[00:00:00] Andrea Foxman: I have seen everything. I have walked into houses where there's literally a taxidermy of a grizzly bear in the front door.
[00:00:07] Scott Dempster: Oh, nice.
[00:00:07] Andrea Foxman: I've gone to a house where like every floor of the house had dolls, like you know those old school dolls?
[00:00:13] Scott Dempster: Oh yeah.
[00:00:13] Andrea Foxman: The creepy ones.
[00:00:14] Scott Dempster: Like the ones that the eyes George Costanza's wife had.
[00:00:16] Oh,
[00:00:17] Andrea Foxman: yes. I literally, like, there was not one room in this house that didn't have so many of these dolls, like on the staircase there was bookcases of them. I just said, how am I gonna handle this one?
[00:00:31] Scott Dempster: Everyone's got a real estate story. Some are wins, and some are total nightmares. We are here to give you the keys to what's really going on in Vancouver real estate from what it actually takes to become a real estate agent, to what it really costs to build a home, and all the stories in between.
[00:00:48] This is The Real Estate of Things where nothing is off the table, and everything is negotiable. My guest today is colleague, friend, a lady and her team who we've been using for staging for a number of years with all of our listings coming up, things like that. Andrea Foxman, owner of home Ingredients and Social Ingredients. So, thanks for coming on.
[00:01:09] Andrea Foxman: Thanks for having me.
[00:01:09] Scott Dempster: Yeah, this is fun. This is fun.
[00:01:11] Andrea Foxman: This is gonna be fun.
[00:01:12] Scott Dempster: Yeah. Like I said, we've been using you and your team for years and love the style of design you put together in the rooms and the whole homes and things like that. It's a huge component, obviously, of, of any listing, whether it's moving a, a couch and adding a picture or doing the whole house and, you know, kind of soup to nuts the whole thing.
[00:01:31] So I always like to know and understand from your background, how did you get into staging? What was the path and what were you doing before staging and, and that whole thing, so?
[00:01:41] Andrea Foxman: Before staging, I, uh, was in the film industry for about 11 years. I had my own agency, loved that, but needed a change and always very passionate about home decor, home stage. I didn't actually know about home staging, but I was passionate about design, home decor, and so I sold the company and I took. A couple years off and I took some design classes and just sort of tried to figure out what I wanted to do, and in amongst all that, I fell upon this thing called staging. And I was like, what?
[00:02:10] Staging? So, I looked up what it was, and I found it was called this Canadian Staging Professionals of Canada. And they sort of said, well, hey, we're gonna be in Vancouver in three days. Why don't you take our three-day course? And I was like, okay, sure. Why don't I do that, sort of find out what this is all about.
[00:02:26] So I did. And really the three-day course was more of like how to start a business in the sense of how to promote yourself and what it's all about and how you can get going. But there was so much more to it, and it didn't really teach you about design. It didn't teach you about scale. It didn't teach you much about anything, just more of like a business aspect of it.
[00:02:45] So then I wanted to do some more research in it. And so, what I did is I sort of tried to find people that were in staging here and try to job shadow them, just sort of get a better idea of like what this is all about. And as I was doing that, I was like, okay, well we can get this going, but where do you get the furniture?
[00:03:02] Like where do you, if you have an empty place, where am I going to rent the furniture to, to do the stage? And so, as I was talking to a couple people, they said, well, there's only one other place and you know, we could use some more. And like, why don't you, that would be a great thing for you to look into. So that sort of got me excited because I love furniture and I said, okay, well why don't I look into that? So that's sort of where it started.
[00:03:23] I started and I rented a warehouse space. It was about 4,000 square feet. And I said, okay, I'm gonna get enough furniture for, let's say four or five houses, and then I'm going to connect with people that I met in this course and that I've been talking throughout the year, and sort of start with them and see if I could build from there and then reach out to realtors.
[00:03:41] And that's sort of how it started. More so as a furniture rental aspect. And then as it got growing, you know, I decided, okay, well now I'm gonna start, wanting to start doing some staging. I wanna get in there and do some consultations and see if I can get some staging done. And it was a slow process. I started off with hiring one person, it was just the two of us. It took time and then 18 years later,
[00:04:03] Scott Dempster: Here you are.
[00:04:03] Andrea Foxman: Here I am in a 25,000 square foot warehouse space, so,
[00:04:07] Scott Dempster: Wow.
[00:04:07] Andrea Foxman: Yeah, it's been great.
[00:04:08] Scott Dempster: Just networking kind of to get going. Like you said, you were reaching out to realtors and reaching out to anyone you can kind of think of in your, in your sphere, in your network, and got going. Do you remember your first staging job and how it went and, and that sort of thing. Do you remember?
[00:04:24] Andrea Foxman: I remember the first staging job that I did prior to Home Ingredients. I remember after that I was like, I was exhausted. It was so physically demanding that people don't realize how physically demanding it is.
[00:04:36] And I was exhausted, but I was exhilarated at the same time because, you know, seeing something from the beginning to the end was amazing. Now, in terms of Home Ingredients, it's so far back, but I think I started more off doing consultations, which is when I would go into a space with the realtor or with the homeowner and do like a room by room analysis and walk through and, and you know, tell them what they need to do to prepare the house for sale.
[00:05:00] And I did a lot of those at first, and then those turned into a little bit more, you know, staging. Well okay, you know, it would be great if we could add some art or some decor, pillows, or you know, this sofa’s too big. I would suggest you make it smaller. And then it got more into me being able to incorporate a lot of the furniture that I had. And then we started doing vacants and those were just easy for me because you have a blank slate and you could do whatever you want in there to create the mood and the experience that you want for the customer.
[00:05:28] Scott Dempster: You and I have known each other, like I said, almost since I started in the business, 10, 11 years ago. And we've been using you and your team, like I said. I've found that, you know, if we go into a listing with some of our buyers, and you can sometimes know that the home's been staged. Staging companies for the most part have individual style. You're a very stylish lady. And would you say that home ingredients has a specific style or do you need to be adaptive to what's current and things like that? Or, or is there, you know, do you shy away from say, staging modern homes as a verse to a traditional or craftsman or kind of everything in between? Or what is your style?
[00:06:06] Andrea Foxman: You know what? I would say that we are design forward. We try to keep on trend, but like each stage that we do is different. If we're going into a modern home, we're going to pull out the modern pieces. If we go into a more of traditional classic home, we're gonna have different pieces for that. And each, each house has its own character, and each house has its own buyer.
