The home staging industry is gaining steady momentum in the Real Estate industry but many of us have been looking for a way to fan the flames and ignite interest. I've been reading the book, The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell and racking my brain to figure out a way to get realtors not only interested, but excited about home staging. In Gladwell's book he explains how little things can make a big difference, eg. it only takes one match to start a fire.
Most home stagers understand the value of merchandising the home as a product and what better way to advertise our product than with a sixty second Show. Jeff and his team have been working tirelessly to come up with a program where home stagers could produce shows for real estate agents with the agent's personal branding included on each show.
What they have come up with is truly special.
RealEstateShows.com has set up a special Home Staging account with capabilities not found in a regular RealEstateShows.com account. It will allow you to sign up real estate agents and managing their accounts via your login. It will allow you to offer your real estate clients a special rate of $100 per year - this is $25.00 off the regular price, and provides you with your own account... FREE! Yes. It will cost you nothing!
What's the catch?
Well, none really. The account is yours to use and all you have to do is get two of your real estate agent clients to pay for their personal account within the first 6 months. Do that and the account is yours... forever. That's it. Now, if I can't get two of my accounts to do this in 6 months, i probably need to find another line of work. :)
I seriously can't think of a more powerful tool to help grow your business. We're already taking photos for our clients... this is a tool that will help us help them grow their business as well. Like Jeff says, "it's all about relationships."
I'm already signed up.
A sample show is automatically deposited in your account when you sign up. Of course, the real magic will happen when I do my own, but here is the sample. Imagine what you can do with this!
This is how I'm planning on using using Real Estate Shows to build relationships with key realtors. Most of us work with several realtors all the time. It is the law of 80 /20. You get 80% of your business from 20% of your clients. I am planning on purchasing Real Estate Shows for these top agents. I am trying to partner with group of realtors that I work with all the time. These are realtors that appreciate the power of home staging and understand the benefits of a good web presence. I am trying to create a team where Rockland Home Staging is an an integral part of the real estate process. I think Real Estate Shows is a vehicle that we can use to cultivate these relationships.
How do you get on board? Well, they want to verify that you're really a home stager. So, you need to just contact RealEstateShows.com via email at info@realestateshows.com, tell them you'd like to be a part of the RES Home Staging Group, send them a link to your website and once they've verified who you really are, they will send you a special link to sign up for your own account.
Realtors should contact their local home stager today. When we work as a team everyone benefits.
I would love to see how everyone is using RES to market their business and forge relationships with realtors. Please post your shows in the comments or link you blog in the comments so we can see them!
I'm excited. This could be the tipping point.
80 Comments on Real Estate Shows + Home Staging = SUCCESS
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Maureen... everyone needs to know how hard you pushed us to do something "completely out of the box" for home stagers. You were persistent and full of ideas and we really enjoyed working with you to come up with this strategy.
OK here is a link to my first show. It is an older home with a busy family with 4 kids and 2 dogs. It is my first attempt. It was really easy to make - the tutorials really help. It took about 10 minutes and that was my first one!
Am I able to award you a cookie? I'm not waiting for a response...here's a fortune cookie to your good fortune.
You always provide unique perspective AND you work on behalf of our industry. According to Jeff Turner you work tirelessly. I can't think of someone more deserving of a cookie award.
Thanks for sharing this wonderful new service and thanks, Jeff, and your team for coming up with this approach.
Looking forward to the excitement this is going to generate here in the Rain!
Phyllis - I think a great way to get the word out is to start with your best clients - offer to meet at starbucks for coffee. I'm pretty sure all starbucks have wireless Internet access. You could show them some of the tours that you have maid. You have an amazing portfolio of B&A's - you can create shows with them to post on your website.
I think we are just scratching the surface of how stagers can use Real Estate Shows. I'd love to hear all of your ideas and post some shows!!!!!
Joe - That is a wonderful idea! Thank you - I would never have thought of it. I have been to 14 local real estate offices in the last few months - I'm going to get on it!
Craig - I love tipping point. Did you read Blink? I also loved Freakonomics by Steven Levitt. Who knew sociology and economics could be so interesting.
I am so excited. This is just FABULOUS. I am all over it. I sent off my e-mail. Can't wait to get started. Hope it all works on the Canadian MLS. My head is just spinning.
Thank you so much Maureen and Jeff!
Stage it forward Maureen!
Jeff, I think you have just done something that will make the dreams of many people, and not just stagers come true!
You deserve all the success that will come your way.
Cheers, and off to update my clients RES. I took a panoramic of her back yard today. To much fun really!!
Maureen, Glad you find it useful. In your networking efforts, don't forget mortgage loan officers. Good ones have long standing, solid relationships with high producing realtors .
Make a friend of them. Offer to create a RealEstateShow ( their logo, their face, their office, etc). Athirty second/ 5 photo show will serve the pupose. They can post it on their web site and email it to their realtors. They will returnthe favor and get you in front of their realtor buddies.
All... the real value in this program comes from the relationship side. You want to build relationships that breed business.
