Here in Charleston we've noticed a trend that is becoming more and more apparent. Thankfully we are poised to keep up without missing a beat!
When I quit my full time job as a real estate administrative manager to work in this profession, I expected that I would do primarily owner occupied consultations and maybe I would be lucky enough to get a few of those staging jobs. It didn't take long for me to realize that I had completely misguessed the market. I sent out my very first newsletter in June of 2006 and within minutes (literally) had 10 appointments - 8 of them were vacant homes (I owned $0.00 in inventory at the time!). My husband and I decided to invest in this clearly defined trend and have been staging primarily vacants ever since. When I added 2 other local team members in January 2007 the trend was the same and we now have close to $500,000 in inventory with over 30 vacant homes currently staged.
Over the past few weeks we've been noticing that we are getting more and more calls for owner occupied properties. (We haven't cut back on any of the vacants thankfully and our warehouse is looking a bit like we've been robbed lately.... it hasn't been this empty since we moved in!) I personally do very few owner occupieds, they aren't my favorites, so I prefer to refer them to other team members. Both Bevin and I have been taking 2-3 owner occupied calls a week for the past few weeks. We do the ones for our best clients (though we've had so many we still have to refer some of those) and any new clients go to other team members (Susan Hardin, David Moon & Bonnie Mizzell).
Because we believe in tracking business and trends, we've been discovering that most of these calls are coming from primarily one source - A few weeks back (February 19th to be exact) we did an educational break out at the Charleston Trident Association of Realtors' Trade Show. We still get several calls a week and many of them are regarding owner occupied homes. Apparently we managed to get the message across!
The best part of this story is that the agents are not only providing their clients with the consultations, but a good percentage of these homeowners are actually having us do the work and their homes are selling! Virtually every agent has responded back to us after changing the photos in MLS about the increase in showings! This is a trend we hope will continue..... while we love the vacants and continue doing at least 2-3 a week, it is so important for homeowners of occupied properties to set their homes apart as well.
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Melissa Marro, a published artist, now turned staging advocate and national speaker speaks her mind about real estate and the home staging industry. In her 'no holds barred' approach, audience members find real answers to the industries pitfalls and learn how to overcome them with tried and true information and guidance. With marketing as her passion, she turned a small home based business into one of the nation's largest home staging and training facilities. Selling her successful home staging company in January 2012, Marro is now a full time speaker and instructor for Staging And Resign and Real Estate Staging Association (RESA)'s trade events.
For more information on having Marro speak at one of your real estate functions, please contact her at 843.619.1593 or email at marro.melissa@gmail.com
Melissa: We have been doing a lot more consultations for occupied properties lately. I used to poo-poo them as being a less profitable use of our time, but the more we do, the more profitable they become, and I don't have to keep buying more inventory. I still love staging vacants, but am more than happy to do occupied consultations now.
I agree that they are a good use of time and no inventory is needed! I just am a bit more of a loner I guess.... I like to be by myself a lot of the time and never have to worry about if someone is upset that I moved something. The other members of my team actually like the occupieds so I am more than happy to refer the work. I think it is great income and actually makes more of a difference very often (in comparison to vacant homes).
I work too much and am trying to cut back so this is one place I can 'just say no'. I am really glad that homeowners are getting the message though! If we get too busy with them I will step in and do them as well.... I would prefer to add more team members though.... lol!
Melissa- we get a pretty good mix of both! You know i hate the owner occuppieds but i love the vacants- Tanya is the other way around- she loves to shop the house!