[00:06:27] And you know, we talk with realtors a lot about what, who the audience, who the buyer's going to be. Is it a downsizer, is a family with young kids? You know, is it in Yaletown where it's just gonna be a, you know, new buyer, a single person. You know, we, we sort of try to get information from the realtor in terms of who they're trying to attract and then we, we design around that. I would say that the majority of the pieces that we have are neutral so that it can go in most places.
[00:06:55] And the way we stylize, anything that makes a different would be through the art. It would be area, rugs, decor, pillows, accessories. That's what can change a complete look of a room. That's why the realtors, you know, have trust. When anyone from our team walks in, they know that we represent them and that we care about their client as much as they do. We are there to sell the house and help you sell the house and for them to get the most bang for their buck.
[00:07:21] Scott Dempster: Yeah. Super well put. We had our, um, photographer Matt Greco on a few weeks ago, and he had a point, kind of what you just touched on, and he said, you know, I'm basically an extension of your brand, and that's really what we rely on and work together on and be cohesive with. I know that that's what we get from you, your team, your business, which is important.
[00:07:39] And the whole staging thing, I think there can be some misconceptions or some stigmas with it. Because, um, to paint a picture, you know, when myself and Colin and or anyone of the team sits down with some sellers and we've done our listing presentation and they make the decision that they're gonna go with us and our team, they say kind of what's next, right?
[00:07:57] We set up a timeline for photography and floor plans and all these things. If it's a home that we think that, oh, there's some furniture that should be changed or these sorts of things. We always suggest during that meeting, that initial meeting after the listing presentation to say we should bring in our staging consultant, that being Home Ingredients, that being yourself.
[00:08:15] And sometimes there's, there's a little bit of, I wouldn't say pushback, but I would say that some people kind of go, oh, and they kind of think, do I need to spend that money? Because obviously they're paying for, you know, moving costs. They're paying for, you know, the taxes they're paying, realtors, they're paying all these sorts of things. But it seems like the staging, in some cases, some people might not immediately see the value in it.
[00:08:41] Andrea Foxman: Yes, I mean, definitely some of them do. Most people, I feel, are very receptive of it. They appreciate us coming through and sometimes the sticker prize or sometimes things can hold them back. But what I would say.
[00:08:52] Is that, you know, and I use this analogy all the time, I said, if you are gonna sell your car, what are you gonna do? You are gonna go and you're gonna get it detailed and you're gonna clean it, and you're gonna do whatever you can to get the most value you can for that car. So why wouldn't you do that to your house?
[00:09:08] So most cases, well not most cases, all cases, I know that when we finish doing a staging job, whether it's a partial, a full. Whatever the case is, the reaction is amazing, right? Like it's, oh my gosh, I didn't see my house like that. This looks so much better. Maybe I don't wanna move. Oh wow, I didn't think about putting the sofa over here, or changing the location of that table, or realizing that a smaller table's better in this area, or they realize it once they see it, the value that it is in it.
[00:09:35] You want your place to stand out, you wanna make sure it's clean. You wanna make sure the first impression of the curb appeal is amazing. Like you don't wanna show up at a house that has dead weeds and stuff growing everywhere because right away I'm gonna think, okay, if they don't care about the front of their house, what's gonna happen inside of the house?
[00:09:50] Scott Dempster: Right.
[00:09:50] Andrea Foxman: Right. And if it's not presented properly, uh, for photos, then you're not even gonna get the client to the door.
[00:09:56] Scott Dempster: Yeah, I know totally. I can't tell you how many times then when you finish staging a property for us and then we usually Have you stage it that day and then we'll do the photos that evening or the next day or something like that.
[00:10:06] And, uh, we meet, you know, the clients and they say, oh man, now we don't want to sell. Right? Like you just touched on. And you kind of go, oh shit. Well, I guess they're doing their job. Right. Right. Yeah. But, um, uh, talking about busier markets, slower markets, obviously Vancouver right now, in the fall of 2025, we're.
[00:10:22] Slower market. No surprise. Would you say that your staging business is churning along at a pretty consistent pace, whether it's a busy market or a slow market, or would you say that staging has a greater importance in a slower market? Because it is tougher to find buyers for the product. It is tougher to sell home right now.
[00:10:41] Andrea Foxman: I always think that, oh, okay, the market's slower. This is when they need us the most. And, and you do, because it is, it's tough and you know you wanna stand out, but. When it's busy, we're busy too. Because, you know, people now are going, okay, well it's a busy market we can sell, but maybe we can get more If you showcase, if you know, we stage a house and make it look nicer, are you gonna, are we gonna get more money?
[00:11:03] And the answer is yes, because if you a, for example, walk into, let's say a vacant property. And you walk in and there's no furniture in there, it's kind of, it feels empty. You, you kind of, it's hard to envision yourself sort of living there. Like, is my sofa gonna fit here? Is my bed gonna fit in that room?
[00:11:19] People don't have that vision that maybe stagers or designers or someone with a good eye can understand. So, when we put the furniture in it, you know, it changes. It's, it's, it's an emotional connection. And people buy homes on emotion. And if you walk into a space that feels elegant and beautiful and or funky or whatever the style may be, you feel connected to it because that's the type of house that you're looking for.
[00:11:41] And you can envision yourself and your family and your furniture and everything in it, and it, and it just, it becomes an emotional experience. And that's really what it's about.
[00:11:49] Scott Dempster: Yeah, no, and you talked about vacant spaces and, uh, we've had some clients, you know, they've moved out of their two bed, two bath condos.
[00:11:56] They've said, no, we, we don't wanna pay for the, you know, whatever it is, X amount for staging. And, um, you come to market and kind of falls flat as a listing, right. You know, you give your honest opinion value when you do the initial consultation. Um, when someone like myself are calling or the team. Or any agent calls you in.
[00:12:18] And, um, how it kind of works to set the stage is basically, I would likely have a call with you and say, Hey, 1, 2, 3, 4, you know, Smith Street, we'd love for you to come and do the consultation. So, we arrive at the same time and we do the walkthrough. Now, I absolutely love this because it doesn't make you the bad guy.
[00:12:34] It doesn't make me the bad guy, but you're the industry professional. What I always say to our sellers is, look, don't take offense to this kind of thing. Um, we're gonna go through every single room in your house and there's gonna be more or less, you know, a checklist or, or suggestions. And from there the quotation will be put together.
[00:12:50] How often do you get significant pushback or do people kind of get their feathers ruffled? When you say like, oh, you know this piece of art, and it's like, oh, that's been our family for five generations and stuff like that. I mean, it must be like, I don't know. It's kind of something I've talked about too, where I didn't get into this business if I didn't like confrontation and it's not confrontational, but it's awkward at times when you're telling people to take down the third generation painting of the oil painting of their family in the meadow or something like that.
