T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY Mother/daughter duo Debra Hippler, right, and Alushia Fitzgerald, left, are moving their business Staging 2 Sell It from a downtown location at 1 W. Main St. to a new south side spot at 3110 S. 6th St. The new office will open April 1.

The mother/daughter design team of Debra Hippler and Alushia Fitzgerald opened Staging 2 Sell It in 2017 in downtown Marshalltown. To accommodate their growing business, the duo is moving to the south side of town. The office will close from March 25-29 and reopen in the new location at 3110 S. 6th St. on April 1.

“We love our downtown so much. Because we are a service-based company, we feel like taking up viable retail space in this downtown isn’t beneficial to other businesses,” Hippler said. “So we want to be able to give that back to a retail business that can benefit from this great location. That way, we can move forward and everyone else can as well.”

Marshalltown’s central location appealed to the women, who previously had worked out of a series of storage units in Illinois.

Their current setup is a corner lot at 1 W. Main St. with approximately 3,000 square feet upstairs and 2,000 square feet downstairs.

“We’re moving into the old IWS building and it has almost 7,000 square feet,” Hippler noted.

It’s also all on one level.

“We need more space, easier access. There is no loading dock on Main Street and we have to load trucks out the front,” Hippler said of the logistical challenges. “But we’re sad about losing our display windows. We really enjoyed doing all the holiday decorating and things like that. We won’t have that (at the new location).”

Notably, they also decorate for the annual Holly & Ivy event at the Salisbury House & Gardens in Des Moines.

They serve a 100-mile radius but are willing to travel farther based on the needs of clients. For the staging of vacant houses, they use all new materials they own. Attention to detail is crucial.

“We do themed kids’ rooms, man caves, bedrooms, family rooms, game rooms, kitchens and dining,” Fitzgerald said. “We have probably enough inventory to do 11 houses with three bedrooms, and all the fixings that go with that: art, rugs, silk trees and décor.”

You only get one chance to make a good first impression with a potential buyer.

“When you walk into one of our homes, we really want you to feel like you’re walking into someone’s home — that lifestyle feel without actually being lived in with all the clutter. It helps buyers sort of envision that home as potentially being theirs. It also gives them a really good idea of scale. Sometimes when you walk into vacant homes, it’s very difficult to determine if your furniture pieces will fit in there,” Fitzgerald explained.

Mother and daughter also offer occupied-staging packages but use a company for rental of the furnishings.

But the pair does not merely deal in home staging. They can also decorate and update any room(s) in your house.

“We can take all those ideas in your head, put them down on paper and help you take all of those selections and come up with a cohesive design,” Fitzgerald said. “In the new showroom space, we’ll actually be able to meet with clients there.”

A sample room will let clients view paint, flooring and countertops. They will continue to meet with clients in their homes if preferred.

While they won’t be headquartered in downtown Marshalltown anymore, they will remain active supporters. Fitzgerald serves on the board of the Marshalltown Central Business District (MCBD) and is the promotions chair.

“We will continue to be involved in everything downtown,” Fitzgerald said. “There’s a lot of exciting stuff that’s coming up for the downtown as far as the Main Street renovations and the facade stuff. Living through the tornado and the derecho — being downtown — it’s nice to finally see the downtown getting back and even better than what it was before those two events happened.”

An open house for clients will be held in the future.

“We’re finding that we’re having to continue to buy more inventory because we have so much out with our builders and homeowners and realtors and things like that,” Hippler said. “It’s been a real true blessing that they just keep pushing out more and more. We just keep widening our radius to accommodate those people. It’s hard to say no when we love what we do.”

The business may be reached at 309-368-9920 or debra@staging2sellit.com. View their social media platforms and website at www.staging2sellit.com.