home staging: Are You a Real Estate Agent Missing This Referral Source?
- 04/04/14 04:15 AM
When you're 100% dependent on real estate commissions for your livelihood, quality referrals are key. Without new prospects coming into your pipeline, you can't build your real estate business.
Some of the typical ways real estate agents find new prospects include:
Attending networking events. Distributing door to door flyers. Buying leads. Knocking on doors. Hosting open houses on their own, or another agent's, listing. Running expensive newspaper and billboard ads. Websites, blogs and social media. Networking with real estate agents in other markets. The problem with most of these methods is you're marketing to people who may or may not be … (47 comments)
|
home staging: Did You Pick the Wrong Real Estate Career?
- 07/18/13 10:43 AM
Lots of people jump into becoming real estate agents without thinking through what the day-to-day career really entails. They may not even realize there are related careers that will give them the "real estate buzz" without being an agent.
Some who are studying for their real estate license, or already have one, wonder what to do when they discover they’re actually more interested in home staging than being a REALTOR.
They discover their passion for color and decorating, and then question what benefits they’ll have from keeping their real estate license. I’ll address these issues here.
Real Estate or Home Staging, … (7 comments)
|
home staging: Ladies, Is That Voice in Your Head Killing Your Business?
- 11/15/11 03:29 AM
I loved the Active Rain blog post Rich Real Estate Agent, Poor Real Estate Agent and accompanying report. It has a lot of great examples of the differences in marketing activities of both groups and the resultant earnings.
Their research also found that rich real estate agents (those earning at least $100,000 a year) tend to be male, while the poor real estate agents (earning under $35,000/year) tended to be female.
I'm sure many readers would automatically think, "that's because more of them work part-time, they have kids to take care of, etc." You know, the usual "reasons" we trot out … (39 comments)
|
home staging: Are Home Stagers Born With Decorating Talent?
- 09/12/11 01:07 PM
I’ve been addicted to decorating since I was a kid. I remember insisting that my room be painted a deep turquoise, and my rattan headboard white, because I could totally picture how one would stand out against the other and compliment the pale creamy-yellow duvet. At the risk of revealing my age, I’ll admit it was the 1960s. Even now I can see that decorating scheme in my mind’s eye, and it still looks cool.
As a teen, I painted murals on my bedroom wall and also the high school cafeteria. In my first marketing coup and “payment” for my creative … (8 comments)
|
home staging: Wishy-Washy Clients Wasting Your Time?
- 07/20/11 05:16 AM
Some people just can’t keep an appointment. When you’re in a service-based business such as real estate or home staging, if you are dealing with The Wishy-Washy Client, you will receive voice mails full of excuses.
One day they might call to tell you they aren’t quite ready to have the house staged or for you to take your listing photos so they want to reschedule. Then when that appointment rolls around, they call saying they double booked and have a meeting with their lawyer, their child’s soccer game or a dentist appointment.
A client like this who schedules and reschedules … (4 comments)
|
home staging: FSBO Selling Tips for Home Stagers
- 05/14/11 09:44 AM
Active Rain member Laurie Jarett wrote a blog post this week for real estate agents about how the FSBO Seller is NOT a Big, Scary Monster! What a great title! It occurred to me that home stagers might be worrying about similar things and not approach them either.
With FSBO properties being so common in the marketplace, you’re probably wondering how to attract some of them to your home staging business. Targeting FSBOs or “For Sale by Owner” properties is a great idea but remember, they’re selling their homes themselves so they don’t have to pay an agent.
This could mean … (5 comments)
|
home staging: What are your Wow Moments in the Real Estate Industry?
- 01/08/11 10:36 AM
Listening to a talk by author Neil Pasricha yesterday, I started thinking about all the things I love about being a home stager. The moments that make me say “Wow!”
Whether you're a real estate agent or a home stager, I'm sure you've experienced those highs a "WOW Moment" can bring. Since we're just starting a new year and looking for inspiration heading into the spring real estate market, I thought this would be a good time to reflect on the great things that happen and share them with others!
I’ve included 10 of my own “WOW Moments as a Home … (0 comments)
|
home staging: Camera buying tips for home stagers and real estate agents
- 12/23/10 02:34 AM
As a professional home stager or real estate agent you really need to invest in a good camera for a top notch staging portfolio or listing shots that attract home buyers. Choosing that important piece of equipment can be a daunting task, though, especially if you don’t know much about photography.
When you go shopping for your camera, don’t go to a department store. Go to a proper camera store where that’s all they sell and the people you deal with are experts in digital cameras, not washing machines and microwave ovens.
Explain to the sales person that you’re a home … (1 comments)
|
home staging: Would having 4 more hands help?
- 12/15/10 01:39 PM
We live in a culture that celebrates multi-tasking as if it’s really possible to do 3 things at once, and therefore magically squeeze an extra 24 hours into our working day. Many studies have shown that this isn’t possible though.
The human brain can’t simultaneously engage in more than one activity that requires real thinking and processing.
If you’ve ever tried to read an email while talking on the phone, you know that you are either doing one or the other at any given moment. And in all likelihood, the client you were speaking with was very aware that you weren’t … (2 comments)
|
home staging: Home staging consultation reports are a waste of time
- 08/02/10 12:19 PM
If you’re sitting down with a stack of photos after a home staging consultation, struggling over the report you’re preparing for the homeowners you are really wasting your time. Unless…
You just love doing paperwork You enjoy knowing you have a lengthy report to complete before moving on to the next client You’re getting paid extra to write it In my opinion, this practice is a pure waste of time…valuable time you should be using marketing your business and getting more paying clients!
