Barb Schwarz, a Greenbank resident, was awarded the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award by the Seattle King County Association of Realtors on Friday, Dec. 6.

Schwarz is recognized nationally and internationally as the leader of the Home Staging industry and has transformed the real estate industry, according to a news release from the Realtors association.

Schwarz created the concept of home staging while working in Bellevue as a real estate agent in the early 1970s.

Since 1972, she has been educating people on home staging. She taught her first course titled “How To List Residential Real Estate Successfully” through the Seattle King County Realtors.

Schwarz then wrote home-staging courses and established an accredited designation for staging professionals. She has since traveled the country extensively, spreading the idea of home staging to over one million students.

Schwarz adds the title to a list of achievements such as bestselling author, award-winning professional speaker, founder and CEO of Stagedhomes.com, founder and director of the Staging University, founder of The International Association of Home Staging Professionals (IAHSP) and the founder and director of the IAHSP Charitable Foundation.