The Alimond Show

Yvonne Jansen - Elevating Home Selling with Expert Staging and Rural Real Estate Insights

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What if you could transform your home-selling experience with expert staging and meticulous property preparation? In this episode, join us, Yvonne Jansen and Betsy Ferguson, as we reveal the exceptional services offered by Ferguson Partners, a leading real estate brokerage in Lynchburg, Virginia. Learn how our extensive inventory of furniture and decor, combined with a team of top-notch contractors, ensures that every property we list is in prime condition. Betsy’s background in interior design and our shared commitment to creating a family-like environment for agents and clients alike sets us apart in the competitive real estate market.

Take a trip down memory lane with us as we reminisce about California’s vibrant food scene and share the story of our move from bustling Northern Virginia to the charming, rural town of Lynchburg. Discover how the COVID-19 pandemic sparked a real estate boom in the area and how modern conveniences like reliable internet access have made places like Smith-Mount Lake a prime choice for families looking to relocate from urban centers. We discuss the lifestyle shifts and the unique appeal of rural living, making Lynchburg a hidden gem for many new residents.

Finally, we delve into the importance of professionalism, continuous education, and staying updated with industry standards. From pre-home inspections to cutting-edge marketing strategies, including professional photography and international MLS listings, we leave no stone unturned in ensuring maximum exposure and quick sales for our clients. Listen as we share personal anecdotes about balancing work and family life, the significance of trusting God to alleviate stress, and the joy that comes from giving glory and practicing kindness. This episode is packed with invaluable insights for both real estate professionals and anyone looking to buy or sell their home.

Speaker 1:

So what we offer? We're a brokerage in Lynchburg, virginia and Lynchburg Virginia is only three and a half hours from here, and I originally started here in real estate sales and marketing and moved out to that area about five years ago. But one of the unique things that we offer is that we have about $30,000 of inventory of furniture, rugs, tables, decor, bedding, mattresses and all that. So what we do is we go into a listing it could be vacant or it can already have somebody living there, of course occupied and we go in and we either fluff it up but we bring in things for staging and video and for photography, or if it's a vacant property, which we even like better, we will go in and stage it. But we go beyond that. We line up contractors. We like to have the property painted and clean, so we have a team. We try to get the windows cleaned if something needs to be repaired outside. But we ask a lot of things up front that not a lot of listing brokers do.

Speaker 1:

So I'm a real estate broker and Sue is my partner, and what a real estate broker means is that you take it to another level with education, with a lot of experience, and we make sure we protect our clients all the way, so we don't just put a house up, it goes on to online and then we forget about it. We go that extra mile so we really go that way. So our clients feel comfortable, when they do sell their home, that all those boxes have been checked. So if anything pops up they're not surprised. And how we try to avoid that is that we pay for home a pre-listing inspection. So we also have a team of inspectors and they also work for other real estate agents as well, and they'll come in and they will inspect the property. And then we give it to our seller and we go over what's important, which is some of the stuff's a little fluff, but we go over if there's anything mechanical, because that's covered in the contracts.

Speaker 1:

When an offer comes in and we make sure that those things are addressed, we ask all these series of questions like how much is your electric bill? How much is your water bill? Who's your HOA company? Is there any repairs that you have done lately? What do you? They still have a warranty.

Speaker 1:

So we put everything together. So when an offer does come in, that purchaser feels so comfortable that everything has been answered. Therefore that offer goes up higher because people bring in offers lower when they're not, when they're buying an unknown. So that's a really good tip for other agents. But listing agents are different than buyer's agents. So that's just a little snippet of kind of what we do, and then the rest is just amazing, with a lot of handholding. We're kind of psychiatrists and counselors. So I'm Yvonne Jansen, I'm the broker and partner of Ferguson Partners in Lynchburg, virginia, and Betsy Ferguson I wish you were here, but she wasn't able to make it and she's the owner of Lynchburg's Finest. So together we formed a team and we met at a women's prayer group through one of our friends and we hit it off being two brokers and we were just always chatting about real estate and she was I want you to join me and I was like I don't know, I'm kind of winding down and yeah right, I've never been so busy.

