From the internal Livian Archives: 'How to Create FOMO in the Market'
As a real estate entrepreneur, you know how important it is to offer your clients top-notch service.
But what if you could take it a step further and provide them with compassion and consulting during difficult times?
Today's episode is a rebroadcast of a private audience presentation, originally given by Vanessa Pollock, at Thrive Not Survive in January 2023.
In this episode, Vanessa Pollock, Livian Territory Leader for New Jersey and New York, discusses how to grow your business by providing meaningful work to clients.
Join Vanessa as she delves into the importance of providing clients with the hottest design and staging trend advice. She shares the secrets of how her proven Livian Design & Stage Roadmaps help sellers reduce stress and improve results.
Vanessa shares her industry leading results and strategy of using affordable remote design services combined with a local staging expert. She also offers inside tips on how to use staging as a way of growing your business, including offering free custom Design Roadmaps to prospects.
Although originally presented to a private audience, Vanessa's content remains more relevant today than ever today, which is why we had to share it with you!
Tune in to learn how to elevate your business with staging services that provide meaningful results to clients in all markets.
*Slides and visuals available on YouTube or directly at media@livian.com
So what is the FOMO that's in the market right now?
So, I think for sellers, sellers are actually fearing that they may have missed the market, but as our consultants, we get to tell them that they haven't. Now, the average national home sale price right now is at the same level as July of 2021. I'm going to say that again right now.
National home sale prices are at the same level right now as July of 2021. And everyone thought that that market was crazy. So for sellers, there's no need for FOMO.
There's just this need to help them get their house on the market ASAP and to create FOMO in the buyer market. That's what this is about. FOMO in the buyer market.
So how do you create that? Well, you present a product that everyone wants, a home so beautifully and thoughtfully presented that no buyer wants to miss out on it, that your seller is receiving the most offers the market has to offer. It's a house so move in ready that it keeps the seller in the driver's seat. It makes them the hot house of the week, which allows the seller to dictate their preferred terms every step of the way.
So I'm Vanessa Pollock. I'm the Livian leader for New Jersey and New York. And I'm the proud founder of Pollock Properties Group of Livian at Keller Williams premier properties in northern New Jersey.
We're just west of New York City. We serve the towns that New York City and Brooklyn people choose to go to when they decide that they're done with apartment living and they want a house with a yard and great accessible public schools. And last year, our local team closed $120,000,000 in real estate, which allowed us to raise and donate over $50,000 to local and global charities, schools and our very own music initiative that you just heard about.
And we're known for our Care Serve Give Way of Doing Business, which focuses on exceptional real estate service and care for others, plus radical generosity, which, by the way, are also the core values shared throughout all of Livian. One of the ways that we provide exceptional real estate service is through our very deliberate design and staging of homes. Because, you see, as Realtors, we have two jobs.
Our jobs are:
So I want to give you the playbook for helping sellers, your sellers, make smart decisions about how they're preparing their homes to sell, and make sure that your sellers are having a better experience while doing so. I've been staging my listings for almost 18 years now, before there were smartphones, way back to when we presented offers in writing, like literally in writing.
And sometimes we even had to send a final offer or a counteroffer via fax. So now I'm showing my age. But this is a system that has been tried and tested over many, many years.
And really our system for home preparation took off in the last shift of 2008, 09, into 10, 11 and 12 when days on market averages were getting longer and prices were starting to slide. Our sellers homes though, would still sell within the first few days of listing and often with multiple offers, which put us ahead of the competition during a very challenging market. So first up, if you're going to take notes, I want you to write down the word educate.
Just write down the word educate because the first thing we all have to do is educate our clients about the importance of current design and staging for their home to sell. This is so that it sells for their preferred timeline, right? And for top dollar. I know that we've all heard the words I will not stage my home from a seller and I can understand that statement because there are a lot of uneducated assumptions that exist in the marketplace.
These sellers think that it probably costs somewhere between 20 and $30,000 to design and stage their home. They think that it's going to take months and months or maybe years and years to do it all. And of course there are going to be outlier properties where that may be the case.
But the vast majority of homes that we sell can be prepared in a matter of weeks, not even months, and at a fraction of that cost. So it's crucial to hear your sellers out. You want to listen.
Being good listeners is so important, but then you want to respond with education. So this is how we educate our clients at Pollock Properties Group. We inform our clients that according to the National Real Estate Staging Association, by investing in design and staging, sellers see their homes sell for up to 10% more than the competition that doesn't design and stage.
