Presentation to REA’s was well received and focused exclusively on the important point Debra reminds us is so important in marketing and convincing others about the value of home staging; that being, “what’s in for me!” My entire presentation focused on just these points for real estate agents.

One guy, obviously not convinced about home staging, blurted out that he just uses green plants to stage the home and it’s always worked for him. When he heard me say I was currently staging my own home for sale later this spring, he was the first agent to volunteer his services. Ha! It was my pivotal moment! In front of the group, but in good humor, I said to him, “no, not yet, but if you only rely on green plants to sell my home, that won’t work for me!). We at least got a laugh from that one and we talked about the value in at least asking the question! (Doesn’t our fearless leader, Debra, tell us that on a regular basis?)

I also leaned a lot! I took away some good information that I’ll use for blog content on my personal website that’s due to be complete at the end of March (this is in addition to my page on the Staging Diva Directory).

It became clear to me during this presentation that most of the agents were doing their best to give good home improvement advice to their clients but it was the clients themselves who could not get past the dollar signs involved in improvements or in staging.

Debra is ‘right on’ when she says that we can give all sorts of statistics (e.g. Home Gain, ASHER, etc.- I passed those resources around the room!) to support home staging but it’s the real-life stories by all of us in home staging that helps sellers (and agents) to understand how home staging ultimately gets them toward their goal of selling fast for the most money. And that’s a good point to make here because if someone were to ask me what my goal is as I now prepare my home for sale, I would tell them that I want to sell it quickly and for as much money as I can! This is a smart strategy that I used to use with parents whose children were in my preschool program. By bringing people back to THEIR goals, there is no disagreement, no rebuttals against their own ideas.

The Power Point format I decide to use was a smart idea. I wanted to use one of the power point slides to link into my Staging Diva Directory website so I checked with the agent who invited me to speak and asked if the computer I was going to use [to insert my jump drive with my presentation] also had Internet access, It did, so I took advantage of this and embedded my Staging Diva website link into the last power point slide.

This allowed me to open my SD website link from the power point slide and I took the group through my profile, SD and Six Elements links, and lastly, the green “print brochure” button where they could print off a brochure at any time for any of their clients. I also handed out a colored version of the brochure at the beginning of the presentation, so they could actually see how it looked. I also provided them each with two business card. One for them and for for distribution to a client.

I can’t stress enough the value of that green “print brochure” button that Debra so cleverly set up on our listings in the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers. We all know she is a marketing master mind but it’s moments like these that make me realize the detail Debra has gone to in order to make her graduates professional and successful.

Overall, do allow some time at the end of a presentation to answer questions or have casual conversations because this is where we home stagers can learn from our audience and establish rapport. Be up on real estate issues going on in your community and ask the agents what they think. For instance, we talked about the price of oil going up and how this might affect the sale of homes in Anchorage. I asked agents if they thought the Feds would raise the interest rates this coming September. Most did not think it would. (UBS does though!)

Having some questions in my head and reading up on them before the presentation allowed for casual conversation and leveled the playing field. The common bond was our community and the effects of outside issues on our businesses. Letting agents know that you genuinely see them as the selling experts and you also want to learn from them is also good relationship building. As Catharine mentions above, relationships are key.

Finally, I DON’t know a lot about real the real estate business! I began to get an inkling of this after my first presentation to a group of REA’s. Again, I’m grateful Debra has created the “Glossary” that provides us with real estate terms and more! Thanks for your encouragement everyone; it floated my ship! Thanks Debra, – you’re brilliant!

It’s great to hear from an agent who knows about and understands the value of staging. I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s amazing that so many are still burying their heads in the sand when it comes to how key it is to have a home show well and look great on MLS. I’m not surprised that you’re doing as well as you are and now I know who to call if I’m ever looking for a vacation property up in Muskoka!

I love staging and know it works, and well! Keep up the good work, Debra.

Catharine (in Muskoka)