Home Staging NJ Luxury Real Estate

Remember Monday's post about lensing listings?  As of this morning, if you were to search

"5BR in Bernardsville"

or

"Best 5BR house for sale in Bernardsville"

You would find the Squidoo lens - www.squidoo.com/15Charles - come up as #1 on Google.

And if you go real generic "Bernardsville house for sale" it comes up as high as 17.

Higher than the realtor's own expensively, professionally produced site, and higher than the house's own site where the address is the url.

How?  I'm not sure yet.  I have a feeling it has something to do with the way Squidoo lenses (pages) are optimized for Google's spiders (SEO technology) and a lot to do with the trackbacks - the amount of places you can find this lens listed online.  Right now, it's here on AR, in my newsletter to 1027 realtors, on Facebook, on Twitter, and will shortly be on my other blog.  (which I find cumbersome, annoying and not nearly as fun or even useful as AR!)

My seller is thrilled; my realtor is furious and not speaking to me; the house is not sold yet.  Of course, the realtor could be in the midst of a negotiation or two and not yet have absorbed or even noticed my email!

We might just have a new way of marketing homes, folks.  Did I mention that it's FREE?

Free.

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Juliet Johnson

www.JulietJohnsonStaging.com

(973) 477-7000

Hi friends, it's been weeks since my last post. 

Mea Culpa. 

I have to confess (sticking with a theme here) that while I don't understand the technology, and barely grasp the scope and potential of social media I do wonder if we shouldn't be pushing out the boundaries some and having a go to see what works.

 <Is this list the most disturbingly overwhelming thing you've ever seen?  I tell you too many choices!!!!>

To that end, I have been working on a lens at Squidoo for a house a friend is selling for her mother in Central NJ.  Squidoo lenses are one page, of infinite length, with lots of modules in as many different varietals as possible to help create an explanation or resource for a topic. A whole view, so to speak. Any reason we can't use them for homes?

Check out:-

www.squidoo.com/15Charles

It's a lovely house, in a popular village, good schools + lotsa private ones, in the "landed gentry/horsey part" of this state. It's priced well, not enthusiastically or aggressively but right, even by today's model.  We've staged it using existing resources, identified the key selling features and set them up as keywords on the lens and are wondering if this will go towards creating a platform, a full story for the home.

Here's my current challenge: -

What would complete the lens is the homeowner's point of view:- the 5 things they'll miss most about the home, their 3 favorites moments shared as a family in the home, favorite times of year and why, etc.  the story, the history, the folklore of the home, therein its provenance.

But doesn't that go against everything we stagers do to market a home?   Sure we illustrate lifestyle and demonstrate possible celebrations in as many nooks and crannies as reasonably possible... but we're also the people packing up all the personal photos, diplomas, trophies, etc.  Sooo, is there a place for the seller's POV?

And then, who's job is this line of marketing?  Us?  After all no-one knows the keywords (or USPs) for the property that we had in mind as we staged.  The brochure people, who have the experience with layout, design, manipulating images, writing good salesy, tempting copy?  Maybe it's the homeowner... and maybe realtors would welcome having something specific they can send the homeowner off to go do while they're try to build buzz through all of their channels?

What do you all think?

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Juliet Johnson Staging serves the luxury real estate market of New Jersey, with home staging and marketing techniques.

Thank you so much to our moderators - Kim Wester and Yvonne Root for all of their work here on Stage It Forward.  Great work, we are all so glad it's you guys, and thank you for your warmth, wisdom and empathetic compassionate.  Thank you Kate Hart, our wise and esteemed Stager of The Year who keeps a watchful eye over the industry in general and SIF in particular. And thank you, Craig, for giving us all this sandbox to play in.

Here's the replay --

 Thank you all for listening in. Hope that you'll call in next time. Should I have given out the phone number.... would you have called in, if you'd knew the number?

If there is an upside to the way certain stagers consistently stir up things on Active Rain it is that it polarizes an issue to the point where, eventually, you can see where the underlying misunderstanding originates.

From this weekend's version of "Why can't you all play nicely together in the sandbox" the question that I believe would benefit us all is:-

How is the Stage It Forward group moderated?

Most members know that Craig has some folks who assist him in moderating the group.  These people are UNPAID volunteers.  They do it out of respect for Craig, his vision for the group and the overall benefit of all involved.

Haven't you always wanted to talk to them and ask them stuff?  I have.  My questions start with:-

Who are the current moderators?

Why do they do it? - it must be hugely time consuming.

What is the criteria for a "feature"?  Does it change week-to-week, season-to-season?   Or even, as we change?

How much ---- er, well, frankly, crap (but you might read that as "heat") --- do they have to put up with from all of us wanting to know why a particularly poignant piece of brilliance wasn't featured?

Is there any kind of tracking system to make sure that certain great writers aren't featured all the time while the illiterate never get a look in?  Or, perhaps a better question might be:- do you take off points for abysmal grammar, pppor speelink and irrevelant pictures?

Is there any kind of bias that you notice amongst yourselves and how do you police each other?  Can you, even?