Speaker 1:

And she keeps me running because she went to Liberty University with interior design. I'll speak a little bit about her, because she's fantastic it's her brokerage and our partnership.

Speaker 1:

So, betsy Ferguson she went to Liberty University with interior design degree and then what she did was I need to pay off my student loans. So this is really cool for the young folks here. She got her real estate license and her new husband at the time, matt Ferguson, who's a weatherman in the Lynchburg area. They bought down her student loan quickly and she did that through real estate. So we joined the Ramsey group for a little bit to kind of help new buyers as well. Hey, this is the things that you need to buy down to get where you want to be. So she's done that quite a while ago and has made a very successful brokerage and there's agents that work under her and we love training them and doing things with them. It's kind of a nice family. So from there she also worked with builders as well.

Speaker 1:

So I worked with builders, starting from California, and then my parents got transferred over 30 years ago to the Virginia area from the Los Angeles area. Yeah, where you're from, that's right. Yeah, and we were just catching up earlier. We love the food we go. We were just there last fall. We started in Temecula. We always fly into San Diego cause it's a little easier than LAX. Yes and uh, we fly in there and we hit the nice wineries in Temecula and then we went so far to the beaches and visited them and and then we came back home. So I got to take my son because he's 24 and he's never been there to California and it's always something to explore because the weather and the food is fantastic.

Speaker 2:

I'm so jealous I know the best right, the best, the best. I feel like the Mexican food here does not compare to that. No shade, but they're both good. But Californiaifornia just has like the good good stuff, I think the best.

Speaker 1:

So you're talking to your family. So you have to remember alvaro street. So, alvaro street, they made homemade taquitos and they're just like street tacos. But you know they have street food everywhere, but they mix the guacamole. I can't believe I'm talking about this. I'm always talking about food. Whoever knows me, it's always about it. The latest and greatest food cuisine. But it was old school delicious. You mix the green chile with the guacamole and they just had them in buckets and they just poured all over the tequila. You're making me hungry. I always do. I'm always sorry about that, it's okay. So my mom, she's a great cook, so she always makes my dad Mexican food. You've got to be a little careful when you get a little older. Yeah, but we're good cooks. We love to cook all the time and it's just it is. It's hard to find good Mexican food, but there's some good little places around here.

Speaker 2:

There's actually one back here, La Taqueria. Yes, the owner. He came and did an interview with us too, but his food is really, really good.

Speaker 1:

I'd say yes, and they're also from Mexico City. Oh, that's wonderful, right, so they know the stuff yeah they do, and that's so funny when you do talk to restaurant owners. They do bring that extra flavor, but they're a little more healthier these days.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker 1:

But I had a girlfriend in California. She goes. I'm always on the search for the perfect bean, and what she meant was she would visit a lot of Mexican restaurants and whoever had the best refried beans and salsa was the winner, because you knew everything else was going to taste good. Yes, exactly, that was like the key factor. So I think you know restaurants are really important because they bring people together. They bring community together.

Speaker 1:

That's where people celebrate and we always like to support our local companies. We always like to support especially families who are investing their own money into restaurants and businesses. We always like to support especially families are investing their own money into restaurants and businesses. We always want to support them first. And if it's a birthday or celebration and that's what I was doing here I always wanted to go local to all the restaurants as well, and still do so. After this, I'm going to have lunch with my daughter. We're going to go to a local restaurant. I remember when they started up and they just I think those have a little better flavor, yes, than your chains.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker 1:

I agree yeah.

Speaker 2:

And now talk to me a little bit about. I know you used to live here in Northern Virginia, Loudoun County, Right. What made you decide to want to move to the Lynchburg central area of Virginia?

