Business Spotlight
Designing Through the Distance: How Rachel Shea is Navigating Real Estate in 2020
If you had told Rachel Shea back in January that her bustling home staging business would soon involve zero physical contact and an arsenal of digital tools, she probably wouldn’t have believed you.
October 15, 2020
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When Rachel brought her logistics background and big-city hustle from New York to Delaware in 2015, she built her brand on a hands-on approach. For years, she has been physically transforming properties across Delaware and Maryland, turning cold, empty spaces into warm, market-ready homes. But when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, the real estate industry ground to a sudden halt. Open houses were canceled, physical staging was temporarily restricted, and sellers were hesitant to let movers into their homes.
So, how does a business built on arranging physical furniture survive a socially distanced year? By pivoting fast and embracing the digital frontier.
The Shift to Virtual Staging
“The pandemic completely changed how buyers are shopping for homes,” Rachel explains. “With everyone stuck inside, the first showing is no longer in person—it happens entirely online.”
To keep her business surviving—and thriving—Rachel leaned heavily into technology. While she admits she isn’t a traditional “tech person,” she quickly adapted to the reality of 2020 by offering virtual staging and contactless consultations. Using early AI-driven design software, she now helps sellers digitally overlay beautiful, lifelike furniture into photos of vacant rooms. It allows buyers to visualize a home’s potential while scrolling through listings from the safety of their current living rooms, keeping her business moving even when physical installations were paused.
She is also using her lockdown downtime to explore new digital trends, falling down the rabbit hole of cryptocurrency and exploring how artificial intelligence might permanently reshape the real estate landscape.
Finding Balance in a Chaotic Year
Like most small business owners, the pandemic has forced Rachel to find new ways to stay grounded. With her passport currently gathering dust—a stark contrast to her past adventures through Mexico, Canada, Ireland, and Dubai—she has turned to local, socially distanced hobbies to recharge. When she isn’t virtually staging a property or managing complex supply chain logistics, she unplugs by hitting the water. “Kayaking and hiking the local trails in Delaware and Maryland have been my saving grace this year,” she says. “Nature is the ultimate reset button.” Her evenings are spent much like the rest of ours: unwinding with a great movie, an excellent playlist, and leaning into family connections. Since in-person visits have been limited, she keeps her notoriously close relationship with her mom alive through weekly video calls (which occasionally still feature a lighthearted prank or two).
Looking Forward
While 2020 has been an unpredictable rollercoaster, Rachel remains deeply optimistic about the future of her business and her personal life. She still looks forward to the day she can start a family and have kids of her own, and she is eager to get back to full-scale, in-person staging once the world safely opens up. If this year has taught the real estate industry anything, it’s the true value of our living spaces. For Rachel Shea, the mission remains the exact same as it was before the pandemic: helping people find exactly where they belong, one room at a time.
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1234 Divi St. #1000, San Francisco, CA 94220