I’m Listening…

I love it when I hear a non-salesy, common-sensical approach to gaining business.  ‘Cause I’m not salesy at all.  Never have been, never will be.  I tried to be salesy once, working in a clothing store to help put myself through university.  I ended up stalking the client who said she didn’t want my help throughout the store, pretending to be fixing the clothes on the racks near her.  She knew what I was doing…and ran away.  Then I ran away too.

I’m now a Montreal real estate broker and Montreal home stager, but I’m still not salesy.  And I have no intention of ever being that way.  To me, buying and selling a home is just too much of a life-altering event to be “sold” to.

In my quest to continually learn how to be a better Montreal real estate broker, though, I went to ActiveRain University yesterday and listened to Jared James, a real estate coach, talk about listing presentations.  In real estate school, we were told that listing presentations generally happen this way:

1.  Consumer calls you and says they’re thinking about selling their home. You ask them questions about their property and make an appointment to come by and give your listing presentation, including your assessment of the value of the property.

2.  In the meantime, you do research on comparables that have sold in the area, and active listings on the market right now, and prepare your comparative market analysis (CMA).

3. You show up at their home at the scheduled time, wow them with your listing presentation (how you will sell their house and what sets you apart from all the rest), and then go through the CMA with them, concluding with your estimate of the market value of their home.

This has never made sense to me.  How can you do an adequate CMA when you haven’t even seen the inside of the home?

Dog with big ears extendedYou don’t have to.  And you shouldn’t.  And it’s not just because you won’t have all of the information you need to do a really good CMA.

When you show up to do a listing presentation, the homeowner inevitably takes you through the house, describing the updates that were done, the planned updates they didn’t get a chance to do, the gorgeous Corian they installed in the kitchen, the basement wall with the hockey puck scars, the gorgeous wood floors they installed themselves, the garden planted with love 5 years ago, how nice it is to have coffee in the morning on the deck, etc.

And if you let them do this, and then sit down at the table with them with your CMA already completed, you’re telling them that all of the things they have just told you do not make one iota of difference to you.  That what they say doesn’t matter because all you have to do is pull numbers off of a computer.

This is one of the reasons why, as a Montreal real estate broker and Montreal home stager, I’ve never sat down with a fully completed CMA on the first visit with a homeowner. 

And it’s nice to hear that the way I’m doing it makes sense, even if it’s not the way I was taught in school.  Thank you, Jared James.

6 Comments

Tanya Nouwens, June 8th 2010 | Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Real Estate

The Difference Between Montreal Home Staging and Interior Decorating

What is the difference between Montreal home staging and interior decorating?

As a Montreal home stager and Montreal real estate broker, where home staging is still a relatively new concept, I’m often asked, “What’s the difference between home staging and interior decorating?”

There are many, not the least of which is the fact that interior decorating caters to the tastes and preferences of one home owner/family, while home staging caters to the tastes of a whole pool of potential buyers for a home.

But it goes beyond that too. Here’s a picture of a room that we were presented with at one of our Montreal home staging projects. 

Before shot of the home office 

Now it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that a good clean-up of the room would work wonders.  And as an interior decorator, I could quickly come up with some window coverings, a nice desk lamp and other touches to pull the room together into a pretty nice office.

But as a professional Montreal home stager, my job is to think about the target market for this home.  According to the Montreal real estate agent (this wasn’t my listing), the most likely buyer for this home, in this neighbourhood and in this price range, would be a young family. 

Aha!  Young family = about two children.  The office was taking up one of the three bedrooms in the home.  Clearly, to attract as many potential buyers as possible, this room had to be converted from an office to a bedroom to clearly show that there were three bedrooms in the home. You never want to make a potential buyer “work” to picture a home working for them or to picture themselves living there.  

So, this is what we did.

After shot of how a home office turns into a bedroom 

The home sold within a week of the staging, with offers coming in at the first open house.

And THAT is the difference between interior decorating and Montreal home staging.

Happy staging everyone.

1 Comment

Tanya Nouwens, June 3rd 2010 | Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Home Staging, Real Estate

10 Ways to Know if a Real Estate Career is (Not) Right for You

Based on my experience as a Montreal real estate agent, a Montreal home stager, and a Montreal homebuyer and seller, I humbly offer you this quick and dirty take on 10 ways to know if a real estate career is (not) right for you.

Rules: If any of the following statements apply to you, score yourself a point. 

1. You’re usually the one who does all of the talking when you’re around other people.

2. You get CRAZY when you have a tight deadline.  And you CANNOT think clearly when you’re under pressure.

3. Disruptions to your schedule REALLY throw you off and upset you immensely.

4. It has never really occurred to you, at any point in your life, to ask yourself, “Am I good at reading people?” 

5. You love to gossip.

Picture of directional road signs6. You will fight on principle, even if it means losing a deal.

7. You tend to have a very hard time getting your emotions under control and need others to talk you down.

8. You never read the fine print.

9. You have had a life-long war with paperwork, and the messed up files to prove it.

10. You think real estate is easy.

Now, if you gave yourself a point for #4, give yourself 3 more. Yes, it was a bonus question.

What do the scores mean?

Score of 1 to 3: You have a few things you need to work on or get help with in order to be good at and enjoy this business.

Score of 4 to 6: Think on this career choice a bit more. And then when you’re done that, think some more. Then when you’re done that, travel to the top of a mountain, sit quietly for two weeks, and then come back to make your career choice.

Score of 7 to 10: Step away from the real estate course, ma’am! Real slow like….arms in the air….

What about you? Any others you’d add? Score differently? 

Is there one that would be a dead “If you answered yes to #, do not pass go, do not collect $200…”?

1 Comment

Tanya Nouwens, May 5th 2010 | Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Real Estate