[00:13:18] Right? Like how often do you run into that?
[00:13:20] Andrea Foxman: All the time.
[00:13:21] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:13:22] Andrea Foxman: Uh, not pushback, I wouldn't say pushback. Awkwardness, again, it goes back to walking through the space and trying to understand them and get a feel for who they are, and then I can figure out how I can, what my next plan of action is and how I can gently tell them certain things.
[00:13:38] So I, I go back to saying, listen, the way we live and the way we do things are different. I use my example, my own house as an example. When I sell it, I say, you know, we are attached to things, but we have to just sort of let it go. You know, your house becomes a product when you decide that you're gonna sell it.
[00:13:53] So I'm gentle about it. I'm like, yes, listen, that piece of art, it's gorgeous. It's so nice, but it's just too big for the space. Yeah. And I think if we bring in something that's a little bit smaller, it's gonna fit this space. So, but maybe that piece of art might be good somewhere else.
[00:14:08] Scott Dempster: Right.
[00:14:09] Andrea Foxman: Then we'll walk through and we realize.
[00:14:10] It's really not good somewhere else, but you know what? It's so nice. I would just wrap it up. You're gonna take it with you anyway. You know, you don't want it to get damaged, let's just take care of it. But you know, I understand why you had it here, but we now have to find a solution for the space. And so usually I can convince people to listen.
[00:14:28] I have seen everything. I have walked into houses where there's literally a taxidermy of a grizzly bear in the front door. Oh, nice. I've seen, you know. Polar bears downstairs. I've seen, I've gone to a house where like every floor of the house had dolls, like, you know, those old school dolls? Oh yeah. The creepy ones.
[00:14:48] Scott Dempster: Like the ones that, uh, the eyes George Costanza's wife had. Oh,
[00:14:51] Andrea Foxman: yes. I literally, like, there was not one room in this house that didn't have so many of these dolls, like on the staircase. There was bookcases of them. And I just said, how am I gonna handle this one?
[00:15:04] Scott Dempster: Right?
[00:15:05] Andrea Foxman: And I just said, listen. I'm just gonna be honest with you.
[00:15:09] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:15:10] Andrea Foxman: There are too many dolls in the house.
[00:15:12] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:15:12] Andrea Foxman: And I go, it's a distraction. And you don't want people focusing on all the dolls because it's, it's a distraction. It's everywhere. And we gotta tone it down. And I think though, maybe the way I handle it made it a little funny. Like, that's, oh, there's another one.
[00:15:25] Oh, oh my, oh, there's another doll. She understood. She's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I know. Like I, I, I gotta get rid of 'em. I said, yes, I think it's a, it's a good thing because it's a complete distraction. And so, she understood it and we kind of laughed about it. She got it and then we kind of moved on. So, well,
[00:15:39] Scott Dempster: yeah, I mean, and everyone's got their own personal taste of it's your home.
[00:15:43] You, you should have it however the hell you want, quite honestly. But when it comes to your craft, you know, you gotta appeal to the masses, right? And polar bear in the basement or the dolls all over the house, it's not gonna be appealing to the masses and it's gonna be off-putting for a lot of people, right?
[00:15:57] No, it
[00:15:57] Andrea Foxman: kid's gonna walk into this house and be terrified. They're like, well, what if we put a sheet over it? I go. Well, it could be worse. It could be worse. I don't know. I'm just telling you, I think you should get rid of the grizzly bear. It could be illegal. I don’t know. But let's just talk about that. Uh, so, you know, like, listen, we have everything from those extremes to just, you know, really people being attached, like you said, a piece of art or you know, a chair that you know.
[00:16:25] They love so much and it's not, I try to tell them it's not about that the chair's not amazing and that it's personal, but it just doesn't fit the space. And we want people to be able to walk around the living room without tripping or you know, you have such a big dining room, but you have such a small table.
[00:16:38] Don't you wanna show people that you have guests here and have 12 people around this table? Yeah, yeah,
[00:16:42] Scott Dempster: yeah.
[00:16:42] Andrea Foxman: Okay. So that's the whole point. We wanna show them we're selling a lifestyle to a different family and what they. Would want to envision when they come into the house.
[00:16:51] Scott Dempster: Yeah, exactly. And with, you know, all the, the dolls or the polar bear or a grizzly bear, things like that.
[00:16:57] Do you find, and it's also for, you know, any realtors who are listening, because what I always try and do, if you're coming to do a staging consultation, whether the people are super chill, super, you know, just go with flow kind of thing, or if they're a little bit more protective of their stuff and things like that, I always try and give you, or whoever's coming from your team.
[00:17:16] A call kind of enroute to say, hey, here's the low down, here's what's going on. And I think that's really important so that you're not coming in blind to a house full of dolls or something like that either. Would you say that that's, you know, important to have, you know, leading up to that initial consult meeting?
[00:17:32] Andrea Foxman: Very
[00:17:32] Scott Dempster: important.
[00:17:33] Andrea Foxman: Very important. And I always tell my team too, like even if the realtor doesn't say anything, you should always quest, you know, always say, hey, is there anything I need to know? Before I come to this space, is there anything I need to know about the family, about the situation? You know, before I know again, because we are dealing with emotions all the time.
[00:17:49] Yeah. Whether it's good emotions, bad emotions, like, you know, selling because they have to move or you know, selling 'cause they're downsizing and now their kids aren't living in the house anymore and what are we gonna do with their stuff? And there's a gamut of situations in every single house. In every single home.
[00:18:04] And I think we have to be respectful of, of all of it because it is. Everything that they have in their place they love. And then it just goes back to just educating them about, now that you know, you're selling your house, it becomes a product and you have to let go of all your personal feelings.
[00:18:22] That's why we say, please declutter, get rid of any personal photos, any religious artifacts, anything that could be offensive or I don’t know, posters of naked people and teen bedrooms or whatever the case. Not naked people. Right. But you know, like, yeah. Pamela Anderson poster. Pamela Anderson poster. Exactly.
[00:18:39] You know, those types of things. So, there is just a way of being able to approach it in a way that is caring and professional. And I think that is really important when you walk into anybody's house. Same with pets. You know, pets are in everybody's house and it's important to be honest, if you walk into a house and all you smell is dog or whatever, right?
[00:19:00] Cat or whatever, litter box or whatever it may be, and those are all things that have to be taken care of before you have any showings and. Cleanliness is another thing. Like, you know, teenage rooms are always messy and not always, but mostly. And you go, you walk into some places and people just don't care.
