Behind the Yard Sign: Listing Success with Get Happy at Home's Ian Gordon & Matt Miner of Coldwell Banker Bain

Everyone has the friend they know they can go to for a straight-up answer and a true conversation. At Spade and Archer, that friend is the team at Get Happy at Home. They're headed up by the dynamic duo of Matt Miner and Ian Gordon of Coldwell Banker Bain in Seattle, WA. Without them, we wonder if we would have even made it through the first wave of the Covid pandemic! Our working relationship is filled with more than just business as Matt and Ian come with not only true attention, strong vision, and a will to "make it right," but also a sense of humor that will get you through just about anything. In this latest episode of Behind the Yard Sign, we welcomed all of those things into our conversation with them as always.

Listen to the entire podcast episode here.

Matt Miner and Ian Gordon join Justin Riordan and Kelly Hanahan of Spade and Archer to talk about their successful listing process at Get Happy at Home in Seattle.

Matt and Ian are some of the most dedicated and passionate real estate agents that we know. They approach every Seattle listing and every client with the same valuable intentions and know that to make the experience worthwhile for everyone involved, everyone deserves to be treated well. This of course also applies to all the people that make the listing process work, too! Landscapers, painters, photographers, marketing staff, assistants, cleaners, home stagers... there are clearly many people that make a real estate community function, and Matt and Ian are extremely aware that no one is more important than the other. Their way of maintaining positive relationships and holding each other up within a buying or selling process has launched great success and growth, which of course, we as a vendor are always grateful.

Seattle’s Get Happy at Home always helps their sellers create strong listings by home staging and using other vendors to make the property shine online.

There are a ton of steps that agents can do to promote their listings, businesses, and brands. Get Happy sets an impressive tone for what is possible and they are not afraid to commit to each phase of their process and meet every need that comes their way. That said, they also know what works and develop an action plan for their listings to get things moving. Listening and understanding their market and the audience of buyers within, their team set a course for transforming their many listings from a personal, individualized home to a blank yet exciting slate that just about anyone can relate to. What's impressive is their ability to also know how to make this transformative process understandable to their sellers! 

Get Happy’s process works! This Magnolia home went pending in seven days after listing!

Matt and Ian, with their authentic and honest communication style, make the process relatable for their sellers to understand and therefore are given complete trust. Ian brings it home, stating, "Our only known form of communication is heavy humor and sarcasm. And so I think if we bring the data and we bring the knowledge and then we package it in this cute, sort of hilarious, funny way, it's also pretty disarming for people... and there's an inherent trust that kind of builds off of that." 

To expand upon their honest and authentic process, the two have worked tirelessly to generate a strong social media and web presence that mirrors their dedications and principles in the field, keeping it relative to what they know and to what they can live up to on a daily basis. "We want to model our marketing and our branding around the people that we want to work with too," adds Matt. They've developed an entity, both in-person and online, that caters mutually to the underlying needs of their clients and contractors. This way, they indirectly identify the people that they get along with and the people that will accept them for who they are. To Matt and Ian, it only makes sense that they accept those people as well.

Get Happy makes sure a potential buyer knows how to use every single space in a home by staging to every feature and functionality of the property.

In being unapologetically true to themselves while understanding the value of being kind and positive, the two have been able to carry their business a tremendous distance. After settling into their strong, energized presence, you quickly come to find that they are coming to you with a wealth of knowledge and ready to roll up their sleeves to strategize. "I think that if you do right by people, you put their interests at least equal if not greater than yours," Matt explains. His distaste for sales helped create a direct structure of working and communicating within his business. When asked about their secret sauce of success, Matt confides that he's very open and leaves it to his clients. "I don't tell them what to do. I never tell anyone what to do. I'm just consulting." It's a hands-off approach with inherent loyalty that is also coming from sincere experience. He continues, “it's a matter of showing a client what the potential earning looks like and then being correct."

All in all, the team at Get Happy at Home just want their clients and the people they include in their process to be… happy! Beyond the dedicated level of service and lively transparency, the team shines as a solid example of an honorable real estate group. Matt and Ian want great things for their clients and industry partners, but what's incredible is their ability to look beyond and aim higher. In reflection of what could really hold a business back, Matt instructs to "use your powers for good, and don't ever betray that trust between you and your client. Because if you do, your business will fail and you will fail and you won't have the esteem or integrity to stand upon that you need." 

Want to work with this magical duo and their team at Get Happy? Or maybe you want to learn more through following them through their endless amount of blogs or on social media? Check 'em out at gethappyathome.com. Trust us, it'll be a very fun time!

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Spade and Archer Design Agency is a professional home stager in Portland, Seattle and Los Angeles. We start every single project with our Instant Price so let’s start the process of selling your home with an easy, free and instant quote. Spade and Archer is your no-risk, pay-at-closing, touchless installation, instant pricing home stager and we can’t wait to work with you.