Because YOU are setting up the accounts for the realtors inside your control panel, you get notified whenever they create a Show. So there is a reason to talke, forward their Show link to your email contacts when they have a listing, make suggestions on how to use the system and position yourself as a value added partner in their success. In addition, you can create Shows for them when it's your staging efforts in the Show. This allows you to control the look of the homes you're participating in. The realtor gets a tool that can help them grow their business and everyone wins. Use it to build relationships and grow your business!
Maureen, you've really done it this time. I agree with you that this REALLY could be the tipping point for the staging industry because it will give stagers the ease and control of the pictures that go on the web. And, obviously we are the ones who care the most what they look like! Thanks for emailing me about it.
OMG! establishing an ongoing relationship and keeping tabs on your gravytrain. genius absolutely genius! I never realized that aspect of it. LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!
I did'nt understand that either! I thought we would have to create all their shows. I was trying to figure out how I was going to do that!!! They create, and we can watch what they're putting out. OMG!
Jeff, is there a tutorial specifically about this on this in our staging account?
Here is a tip - OK you guys have seen my closet so you know that I'm ultra organized. When you sign up a realtor - print out the page that has their contact info on it. Then punch holes it it and keep it in a 3 ring binder. That way when realtors call you with missing passwords you will have it handy. You can also send them a follow up email with their information. I love having records on my computer but sometimes I also like a hard copy. This way you can look through it periodically and see who had not been creating shows lately and send them a follow up note.
wow you have lots a of cookies! are you full yet? lol well i found out about real eastate shows from my friend George tallabus who is one of the top realtors here in idaho he attaches his shows to the mls and creigs list. he sent one to a buyer in california and it brought her to tears.I am already convienced this is the way to go and a wonderful marketing tool. the only thing negitive i heard from another realitor is if someone has dial up or not a fast server the movie is very slow and almost un viewable. but hey i live in idaho. plus it won't be stoping me from using it. i will start using it as soon as i get my website up. next week yea i am glad you wrote about this i thought alot people knew about it. maria
Wake the kids and call the neighbors!!! This is the best thing to happen since Stage It Forward. Thanks again Jeff and Maureen. You both deserve The Big Fat Golden Cookie Award.
Maria - I believe that is true of all feature tours. I think that people with dial up understand that any feature tour will take a long time.
George - The difference is that now stagers can put the Realtor's personal branding on the side and provide the tours for realtors to post on MLS. I loved real estate shows before but this brings it to a whole new level for stagers. oh yea!
Maria - you can never have too much of a good thing!
Sue, I'm gong to send you the link to sign up directly. Before I do, I'm going to change your login at the trial account. Once you've signed up, under this new program, we'll move your old shows into your new account and delete the old trial account. So, you'll be able to create this new account using you old login and password.
New to this forum. Love the potential of this service Maureen, but in searching Real Estate Shows site, I couldn't find anything about COST? This first thing that any realtor is going to ask me is "what does it cost"? I asked on the RES site when I signed up, but their response was call Jeff? I really don't want to play long distance phone tag. Can anyone help?
Thanks for all of the great information posted here!
Ginger, the cost is listed in Maureen's post above.
"It will allow you to offer your real estate clients a special discount of $100 per year, and provides you with your own account... FREE!" It will cost your realtors $100 per year instead of the $125 retail cost. The cost to you is nothing, forever, so long as you have two realtors signed up in 6 months.
Thanks Jeff. The way that I read Maureen's post I thought it meant a $100 discount off of the regular price and I didn't know the regular price. Appreciate the clarification, now I can approach the realtors with the answers they'll want.
Sue - thank you for linking your show here - it looks great.
On MLS the 'Shows' are called Featured Tours. If you look on Realtor.com the shows / featured tours are denoted with a spinning red house. If you check out your local MLS you can see which realtors are providing their clients with featured tours and what company they are doing them with. Near me Featured Tours are typically only posted on the higher end homes. Most agents use a 360 degree tour. A lot of people do not like them because they tend to distort the rooms and make some people dizzy. As far as I know you cannot add text or music to the 360 tours.
Sue... as Maureen states, most people refer to our Shows as virtual tours, or featured tours. We prefer featured tour, since the virtual brings to mind spinning around in circles, which we're not big on. So, a Shows on RealEstateShows.com are a form of fetured tour.
Maureen, thanks for sharing. Jeff & Maureen - what a great idea. I will definitely sign at the very least 2 Realtors for subscription.
Jeff - I was talking with one Realtor whose home I am staging and was trying to sell him on the idea of subscribing to Realestatshows.com, and told him he could do an email blast to all perspective buyers. As I later went on to my temporary account, I realized you could only send to one person at a time. Is there a way to do an email blast of some sort?
I just landed a new job and I plan to give this to the Realtor for the house. I was hired by the homeowner, but I'm going to give it to the Realtor as a value-add.