Now, in our market in northern New Jersey, our average home sale price is $700,000. So that would be up to $70,000 for our sellers. And we know that sellers do not want to leave money on the table.
And as a team of experts in this field, we all want to help make sure that sellers make this educated decision to choose to design and stage. So we talk a lot to them about the process and how we're going to help them prepare their home to show at its best so that they receive the highest return on their real estate sale. Educate.
Explain that most sellers actually will only spend between $2,000 prepping their home with the necessary paint changes, lighting and hardware changes. But really the biggest cost isn't money. The biggest cost is their sweat equity.
Their sweat equity in the pre packing of their home in order to minimize and declutter it. We educate them and really, truly just remind them that they're moving and that they should just go ahead and start packing anywhere from 50% to 60% of their belongings. Pack it now as a part of their staging process and it will actually put money in their pocket in the sale price, but it's also going to make their actual move day go so much smoother.
Additionally, then we need to educate our sellers about the FOMO that buyers will feel when they see their home if it presents designed, staged and move in ready. So educate the seller about the buyer's expectations. Recent National Association of Stagers Research indicates that 82% of buyers find it easier to visualize themselves building a life and a home in a staged property versus a property that's not been staged.
See there's a consumer mindset that exists within the buyer market that translates directly from all of their online shopping right on over to Zillow and Trulia and your MLS because see, buyers are skeptical right now of the market. They're a little nervous about interest rates. So we need to create an aspirational and visceral experience for them when they walk through the door.
Because when buyers experience emotion, they take action. And the action we want every buyer to take is writing an offer and a great offer at that. The buyers who are moved by our homes are actually willing to pay top dollar.
They're willing to follow guidelines for exactly what the seller wants. Their consumer mindset requires that a home that looks like the current trends that they're seeing on the Aspirational website look like West Elm and Restoration Hardware and Crate & Barrel, and that it looks like the TV shows that we're all watching, myself included. Chip and Joanna Gaines.
Fixer upper. And don't get me started about the established home on the Magnolia Network. And then there's Pinterest.
So we've got to look like that and tap into that consumer mindset and then we've got to stir up emotion and give them that exact same experience when they walk in the door. That's what's going to create desirability and demand in the market, in the buyer market for the home. So educate the seller that it's time to start thinking of their house as a commodity, a commodity to be sold to today's buyer.
With today's trends, I often apologize to our sellers and say, as your agent, my job is to honor the life that you've lived in this home and the memories that you've made. But it's also my job to turn it into a hot commodity that every single buyer in the market is going to want to pay top dollar for that. There may be times that I step on your toes and I don't honor your history here, but please know it's because I have a fiduciary duty to keep you in the driver's seat and get you top dollar.
So do I have your permission to think about your home as a product that I want to get you the most money for, but educate them about that. That means that then, once they're educated, they also need to understand that each room within the home needs to be staged to serve the functions of what the incoming buyer might need. You need to understand who that potential buyer might be and then stage that house for that incoming buyer.
We must marry function with current design in order to create an aspirational and visceral experience. When the buyer walks through the door so that they think, yeah, I want to live like this. This is where I want to live.
This is how I want to live, and this is how I will love to live. We remove any barrier to entry so that the buyer just says, yes. What do I need to do? How do I make an offer? I want this house.
And if the seller will follow the plan, those buyers truly will be putty in their hands. So I'm trying to move my slide. There we go.
Hold on. Let me go back one. Thank you.
Perfect. We must next write down this word. First down.
You wrote down educate. Now I want you to write down advise. We must advise our clients on what to do to their home.
Remember when I said that we were here to help our clients have a better experience than with any other realtor? Well, for us, we know that we provide a better experience when we focus on stress mitigation. See, studies have shown that three of the most stressful things a human being can experience are death, divorce and moving. And as realtors, we are in charge of overseeing one of those.
And often a move is coupled with one of the other two, unfortunately, like a death in the family or a divorce. So how we approach our service to our clients is absolutely vital. When our sellers are preparing their homes for market, we must make the plan as clear and easy for them as possible.
See, stress mitigation feels like great customer service. And that's how we want our customers to feel like they were well served. That means that a clear design roadmap and plan for their home is not only good business for their potential sale, but it's also just incredibly important service.
A clear plan eliminates guesswork. It helps our clients to stop arguing with each other or having that internal battle with themselves about what to do to their house or what not to do to their house. It's a clear plan that's actually therapeutic.