Design Principle: Working Vintage Into Modern Homes

Houses come in all shapes and styles. A great house can get overlooked simply because a buyer doesn’t relate to the style. A modern looking house may turn some buyers off just from the street: it’s not their style, they can’t see their family there, they get defensive on how they live their lives. But once they come inside and see a blend of furnishings, they relax to the possibility of living there. At Spade and Archer, we use a mix of modern, contemporary, and vintage furniture and accessories in our staging to make it relatable to a wider range of buyers.

One of the great advantages of working vintage pieces into your home staging is the chance to elicit an emotional reaction from a potential buyer.  Something as simple as a vase or painting might remind them of something they had in their childhood home, or Grandma’s house or even a favorite piece they’ve seen in a movie.  That instant, subconscious connection to a particular item could keep the buyer in the house longer and make them dream of their own vintage pieces there. An emotional connection is a powerful resource and often outweighs the dozen other logical reactions they may have to the space.   

If someone is into all modern, chances are that’s the kind of furniture they already have.  They are interested in that style and they don’t need to be convinced of it.  Someone else, however, may have a  few modern pieces, but hardly live the Brutalist lifestyle. They have some inherited pieces as well that mean something to them.  They have a lifetime of shopping and collecting and they need to see their eclectic tastes reflected in this home. 

Having only one style or period of furnishings in a home makes it feel stiff and unnatural.  An entire house filled with modern furniture is unapproachable. It can feel like a beautiful photo shoot- something that looks good but not something you can actually touch and have.  In home staging, we of course want the home to look great,  we want the pictures to be attractive and searchable, we want the buyer to be impressed and interested in our spaces, but we also want it to be accessible and comfortable. 

You can easily work vintage pieces into modern architecture. Thoughtful uses of aged, curvy antique wood furniture counterbalances the sharp, cool lines of modern design.  The difference of textures and contours is pleasing to the eye.  Soft lines make sharp angles more special and vice versa.  The lines of the home can actually be accentuated by contrasting them with something different.  A straight line of a wall next to the straight line of a dresser can nullify both of them; the architecture of the home disappears.  Contrasting that straight wall line with something different will highlight it and draw attention to the home itself.  Our ultimate goal is to sell the house - not our style - so the more attention that can be redirected to the house, the better. 

Style is subjective, taste is not.  Trying to force one particular style on a buyer will result in a defensive posture.  It would be a shame to miss out on the opportunity of a great home just because the buyer was turned off by its style.  Mix and match is the way to go when trying to appeal to a wider audience.  Selling the house is the point, and doing whatever is necessary to make each home stand out is the goal behind our staging. 

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Spade and Archer Design Agency is a professional home stager in Portland, Seattle and Los Angeles. We start every single project with our Instant Price so let’s start the process of selling your home with an easy, free and instant quote. Spade and Archer is your no-risk, pay-at-closing, touchless installation, instant pricing home stager and we can’t wait to work with you.

Behind the Yard Sign: Being Your Own Brand with Boise's Donna Wade

People come in all shapes, sizes and personalities.  Real estate agents are no different. Donna Wade is a Boise, Idaho real estate agent and a real character.  She shared with us the importance of always being yourself and how to make that part of your brand - no matter what you’re selling.

Donna Wade has been a friend of the Spade and Archer family for years.  She first met Justin Riordan, owner and founder, when they were teenagers on the dance floor in a Boise gay bar.  Justin saw this tall drink of water from across the room and ignored all the guys there just to get a chance to talk to her. Their eccentric personalities blended and they have been friends ever since. 

Justin and Kelly interviewed Donna for Episode 5 of Behind the Yard Sign and you can listen to the entire conversation here!

While Justin has been in the real estate biz for more than 20 years, Donna is a recent convert to the game.  That doesn’t make her any less successful or have any less drive for it, though.  Four years ago she started her own business as a real estate agent and has been going like gangbusters ever since.

Donna had always dreamed of being a teacher. She worked as a college adjunct instructor after getting her undergraduate in communications. After college, she got involved in non-profit work and spent the next 14 years in different non-profits from hospice to social justice. She picked up an MBA along the way and juggled those two careers for a long time.  

“I realized there was only so far I could go,” she says about her years of teaching, executive directing at non-profits and grant writing. She was looking for something else.  “I hit my forties and my son got a little older. I was approached by a long-time friend who had helped me buy my house and he had an opportunity to join a team. There was an opportunity to become the assistant director of operations for the team and with my business background, it seemed like it could be a fit. So, I interviewed and I did get hired for that job.”

It was a complete change from where she was, but she decided to give it a shot.  That position never materialized, but she was put in a transaction coordination chair as part of the team.  The paperwork was mind-numbing and was sucking the lifeblood out of her because she’s a total people person.  She went to the team owner and said, “I gotta be an agent. I gotta be with the people. I belong there.”

Everyone agreed and that’s how Donna got started selling houses herself.  About this new venture, she ruminates: “It's all very interesting, but I am more motivated by the people and their goals and their objectives and the relationships that I form. That's what keeps me inspired to be in real estate. And that's why I know I'm going to do it forever because you're always meeting different people. You're always in different situations and everybody has a different story.”

Donna is an admitted goofball. In her social media posts she could be dancing in a silly skirt, doing Stevie Nicks impressions, vacuuming or impersonating Anne Bennett. It didn’t start out that way though.  At first her posts were highly informative but bone dry.  She was imitating the things other agents where doing. There is an unspoken model of what a “professional” looks like and she was doing her best to mimic that.  “So, who do I want to attract?” she asked herself. “Well, I want to attract people that get it. I'm dorky and fun and goofy, and also have an MBA and also have business savvy and also will advocate for you.”

That’s what motivated Donna to make her personality her brand. “If I put myself out there and someone encounters that and they think to themselves, ‘She's not professional. She's not polished enough. She's not slick enough.’ I'm thinking, well, that's probably good. That's not the kind of person that is going to be attracted to me. And that's okay.  I don't have to appeal to everyone.”

When new agents see her posts, they ask for advice: “Have savvy about how you're doing it and do it often, but be real. You can be professional and be real at the same time.”

The reason people want to work with Donna, and keep coming back, is her authenticity.  Someone spending their money on a home has to trust the person they’re working with.  If she put on airs – wearing pearls and driving the Land Rover - to act like other agents do, it would be phony and it would come across that way.  People wouldn’t trust her or want to work with her if she was obviously being fake and not true to herself.  There are so many types of people out there and that’s why there are so many different agents.  You have to find the right one that clicks because nobody fits only one mold.

Is it hard to be so vulnerable all time? “When I realized that I could meld being me and doing this and helping people reach their goals, that meant a lot to me. I'm looking at the business as a relationship business. So, I'm here to advocate for my clients, help them meet their goals and do that in a way that helps them feel as calm as possible, relieve as much stress as possible, and is an intelligent streamlined process for them. That's what I'm focused on.” 

She can only be the best for her clients when she is being her best self.  Real estate is a business of personality.  You are the face and heart of your own business so it only makes sense to promote yourself in the most authentic way possible. “I think you can put your best foot forward and be an excellent professional and be fun all at the same time.”

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Spade and Archer Design Agency is a professional home stager in Portland, Seattle and Los Angeles. We start every single project with our Instant Price so let’s start the process of selling your home with an easy, free and instant quote. Spade and Archer is your no-risk, pay-at-closing, touchless installation, instant pricing home stager and we can’t wait to work with you.

Design Principle: Removing the "No"s

The process of finding the perfect home consists of more than just your real estate agent sending you the perfect listing and you paying the funds. It actually has a plethora of logical and emotional reactions that guide your mind through making the right decision.

Before Priority Preparations and staging. Plenty of No’s here for a future buyer.

After Priority Preparations and professional staging from the Spade and Archer Seattle team. All of the No’s are removed.

These numerous logical reactions such as location, size, schools, and price, are things locked in stone and nothing we can change. The emotional reaction could come from a gut response to things such as a bad paint color, a number of needed home repairs, or its cleanliness.  These are the reactions that translate into NOs.  These are the things we can control. 

At Spade and Archer, we do what we can to eliminate the NOs. After a site visit, we will present to the seller a list of Priority Preparations.  Depending on which program the seller decides to utilize, these are the items we think need to be addressed in order to eliminate that negative gut reaction.  We look at a home from a buyer’s perspective.  We want to remove that visceral response that will override all the logical ones that say this is the perfect house for you.   

Before Priority Preparations and staging.

After Priority Preparations and professional home staging by the Spade and Archer Seattle team.

For example, a full kitchen remodel may not be possible or even necessary when listing the home.  Something as simple as updating the cabinet hardware, though, might make the kitchen tolerable for a few more years until the new homeowner can revamp the kitchen the way they want to. A buyer will come into that space and see that it needs work but is livable and that will make necessary future changes palatable.

Before Priority Preparations and professional home staging.

After Priority Preparations are completed and staged by the Spade and Archer Seattle team.

Simply cleaning up the landscape or fixing holes in the wall will present the home in a better condition. Changing out dirty ceiling fans or outdated lighting fixtures could be the right way to get a buyer to see this house as move-in ready. If someone walks in and immediately sees all the work they have to do to make it livable, the “NO’s” start to win out. 