Well that's my first batch of questions.  I'm sure more will come to me.  What do you all wanna ask 'em?  Let me know, and I'll ask them for you.  Or you can join us, and ask them yourself...

Because this Wednesday, June 11th at 7;00 p.m. 2 of the 4 SIF Moderators are prepared to go public!! 

They are ready, willing and able to answer any questions we have.  if you want to tune in, call in and/or be in the chat room with us... you may do so by registering at www.blogtalkradio.com and or click the button below.

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Juliet Johnson is a leading authority on the topic of Home staging, and runs one of the most enduring staging practices in New Jersey, servicing luxury real estate in the $1 - 3 million niche.

We did it!  Do please check it out.  Linda shared her experience in a wonderful generous way and Karen had lots of good stuff to share.

We, well, I, had a severe technical difficulties at the start, but if you hang in there, you'll here some really good dialogue.

Please take a listen... and then share your thoughts!

I was just reading some wisdom by "mogul maker" Kevin Nations, whose position is that if you just increase each of your 5 sales areas by as little 15%, you would double your income.  With tonight's call coming up on "Statistics, what you track, why, how and what is the numbers tell you," I thought I might share Mr. Nation's thoughts.  Were I interviewing him, I would already be wracking my brain to follow him ---

Which 5 aspects of sales do you mean, sir?

 1.    Prospecting Systems - # calls, enquiries, etc.

2.     Ratio of Closing Sales

3.     Order Size

4.     Frequency of Order

5.     Identity as an Expert in Your Field and Taught Others Your System

 You guys, I have to be honest:  I'm not tracking ANY of these.  Are you?

Don't forget to join the Barnetts, Karen Dembsky and I as we try to untangle all the numeric spaghetti in our business.

7 p.m. www.blogtalkradio.com   Show number 208335

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Hi Folks,

In the true spirit of Craig's Stage It Forward group, Linda and Gary Barnett have taken pity on my cluelessness about statistics and have agreed to be interviewed on the topic!  In case you're wondering, Linda Barnett has staged over 70 homes already this year!!!!!!

Joining us to keep my feet on the ground and add in her own very special charm, wisdom and overall good humor will be Peachtree Home Staging's Karen Dembsky.   Indianapolis, Atlanta and New Jersey's markets will be represented in this discussion!  We four have all been at staging for a while, so have a lot of experience.  However, each of us acknowledges that there's still a lot to learn!

Tomorrow's topic is statistics.  However, if there is anything you would like to ask Linda, her inveterate partner Gary or Karen, (who is also a realtor) do join us tomorrow evening at 7 p.m. EST. 

Here are the details:-

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/HomeStagingNJ/2008/06/04/Home-Staging-with-the-Barnetts-Karen-Dembsky

Register with them (www.blogtalkradio.com) so that you can comment, join in chat room and generally participate.  Call in to talk live at (347) 945-6913; we can have 5 callers at once.

Come and see how this site works.  It is really easy to use, it's good fun and an ideal way to "speak" your blogs.  Or so they say.  I have yet to find a regular time slot that works for me, in this crazy business of ours, where no 2 days are ever the same!!

Do join us - Wednesday, June 4, 2008 - 7:00p.m. EST -- www.blogtalkradio.com - show #208335.

Blogtalkradio is a combination of talk and live chat.  We have 30 minute segment booked, unless you all tell me that you will join us and have questions, in which case I'll extend it for either 45 minutes or an hour.  A tight 30 minutes might be a good beginning.  We can always do another episode.

Best to all,

Juliet

I know, you'd think that Jersey would be the LAST possible placed you'd find anything hip - other than a new fuel, highway improvement, or port processing tool.  However, we are in close proximity to a large economic center and periodically become exposed to state of the art trends....

So, here's what I'm noticing on the McMansion beat -

1.  Morning Kitchens

A small sink, a coffee pot, a small fridge and one of the Fischer Paykel drawer dishwashers.

2. Elevators

We've actually had elevators in the mega-homes in town for a while now, but it's a trend that's catching on in more rural areas now, too.   My guess is that this trend has to do with multi-generations living in a home, and people wanting different generations on their own seperate floors - i.e. away from everyone else!!

3. Mudrooms, Theaters, Upstairs Laundry Rooms with TVs and phone lines.. the custom spaces.

My favorite is the all-concrete room in the basement -- it's not a panic room as you might imagine -- it's a place for kids to ride their bikes and throw balls in the winter!

4. Imaginative Room Dividers

One sees beautiful photos of vast aquariums dividing rooms, and honestly we don't get a lot of that around here.  But we are starting to see more and more see-through gas fireplaces.  2 rooms for the investment of installing only one fire.  So, a Master Bedroom will share the fire with its bathroom, or sitting room.  A kitchen and family room will double up.  A Living Room and office... it's actually really fun when you have little kids.  It enables you to literally see through walls!! The eyes in the back of the head thing is still a challenge, but don't tell my son that, 'k?

What's new by you?

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Juliet Johnson serves NJ luxury real estate with home marketing services, using home staging techniques and multi-dimensional marketing principles.