[00:19:16] There's stuff all over the place. Mm-hmm. And I've seen pictures on MLSs where they take photos of these homes and the rooms are a mess. And I just, I don't get it. Like, why would you even take a picture?
[00:19:27] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:19:27] Andrea Foxman: Why do you even put it on MLS? Like, I'm not going to that house.
[00:19:30] Scott Dempster: Yeah. Especially if there's a home that looks.
[00:19:32] Perfect and dialed and squared away. Yeah. I mean, I guess there's the small percentage, and we talked about this with Matt Greco and other people, you know, some of those properties are tentative that we see on MLS and in some cases because they're so rooted in the house and they don't really want the landlord to sell, they're not doing shit.
[00:19:49] They're not cleaning up. Right. Yeah. Fair. That's fair. That’s a tough one. They think it's, they think it's to their advantage to have the house in a bit more disarray and things like that. Right.
[00:19:57] Andrea Foxman: That's totally a tough one. And I think that's when, you know, I think the, uh, homeowner needs to give some.
[00:20:02] Incentive to be able to allow us to come in and do something. Or sometimes, I know it can't always be that case but wait till they're gone because you know. First impressions are so important.
[00:20:15] Scott Dempster: Yeah,
[00:20:16] Andrea Foxman: so important. Getting it right first time is so important. And I know that there are situations like you just said that, that it's hard and it, and it's tough and I get that and it can't always be that way, but
[00:20:26] Scott Dempster: Absolutely.
[00:20:27] So we've kind of talked about, um, you know, that initial staging consultation. What's your Process. After you've left the house, you've seen it, you've taken some photos, you've taken measurements. What is the process from then? Walking out the door more or less, you know, in kind of short form, but to the day when you're putting everything in and we're taking photos that night or the next day or something like that.
[00:20:46] What, what's the next steps that go on?
[00:20:47] Andrea Foxman: Okay, so I'll start with a consultation. So, for a consultation. What we do is we ask, uh, the client when we initially come to the house to, to come with us and take notes. And the reason we ask them to take notes is because then they become involved and they're listening more.
[00:21:03] Whereas if we were just to come in and, you know, take our own notes and then send off a, a whole list of what they need to do, they may not understand the importance of it. So, walking them through and getting them involved and them taking notes is key. If they need some reminders, we'll shoot some of reminders off, like some key factors in the email.
[00:21:19] If there are some suggestions. Sometimes we'll walk in and just say, okay, all you need to do is declutter, depersonalize. Sometimes we'll suggest painting. Sometimes will suggest changing, you know, lighting. You know, there have been times where they say, well, we don't really have a budget for all that. And I've literally said, it's not like I don't want your business, but I really believe painting is more important than me coming in right now because these walls are so damaged and the rugs are so dirty.
[00:21:42] I would put money into fixing that, most cases, nine out to 10 times when I do that, they do it, and then they bring us in as well because I need to spend their money wisely and I, and I'm not there to necessarily always just sell my rentals. I'm there to. I give them the best advice I can. And if I'm gonna put my furniture into an orange wall in a room or a wall that's damaged, you're just putting lipstick on a pig.
[00:22:04] Mm-hmm. You're not changing anything because when someone walks in, all they can see is either the damage on the wall or the damage in the floor, and they're just gonna deduct, well, I'm gonna have to get all new carpet. I'm gonna have to paint the walls. And the number that comes up in their head is always going to be way more than it's gonna actually cost to fix this stuff.
[00:22:21] So we go through that whole process. I'm very open and honest, and I say, okay. These are my suggestions. It may be like bringing a new table. I think we need to just get some new decor pillows on the sofa. A new area rug. It could just be like elevating the primary bedroom with some new bedding and pillows.
[00:22:35] Sometimes it's just small stuff like that that makes a big difference in a room. And then we send off a quote, and we say, okay, this is what it's gonna cost. If you want us to come in and supply all the pieces and come do the installation. Another option could be, well, you know, if it's just a few pillows or it's white towels that you need in the bathroom.
[00:22:54] Why don't you just go buy them at home sense and get them and put them in yourself. You don't need us to do it, you know. We'll, we'll give them different scenarios based on budget, and then if they agree to the quote, then we just set a date with you. Uh, when we can come in and we do our magic, and then we try to coordinate it.
[00:23:11] So it's the photography's either the same day or the next morning. So, everything sort of stays in its place. Everything's fresh. Yeah, everything's fresh. And then once the house sells, you call us, we come back, we collect our stuff. And we take it back.
[00:23:24] Scott Dempster: You're a mover at first, and then you're putting all the knickknacks and everything else in, and then you're styling it and you're kind of doing absolutely everything. Soup to nuts, right?
[00:23:34] Andrea Foxman: We're doing soup to nuts, whether it's a vacant or partial. So, we get the contract, we go, okay, so now we pull all the big pieces, and then once we pull all the big pieces, then we go. Accessories and then we pull all the accessories. We have these tables in our warehouse, and we pull all the accessories, we put them on the table, we pull the artwork, everything, every accessory in every room we put it in.
[00:23:51] Scott Dempster: Yeah, absolutely. I talked about how your, um, furniture, when you come into a space, whether it's a craftsman home or modern or, or whatever it may be, your stuff is always usually very on trend and very, you know, to date and the things you see in magazines and stuff like, so I guess that begs the question that what do you do with.
[00:24:09] Elements in the warehouse once they're kind of outta style. Do you guys do like a warehouse sale or anything, or We do. You do? We do.
[00:24:15] Andrea Foxman: We do, yes. Okay. We usually do them once a year in the summer, so we have space to do it. Uh, we try to have that so that we can Yes. Move stuff. If stuff's not moving in our space or it's not, you know, it's not renting, then we have to sell it and find stuff that will.
[00:24:30] Scott Dempster: You still go out as the owner and, and, uh, person in charge of home ingredients and social ingredients, you still go out and do staging consults for, you know, many of our clients. And if you're not available, you know, Greg's done it or, um, Atlanta. A few. Or Atlanta. Yep. And they're all fantastic. Maybe even for people who are listening and think, oh, I'd like to get into home staging, or maybe I could work for Andrea and her team, things like that.
[00:24:56] What sort of backgrounds do you look for people who want to be stagers, either for you or they want to do it on their own? What sort of. Education do you look for on a resume that comes into home? Ingredients You go, oh, this person could be a contender for a great position with us if we're expanding.
[00:25:10] That sort of thing.
[00:25:11] Andrea Foxman: For me, number one is, uh, building a team that, a culture that everybody respects one another and understands one another. And. You know, you're dealing with a lot of creative people. To me, it's important that they have an outgoing personality. They work hard, and that they play nice in the sandbox because all this other stuff can be taught.
