Opinion
Traditional interior designers are ill-suited for home staging's intense physical demands
“I wasn't hiring interior designers. No one's gonna walk around in high heels and a cute dress and do staging. It's hard work.”
Opinion
Baer: San Quentin prison grounds were the safest place to live
“You know, it was the safest place to live. Who was going to steal my bicycle? You know, it was pretty much go out and play and come home when it's dark, That kind of a childhood, and I felt very safe. There were guards all over the place.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Baer: Bob Guccione Asked Her to Pose Nude in Penthouse
“And then Guccione Wanted to put me in the magazine. He wanted me to be naked in the magazine, and I went.”
Assertion Contradicted
Government forced Winston to pull Baer's cigarette ads for looking 16
“They, in fact, with my Winston ads, the government made them tape my ads down, because I always looked young for my age. They thought I looked 16. And that it was just wrong for my image to encourage children to smoke.”
Insight
Anchor home staging fees to the seller's monthly mortgage holding costs
“First of all, I thought, what I'm doing is going to sell their house, and it's going to sell it fast. And so I figure, their monthly mortgage has to be X. And every month that it's on the market, they're paying that. So do they want to sell it in one month, or…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Baer's first staged home sold for $500,000 over asking price
“So the house sold in a matter of days for half a million over asking to the head of one of the studios.”
Disclosure
Baer rejected a Barbra Streisand screenwriting project to pursue home staging
“I had to say no. I had to decide that I was going to go in this other direction.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
A rug dealer gave Baer roughly $1 million in inventory on consignment
“And this one gentleman gave me, I mean, probably at one point a million dollars of rugs to use on consignment.”
Insight
Why neutral white sofas became a ubiquitous home staging industry standard
“I always found that if I had white sofas, they were neutral, and I could bring in all kinds of different art and different looks, and it would all work. So that was one of the things that I started out doing, and I can see that all the people who have since be…”
Insight
Home sellers should invest in fresh paint instead of new kitchens
“We always encourage a paint to the homeowner. Invest in that, but don't build a new kitchen.”
Insight
The view upon opening the front door determines home buyer attachment
“What we want when they open the door, whatever they see is the most important thing. That moment is when you fall in love.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Meredith Baer Home doubled its revenue every year for its first decade
“Oh, it at least doubled every year for the first 10 years.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Major developers defaulted on staging fees just before the 2008 housing crash
“We had a lot of really big developers who weren't making their rental payments and were owing us more and more money, and a lot of them went bankrupt.”
Disclosure
Baer bootstrapped her massive staging business by borrowing against her house
“I never did. I have two warehouses in LA now, but I borrowed money from my house, you know, for the down payment on those.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Meredith Baer Home manufactures 60% to 70% of its upholstered furniture
“I would say, 60 to 70% of our upholstered furnishings we make.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Meredith Baer Home maintains 700 to 900 concurrent home staging installations
“Oh, no, more like, we usually have about seven to 900 homes installed at any given time.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Meredith Baer recently staged a single luxury home for $185,000
“We're just finishing a home right now, as we speak, that was a 185,000 dollar job.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Baer: Bought and flipped Boulder houses for $8,000 while in college
“Whatever money I could save, I started flipping houses, and at that time in Boulder, you could buy a little house for 2000 dollars, and I'd flip it and sell it for eight, and all I would do really is to make it look cuter.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Baer: Jerry Bruckheimer cast her in a Pepsi commercial
“He's an ad guy and came up to me and asked me to be in a Pepsi commercial, and I went, yeah, right.”
Assertion Supported
Baer was cast in the final episode of Happy Days
“I was on the very last episode of Happy Days.”
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Meredith Baer sold her debut screenplay 'Prisoners' for $250,000 in 1980
“Well, I sold it for a quarter of a million dollars in 1980.”
Disclosure
Baer: Put career on hold for years while dating Patrick Stewart
“The other thing for me, it was the only time in my entire life I gave up myself for those few years. To be with him, because he was making movies all over the world, I Traveled with him, and so I really put my career on the back burner, and then we started liv…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Landlord sold Baer's rental home after seeing her decorative makeover
“I found myself fixing up this little house I was renting, and rearranging the furniture, and then I went out and bought about a 150 huge pots, and grew trees, and plants, and flowers, and I was, I just wanted to be in the garden, and make things pretty, and th…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Baer: Early staging clients provided free rent and paid her to furnish homes
“Not only free rent, they'll pay me to bring my furniture there.”
