Today we’d like to introduce you to Courtney Isenhart.
Hi Courtney, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
After graduating with my bachelor’s degree in business economics from UCF in 2012, my thought process was to get a corporate job and climb the proverbial ladder until I retired. In my “you just got a bachelor’s degree” mind, that was just what you did. A few months into my first corporate job, I realized I wasn’t happy. I tried to shake it off and convince myself it was normal and that it would take time before I found the perfect role. Seven years and about four job changes later, I still had this aching feeling that I was never going to love my job. Something was missing.
A few years ago, I was well into my final corporate role as the lead business analyst for a large company and trying to decide my next strategic move. On paper, my job was fantastic. I worked for a well-known company, I was paid very well, I had terrific benefits, my co-workers had become close friends, and I had worked my way into a position where I was given a lot of freedom in my role, but even with all of that, I wasn’t happy. Several years prior to this, my husband was feeling the exact same way and he took the leap to become a Realtor. With his new job, I saw my fair share of real estate listing photos and started to notice that some houses looked great, while others were a wreck. This is when I started learning about the concept of home staging – temporarily furnishing homes to help them sell. This sounded so fun to me! I love design and décor, and to work alongside my husband would be a blast! In my “you must have a corporate job” mind, I stuck this in my brain files as something to revisit as a fun hobby one day when I no longer needed to work full time.
Still feeling unhappy in my role, I decided to go back to school to receive my master’s degree in business administration to hopefully find something that piqued my interest. About a year into the program, I realized what I wanted: to own my own business. I started thinking about the home staging idea in more seriousness, and a few months later, COVID hit. In March of 2020, my entire office started working from home, and as people began getting laid off left and right and the hospitalization and death rate continued to climb, something hit me hard. As cliché as it sounds, tomorrow isn’t promised. I decided right then and there that job title, salary, benefits – all these things I had been pursuing for years – didn’t matter because I wasn’t happy. This is the only life I have, and I can’t spend it working in a role that I only tolerate, or at best, like. I am going to spend it doing something I love.
So in June of 2020, I started to plan and establish my business, and on October 1, 2020, I resigned from my corporate life and Isenhart Interiors was officially born! This first year of owning a business has been incredible. I now realize what was missing all those years from my corporate job, and that was passion! I wake up every day excited to learn, grow, and build my business. There are easy days and hard days, but there are never bad days, and I am so happy I took this leap!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
This past year of Isenhart Interiors has been fabulous, and I am happy with what I have been able to accomplish. That is not to say there haven’t been challenges. With a business background, several years as a business analyst, and a little over two-thirds of my MBA (I’ll be graduating Spring 2022), establishing the business was no problem at all and I was able to get it up and running in no time. I quickly found storage options, secured new transportation to function better for moving furniture, found movers to help with staging days, stocked my inventory, and completed all the back-end formalities of legally starting a business. I immediately got certified as a Staging Design Professional, established a logo and a website, and I was ready to go. But here is the challenge: some people are natural-born salespeople, and some are not. I am not.
Homes staged by Isenhart Interiors go under contract in an average of only 4.2 days and have consistently sold either at or above list price. Our staging is high-quality, we go above and beyond for our clients, and we have the data to show that our staging truly works. My natural talent and passion, coupled with my professional certification in home staging, sets Isenhart Interiors up for greatness. I know we can compete with the best, but I am still learning how to stop being an analyst and start being a salesperson!
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Home staging is equal parts art and science. Many people think of home staging as interior design, but the difference in the two is that interior design is for living, and home staging is for selling. When I’m explaining this distinction to others, I usually focus on the family room as an example. Consider a family room that has a gorgeous wall of windows overlooking a lake and a moderately sized fireplace with a mantle that also serves as a T.V. console. Most people would use this room to hang out as a family and watch T.V., but which of the two is really the selling feature of the home? With most homes having a mantle or T.V. console of some type, the windows overlooking the lake is the feature we want to highlight!
When a home is designed for living, we focus the placement of our furniture on the use of the room, which for many in this case would be watching television. When we do this, we can disrupt the natural gaze of our eyes and minimize the greatness of the lake view. Our eyes may never even make it to the lake view because we immediately focus on the fireplace/mantle because the furniture placement forces them in that direction. When staging this home for sale, we would not place the furniture in a fashion that shows off the room’s use as a T.V. area, but instead in a way that draws the eye to the windows overlooking the lake to “wow!” every buyer that comes through.
To date, my proudest moment came from a home that was to be listed on the market for $1,650,000 in Baldwin Park, here in Orlando. When I previewed the property, I was immediately nervous about accepting the job. Isenhart Interiors furniture is light and breezy, and this home was dark and rich. Not only was it a large home, but it had some challenges I needed to overcome. Staging is never about hiding unwanted features, but about highlighting selling features. This home came with regal wallpaper, ornate light fixtures, and a lot of dark flooring that was speckled with paint from a previous painting job. While still beautiful, I wasn’t sure I could stage it in a way that would distract from some of these taste-specific features and support such a high list price. The home did come with amazing pool views, a fantastic kitchen, and all the bells and whistles you could need, so despite my concerns about my ability to adequately furnish the space, I accepted the job and pressed forward. This staging turned out to be my absolute favorite to date and it went pending in only four days for the full asking price!
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
The outlook for Isenhart Interiors is exciting! Over the next five years, we hope to grow to a size that allows us to have a large warehouse, multiple branded moving trucks, and the addition of new services like virtual staging, interior design, and in-house photography! I see nothing but greatness in our future!
Contact Info:
- Email: courtney@isenhartinteriors.com
- Website: https://isenhartinteriors.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/isenhartinteriors/
Image Credits
VTR Productions & Images, Inc.