[00:25:32] Mm-hmm. You have to have an eye, you have to have a passion for this job, but you also have to understand that you know. Working together as a team is really important, and customer service is the number one thing for me. Like it is the be all and end all. I always say to my team, like, you know, work hard, play hard, like we all get along.
[00:25:51] You know, it's, it hasn't always been that way. Like you go through different people, and you realize, you know, sometimes, like, you know, you may be a really good stager, but. You're really quiet and shy and you don't know how to communicate with people, and that's, that's a problem. You have to be able to do it all.
[00:26:04] Right. I think that for me, that's key. And hiring people that are better than me. You know, hiring people that know things like I, you know, this whole social media and the, you know, all these things that. Are important factor to company growing. Like I'm not good at it, so I'm gonna hire somebody that is good at it.
[00:26:20] And I always say to anybody that I hire, listen, this is a way we do things, and this is sort of our brand. But if you have some other ideas or you have some other things that you wanna share, please do. Yeah, because I'm open to it all. I'm not open into putting a tray and teacups on a bed, but I'm open into like.
[00:26:38] Bringing color into a room and doing whatever you want. So, I hire people that are better,
[00:26:42] Scott Dempster: hire people that are better. And it's an interesting point that you touch on there because listening to other podcasts with realtors on it and, oh, how did you start in the business? And things like that. And you know, it's a hard career to grow into real estate staging.
[00:26:55] What whatever you do, if you wanna be successful in anything, right? But you hear it time and time again from. New realtors, not always, but you hear from new realtors saying that, you know, we staged the property our ourselves. We had a truck or pulled a trailer behind our car and did the whole staging ourselves.
[00:27:10] And I just think to myself, I go, just hiring professionals for any field I think is the best thing you can do. Right? It takes a team to have success, obviously, and that team can be extensions of your brand, of your company. I've never been a believer in doing that myself. Now I personally don't think I would have the eye for it, but I think that.
[00:27:29] You've talked about here how much work goes into the staging of whether it's three rooms, a whole house, a whole condo, things like that. There are so many other things that the realtor can be or should be doing behind the scenes. While all that staging, preparation, coordination, logistics are going on, right?
[00:27:45] So I think to do it well. You need to bring in a professional like yourself for specific things. Just like how we don't take the photos ourselves or videography or the floor plans or anything like that, because then you're pulling yourself away from what your job is probably as the broker agent listing or selling the property.
[00:28:01] Right. I think what you touch on is, like you say, bring in people that are better than you sometimes, but you know, finding those people that stand out and want to be high achievers and, and things like that for your business is success. Right, exactly. Someone
[00:28:12] Andrea Foxman: who's passionate about it. You know, who shows that they're passionate about it and who cares.
[00:28:17] I think that's the most important aspect of, of building a successful business, is just having a great team and we have a really good team. It hasn't always been that way, and it takes time to, to build that team and put the trust in people. I remember at the very beginning. When I had let other people do the staging job, I was like, okay, you have to FaceTime me before you leave.
[00:28:36] I wanna see everything. I wanna make sure everything is placed. I, I can't get there, so you need to FaceTime me. And this went on for years until finally one of the stagers said, Andrea, you know, do you not trust us? And I said, I know, I know. I do trust you now I do trust you. And you know, that's another thing.
[00:28:50] If you hire someone to do a job, you. Put some trust into them and it's taken a long time for me to let that go. And I don't FaceTime. I'll say when they come back, oh, they're so excited about the job. I'm like, let me see the pictures. And I'll be like, oh, that's great. You did a great job. And there's incidences where there's sometimes there are mistakes and we fix them and we go back and we talk about why that went wrong and how we can do better and, and that's just part of growing a business.
[00:29:13] Scott Dempster: Yeah, absolutely. You know, talking about you're constantly buying. Furniture, you're constantly sourcing items, things like that. Is there a certain trend that you're seeing right now, like this season, this year that you're finding that people are really gravitating towards? I mean, that's something that's always changing style, things like that, and you have to be adaptive for that.
[00:29:31] But is there something that you, that you've seen that's had some really good success in the last 12 to 18 months?
[00:29:36] Andrea Foxman: If we're talking about more of a styling, we do have a styling division where we work with, like show homes and, and developers where it's more curated to what the client wants then. I would say that the tone is pretty much everything that's in this room.
[00:29:50] You know, like dual browns and earth tones and you know, bit of burgundies and just layers, like different types of fabrics, like velvet and mixed patterns and
[00:30:00] Scott Dempster: is velvet back?
[00:30:01] Andrea Foxman: Yeah, I don't think I love velvet. For me, velvet's never been gone on like
[00:30:05] Scott Dempster: George Costanza, like drape yourself. Seriously. All that seriously. Like I could do velvet all day, every day, all day. Really love it.
[00:30:07] Andrea Foxman: Yeah, but you know, just mixing patterns and fabrics and just, I think everybody's getting away from the gray walls, the white walls and just warm layers. Just, just, people want it to feel homey, right? Mm-hmm. It's all about the lighting. It's about the layers and the textures and, and that's sort of what we're feeling a lot of the times when we go into these empty new builds.
[00:30:29] It's always still white walls. Which is great for a modern place, and we love that because you can make it modern and poppy, but it's hard to tell somebody to, you know, they just built this house, oh, can you paint your walls? So, we have to bring in those colors in the furniture and the accessories.
[00:30:44] Scott Dempster: Yeah, and that's something that Erica Windfield.
[00:30:46] We talked about on our last episode is that, you know, with a lot of the new construction that you see out there, not, not in all cases, but it's still the white walls, the black hardware, things like that. And if they have an interior designer, sometimes you can add more personality during that design build stage, as opposed to you come in and.
[00:31:04] Your hands are kind of already tied to a certain degree because it is what it is in terms of the physical space. Mm-hmm. And then you have to have, you know, add some life to the space and yeah. I, I would say that the majority of homes that we've sold clients into in the last 18 months, the ones that have really stood out have a little bit more of that kind of moody personality in certain areas.
[00:31:25] Right. A lot of the stark whites and things like that have just kind of gone by the wayside. Mm-hmm. They just don't stand out as much. Right. To have those furniture elements, like you say, that are. A little bit more of what we're talking about here I think is important and you know, it's always changing, right?
[00:31:37] Which is the hard part, one of the hard parts of your business and that. You gotta be adaptive with it all, all the time, right? Yes, a hundred percent.
[00:31:44] Andrea Foxman: Yeah. And, and I think that that's just part of, I mean, that's the fun part of the job is that we get to always, you know, shop and find new things and pull things together.
