Transcription
Welcome back to Foxy TV episode 124. For those of you joining us for the first time, we are a home staging company based in Brisbane, Australia. And this show, Foxy TV, is about giving you an insight as to how a home staging company runs. We show you what happens on install day, what goes on behind the scenes, and we do our very best to provide you with an entertaining and informative show.
This episode is no different. In this episode, we are breaking down consultations. Now, home staging isn't a product you can just walk into a store and pick off the shelf. It is a service, and when you're talking a service that is in thousands of dollars, most people are going to want to meet you, to know what you can do for them, and they're going to want to know how much it is going to cost them. So, we're going to have a chat with Phoebe about how we do consultations at Foxy Home Staging, including, uh, whether we charge for consults, how long it takes for us to do a consultation, uh, what do we do when we're there, what sort of photos do we take, what questions do we ask. And we're even going to share with you a document, our consultation form, that Janessa, Phoebe, and Cassie use at every in-store. That chat with Phoebe will go for about 10 minutes.
But before that, we have just two quick things to show you. An install that we did earlier this week, and also, we're going to show you which steamer we use to steam our beds on install day. It's only going to take just a couple of minutes to show you that. But if you're here purely for the information and consultations, just skip forward about two or three minutes. Okay, let's go to the install.
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We're in Karina Heights, right up on the top of Karina Heights. So we're running on Garand Street, um, which has city views. So in a beautiful, beautiful spot, um, in this gorgeous renovated home. Very, um, if I could describe the style, it's very American coastal, and I've never loved it. So, um, if you turn around this side, it's very Joanna Gaines, I think, but a bit more coastal than Joey Gaines. Um, the entire, the ceiling, the kitchen ceiling, the skylights, the selections, these are beautiful atmospheric lamps. Everything comes together so beautifully. Um, and I can't wait to see this one on the market because it's been a really good response, I reckon. So different, large, in a gorgeous position, having a great school catchment. Look at me.
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Aside from being asked where we got a particular piece of furniture or an accessory, where we purchased it from, the next question that, um, we get asked the most is where we get our steamer from. So we use this one here, the one that I'm showing you in the video now. This particular model has been discontinued, but, um, there is a similar one, I think it's just the newer model, at Harvey Norman here in Australia, at around $140 price point. If you're interested in more, just Google the Philips Easy Touch Stand Garment Steamer. I've written that down in the description of this video, so you can copy and paste it from there. So that is the steamer that we used on the beds. If you're interested on seeing how we steam the beds, I think the process is pretty straightforward and pretty quick, but if you are interested in seeing that, just let us know in the comments and we can get that up in a future video.
Now, for today's main topic. On a busy Wednesday afternoon at the warehouse, I was able to catch up with Phoebe and ask her all about consultations. "How much do you charge for our consultation?" "Zero." "Our consultations are complementary, which is different to a lot of stylists, and it does cause a bit of a conversation in the industry. Um, but our belief is there's a couple of things, but for us to get in front of the vendors and get go and give us, give them our thoughts and everything, the first step in our planning process. If we can get in front of the vendor, nine times out of ten, they're going to go ahead with the cons of the quote. So, um, we're just so much more, actually, let's say seven times out of ten, um, they're more likely to go ahead, um, and lock in with the install. Um, I feel that with, if we charge, we're one of the only any businesses and suppliers in the real estate industry. You don't pay for a payment to give a quote. You don't pay for a builder. You don't pay for your real estate to come and give you an appraisal. You don't pay for your handyman to come and give you a quote. Like, why? I know that there's a lot of stylists out there that disagree with me and they're saying we're imparting out advice and everything. However, we've always been about giving as much valuable information as we can out for free, regardless of whether or not you're a stylist, an agent, or a vendor. So why should that stop at a consultation? So for me, get in there, do the consultation. I will tell them literally, if I can't do anything, I'm going to let them know. If they should change their sofa around, switch the wall their TVs on, I'll do it with them while we're there. Um, and that's fantastic. They'll get more for their houses, presented better. But most people are time-poor. They have a look and see the impact that styling can have, and they realize, actually, you know what? I really want to do it. I get the quote through to them, and they're like, actually, I've created that rapid, like, build that relationship already. I've got that trust. Let's go to that grounding. Let's just get them in to do it. It's going to be so much easier, save me so much time, and it's going to work better because my agents recommended it. So yeah, that's why it's really varies. And the reason it varies is just depending on how much I talk. So it can be 15 minutes, and it has been up to an hour. Um, it depends on the size of the property, depends if there's somebody living in it. Am I meeting the agent there? Am I meeting a vendor? Is it probably completely empty? Are we styling all spaces? Is it in a unit? Does it have good access? All of those factors will change how long our consultation will take.
No, and particularly so, for example, lockdown was a really good example of this. I started doing virtual consultations. However, we've always done as an offering. So I can get your quote through straight away. I'll do a quote for floor plan. I can jump onto RP Data and have a look and see if there's any previous listing information. Most of them will include a floor plan unless it was listed a long, long time ago. I can really gauge at least the size of the living space, so I can give somebody an approximate cost. We will very rarely install having seen the property in some sort of manner. If I'm happy with the floor plan and I'm happy that the color scheme hasn't been changed internally, and we haven't visited the site, but I've got that information, we can install. However, we will not install site unseen unless we have some that 70, 75 information. We're really fortunate. We own our truck, we own our stock. I can take backups with us. Um, but I obviously can't get there to install a gray palette color palette house to turn up and then it's beige color palette. So they're the things I need to make sure we have those boxes ticked before you install.
