Follow-up to my Blog 250 Real Estate Agents and Me!

As promised I wanted to share with everyone the event I had talked about in my previous blog 250 Real Estate Agents and Me!

At the invitation of McCue Mortgage Company of New Britain, CT some months ago, I presented an example of Home Staging for Mcue Mortgage at their annual Thank You Luncheon for real estate agents who do business with them throughout the year. It was held at the beautiful new Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford, CT. The luncheon was in a beautiful big ballroom and I was given a very large space to set up a "Before" Staging Room and an "After" Staging Room along with a table which I set up with my marketing information along with some props I use in my staging and some seasonal decorative elements.

The planning committee at McCue Mortgage, Gary Kulik, Cathy Kehoe, Kate McCue and Heidi Yanavich were amazing to work with; so supportive, kind and generous. I can't thank them enough. They made it such a comfortable experience for me. 

I was only able to pull this all off because of the tremendous support I received from my friends from CORT Furniture, Renee Fontaine, Rachel Vincent and Michelle DeNino.

I put together a 10 minute slide show presentation which was displayed on a 50 inch plasma screen for the agents to watch while they registered for the luncheon, right next to the open bar!!

Below is Renee Fontaine, CORT Furniture Sales Rep, (me) Rhonda Rawlins, and Rachel Vincent, Manager, CORT Furniture 

I really enjoyed talking with all the agents, they were interested and friendly. They laughed about the before room, and said Oh, that's my sister's house or Oh, no, No that's not my house. But they really seemed to have an understanding of staging and an appreciation for how effective it is in selling properties.

What I found really interesting was that so many of the agents were very interested in my display table and wanted to discuss their own homes!

Below a few photos of my display table, which seemed to really attract the agents attention! 

Many asked me if I could come out to their houses to help pick out colors or new furniture, which of course I said Yes, anytime.

They were also interested in learning about how I work with CORT Furniture and I think many were surprised that a stager could bring in that kind of furniture.

Below - The "Before" Staging Room 

 Below - Me with "After Staging Room"

CORT Furniture provided all the "After" Staging furniture as well as an old sofa, cocktail table and one floor lamp. The rest of that room I shopped for at Goodwill. I also borrowed some toys from a nephew. Ideally, it would have been nice to have some of the same furniture in each room to show how you can work with a sellers own things. However, there were costs concerns on the part of CORT Furniture relating to how many pieces they could donate, how many works would be needed to delivery those items etc. 

CORT Furniture was extremely generous and did all of this pro bono, so I was perfectly fine with they way we did it, and honestly I do not think any one but me gave it any thought! I think we can make ourselves crazy trying to be perfect.

I have already met with one agent who immediately called me to set up time to discuss a working partnership with his new agency. 

I will let you all know about any work that comes as a result of this event. I was not able to take many photos because I was so busy talking to people, then I sat down with everyone for the lunch and we did a drawing of a Home Staging Consultation and then it was over!!

So here are the few photos I did take before the "rush". I am hoping that I will get photos from the professional photographer from McCue Mortgage, if I do I will post them.

Thanks for all the support I received from so many of you earlier.