[00:31:54] There's nothing more satisfying than. Taking empty space and just making it beautiful or taking a space that homeowners have and, you know, reinventing it in a way that, you know, brings it 10 new years to the, to the house. You know what I mean? Just by furniture. So, it's so satisfying to, to see the end result.
[00:32:10] And that's what I love about staging compared to design. It's just like that instant gratification, you know?
[00:32:15] Scott Dempster: Yeah. It's probably a pretty hard question to answer, but it's sometimes. Something that we get asked by clients when we're listing a home, they'll get a staging quote, or whether it is, like I say, two rooms or an entire house just for round numbers.
[00:32:28] They say it's, you know, $5,000, right? And they say, well, Scott, Colin, what's gonna be my, my return on investment on this? Right? And that that's, and like I say, I, I preface the question because that's such a hard thing to nail down because if it looks great, it's gonna get more eyes. Does that equate to an actual ROI Probably not.
[00:32:46] But in your experience with it. The homes that you're putting together, how would you kind of explain that to a client or potential client on, on the investment of staging in their home, get it sold?
[00:32:59] Andrea Foxman: So, there's a number of things. I mean, stats are stats and it depends where you look at. They say the average seller, you know, they get eight to 10%.
[00:33:06] Back in return. Sometimes it's more, you know, but I would say that you have to also think about how long houses on the market. So say you invest $5,000 in staging and it sells the first month to say you don't stage, and now your house is sitting on the market for two or three months, four months, five months, how much money are you losing then?
[00:33:24] Right. So I mean, a perfect example is we had a realtor that we work for took over a listing of a house that was on the market for a year and she knew we work with her forever and she knows the value of staging. And we went in and we staged the place and it literally sold in 15 days. You know, another house we just did two weeks ago, uh, $7.5 million house.
[00:33:44] Well, those take long to sell. Mm-hmm. In this market, it's sold in two weeks. Mm-hmm. Sometimes we stage and things don't sell fast because it just. It could be that, you know, price is too high or it's just that time of year, or it's not always gonna be sold within the first month or two months. But from my experience, 18 years of doing this, it does sell faster and you do get, you generally get a bit of a bidding war on the house.
[00:34:10] People will pay more for something that they see value. And
[00:34:13] Scott Dempster: then host, they can see themselves living in too, right? A
[00:34:15] Andrea Foxman: hundred percent. You know, you show up in a suit, and I show up in jeans, in a blazer, whatever. Are you gonna pick the guy in the suit or are you gonna pick the girl in the jeans? In a blazer, probably person that's dressed up a little bit more because you have, you perceive it to have more value.
[00:34:28] Scott Dempster: or dress for the part?
[00:34:29] Dress for the part,
[00:34:30] Andrea Foxman: like you perceive it to have more value, right? Yeah. So, if you walk into a home that looks amazing and well taken care of, and the front yard looks great and the furniture is clean. And everything's in its place and it's tidy and it looks great. You think, well, these people really cared about their house, that they take care of their stuff.
[00:34:45] Then I know that they're gonna take care of their house and right. It just this perception and it's true.
[00:34:49] Scott Dempster: Yeah, no, absolutely. Absolutely. We've touched on it, and you know why we're sitting here. I'm a realtor, you're a stager. Would you say that the majority of your home ingredients side to the business.
[00:34:59] Is directly connected to or referred to from realtors or do homeowners and, and they fully can, they can approach you if they're thinking of listing their house and say, reach out to you. But is it predominantly from realtors who create the referral?
[00:35:12] Andrea Foxman: Yes, a hundred percent.
[00:35:14] Scott Dempster: Okay.
[00:35:14] Andrea Foxman: 90%? Yes.
[00:35:15] Scott Dempster: 90%, yes. And., I guess again, for if realtors are listening or homeowners or anyone, what is kind of the key to a successful relationship between stager and realtor?
[00:35:27] You know, how does that kind of play a role in the process?
[00:35:29] Andrea Foxman: I think it's just understanding our value and understanding that we're a team that we both want the place to sell. It's in our best interest, you know, just building up a relationship of trust.
[00:35:39] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:35:39] Andrea Foxman: I know that realtors, when they know that I walk into a house to do a consultation, they don't have to be there.
[00:35:44] They trust me.
[00:35:44] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:35:45] Andrea Foxman: They trust that I'm gonna be respectful. Any of our team is gonna be respectful, that we know what we're doing and that they can trust us. And I think that's part of building their relationship and understanding that we do add value to your service and we work really hard in doing so.
[00:36:00] Scott Dempster: Yeah, absolutely. If I can't be there. Trying to have Colin there and, and vice versa, things like that. And we have that absolute trust in you, but I want to prepare myself mentally too, and no one understand and kind of see their reactions and kind of feel the situation out. We did have one that you had done for us, and then after the client.
[00:36:21] Was like, oh, they suggested this and this and this, and then you're kind of the third party to the equation. Now, all of your staging advice in that specific scenario were bang on and perfect, but to get that information third hand, I think in a lot of cases you're not really doing your job unless you're involved with.
[00:36:39] Every part of it. Mm-hmm. And it's not so much the trust thing that you're talking on, it's more just being your own eyes and ears for the understanding of the overall process of the market list and sell a hundred percent. Like I say, it's just good to know and understand and it helps us be better at our jobs long term too.
[00:36:52] 'cause we're learning from you guys as much as you know anyone to hear what should be move, what should be changed, different things like that too. A
[00:36:58] Andrea Foxman: hundred percent. I mean, ideally, we'd love you to be there.
[00:37:01] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:37:01] Andrea Foxman: That's our goal is to have. You or any realtor walks through with the client with us.
[00:37:06] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:37:06] Andrea Foxman: But if you cannot be there, then yeah.
[00:37:09] Then usually I will say, like, if there's a situation where I felt that it was tense or there they were like hesitant, then I will say, listen, they were really hesitant. They didn't really wanna move this, you know, we talked about it, but I, I just feel like it's, I think we have to let that one go. You know, we're gonna have to keep that rug in there because they were adamant on not moving it.
[00:37:27] The communication between the realtor and the stager is, is very important too.
[00:37:31] Scott Dempster: Us being present for that process is, is very key.
[00:37:35] Andrea Foxman: And I think a lot of the kickback with people who live in the space while they're selling it is for us that we hear is, you know, where am I gonna put it? What am I gonna do with that?
[00:37:43] Scott Dempster: That's where the push back
[00:37:44] Andrea Foxman: comes. That's what push back comes. But then it, then, then what I try to say, it's like, I understand, but like, and I used my example, like when I moved my place. I literally had to get a pod in front of my house and move a ton of stuff out. Mm-hmm. Because the way we live and the way we sell our house are different.
[00:37:58] And that's what they just have to understand. And then they have to understand that, you know, timeline, timeline is another big thing. I, and I'm sure you get a bit of a pushback on that. Okay, we gotta get on the market. It's now let's do it, let's have it happen. And it becomes overwhelming because sometimes it's a lot of stuff that they have to do, and sometimes it's very little.
[00:38:15] So it just depends on the house. And I think it's so important for us to communicate that prior to going in saying, listen, it's a big house. There's lots to do. What's your timeline? If you tell me the timeline's two weeks, I'm gonna say to you, that's gonna be overwhelming. This is not gonna happen because there's no way that this entire house is gonna be able to be packed up or half of it in two weeks and then have like all blah blah, blah.
[00:38:37] So can we work on a different timeline because otherwise. I'm gonna just give them half of what I think needs to be done. It's about that communication. 'Cause we also wanna meet your timeline too, and your deadline.
[00:38:47] Scott Dempster: No, totally. And what Colin and I always do is, like I said, after the initial meeting or we've signed listing docs and we're gonna come to market in X number of days, we usually send a timeline email with specific dates.
[00:38:59] So working backwards from basically the day we go to market. All the way back to, you know, kind of present day and in there usually is a staging item. And depending on how the house looks based on your initial consultation, there's usually anywhere between. Seven days and 14 days of quote unquote declutter and everything that's been on your suggestion list of things to get the home prepared for.
[00:39:26] Right? A
[00:39:26] Andrea Foxman: hundred percent. And that's why I say bring us in as soon as you can. I think it's important that, that we just are in there from the beginning. Because if you are on a timeline, um, then we, we wanna give the client as much time as they can to. To be able to have, to prepare it and, and, and be able to check the, the stuff off that they can, like, it's all about being part of a team.
[00:39:45] Like sometimes you need to bring an organizer into a house to help organize packing it up, or sometimes you, you know, there's different people that we can pull from to help the clients and you achieve what you need to do to sell the house.
[00:39:58] Scott Dempster: Totally. You touched on, you know, the scenario where a home is, say overcrowded with, you know, too much furniture, too many paintings, things like that.
[00:40:07] And sometimes the suggestion is made to get a pod, and most people know what those are. It's they come, they drop it off on your front lawn or you. Driveway and you load all your stuff into it and it's sealed and dry and they take it away for X number of days and
[00:40:20] Yep. When your house
[00:40:21] sells or whatever, they, they bring it back.
[00:40:23] Sometimes, you know, people have said, oh, we get a pod, and some people are inclined to do that depending on if they don't have parking. So, it's a town home in Moody or you know, wherever it might be. They don't have the room, the space. But I wanna get your thoughts because if a home has an attached detached, 2, 3, 4, 5 car garage.
[00:40:41] What I've said to people is people know and understand it's a garage, and the garage, as we know is a great place to put all your stuff. And if they don't have a lot of stuff in there, I always say to people, this is where people know that you can store stuff. So, you may as well take all those over cluttered items based on your consultation and put it into garage.
[00:40:59] What's your thought on garages and, and should they be? Do, do you mind? Because for me, when I bring in a buyer to a house and it's say the garage is not like you can not open the door, but if it's full of stuff, I don't really mind that and I can kind of see past it. Mm-hmm. So is that a good, lesser No. I mean, I would rather it be in the garage.
[00:41:19] Andrea Foxman: than in the house.
[00:41:20] Scott Dempster: Yeah,
[00:41:20] Andrea Foxman: and I think if it's in the garage and it's put away nicely and you can open up the door, then even better. But yeah, a hundred percent use the garage. Sometimes if there's a spare room and a basement of a house, I'll say store your stuff in there and the main floor and the primary bedrooms are the key areas to state.
[00:41:37] Scott Dempster: Okay. Let's say you are going to an open house, you're looking for a new house. What are the first things that you notice when you go into an open house?
[00:41:46] Andrea Foxman: Anytime I go into a house, I always put my, always put myself in a position as a buyer. Mm-hmm. That's just how I, okay. I'm the buyer. What am I looking for?
[00:41:54] Mm-hmm. So, the first thing again is curb appeal. Right. Um, front door, if you know, paint your front door. It doesn't take much. If your door's old and whatever, just paint it or do something fun, poppy with it. Put some fresh flowers, pot flowers, all year round. You could put something in your front door to make it look nice.
[00:42:12] Front door is first impression, and lighting is key as well. I'm looking for a house that's clean. I'm looking for a house that's tidy. I'm looking for a house that has, you know, if it has style and it's got nice, good quality furniture, great. That just elevates the space. I love things that are eclectic, like just because you have a traditional sofa doesn't mean you can't pair it with a modern chair.
[00:42:32] You have to keep the client's personality in there. It's so important not to strip that away when you come in.
[00:42:37] Scott Dempster: I said, when we're listing agents on a house, some buyers will come in for a private showing, or they'll come through an open house and sometimes we've had the comment, oh, I wanna be friends with these people.
[00:42:46] Right. Yeah. Based on some of the artwork, and, and again, you want to, your process is you want to be appeasing to more or less everyone.
[00:42:52] Yeah.
[00:42:52] But at the same time have some personality to it and create, you know, an experience for someone. They can picture themselves living there.
[00:42:58] Andrea Foxman: And then sometimes, you know, like a lot of times you have families and you have kids and people don't wanna spend the money on.
[00:43:04] Expensive furniture and chairs and tables. 'Cause they're gonna destroy it, right? Yeah. When they're toddlers. So then, you know, like this house is a $7 million house, but their dog chewed up the table. Yeah. The kids spill stuff all over the chairs and you, you homeowners know that. They know that, oh, okay. I have kids and I have dogs and I have all that kind of stuff, but.
[00:43:24] We get it because that's how we live. Mm-hmm. But if you're trying to sell a $7 million home or a $1 million home, you have to just, you have to replace that stuff.
[00:43:33] Scott Dempster: Yeah. Yeah. It's a part of it. It's a part of the process, right. Part of, yeah. Declutter. That's another one. Declutter is the biggest. Declutter is the biggest.
[00:43:38] Declutter.
[00:43:39] Andrea Foxman: Declutter, declutter, declutter, clean and depersonalize. And refresh paint is such an inexpensive way of changing a house and making it feel new again. Right? And again, it goes back to all the things that you know that you need to do in your house. So, either you're going to do it or the new owner's gonna do it.