Preparing staging consultation reports is one of the many contributing factors to new home stagers going out of … (19 comments)
|
home staging: Grab More Attention with the Right Exterior Listing Photo
- 07/12/10 01:34 PM
Real estate photography quality has never been more critical. I'm dismayed when I see real estate listing photos that look like they've been shot from a moving car, or when the photos show a home at its least flattering angle.
As a home seller you need to insist that your real estate agent use quality photos to market your property.
As a real estate agent, you need to consider whether you have the time, equipment, and/or talent to take the best shots.
Here's why: In the US 70% of home buyers search for properties online before calling a real estate agent … (7 comments)
|
home staging: Should Real Estate Agents Pay for Home Staging?
- 06/02/10 09:07 AM
While it's true that home staging will help a real estate listing stand out from all the other homes for sale, and while home staging will also increase the probability that the house will sell more quickly and for more money-- all of which are of considerable benefit to the real estate agent trying to earn an income from commissions-- I don't believe that agents should pay for staging.
I'm sure there are plenty of home stagers and home sellers who will disagree with me, but here's my reasoning:
If the home seller is prepared to invest in the advice of … (5 comments)
|
home staging: Home Stagers what if your client's house doesn't sell?
- 05/03/10 07:06 AM
Aspiring home stagers, and even established ones, worry what will happen if a home they staged does not sell. Is it their fault, and will they be the ones who will have to answer to the disappointed home seller?
The first thing to remember is the person the client will be upset with when their home isn’t selling is the real estate agent not the home stager.
Yes, you’re decorating the house to sell, but you’re not in control of:
overall market conditions, natural disasters, interest rate changes or news events that interfere with the market at that point in time … (2 comments)
|
home staging: Virtual Staging A Waste of Money?
- 04/22/10 07:48 AM
Many home stagers have written me to ask what I think of virtual home staging software.
In my opinion there are two types of “virtual staging.”
The first (which I practice), is virtual because I don’t actually go into a client’s home but I give them virtual staging advice by phone based on photos they provide me with to analyze. This allows clients to have my staging advice and do the work themselves at a lower cost than if I were to do an actual home staging consultation in their home. It also allows me to offer specific staging advice to … (56 comments)
|
home staging: Home stagers new target for email scammers
- 02/20/10 03:12 AM
In case you were still wondering how many people have heard of home staging, here’s further proof that this is a well established field. It seems the scam artists are starting to crawl out from under their rocks to see if they can con home stagers into sending them money!
This is a twist on the “send money to a foreign country to rescue a dying relative” or “assist a diplomat who needs help getting millions out of the country and you’ll be rewarded” — this time with a script rewritten for home stagers and decorators or interior designers who might … (7 comments)
|
home staging: Want to follow a professional home stager around for a day?
- 11/24/09 02:35 AM
I get approximately five calls a week from people interested in following me around for a day (or more) to see how I work as a home stager. Sadly most of these job shadowing requests are from aspiring stagers who spent a lot of money with a certain company that they believed promised them a guaranteed home staging job.
There are many reasons I’m not interested in having someone shadow me. First of all, I would have to screen them beforehand because that person would be a direct reflection on me. We would have have to meet ahead of time … (3 comments)
|
home staging: Staging Diva Helps Radio Listeners Understand Home Staging in Slow Real Estate Market
- 04/27/09 06:32 AM
There's nothing like being interviewed by a reporter who is stuck with his own non-selling house to make for an information-filled discussion about home staging. We covered practical ideas to help home sellers and real estate agents understand what home staging is and why it's important to help sell a home quickly. Many of my home staging tips could be used by home sellers on their own.
Here's what we covered during this radio morning show:
what home staging is why home staging works (logic versus emotion when house hunting) why "less is more" in home staging curb appeal - how … (3 comments)
|
home staging: Agents and Home Sellers: How do you decide which home stager to hire?
- 04/22/09 07:41 AM
Since home staging is a completely unregulated field without official qualifications, it's difficult to know who to hire and whether they are "qualified." This difficulty is compounded by the fact that it is possible for home stagers to acquire a ready-made home staging portfolio to present as their own work, since some training programs offer this.
When reviewing a home staging portfolio, ask questions about the photos to satisfy yourself that these are the stager's own work.
If the stager can't tell you anything about the home or client, why they made the changes they did, or where the house … (5 comments)
|
home staging: A short cut to pay day for real estate agents?
- 03/27/09 08:11 AM
I can't imagine spending weeks on end driving clients around to see one disappointing property after another. One peak inside and you know you probably wouldn't buy any of these houses either! Yet there you are flicking on the lights and stepping over the clutter, hoping against hope that someone will actually make a decision and you'll actually see a payday in a few months.
I can't imagine spending money on desk fees, fliers and advertising month after month, no closer to unloading those listings despite the price reductions. Knowing these are dead listings, yet having to put on a cheery … (7 comments)
|
home staging: Home staging doesn't work
- 03/15/09 11:22 AM
"Home staging doesn't work," says the group of real estate agents sitting before the home stager trying to talk about her business.
It's amazing to me how many agents are still resistant to having their clients' homes decorated to sell. I challenge anyone to spend 4 minutes watching this video and then tell me that it wouldn't be easier to sell the staged property than how the home looked before. Which version of this property would you rather show on your own website when promoting your services?
Some facts to note before watching:
this Westport Connecticut house has sat on the … (10 comments)
|
When you're 100% dependent on real estate commissions for your livelihood, quality referrals are key. Without new prospects coming into your pipeline, you can't build your real estate business.
;)
;)
;)