Marcyne, we don't do email blasts from within RealEstateShows.com for one very simple reason... spam blockers. If someone has never received an email from our servers, it will likely end up in a junk mail or spam folder. It is ALWAYS best to send blast emails from your own email system. People trust email coming from that source and it has the greatest chance of being read.
All, what I meant by giving the home stagers show "a name" is that I think stagers reading this blog might get the idea that Real Estate Shows are for selling real estate...when in fact..."Home Staging Shows" are downright advertising for our business which Jeff Turner has made FREE for us.
Jeff, "Home Staging Shows" is, if I don't say so myself, a catchy name for this product of yours.
We'd like to believe that our work does "show" very well, and makes a huge difference for sellers.
I think everyone should post their shows here or put links to your blog where you describe how you used the show. Please feel free to link your blogs here.
With the input of James Frazier , Sue Argue and Yvonne Root - Jeff Turner has created a website that will be dedicated to home stagers using Real Estate Shows. This site will help stagers understand how they can connect with real estate agents and grow their business through Real Estate Shows.
Please check out the brand new Home Staging Shows site!
Another awesome use is to first create a HSS for the realtor as a listing tour, then create another HSS with same pictures but different text announcing Open House dates. The realtor can email these to other agents.
Kathleen, yes. Each Show may be downloaded to play on your hard drive, or CD or memory stick. :)
Kathleen, go visit http://www.homestagingshows.com and fill out the sign up form. Once you've set up your account, we can move any Shows from your old trial account to the new one. Thanks!
I have created 2 shows in a matter of minutes. One for a realtor, and one for me. This is great for realtors looking for a competive edge over other agents, and great for my home staging business.
I have this service and my only problem is that the photos are not as clear & defined as still photographs. Is this just me & I'm doing something wrong?? I shot a bunch of high resolution pix to see if it was just my normal camera & they still came out somewhat fuzzy.
When y'alllook at Maureen's slide show, is it a little fuzzy or are the pix really clear? ARGH..... I'm frustrated.
Michelle - Your shows look fantastic!!! I love what you did over the fireplace. And what you did with that crazy little under the stairs space is brilliant!
Karen - I create a lot of family slide shows and I have learned that whenever you take a still photo and add movement to it you will loose some quality. I think the same applies to RES. Also these shows are designed to be lightweight and must be MSL compliant. If you are comparing still pictures to video shows the photos will always be crisper. I think the clarity is pretty good.
Your show looks great!
Maybe Jeff can explain it better.
Thank you both for sharing your shows. I think the more shows we watch the better we will get at creating them. Please keep them coming!!!
Karen, yes, the photos are not as crisp as still photos because of the process we run on them to make them look better in motion. This has less to do with size of the files that would result than the quality of the motion. Lots of people have tried to duplicate our motion and their presentations have tremendous "image wobble." It wouldn't appear on all images, but on the ones that it did appear, it's extremely bad. So, we make process the photos to eliminate that image wobble.
The main show is not meant to be seen without motion. And Fran is right, even with actual video that is compressed for the web, you always lose a bit of quality in the video compression. I think your Show looks great, personally. If you upload additional photos, that will create a "more photo" button on the left hand side of the Show. We do NOT run the same process on those photos. Some upload the exact same photos in the more photos so people have a chance to study the photos without motion. Give it a try and you'll see what I mean.
ANNOUNCEMENT: I got our development team together after reading Karen's comment above and we determined that the last time we tried to improve quality was before our upgrade to the current flash versions. We took everyone off what they were working on and we were able to program some important changes that will dramatically improve overall image quality in the main show. I just did two tests, one on the current system and one with the changes we did on Beta and the difference is amazing. I'm thrilled!!! Thrilled! We have the entire team working on this right now to make it happen as quickly as possible and I'm hoping to be able to announce this later today.
This is the way a community like this is meant to work!!!
This change is now LIVE and I'll have a formal announcement out at http://res.realestateshows.com later today. We're doing conversion on our samples right now. To see the change in existing Shows, you must replace the photos. Or create a new show with the same photos and compare side by side.
Sorry for the three comments in a row.... I'm giddy about this. Every other attempt we've made to improve quality has resulted in severe image wobble. The official announcement is on our RES Blog and here, Home Stager's Eye Makes A Difference.
WOW! No wonder you are giddy, I just upload my kids and their friends just to see the changes. The clarity is FABULOUS! Thanks again for all that you do.
Jeff, you rock my socks! ThankYou ThankYou ThankYou! After a very, very crummy day in the Staging World yesterday (a job I thought was fabulous, that the Seller hated) I was so giddy to see the new format for RES and found so much joy with it that I was up til midnight recreating my shows. Today I post them on my site. I am going to put you on my "Well Dressed Friends" list ASAP!
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The home staging industry is gaining steady momentum in the Real Estate industry but many of us have been looking for a way to fan the flames and ignite interest. I've been reading the book, The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell and racking my brain to figure out a way to get realtors not only interested, but excited about home staging. In Gladwell's book he explains how little things can make a big difference, eg. it only takes one match to start a fire. 
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