[00:44:02] Going back to it's gonna cost me this, it's gonna cost me that. Now it's gonna, in their mind, they're thinking it's gonna cost me $50,000 to do all the things that I can see that need to be done. Where if you would've done it yourself, it might've been 25, so now you've saved yourself money, right? The more the client walks in and has to check off all the things that they have to do, the less you're gonna get.
[00:44:21] Scott Dempster: Wanna talk about, I guess, your arch nemesis in the business, that being ai, artificial intelligence and virtual staging.
[00:44:31] Mm-hmm.
[00:44:32] So, you know why I'm not a believer in it is because, yeah, sure. In some cases, the photos can look. Good. Great. Depending on the quality of the virtual staging, but everything that we've discussed here is initial feeling when you walk through the front door or come through the condo door into the space, and you have that initial feeling emotion of what the space is.
[00:44:55] You don't get that with virtual staging, obviously.
[00:44:59] Andrea Foxman: I understand why people wanna do it because you wanna get people in the door and, you know, going back to the very beginning, like your MLS pictures are what's gonna get people through the door. They're not even gonna drive by your house or the place if they're not attracted to what they see on in these pictures.
[00:45:15] So, sure. So, it gets the people in the door. They get into the door and then they're like, oh, it's just a blank wall. And the thing is about virtual staging is that they're not designers. They don't understand scale. You know, we've walked into places that have been virtually staged. It'll show like a bedroom with a bed, a nightstand, and I remember, and there was an occasional chair, they virtually staged it, and then they eventually called us and we came in and staged it.
[00:45:40] We're standing in the room. It was so small that room. But there's no way a bed, a dresser, and a chair was fitting in there. It's a misconception if they don't understand scale and if they're not designers. So, you can put whatever you want into a virtual stage, but if it doesn't fit a room, then it doesn't fit a room.
[00:45:56] And it's, it's, it's misleading. But more importantly, it goes back to like having that emotion when you walk into a space. Right. You know, selling a lifestyle.
[00:46:04] Scott Dempster: Switching gears a bit, you have. Social ingredients, so this is pretty cool because you know, furniture rental places, there's tons of them out there.
[00:46:14] What I find is that they're pretty generic, what I have seen of the social ingredient side. Is, it's quite curated. It's very thought out. Where I've seen it is event you and I have gone to, mm-hmm. For years at Music Heals at the Commodore
[00:46:29] Yes.
[00:46:29] Dave Barnett's Foundation there, which is such an amazing cause.
[00:46:33] I'd love to hear kind of more about that side and what type of events you're. Pursuing or where you're seeing that your social ingredient side is being used the most?
[00:46:41] Andrea Foxman: Well, the reason I started social ingredients was when I had a big birthday. I wanted to, I found a space to rent, but it needed furniture and there's only really one other place in town that rented furniture that was nothing.
[00:46:54] I ended up having to buy stuff for my own party and I was just like, okay. So that sort of got me thinking. I was like, well, I'm in the rental business. This is crazy. Like how is there not, how can you not buy event furniture that has. Some life and some style and stuff. So that's sort of where it kind of came from.
[00:47:11] I started it probably about nine months before COVID and then, you know, had to sh I had to shut it down and time during COVID actually gave me and my manager the time for social ingredients to sort of say, okay. Let's, let's spend this time to design stuff that we actually want, though. For two years we spent the time, we went across these, we got fabrics, we worked with suppliers, and we started getting containers coming in.
[00:47:38] Mm-hmm. And um, once that started happening, even prior to that, we sort of went to all. It's a different event planner. Say, what is it? What are you missing? What, what, what can, what do you need? What can we bring in that can, you know, that will help you elevate your space? Or like, just pretty much put everything, we are more focused on corporate, you know, corporate events, you know, we'll do private parties.
[00:47:59] We'll do bar, bar bat mitzvahs, we'll do, you know, brand launching. We'll do weddings, but it's mostly lounges. So, we have cocktail tables. Bar tables, bars, lounge, furniture. And we do curate certain props too. Like we are sort of getting more evolved into the design aspect of it as well.
[00:48:16] Scott Dempster: Yeah. You know, hearing corporate side, like you say you're taking big rectangle ballroom mm-hmm.
[00:48:21] And you're filling it. Mm-hmm. That's kind of the bread and butter of that kind of side of it. But like you say, you, you still have all the bars and things like that. Yeah. For elements of, so, so if someone had a. Big West van or West side house and they're having 150 people over and they wanted to elevate it.
[00:48:36] Social ingredients can do as well.
[00:48:37] Andrea Foxman: a hundred percent. They'll put up tents, we'll bring in bar tables, bar stools. We don't have the cloth. We have beautiful marble tops. We, you know, we have easy stuff, functioning stuff. We have. Color. You want color? We have color velvet. I love the velvet. Yeah. What's a velvet?
[00:48:51] Um, you know, we just, every like, we just got a new container of all kinds of new funky stuff. So yeah, we can do someone's backyard, we can do, just bring a couple cocktail tables into their house. We can fill up the Commodore ballroom anywhere. You already, we will come.
[00:49:06] Scott Dempster: This has been pretty outstanding.
[00:49:08] You know, not only to kind of know and understand the process from how the whole staging happens, from the initial consultation to the logistics of moving things in, moving things out, and I think it's just such a invaluable component to the marketing aspect and to selling a home wherever it is, and. For people to understand the value that's put into it.
[00:49:26] So I really thank you for coming on,
[00:49:28] Andrea Foxman: and realtors are welcome to come into our warehouse and have conversations with us, and if they have questions, they can call anytime. If you don't sell your home, it's not good for us either, right? So, we're, we're in it together, and that's what we have. That's why I want realtors to understand we're on your side.
[00:49:44] Scott Dempster: Yeah. Yeah. No, that's fantastic. Andrea, last question. Mm-hmm. Where can the people find you? What's the websites?
[00:49:50] Andrea Foxman: Home ingredients? Do ca Okay. Um, social ingredients.ca. We are Southwest Marine Drive. Just give us a call. Ask us any questions that you want. We're here for you from start to finish, whether it's staging a home or planning an event, we, we've got you.
[00:50:04] Scott Dempster: Awesome. Thank you very much for coming on, Andrea. Thank
[00:50:06] Andrea Foxman: you for having me. Thanks. It's been fun. I was nervous, but it was good.
[00:50:09] Scott Dempster: See you settle in. I know. It's fun. You settle in. It's good. If you like this podcast, please do follow. Give us a rating anywhere you get your podcasts. We are available. See you next time.
[00:50:19] Thanks for hanging out with us. And remember in Vancouver Real Estate, nothing's off the table and everything's negotiable. Subscribe now to the real estate of things wherever you get your podcast.