Sabrina Soto, real estate guru and organizational/design expert, is one of our favorite HGTV hosts. Sabrina is well known for hosting HGTV’s “Bang For Your Buck,” “House Hunters,” “Buying & Selling Secrets,” “HGTV’s Green Home,” “Clean Freaks,” and “Real Estate Intervention.” Alejandra interviewed Sabrina Soto to get the her take on organizing and design. Here is what Sabrina had to say:
An interview with HGTV’s Sabrina Soto
1. We have seen you on many different shows on HGTV wearing many different hats including real estate consulting, home staging, and interior design. Which of these specialties is your favorite?
“Design and staging. I love being able to create spaces. More importantly, I like the fact that I can help people move on with their lives, whether it be for a job, relocation, or divorce. Being able to get in the home and help them is so much fun. It’s one of the best parts of my job.”
2. Home staging and interior design have close ties to organizing. What is your favorite area in the house to organize?
“I love organizing everything! Whether it’s a pencil case or an entire room. I really love organizing kitchens because I love using products, whether they’re on the shelves or in the refrigerator. I also love organizing closets by color-coordinating everything and making it look nice and neat. The Container Store is one of my favorite stores. I could spend a fortune in there.”
3. You’ve tackled many large projects on your shows. When you walk into a challenging home that requires the use of all your talents, where do you begin?
“Most projects have a limited budget and tight schedule. I try to focus on the first floor. The first floor is where you get the first impression. By the time you get to the second floor, the person usually overlooks some things. When a potential buyer walks into a house, they usually know within 60 seconds whether or not it’s their potential new home.“
4. We know you love to make homes look their best. What is the messiest area in your home?
“I’m the type of person that cannot work with mess around me. If I had one area of my house that is messy it would be my closet. When I work privately I don’t care what I am wearing. However, when I work on TV every outfit has to constantly be planned the night before, although I don’t usually do this. In the morning, I tend to throw things around in my closet because I have to run out of the house in five minutes. However, when I get home after work I go straight to my closet and put everything away. It never stays messy.”
5. You’ve mentioned your affinity for office supplies. What are the “staples” in your office drawers that excite you?
“I love a good pen! I love a really smooth pen. They are great to write with! I almost write differently with a good ball point pen, as crazy as it sounds. I love having a nice huge sketch pad to jot down notes. I’m also obsessed with notebooks and little journals for taking notes, making to-do lists, and sketching designs. I also always have my illustrating markers for designs plans.”
6. We read that one of your favorite movies is “The Secret.” Do you attribute your success to the law of attraction?
“My friend told me about the movie ‘The Secret’ and I thought it was a little crazy. She gave it to me to borrow and I let it sit on my desk for a long time. Finally one night I watched it (at the time I was only doing design and real estate, not TV). After I watched it, I called my friend and said ‘I’m going to go back on TV’. My friend said I was crazy for saying that because of the progress I was making in my real estate business. The very next morning I woke up and went on Craigslist just to see what was out there, and found this job there. It was crazy, it was the day after I watched the movie. I think there is something about really believing in what you are going to do and making it happen.”
7. You’ve applied your LEED-accreditation to designing many eco-friendly overhauls. Tell us how going green can be fun.
“I think it’s more fun now than it ever has been because there are so many options available as opposed to ten years ago when it was very limited. I think it’s necessary for anybody that is doing design or architecture to learn about LEED because it’s where the industry is headed. It’s so easy these days to do green design, there is no excuse not to.”
For more information on Sabrina Soto, visit her website. By the way, have you watched the episode of Clean Freaks when Sabrina Soto came to our home with HGTV to record Clean Freaks:
