Behind the Yard Sign: Creating a Rock Star Listing Team by Vetting Vendors for Your Clients

On Episode 14 of Behind the Yard Sign, we interviewed Gabriel Perez — one of our favorite clients in Southern California! As a newer agent with huge goals, we wanted to talk with him about how he builds a successful listing team right from the start.

Within the real estate industry, agents have all a multitude of ways to become successful in developing their business.  With the multitude of tech tools, business partnerships, and marketing skills out there at the ready, many agents have found out how to stand out and offer a unique flare. One ingredient that can easily be overlooked is something we as a home staging vendor take great pride in… vendor and client relations. 

You might immediately identify with this and understand the significance of that dynamic. For the agent who is more of a vendor concierge for their sellers, you know this involves a bit of some hand-holding and project management. Though once you've gotten into the flow and have found the right people, the process can be seamless.

The ease of this route starts with finding vendors that value the same principles as you do for your business. With that, you know your clients can relate to them in the same or similar way that they do to you, and your brand or business is not compromised in the process.

Spade and Archer Home Staging in Portland

Do you aim to be on time? So should your vendors. 

Do you value quality and good taste? So should your vendors.

Do you offer honesty & professionalism? So should your vendors.

Can you accommodate when the going gets tough? So should your vendors.

Spade and Archer Home Staging in Seattle

Your vendors should also be your professional besties, or in other words, they should not be viewed as "the help" but rather as members of your team. A listing team goes well beyond your in-house coordinator or project manager. It also includes the cleaning crew, the landscaper, the electrician, the home stager, and so on. Each of those service providers exists to support the efforts of the others, and if that is taken for granted or abused, it is not going to be of help in the long run.

One great relationship can generate a ton of new interest and potential success, so why not consider your vendors -- who all work in and around the same industry you do -- as an asset and contributor to your product? It's also just good business to maintain these great relationships… because, as the saying goes, you get more bees with honey than with vinegar.

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Making or Breaking a Home Sale with Staging: The Before and After Portland RE-PAINTING Story

Potential buyers may be surprised by how much preparation goes into a house from the time a homeowner moves out to the first open-house. Most homes don’t undergo an entire remodel, but a cosmetic face-lift can pique a buyer’s interest and even raise the property value.

The first step we take when beginning a new staging project is a site visit of the property. As we walk through the house, we take pictures, plan room layouts, and make notes about potential turn offs from a buyers perspective. Factors such as paint color, wallpaper, outdated light fixtures, and dirty carpet can easily prevent a potential buyer from imagining their new life in this home. 

BEFORE Spade and Archer Home Staging

AFTER Spade and Archer Home Staging

More than a year ago, the Portland Spade and Archer team visited a gorgeous 3-story house just outside of Portland with stunning views of the mountains, river, and city. With such a great location and views, the team was confident that the house would get snatched up immediately once listed. Design manager Chanel met with the listing agent Alicia Selliken (a recent guest on Behind the Yard Sign!) and discussed “Priority Preparations” that would need to be completed for the project to be a Guaranteed Stage. This included re-painting the interiors and replacing the carpet throughout, replacing light plates, door knobs, and kitchen appliances. 

A couple weeks later, the realtor came back and asked to do Guaranteed Home Staging® Price but had not completed the above list. The Spade and Archer team made an exception since the wallpaper and non-neutrals walls had been painted out. However,  the current neutral colors were there were pretty dark and dated the home a bit, but we were all so enamored with the views that we thought if we staged it correctly a potential home buyer may not fixate on the wall colors. 

BEFORE Spade and Archer Home Staging

1st Spade and Archer Home Stage

FINAL Spade and Archer Home Staging

Once staged, the was listed from March through September without any serious interest, which was surprising given the home’s beautiful views and unique architecture. In September, the homeowner’s daughter decided to do a “mini-flip”, which entailed replacing deck-railings, repainting the interiors, and eliminating brass fixtures. The Spade and Archer team re-staged in mid-December and it looked like a completely different listing!

In the original staging, Chanel chose art and accessories that would draw attention away from the dijon mustard color of the walls and more towards the view. When a home was non-neutral wall colors, it impacts how each room can be decorated which end up accentuating the paint. A potential buyer doesn’t want to consider what changes will have to be made to their future home before they are able to move in. 

BEFORE Spade and Archer Home Staging

AFTER Spade and Archer Home Staging

However, once it had been painted white throughout, Chanel was able to bring in color and more eye-catching furniture to make the space feel more homey. She was no longer just staging for the views, but for the property itself.

Just three days (!) after the house was listed for the second time, it went pending. This was the 4th round of marketing for this property: it went on occupied at first, then vacant, staged with some alterations and then finally completely painted and staged. This almost year-long process really affirmed the success of the “Priority Preparations” system. A freshly painted and updated home invites a potential buyer to image their life there in the future, rather than adapt to the previous owner’s color and design choices. 

BEFORE Spade and Archer Home Staging

AFTER Spade and Archer Home Staging

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Behind the Yard Sign: Finding Success by Finding Your Niche with Urban Living’s Matt Goyer

LISTEN TO EPISODE 13 HERE.

Specialists are the rarified few who have a major talent in one specific area and are paid handsomely for their unique knowledge.  They are in demand and can be very successful.

You may have a General Practitioner doctor who is someone you see for a wide range of issues.  He/she knows a little about a lot and can help you in most manners.  And then there are docs who have spent time and energy focused on one particular specialty.  They know a lot about a little (a single subject, that is).  If you wanted a nose job, for example, you wouldn’t go to the same doctor who treats your cold.  You would want a plastic surgeon. But if you are really looking for a perfect proboscis, you would seek out someone who specializes in rhinoplasty- someone who knows noses.  

Great success can be found in any niche and that includes real estate.  Take Matt Goyer.  He is the wildly successful and eternally busy head of Urban Living in Seattle, Washington.  What started out as blog journaling his attempt to buy a condo years ago has evolved into a successful career and a niche market business with staying power.

“So, when I moved here in 2004 and I started looking for a condo, there was very little information online. You had to buy the Seattle Times Sunday paper and see who was advertising in order to figure out which condos to consider purchasing. There was nothing online, so I started this blog that was basically a journal for myself of condo sales centers.”

VISIT htps://www.urbnlivn.com/about/ TO FIND OUT MORE.

Matt bought his first condo and then his second and then onto a townhouse, all the while writing about his journey.  “I worked at a tech startup, but it was more known as a real estate brokerage called Redfin and I ran the marketing there, but I wasn't an agent.” After that, Matt did another tech start up and moved from office job to office job.  “I just got tired of working in an office, doing meetings, all that corporate BS and was like, man, I just want to follow my passion.” Being from Winnipeg, Matt says he didn’t really have any passions besides skiing and hockey.  Not really stuff he could turn into a career.  “Oh, I write this blog about real estate that I've been doing as a hobby,” he thought. “Why don't I turn that into my job?”

Since Matt was already looking at condos, he decided to focus on those. He was specializing without even knowing it.  Soon more people began to read his blog expecting him to go to more and more condo centers until he became known for his condo expertise. “I just kept chronicling what was going on in Seattle real estate,” he says. There are now thousands of subscribers as well as an email that goes out every Friday. He estimates close to a thousand people a day visit the blog.

The blog is what eventually became Urban Living - Matt’s own brokerage. After years of working as an agent for someone else’s brokerage, he managed to create one of his own. “I didn't like having someone else's name on my sign. I knew I always wanted to have my own brokerage. But you just can't go and start your own brokerage. You can't be a managing broker overnight,” he says. “I took the online courses and all that nonsense and all this state licensing BS- it's all complicated! No one's written a guide of how to do it.” But eventually, he worked to create a company of his own. “Now I’ve got signs with my name on it and it feels great.”

Even in the topsy turvy times we now face in real estate, Matt has managed to carve out not only a successful business, but a name for himself.  He remained true to his vision, his core values and his specialty. “That's how we developed that brand initially,” he says. “Really focusing in on that one thing. And now we’re known as experts in that space: ‘If you're thinking of buying a condo, you should talk to Matt.“ 

You can be successful by focusing on a niche and being the best at it. “I think a mistake that a lot of real estate agents make at the beginning is to try to be all things to all people,” Matt advises young agents.  “The blog was very, very niche to start. It's broadened a bit over time, but you know, our focus initially was really on new construction condos, cool lofts.” 

Being a specialist means your clients will seek you out for your advanced knowledge.  You can build a successful business and a die-hard following by doing one thing. Know who you are. Know what you do. And be the best at it.

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SPADE STORIES: MEET SEATTLE DESIGNER BECK

After graduating from college in June of 2020, I had very low expectations of what entering the workforce during a global pandemic would look like. With two art degrees (digital design and art history) I was prepared, at worst, to be a work-from-home telemarketer or, at best, a barista for the rest of my life. After scouring online job listings for weeks, and applying to gigs related to the arts, I came across the position of junior designer at Spade and Archer. I was immediately intrigued by the hands-on and curatorial aspects of the job but I wasn’t convinced I had what it takes to be an interior designer. While my own maximalist, knick-knack heavy, and eccentric house might not be everyone’s cup of tea (even though I’ve got plenty of vintage teacups!), I figured I could tone it down enough to make it through an interview. Lo and behold, three interviews later I was in training to be a junior designer!

I owe all of my artistic prowess to my mother, an artist herself, who from a young age took me to every museum and gallery in my home town of San Diego. She enrolled me in countless art classes and summer camps and encouraged creativity and curiosity in all aspects of my life. So I’ve always known I was destined to work in a creative field, but I could never answer the question of which job I would be best suited for. In 2016, I decided to move to Seattle and study digital design at Seattle University. It seemed like a healthy balance between creativity and job stability. And after taking a few prerequisite art history and theory classes, I decided to get the most out of my tuition, and tack on an art history major. I found that in my graphic design practice, having the background knowledge of both historical and contemporary art movements created a helpful foundation of resources and inspiration. Here at Spade and Archer, I get to use the same skill set when putting together vintage, mid-century modern, and contemporary furniture and accessories in a cohesive way.

What I’ve enjoyed most about my time at Spade and Archer so far is that every day is unique: a new house, a new neighborhood, a new floor plan, a new color scheme. I love starting the day with a fresh empty house, and leaving it a perfectly curated home. What I feared most about studying graphic design was sitting in front of a computer screen for 40 hours a week- but here that never happens!

In my free time I’m an avid sewer, quilter, weaver, embroidered anything to do with textiles-er. Ever since my grandmother taught me how to sew at age 12, I’ve loved spending hours at the sewing machine making clothes, tapestries, and even just mending a pair of jeans. Otherwise, you can usually find me cooking, playing video games, or reading, and always with an iced coffee in hand.

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Behind the Yard Sign: Launching Your Business and Sustaining Emotional Resilience with Tamara Dean

Tamara Dean has been a friend of Spade and Archer for a while now, booking consistent home staging projects for her Seattle and Kirkland listings and selling, selling, selling. She knows her stuff -- she's got 23 years under her belt after starting out helping her Dad with his real estate business. She eventually became a single mom working double duty as an agent in real estate and also as a cocktail waitress. Nowadays she has the instinct and forethought to take time for herself, but when things got going in the beginning, she certainly struggled when she found herself trying to balance it all.

LISTEN TO THE ENTIRE EPISODE HERE.

There came a time when it all caught up with her, and she almost didn't really know who she was or how she got there. She had been hustling and bustling, indirectly letting her personal needs take the back seat to the people and clients that relied on her. She eventually had a wake-up call from her then husband and made a commitment to herself, for herself. Fortunately she also had family and friends that were there for her when she needed them, but there were still things that she still (like for most of us) could adjust to set a better stage for success on all fronts.

Tamara found a great resource in working with a life coach where she was continuously being challenged to get out of her comfort zone. "I had a [life] coach at the time and he was like, 'You know what, stop feeling sorry for yourself, you just need to get out of your shit right now and this is what you need to do.' ...I was in such, at that time, a victim mode 'oh, poor me,' ...and it took that third party to pull me out of that and see it from another perspective."

Through all of Tamara's new found efforts in self-care, there were still battles that would come naturally within the real estate business. Take the factors of rejection for example. It happens to the best of us. Real estate is one of those fields where before people shop for homes, they shop for a person. People look for their agent -- the one and only person (or group) who gets them, understands their needs, and will deliver. And what happens if they aren't liking how it's going? They will leave you for another. Tamara had a hard time pacing through those scenarios early on, but with time (like most things) things got easier to bounce back from. She has found ways to continue onward with patience, motivation, and ultimately -- success.

The ability to also create mutual wins for everyone she is working with is a huge boost for positivity and reinforcement, too. Some agents become complacent with outcomes where one side wins and the other suffers a loss. Tamara won't settle for that understanding that there's always a happy medium.

As an agent that hasn't ever truly had a business partner, it's impressive that Tamara always aims to keep it copacetic in her transactions. Co-listing has been a great tool in her toolkit not only to gain momentum for a listing but also for staying connected in her professional community and also for keeping up the morale.This is why co-listing has only done her well.

"It's always been more or less me doing them a favor… You have a good relationship because you have a transaction together and you've got each other's back and you end up working so well together that they appreciate that. ...If you're always out there doing the right thing and doing what's best -- not necessarily for yourself but for your clients and for other people -- then that kinda comes around full circle, and I think that's where a lot of my business comes from."

Referrals have come in for her from the usual places -- sellers and buyers of course, but the fact that she has gotten so much of her business from other brokers' referrals is impressive to say the least.

It's clear that Tamara's "what goes around comes around" mentality has helped establish a successful path for her in her business. As the self-described "peace maker" and extremely driven individual, she is a welcomed breath of fresh air in a sea of competitive professionals.

Get your instant home staging price now by clicking here.

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