Speaker 1:

I think it was time. I feel like I reached my peak in my real estate career and I wanted to do something different. So I went to the Lynchburg area and I really love it. It's a little more rural but fast, and a lot of my friends from that area Smith-Mount Lake is only 30 minutes from where I'm at, so we get a lot of referrals out there. You got Liberty University. It's a fabulous Christian university and it's got several other colleges and universities as well. But I wanted to do something a little different, so I did and I loved it. I loved that rural area.

Speaker 1:

It took a little minute to get used to, the homes were much less and then COVID hit. I'm like what's going to happen now? Covid? We always talk about COVID. What's going to happen? What's happening? So the real estate market there wasn't slow, but it was just you know, kind of average homes on the market. You know 30, 45 days. But when COVID hit, it took off and I'm like what's going on? What's happening? Why is it taking off? Why are we doubled in sales and now tripling? And it's because we had internet. The schools were great, the universities, people were able to go back home Like we have a lot of people come from North Carolina.

Speaker 1:

They stop at Lynchburg. They'll go to Roanoke, richmond and then here. Those are the stops. So we're like, oh, it's common sense, people don't want to work in the office anymore. I got internet, I'm going to go buy that farm. So with this, now I got people that live around me. They're buying their dream farm. From Fairfax, from Loudoun County. A lot of families own property at Smithmount Lake. I have a lot of friends here that do. That's where they learn to jet ski. That's where they learn to ride boats. That's where you can do all kinds of cool stuff on the water, and lake water is so much different than beach water. But the homes would just gather around this lake. It's absolutely gorgeous. I think the last time it was like, oh gosh, with all the new construction, like 9,000 homes around Smithmount Lake, um. So there's a lot of agents that have moved from here to there and so it's a, it's a destination for sure, um. So that's why I moved there and I just love it. It's a. It's faster pace than people think.

Speaker 2:

Really. Yes, I'm kind of a little bit like whoa, I thought it was more like lax.

Speaker 1:

They're getting away from the hustle and bustle. No, I thought it would too, and it keeps me moving. I've never been so busy in all my career, except for selling new homes where people are lined up to buy at the door. But I've never been so busy because, word's out, real estate's still reasonable there in Lynchburg and they're like I can afford this, even with interest rates. Interest rates can go up, but the value keeps going up. Interest rates could do this, but the property value will still go up. So right now, the interest rates we are, that's an average interest rate. And once people get that in their head and realize, oh, this is a normal interest rate, this is the average for the last 30 years, they're like okay, let's do this. All of a sudden they find money. I remember when I would buy property and I stopped going out. I stopped buying Starbucks sorry Starbucks, I stopped. Oh, it's amazing how much I saved Ridiculous.

Speaker 1:

I'm like oh well, oh well, now I've got some money that I can live on. So people are just cutting back. So it's all mental and buried down to the basics, I can do this. So people from all over are coming and buying out there and it goes back and forth Again. I've got friends that are from here that I've met in the Lynchburg area that own businesses. I think it's just the stop to go to, especially if you want to raise your kids in a different type of environment just a little more rural, less traffic, a little bit less traffic. So that's what brought me out there. I wanted to try something different, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

Good for you, thank you. And what do you think are drawing people besides like the ruralness of it from, like? I think it's like New Jersey, new York, people like what's drawing them to central Virginia Taxes?

Speaker 1:

You said it Taxes. When you said New Jersey, New York, they're just amazed of how much affordability even northern Virginia is.

Speaker 2:

That's crazy.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and also the big driver to the Lynchburg is Liberty University. So right before school's out we get an influx of calls because we do a lot of Google ads and we do a lot of YouTube and we spend that extra time and money in that. But we do it ourselves because outsourcing can be a little expensive sometimes. So we had to learn ourselves to be techie and digital marketers and that's another side of our business that we do just for us.

Speaker 2:

Talk to me about that a little bit. Sure, so are you filming the content and sending it to them and then they make it? I do it all, oh my goodness.

Speaker 1:

So I see you, thank you. So I taught myself how to use the camera. I bought a camera. I'm not this high tech with it, you guys have your. I do have a Canon, though, but getting the Max Pro you know 14, and that's why I purchased it.

