Nora Crosthwaite is on a quest to disrupt the staging industry.
After spending 17 years in IT, Crosthwaite made a sudden shift in career paths and decided to start her own real estate business in 2015. It did not take her long to discover that having to constantly schedule in-person staging consultations for her listings was not an efficient or effective process for sellers and stagers.
“I probably spent a year looking for a service where I could take pictures on my cell phone, send them to a stager, and get the report.”
After being unable to find the service she was looking for, Crosthwaite started Stagerie, an online home staging consultation solution, connecting realtors who list homes for sale with expert stagers who stage homes for sale.
Using Stagerie’s website, agents and homeowners can easily submit photos of a home and receive a personalized and professional staging consultation by email within two days. To receive a Stagerie consultation costs just $180.

The sent went live a year ago, currently has 12 stagers in five states, and recently became the first and only home staging company that is RE/MAX approved supplier.
Home staging has quickly become one of the most effective real estate marketing strategies in the industry. According to Forbes, a staged home will sell for 17% more on average than a non-staged home, and 95% of staged homes sell in 11 days or less.
Last September, Stagerie was awarded a $25,000 POCR loan from the IEDA for market analysis, product refinement and market entry activities. Shortly after that, the company was accepted into the Spring 2021 cohort of the Iowa Startup Accelerator (ISA).
“Going through the accelerator was like getting an MBA in three months,” said Crosthwaite. “We received training in tracking financials, customer discovery, gaining traction, traction channels, and pitching. It was an intense and exhilarating experience.”
What’s next for Stagerie?
Crosthwaite says she has a large product roadmap that she hopes to rollout over the next few years, and hopes to offer different tiers of staging services.
She’s also working on creating more partnerships with some of the regional or national brokerages.
“Right now my main focus is positioning, so that as the market shifts, and it will, we’re there and we’re ready,” said Crosthwaite. “Because all these sellers that are used to selling a house in 10 hours, are going to have it sit on the market for 10 days.”