That's why we like to call it the roadmap. It tells them exactly where to go every step of the way and what to do. Because, remember, this entire process can be so stressful.
The wholesale process, the prep and staging. But then they have to go through showings open houses, negotiations, more negotiations, the nail biting up to the end for the closing. So we must provide as much clarity as possible.
So how do you do that? How do you provide a clear design and preparation roadmap? Well, you've got to have a designer stager on speed dial wherever you are sitting right now watching this, now more than ever, as the market is changing, every agent must have this service locked and loaded and ready to go. If you haven't already formed an intimate relationship with your local stager, that is the first thing I want you to go do after today, it's a must do. And interview them.
Be sure that their bedside manner is impeccable and kind and patient. Remember, this is an emotional process for people and you want someone who can be kind and understanding while telling them to basically undo every choice they may be made in their house. It's very delicate and nuanced.
So we don't want a diva dictating the design. We want someone that's more like a nurse. A nurse administering the perfect prescription to bring about a healthy return and hold the seller's hands and hearts along the way.
So be sure that your stagers design suggestions and their staging inventory are current. We want it to look like all those consumer websites that our people are on right now. Now we want their plan to be written and super easy to follow.
So when you're interviewing, ask for an example of their roadmap and their design plan. Whether your seller pays for the service or whether you provide it as a part of your service, that's completely up to you. But if you've educated your seller about how important it is for them to design and stage, then please be ready to introduce them to this service and make a great stager recommendation.
Now, if you don't have a local stager, or if the local options aren't providing you with the level of service that we just talked about, we actually now have Livian Design and Stage as your leverage. Livian Design and Stage is remote design services for all of our partners so that everyone has access to affordable and clear roadmaps for every single seller. But truly, having that local stager is your absolute best case scenario.
That is the relationship that I hope you go lock down or you deepen after our sessions today and tomorrow. And yes, if you don't have that, we will be here to help. So, here is a simple list of things that you can put onto your listing presentation.
And it's actually in the order that I would suggest that sellers go in as they're preparing their home. If nothing else, just add that checklist into your pre list packages or your listing presentations. Now, the third word I want you to write down is grow.
We want you to use the idea of designing and preparing a home as a way to grow your business. At Livian, we do the two. And that just means that we're all committed to setting two new appointments every single week.
And like you heard, matt and I talk about, we love to call people about events. But what I also love to have our team is to call and offer our sphere of influence and our database and past clients this free design roadmap if they're thinking about selling their home in the next year. So it's a great way to start off this year.
We're just on January 11 and call through everyone and offer your design roadmap because during that conversation you'll find out if they are in fact thinking about making a move and really be able to qualify them and then set the appointment to be able to go meet with them in person. And here's how that conversation could go. Hi.
It's Vanessa from Livian. Happy New Year. I'm calling to let you know that our team is offering free custom design roadmap for clients thinking about making a move this year.
Just so that you'll know exactly what to do to prepare your home for market. Remove all the guesswork. Might you be thinking about making a move this year? Or do you know anyone else who is right? It's just that easy.
You're calling and you're offering a great service and coming from contribution. Next, you're going to grow your business because you're offering something above and beyond what a lot of agents are doing in many markets. By providing this service, your value proposition increases.
You convert and get the listing at a higher rate. And also the commission that you're able to ask for goes up because you're offering design services. And this roadmap, when you ask for 6%, you're often going to get your 6%.
And last, your business is going to grow because your community is going to start to recognize your homes. They're going to start to say, I know your houses. I can't tell you how many times people have said I know your listings when I see them on Zillow because they always look the best.
Well then when the day comes that they need to sell their home, you better believe that they're picking up the phone and saying, can you come make my house look like that because of our consistency of excellence. And they see it, they see it on the MLS, they see it on Zillow because everyone's watching all of those websites all the time. So first you educate, you make sure that the sellers know that they could make up to 10% more on the sale of their home and that by creating the FOMO in the buyers, it keeps them in the driver's seat so they can dictate the terms.
Then you advise, you advise exactly what they should do, what paint, what lighting, what hardware changes, make it a very clear roadmap so that it reduces their stress. And then you grow. You're going to grow your business, you're going to grow your gross commission income and you're just going to grow in general.
So I hope that you see that we actually have a fiduciary duty to provide design. This isn't just about making things pretty. We have a fiduciary duty to help our sellers make as much money as possible, to shorten their days on market and to keep them in the driver's seat.
