[Written January 13, 2010, but delayed in posting because I don't have a routine organized yet.]
I WAS Juliet Johnson Staging, one of the top staging firms in NJ that served homes in the $1 - 3 million niche. My clients were top producing realtors at the top of their game and my customers all well-heeled moneyed folks simply selling a beautiful home and moving to another one. Unlike most colleagues, I did a volume business, with a good mix of consultations, owner occupieds and vacants. It was creative and fun, though not particularly lucrative; I kept my prices reasonable so as to have a lot of work. Not the model for everyone, perhaps, but it worked for me.
Now...
I'm rookie realtor Juliet Johnson from Myrtle Beach Rental Connections in South Carolina. My license went active last Wednesday, so that I service the Myrtle Beach long term rentals market. Why rentals? I knew I had to start at the bottom. I know no-one in MB, so needed a space where the phone would ring anyway. Eventually my renters would be become buyers; my buyers would become sellers and then I'd have a business. It would take a while, but at least I'd be busy while it developed and seeing some income coming in...no matter how small.
It's been quite the week! Just when I think I've made every mistake in the book, I find I've just made another one!
My manager gave me 3 units to start out with:-
- a modest 2 BR, 1 Bth for $600 a month
- a less modest 2 BR 1.5 townhouse for $650 in a busy neighborhood
- a fancy 2 BR, 2 Bath asking $800 that rewards your haul up 3 flights of stairs with soothing views of a gorgeous Greg Norman-designed golf course. The soaring ceilings, tons of light and softly wafting ocean breezes... it's miles away. No other property manager wants to drive that far north all the time to show the thing. I don't mind. I expected to be given stuff no-one else wanted. I am enjoying the challenge.
I put the ads on Craigslist that my manager had used before and sat back waiting for the phone to ring. Which it didn't. I rewrote the ads with a bit more spin. The phone started to ring. Often. Great! We have ignition; let's roll!
Quickly I learned:-
1. Prequalify before you jump in your car. Imagine! I had to learn for myself that showing is NOT the most efficient way to get to know your customer, no matter how smart you think you're being reading the way they answer your questions as they try to get out of earshot to look at the property you're all standing in!
2. Most renters have horrible credit and move when they have had enough of their landlord. So, checking their financial situation is a minefield of trauma, lies and possibly good intentions, no matter how seemingly demented!
3. All renters have dogs. Big ones. Usually on the 10 Most Aggressive and Dangerous Dogs in the World list -- which we keep posted in each office. Yeah.
4. Lots of very nice, clean-looking people have motorbikes and felonies in their background.
5. You can't ask if he's the baby daddy, no matter how much the owner wants to know. And chances are if his name can't be on the lease, he's violating parole or worse!!
There was some culture shock, to put it mildly. Sometimes it was fun; mostly I was miserable. I couldn't find anything polite to say about the properties. I didn't know the rules of engagement or where the boundaries are.
... And then, I found myself wandering into a Home Goods, walking the aisles imagining and visualizing how things might fit together. And after sorting and rearranging a few shelves I was healed. Refreshed. Renewed. And ready for Week 2.
Mecca for Stagers, retired or otherwise!
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