Speaker 1:

I went from an Android and forced myself, and it was painful, but I did it for business. Yeah Makes amazing videos. I edit them, I had the music and I put on YouTube and I had the beginning screen and then the back cards and also took courses on how to do that, and that's how we get a lot of our clients as well. It's everything. So my partner is fabulous on Instagram, so she mastered Instagram. So we always have videos going what we're doing, what we're selling, what we sold so we get a lot of referral. She is so quick and fast in making it, but she doesn't like doing the YouTube. I don't blame her, because you've got to sit for a minute as you know, it takes a minute and you've got to match the right music with the house and all that, and we do that, and we know how to splice and we know how to splice and we know how to you know every frame you can't have it too long?

Speaker 1:

Yes, but we're also put that. What's really cool is that once we make that YouTube link, we put in the listing and we can see how many people are hitting that, and then that's where a lot of agents miss is they don't do the video and they don't do the floor plan. If we have enough time, we're going to do it all On some little properties that move very quickly. We didn't even have time because everybody wants to buy it. So sometimes we don't, but a majority of the time we do, especially on the luxury properties, because they just take a little bit longer and they need there's a less buyer pool. So we just need to do that little extra so people can imagine themselves through the property. So we do that.

Speaker 1:

I do Google ads on some of our properties that need that extra. We know it's going to be a little tougher to sell, meaning that it's just a higher price point or maybe it's a little rural, a little further out. Everything from where I live is only about 12 minutes to Kroger, and Kroger is Harris Teeter y'all. So that's really who Kroger is. I think Kroger is Harris Teeter y'all. So that's really who Kroger is. I think Kroger owns Harris Teeter. Oh perfect, yeah, so it's like that. It's got nice shopping and everything. The only thing we don't have and I always mispronounce it is Wegmans, wegmans, wegmans, wegmans. Yes, wegmans Always mispronounce that one, but I love it, so that's the only thing we don't have out there.

Speaker 2:

Oh, it's okay.

Speaker 1:

It's okay, maybe it'll come, maybe it will, but we have a lot of boutique, you know, cheese and wine shops and caters and gourmet, so it makes up for it. You're right, yeah, bakeries.

Speaker 2:

We're all good. We're all good, and what has been one of the most accomplishing things that you have been able to provide for your clients, or just the community?

Speaker 1:

I think, and what we provide and not to sound, is that we bring a lot of professionalism and care. We don't do things halfway, we bring it full circle. Sometimes we have to carry the deal on the other side and I don't mind doing that at all. Not everybody is made to run is a way to say, and check all the boxes and make sure everything is legal to protect both sides. Yes, so we go that extra mile to make sure we're educated as brokers, that we take extra education. We follow a lot of other broker influencers. We go to Richmond for broker classes so we can be surrounded. There's a lot of agents from Northern Virginia when we go and Southern Virginia that bring that extra. A lot of agents from Northern Virginia when we go and Southern Virginia that bring that extra.

Speaker 1:

I keep in touch with brokers here and other locations so we can see what's the latest. What do you think of that? I never thought of doing that, so I just had. We went to an amazing winery at Bluemont Station. Oh, it was amazing, had a great time with some of my real estate friends there and I just fart off some questions just to kind of keep up on what's happening. But keeping in the know, educating yourself, resource research. So there are. Even though the contract says one thing, there are these little legal codes in it that doesn't say what it is. Click those codes and read it what it really means, because that's part of the contract, and just because it's not written doesn't mean it's not there. So that's reading and research. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Taking that extra care. And now tell me, who are you outside of your industry? What do you like to do? What are some hobbies? Tell us a little bit about that, oh boy.

Speaker 1:

So we like to travel a lot. We like to go to Mexico, thank you. So we like to go to Mexico. That's always fun. We're always trying to plan our next trips. We like just traveling in the US as well, and I like to take my kids there now that they're older yeah, now that they're older 19 and 24. So we like to travel a lot. That's really fun. And reading I love to read. I'm starting to get back into golf again, just a little bit, just to get outside. Baby steps, yeah, baby steps, just to get outside. You know, instead of you have to throw yourself outside because you can be at the computer all day and then your back hurts. That's not good. So those are the things I like to do to keep me busy. And, of course, spending time with girlfriends, and that's important. Sharing information, yeah. And seeing my family and watching my little niece and my nephews grow and family very important, love that.

