I know real estate agents that will answer their phones in the middle of their own birthday party, in the middle of their 25th anniversary dinner, and even in the middle of the night. Today I could not find a home stager in Seattle in the middle of the day.
This is what happened...I sent out my monthly newsletter as usual and I received a call back message from one of my subscribers in the Seattle area, Kirkland to be exact. And it said "I need a stager for a new listing". OK, I guess he enjoys the information and tips that I write but apparently has never visited my web site which clearly states that I sell home staging forms and instructions, all he knew was he needed a stager now and I was his only lifeline.
I called him immediately and he needed a stager to help his client with the wow factor from his entry. I thought that was kind of cute. He knew what home stagers did but had never used one but now he needs one asap. His client is moving to Hawaii and everything is packed in boxes and ready to go.
I'm not trying to drag this out, I am just trying to tell it just like it happened. This next episode is why I am posting about this particular experience.
I told him that I was in California but I would find him a professional stager immediately and have them call him right away. Well, right away turned into 10 tabs open in my window trying to find a stager from Active Rain that was in his area.
I mapped it out to see what communities were around his office. I opened the dashboard and clicked on the state of Washington, clicked on Kirkland and did not find one stager listed. So I opened Washington again, clicked on Home Stagers and went down the list. I visited their web sites first to make sure their work was good (again the importance of a good web site) and called. What I got was "no answer". I did this 3 more times with no answer. I went to Google to see how many stagers would pop up with the keywords home stagers Seattle. I only found 1 Home Stager on the first page that had an individual web site and was not part of a directory. (I did not want to go through a directory because of the time and sales pitches I would have to weed through.)
I left yet another message with that stager and went on to find a home stager in AR to pick up the phone. I did reach Sandie Childs because she happened to take the day off. One stager called back but it was too late, she was out unloading her truck. (she was not from AR but I invited her to join of course)
Real estate agents KNOW that their phones are their lifeline to their business and you will never see an agent 10 feet away from their phone at any time (well, that might be an exaggeration) but you get my drift. The time is at hand...Home Stagers will be and are considered real estate professionals and the lifeline to the success of our business will be "who picks up the phone".
I am sure Sandi is going to do a great job for this Realtor and his client and will get many referrals from the lead. Learn from the pros, it is the connections that bring in the work so be sure to keep your phone on and on you. The day has come and it was today.
Namaste
