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How I Built This with Guy Raz
How I Built This with Guy Raz

Meridith Baer Home: Meridith Baer. She Started Over at 50 and Put Home Staging on the Map.

December 01, 2025 • 1h 3m

Summary

⏱️ 10 min read

Overview

Meredith Baer, a frustrated screenwriter at age 50, accidentally discovered home staging when her tastefully furnished rental sold immediately after the landlord showed it. This chance event led her to build Meredith Baer Home into one of the largest staging companies in America. Her story spans a remarkable life including growing up in San Quentin prison, giving up a child for adoption, modeling in cigarette ads, writing screenplays, dating Patrick Stewart, and ultimately finding her true calling in transforming empty houses into sellable homes through the art of staging.

Growing Up in San Quentin Prison

Meredith spent her formative years from age six to thirteen living on the grounds of San Quentin maximum security prison, where her father served as associate warden. The family lived there for nearly free rent, and she attended a one-room schoolhouse on the prison grounds. Despite the unusual setting, she describes it as the safest place to live, with guards everywhere and no concerns about theft or danger.

  • Meredith's father was associate warden at San Quentin, one of America's most notorious maximum security prisons
  • The family lived on prison grounds for nearly free rent, with Meredith attending a one-room schoolhouse there
  • She walked across the prison grounds daily, passing exercising inmates to reach the schoolhouse
  • The only incident she recalls was when neighbors were tied up and an inmate escaped briefly

Teen Pregnancy and Early Adulthood Trauma

At age 18, while a freshman in college, Meredith became pregnant and her parents forced her to give up the child for adoption. This traumatic experience shaped much of her early adult life. Decades later, she hired a detective to find him, and after being asked to stay away until he turned 18, they eventually reconnected. Last year, she formally adopted him as both his biological parents had passed away.

  • Meredith got pregnant at age 18 during her freshman year at University of Colorado
  • Her parents forced her to give up her son for adoption in what she describes as a brutal emotional experience
  • She later hired a detective to find him, but his adoptive mother asked her to stay away until he turned 18
  • They now have a close relationship, and she adopted him last year after both his adoptive parents passed
" They were pretty brutal to me, and it was a pretty awful emotionally experience, just the way my parents reacted to the whole thing. "

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