Today I attended my first Chamber of Commerce luncheon. I've meant to go many, many times but always found something more important to do. Today I finally went and this is a run down of my meeting:
- Good speaker from our local Labor Force (formerly known as the unemployment office.) Learned a bit about some local issues-always a good thing.
- Good food-an Italian restaurant I've been wanting to try.
- Won a door prize-also a good thing.
But the major AHA moment came when after the meeting I approached a realtor and asked if she is currently working with a home stager. Her eyes immediately glazed over and I could hear her think "Here we go again." She answered by saying "No-I hate to ask my clients to spend money to rent furniture." I told her that although I offer vacant stagings. I personally prefer to do "occupied" stagings. I explained that the way I like to approach staging is by doing a consultation and providing the homeowner with a comphrensive list of easy, low or no cost things they can do to make a Lasting Impression on potential buyers. Instantly her face and her body language changed and she said "No one has ever talked to me about "occupied" staging before-only about renting furniture for the vacant ones." I realized at that AHA tmoment that I have been making the assumption that my local realtors know what staging is when in fact, they have no idea!
I came home, went through my HUGE stack of realtor business cards that I've collected and starting tomorrow am going to implement a new marketing plan really focusing on explaining what staging is.
AHA!
Happy Staging!
Missy
;)
;)