Speaker 1:

And now, what parts of Mexico do you like to visit? Well, I see where did we go. You would ask that we went to Cancun last year. We stayed in an amazing resort and it was called Unico. Okay, oh, my adult resort. Okay, no, kids, fabulous. I didn't realize it makes the difference, I wouldn't think but it does and so it was a bunch of girlfriends, some couples.

Speaker 1:

We had such a great time then. Um, after that I took the kids on a Disney cruise with uh, with our friends, and we went a Disney cruise to Mexico and the kids had a ball and we just hit some islands and they loved that and the food on Disney cruises we would go food, the professionalism, the pamper is ridiculous. There was a lot of adults. They didn't have kids, but they wanted that experience. Yeah, so neat, so organized how fun, yeah, wow.

Speaker 2:

So you like to like get out there and like try all the things.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I don't care, I get dirty. You know if I need to do stuff Same. I don't care. Hair up. That's what it's for Hat. I'm with you on that, yeah.

Speaker 2:

I don. I want to make sure I hit all those key points for you, right well just we.

Speaker 1:

what we start is that we have a team of contractors handymen, we also because when a seller owns their home before it goes on to the market, they can do these repairs themselves. But once it goes under contract, it states you have to hire contractors licensed in the state of Virginia and their licenses are not to be expired. So with that, we prepare people. Okay, this is why we do that home inspection. You take care of those items. Some things they might have to hire an electrician or a plumber, but some of the plumbing stuff if you can do, sure. But after that, once it goes into contracts, it's going to have to go right into a contractor, so they're going to come and fix it. So one of the things that, like I said, was we do is that we do the pre-home inspection. We pay for that, we do um with that. We do an appraisal on properties. We pay for that if we need to, which is fantastic.

Speaker 1:

But we also do we've spent a lot of money in marketing. It's not just photographer we do the floor plan, we do the videos, we pay for those ads and then we go that extra mile that I was talking about. So with that you get two brokers that help out. We also do international MLS listings. So the agents in our area do not do that and only some big international brokers here one in two in particular that do that. So we brought that to Lynchburg. So that can your home can get more maximum exposure. So that's a little bit. Extra is with the marketing to be exposed and their homes sell quicker. And then we negotiate very quickly. If your home's not on the market still for two weeks, it's time to adjust the price. Yeah, so we don't just let it sit there too long. Yeah, keep adjusting it.

Speaker 2:

Perfect, yeah, and now for my final question. If you could leave our listeners with one message, what would that message be? It could be anything that's in your heart, something that's maybe recently been on your mind? Yes, anything.

Speaker 1:

I think the most important thing in my life is I give the glory to God on everything that's happened to me, everything the glory goes to Him and I thank God for that and that's the way we live our life and we are benefiting from the fruits from that. So I just I love it. So we praise Him every morning, every night, thank you, and it gives you peace. When you hand over your worries onto him, you're happier. Not everybody wants to come in and get in front of a camera. Not everybody wants to come in and do this, but when you trust and you just hand it over, it's maybe it'll help and benefit somebody being kind to your children, because they're going to be adults someday, yes, and they're going to take care of you and they're not going to forget. That's right.

Speaker 1:

I think just looking at your children and handling them with love and care. But discipline is a big one, because my kids are older and I'm not saying they're just my friends, but they are, as older they get they become my friends. So if anything, I think, just relax and hand it over and don't carry that stress on, because that stress will get you ill. I see more people a lot of my friends do that. It's like just let it go because it's not going to do anybody any good.

Speaker 2:

So that's my two cents.

Speaker 1:

That was beautiful, that was so well said and now, one more time, the name of your business for our listeners.