This is something that I was finding I was asking over and over again. So as a business that, as we've grown and I've gotten stylists in and we've got full-time stylists in who I'm then getting to go out and do the role I was doing, I was getting asked a lot, like, what do we do to so that the stylists are doing the same color of work as I would normally do? Then this is one of the things. It basically gets them to ask the same questions as I would, get the same information. Information that is easily relayed and then transcribed across into an actual quoting document. I can use this in tandem with the images that I uploaded to Google Drive to then formulate the quote. So this is very important information for us. If we miss any of this information, I can't put together a quote. So, and it's basically, it dictates the process of a consultation. Walk in, say hi, at the moment, have a chat about masks. Um, and then go through the property. So, um, we're going to ask them who have they decided who they're listing with, how we, when are they thinking they'd like to get the property listed, when a photographer's photography date. Most people don't know the process. They don't know that we would generally install on the morning of photography. So it's reassuring and having those conversations and over-communicating the process with them. Then we go through things like, um, we are going to hang the artwork, but most people also don't realize that when we're hanging the artwork, we're going to use permanent fixtures. So we have the conversation there at a consultation that they are happy for us to use permanent fixtures at a consultation install. Otherwise, we get there, we use permanent fixtures, we do the pack up, they're all happy, their house is sold, but then they're left with marks on the wall, and they, they feel that that should have been discussed. So it's something we discussed at the consultation. And then it's the terms and conditions. Then we also go through and notate all the colors, finish the surfaces, curtains, anything that's a little bit crazy, it's all noted on here.
Other factors that we also note is, um, is there good access? That's particularly important for the truck and allocating how much time they need. So do we have one or two sets of stairs? Do we have a steep driveway? Is it a unit block? Do we need to, um, book loading dot locks at docks and lifts? All those sorts of things are all annotated on here. If we need to book a loading dock, is there building management contact that we can note down? Which, nine times out of ten, there's no. Then we'll go through each space and I'm like, Cody, can share this. Each space by space, what's the size of the bedroom? Can we fit a double, a single, is it a queen? Is there a study nook in those bedrooms? Do I need to account for a console to go in an entryway? That's our, that's our run-through. Do we have a formal living? Is it a family living? Is it downstairs rumpus room? Are we going to go for more of a kid's retreat? Are we doing outdoor dining and outdoor living externally, or should we go for outdoor lounge? Because we tend to only do outdoor lounge off an indoor dining space. Those sorts of things are annotated in here because we get the best feeling for it when we're at a consultation. I don't want to make it overwhelming and confusing at the time of a consultation. If I let them know everything that I'm thinking, there is no way they're going to remember it. So it makes it more of a stressful experience for them. So I say every time, I'm going to take away that information. I'm going to take it away tonight. I'm going to write it up each room by room. I'm going to send you through a plan. It's a working checklist. It's the first step in my planning, but it also helps you get the property ready for sale. Then I'll go through, so we're going to hire these pieces, we're going to use these pieces, we're going to use these pieces in a different room, and then we're going to store these items. We have a service that we do offer storage for clients. We take it off-site and put international storage, or they can organize to take it off-site themselves. But at least that way, the property is then ready for us, perfectly, often perfectly, when we get there to do our installation. And they understand what they need to keep. If it's a vacant property, obviously I'm not including all of that information. It's just literally a room plan, and then they can see exactly what furniture items we're bringing in. So that's the, the run-through. I don't discuss colors, themes, styles, um, or any of that. If somebody says to me, look, we've done styling before, I'll ask them what sort of ideas they have or what's their understanding, or do they have any questions about the process? But I don't enter into a conversation about what style they would prefer to see. Um, there's a lot of reasons for it. Reason one being, honestly, the style that we style our property always is depending on how the proper, how the property needs to present. Not every home can take Hampton style. Not every home can have coastal Scandi. The home needs to be presented in the best interest of the property, um, and that's what our vendors trust us to do. And as soon as you introduce the idea that they can have input, which sometimes they can have, but if you give them the opportunity to say, look, I want Hamptons, and the house is a 70s brick home, it's then that discussion turns to, well, well, actually, you can't. It becomes negative. So we try to avoid that part of the conversation. Um, and we always talk about the quality of the furniture we bring in is reflective of the price point that we're trying to achieve for your home. So that's the level that we're quoting for, and that's understood really well.
So photos, we take two angles, every of every room, two separate angles, so that I can, if I'm not on site, I can use those photos to piece together a floor plan, um, and so that those photos in tandem with this console document, console document, are used to create the quoting document that I then send on to somebody. Quote, I tried to do that within 24 hours. I used to do it on the same night. I got a bit of a backlog at the moment, so it's the next day. Um, so yeah, we'll work on that, get it back to the same night more because in my head, if I don't do it on the same night, then it's out of my brain. So I like to get through within 24 hours. That's that's ideal. That's a god standard.
There you have it. That's hopefully everything you wanted and needed to know about consultations. Of course, if you have further questions, if we've missed anything, if you want anything clarified, just let us know in the comments section of this video. And that is it for this week's Foxy TV episode. Thanks for joining us once again, and we'll see you back here in the next episode.
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