Paint colors always elicit an emotional response.  The house may be great, but a bright red wall could create an unexplainable negative reaction that leads to the buyer walking out without considering the home as a whole. Darker paint can make a room feel small even though it’s of adequate size.  It’s not logical, but the buyer will feel uncomfortable here and not consider this home as an option for them.  We try to neutralize all paint colors so that they are inoffensive to a buyer. No reason to lose a sale just because someone doesn’t like your color choices.  

Every property is unique and depending on their age, style and amenities - they all require specific fixes to make them a top listing.  We come out and inspect the house thoroughly to help find these damaging “NO’s”.  We carefully consider what is necessary to present this home in the best light possible. As the stager, we know it’s our job to do what most homeowners can not: look at the property objectively. Having that space be their home for so long, it’s almost impossible to look at it any differently. It’s our goal to partner with the seller and streamline the process without overwhelming them, thus helping them present only what is relevant and most effective in selling the home.  We want to eliminate the NOs and make a sale. 

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Spade and Archer Design Agency is a professional home stager in Portland, Seattle and Los Angeles. We start every single project with our Instant Price so let’s start the process of selling your home with an easy, free and instant quote. Spade and Archer is your no-risk, pay-at-closing, touchless installation, instant pricing home stager and we can’t wait to work with you.

Design Principle: Designing for a Demographic

There are seemingly countless types of people in the world. Every day, industries and markets narrow them down to understand the potential for needs and success. Real estate is certainly one of those industries where demographics come into play. 

Bellevue, WA home staging with Spade and Archer

We'd be a fool as a home stager to not refer to the target demographic of a listing. We ask our clients and agents for their thoughts or perspectives on those, and we also do further homework through data and even taking an extra minute or two cruising through the neighborhood… because the internet and numbers can't always convey the charm or quirks that make an area unique. Why do we go to all that trouble? So we can better understand who wants to live in a specific property and why. And what do those factors matter? Because it's our job to set the stage for that target audience and beyond.

The role of a home stager can be extremely significant in a property listing. Good home stagers and savvy agents know what we're talking about. The sentiment is true all the way down to the tiniest of details. Of course, you want furniture, lighting, artwork...the basics, but basics are simply not enough. Good design layers the basics with decorative touches, thoughtful concepts, and a hint of nuance. How are those advancements decided? You have to consider the demographic.

Santa Clarita, CA home staging by Spade and Archer

So how would we adapt to broaden that demographic? Well, using that layering just mentioned, we can strategically deliver on everyone's needs and make a thoughtful first-impression. Accessories and artwork are mixed in styles, which generates broader interest and maybe even a conversation. It all sounds simple, but it's actually a skilled trick. For example, in a two bedroom condo, we can stage the secondary bedroom with a queen mattress set to show the potential function while adding bright, colorful throw pillows and playful art which indicates that the unit caters to a family of any age. Once they look closer, they might see the hallway console with a tray of vintage domino pieces which spark joy not only for the kids that want something to play with while Mom and Dad talk numbers, but also perhaps to the retired senior looking for a home that his grandkids can come over and visit someday. It's these thoughtful, intentional choices that help to create a selfish experience for a buyer. It lets them imagine themselves within the home earlier and for longer within the buying process. 

Something also very important to recognize are the things that can turn people off or even trigger an unfortunately negative response. Take alcohol for example. It is such a common prop within staging to see branded bottles and cocktail accessories lining the built-in counter in the media room or as a part of the outdoor patio lounge setup. Sounds great for a concept! But what about the experience for the recovering alcoholic? This among many other sensitive notions are important to be aware of as they also contribute to narrowing the demographic and can completely ruin a potential buyer's experience. We have found creative ways to substitute such instances with alternatives and whimsy. It doesn't have to be so literal to get the point across, so why create so much risk when you don't have to?

Seattle, WA home staging by Spade and Archer

Our warehouses at Spade and Archer are filled with inventory of varied of styles and ages. There's a lot of intention behind every piece going into our stagings. We know that Los Angeles is going to require more specific furnishing styles compared to Seattle or Portland. We are doing our job to understand the core demographics and climate of each area. We go far beyond that, though, in understanding the differences between people and their cultures, families, and stories. We cater to emotions in our work, and we strive to create positive experiences for everyone in every project. With all the demographics in today's modern world, it's more important than ever to be inclusive. Spade and Archer recognizes that. 

Seattle, WA home staging by Spade and Archer

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Spade and Archer Design Agency is a professional home stager in Portland, Seattle and Los Angeles. We start every single project with our Instant Price so let’s start the process of selling your home with an easy, free and instant quote. Spade and Archer is your no-risk, pay-at-closing, touchless installation, instant pricing home stager and we can’t wait to work with you.