Home staging company started by teen sees phenomenal growth after four years

MAITLAND, Fla . - Systematic Home Staging is now the largest home staging company in the United States.  It's hard to believe it was started by a teenager with the money he saved from selling his dog walking business, but It all comes naturally to owner Joseph Sipp.   

“We really want to bring in some textures with the fluff, some textures over here that bring in our color story,”  Sipp said as she showed FOX 35 News how he chose the color scheme his company used on a $1.4 million house off of North Park Avenue. 

The company’s goal is to make each house they stage feel like a home to help entice potential buyers. 

“We really want to bring that customization to the home because that’s what buyers want to see. They really want to be able to connect with that property,” explained Sipp, who has been in the home staging business for just four years.  “We always have around 160 actively staged properties.”

He was just 16 and a sophomore in high school when he started the business.  His parents flipped homes throughout his childhood and he liked helping.  He thought he wanted to be a realtor.  

“My aunt owns a staging company in Tampa and she was like, have you ever thought of home staging? You‘re so creative,” he said.  

So he gave it a try.  

“I bought one house of furniture from Ikea,” Sipp said.  

He staged one home, then hustled to get his next job.  He said at that point, his biggest challenge was getting prospective clients to take him seriously.  But his work spoke for itself.  Little by little, he was signing homebuilders and realtors and was getting referral after referral.  He was using the profit from each job to buy more furniture.  Then, he says his business took off.  

“I was picking up the phone during school and getting in trouble and getting detentions.  I was like I’m running a business and no one believed me,” Sipp said.  

His first employee was someone to take business calls while he was in class.  

“I would literally go to consults with my school uniform on,” Sipp recalled.  

His older brothers would help him move furniture from house to house, and sometimes he said he would even have to drive the U-Haul truck to school.  

Four years later, Systematic Home Staging employee a team of professionals. 

“Twenty employees, trucks vans, warehouse, furniture. Not what I expected at all. Not at all at 16,17 years old. Then I was like this is actually my calling,” Sipp said.  

He showed us around his company’s 9,000 square foot warehouse in Maitland, where being organized is key.   

“This is like where we have all of our furniture and sofas and accent chairs,” Sipp explained, pointing to accents on the other side.  “So here, this is the 'wow' factor.   We try to keep it all organized by color and by texture.”

At 20 years old, Sipp continues growing his business.  They offer everything from design to staging.  His next big adventure is debuting this Saturday, a store Trending by Systematic Living.   

“So this is what we’re trying to do to really capture the people buying houses that like our style -- our interior design we’re putting in houses for staging,” Sipp said.  

The business is growing with him as he continues to think big and work hard.