So, I only have a couple of minutes left, but I just want to show you a few quick slides with results. This is a home that listed for 969,000 and closed for 1.125 with multiple offers.
Now, you can see on the left how they started and on the right how it went. Right. The function was not really clear and everything felt dark, so we brightened it and decluttered.
There was a great bedroom, but again, felt dark. It needed some elevated bedding and lighting, and next thing you knew, it felt move in ready. There was a room that was functioning as storage for the sellers, so by having them move those boxes into the garage and then presenting that room as a bedroom, it just made all the difference.
And then in the end, we moved again the function for living room and dining room so that it had the open concept feel that all the buyers were looking for. Then we had a home that listed for 699,000 and closed for 902, 500. It was unbelievable.
That was some serious FOMO in the market. Again, we helped the clients rearrange their furniture so that the room functioned at a high level, and then we helped them clear the mantle and just put up one great piece of art. We helped them with paint for cabinetry, new hardware, new butcher block countertops, and a backsplash in the kitchen.
We made what was being used as a TV room into the dining room so it would function the way buyers wanted it to. And it got great results and just opened up the attic so it was easier to use. Now, here was a home that was a vacant estate sale.
It listed for $300,000, it closed at $400,000, and it received 81 offers. 81 offers. Now, why 81 offers? Because often estate sales are presented vacant.
But by us staging this home and showing exactly how each room would work, the scale of each room, it resonated with first time home buyers in our area in a way that I don't think many homes had recently. And it was an extraordinary FOMO in the market and an extraordinary result for our clients. Now, this, remember, was born out of a season coming into 2008, 09, 10.
This system works, and design and staging is so important even right now. This is a home just this fall that closed in November that listed for 750,000 and closed for $851,000 because of the way it was designed and prepared. This family had dogs and kids.
We helped them understand that it was in their best interest to pack, prep, design and stage and go to an airbnb for the weekend. And they enjoyed a great couple of down days while we showed the house, and they got tremendous results because of it. And last but not least, this house, I just wanted to show because we got great results.
But all this room really needed was decluttering and packing, and all the kitchen got was a paint change on the cabinets. That's all. We didn't change hardware or countertops or lighting.
Nothing changed but paint on the cabinets and decluttering. And you can see if I go back to the sales, it listed for 750. It closed for $823,000.
Huge impact for our clients. And again, with function, the second floor, they were using a room that needed to function as a bedroom for the future buyers, as a home office. So we packed it up, asked them to stage it as a bedroom, and it made a huge difference.
So thank you all so much. I'm so excited to have spent this time with you. If you want to reach out to me, it's vanessa@livian.com.
Love it if you would follow Livian on Instagram and Michael. I'm done. Awesome.
Great job. A quick question. So we see a lot of agents that are out there that go like, you know, I've got an eye for design.
I can do it, what have you. And some of them do and some of them don't.
When you're looking for number one, do you recommend you go it alone?
Number Two, do you go find that stager? And when you open up I was just Googling real quick on my phone locally here, I saw about 18 different stagers.
What's something that I would do? Would I look at their body, of their work? Would I look at their experience just maybe 30 seconds on how would I pick somebody, or do I go to loan? That's great. So for the person who feels like they have a love of design, that may be one of your superpowers. It certainly was one of mine.
And so for the first almost seven or eight years, I was staging all of my own listings. I was showing up with my husband Charlie, with a ladder. He was installing chandeliers, and I was helping with pillows and plants and the like.
And I had a blast. And it wasn't scalable, as the business grew, for me to do it. So that's then when I went and interviewed local stagers, and just like I said, I wanted to see their body of work, I wanted to see their inventory, see the art, see their design choices, look at their roadmap, and then ask them, how do you approach the client? How do you talk to the client? What is your philosophy around communication? Because it's such an intimate process, and it's so difficult for people to unravel the memories that they've made in the walls of their homes.
So I want to be sure that they're doing it with a very kind heart. And so, yeah, how they approach it and then the body of their work. And then, to be honest with you, for our business, it became such an integral part of our value proposition that now we do it all in house.
We have a full time designer stager. We have a part time designer stager, and we get to collectively provide the design roadmap and put in all the staging in northern New Jersey for all of our listings. But that was the process from me and Charlie and inventory in our garage to using a vendor to then bringing it all in house, as that became really one of the reasons people were calling and asking us to come list them.