There have been a number of posts here recently about how some stagers are having difficulty convincing realtors to use their services.  Many have voiced frustrations about ‘selling' the concept of staging to potential clients.  In response to this I feel compelled to point out the following:

1.  It is as much about selling ourselves, the art of marketing ourselves than it is about staging.

• 2.  We are sitting on a gold mine of valuable information here on Active Rain that can help us do this.
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• Case in point: I had a meeting with an agent last week to discuss my services and to negotiate a contract with him to do consultations for all his future listings.  The negotiation was successful.  Was it because I relentlessly persuaded him of the benefits of staging? Maybe, to some extent ;)  Being new in the business as I am, my portfolio certainly wasn't as impressive as it could have been.  Being new also means that I don't have a long list of satisfied clients to refer him to.

However, as we chatted over coffee, I was able to demonstrate my in depth knowledge of real estate trends; many specific to our market.  We talked about Erin Toll, the new director of the Colorado Division of Real Estate.  I asked if he had seen her speak, and he seemingly taken aback, replied that he had not, had I?  Well, I explained that I though I had not, I had read about a recent WCR meeting. Thanks to Kristal Kraft I was able to give him a brief synopsis about Ms. Toll stating her intent to weed out the unethical players in our industry.  Which lead to the discussion of the high rate of foreclosures here in Colorado.  "Well", he said, "you know Colorado is #1 in the nation for foreclosures".  "Actually", said I, "that statistic is rather misleading,  as there are 3 different sources that track foreclosures and only one of the 3 (a California based company) lists Colorado as #1.  The other 2 sources list Colorado as being 13^th and 8^th down the line.  It all has to do with the way in which Colorado is required to report foreclosures; there was an article about it in the Denver Business Journal I would be happy to send it to you if you're interested."                       "Sure, that would be great."

Talking about how statistics can always be manipulated to serve the best interests of the quoting party, we got onto the subject of listing homes online and the recent NAR statistics of how many people conduct internet research before buying a home. 

Which lead us to discuss strategies for online marketing, websites, SEO, and how the future will look with web 2.0. 

Thanks to Mary McKnight I could tell him how much he should be paying for search engine optimization. 

Thanks to Bryant Tutus I could ask this agent about price ranging & plant the seed there.

Thanks to Craig Schiller I was able to emphasize the importance of quality photographs for the listing with an air of expertise,  and to further explain that I offer as part of my service, professional ‘after' photographs  for his web listing and flyers.

Thanks to Sarah Lipnitz I gave him a great new idea for how to attract more traffic to open houses. 

Thanks to many here on ActiveRain I was able to intelligently discuss the happenings with Zillow. 

"I'm amazed" he says!  "You even have your own blog?"  "How do you do it?" "How do you know so much?"  That's when I tell him about ActiveRain and how to join.  I think THAT was the deal clincher ;) 

In conclusion, fellow stagers, the more you can bring to the table, the more value added.  Give realtors marketing tips, strategies, and information and they will certainly value you more!  Use the knowledge you have access to here in ActiveRain to validate yourself.

Thank you ActiveRain, thank you Matt, Jonathon, and Caleb for giving me the tools! P.S. I think I'm going to need some of those AR business cards!

Staging it forward.................