🏠 Slumber party at the D'Amelio sisters house

Last week was The Hunger Games: Airbnb edition, when one lucky person had the opportunity to book a free stay at the iconic West Hollywood home of Tiktok sister duo, Chari and Dixie D'Amelio. In partnership with Airbnb, the girls listed their home, which features a snack-stocked kitchen, a cozy guest room, a sauna (because obviously making 30 second dance videos all day makes your muscles sore), a game room, a pool and more, free for a night to the person quickest to click “book now” when the listing went live.     

And as if a free night stay in stunning LA wasn’t enough, the winner will be personally greeted by Dixie and Charli (who will be ready to snap a few selfies and film some dances) upon arrival for their stay.  

SPILLING THE (REAL)TEA

Tell me you’re an introvert without telling me you’re an introvert. When off-the-grid is even too much social interaction, why not literally disappear? For $444 a night, you can put the vacate in vacation and stay in this invisible tiny home in Cali.

One man’s trash is a woman’s $900k. 31-year-old Abby Brothers saw the life left in an unlivable, 6,000-square-foot mansion in Aberdeen, North Carolina. She and her husband Troy bought the house for $155,000, renovated it for less than $500,000, and it’s now valued at $900,000. Truly the ROI of the century.

This one’s for the regular folks. Real-estate investors were buying up the market to flip or rent out when mortgage rates were low, creating an impossible-to-compete market for normal buyers. But according to a recent Redfin report, investor purchases dropped a whopping 46% from the end of 2021 to the end of 2022, meaning less competition for us regular homebuyers.

What’s more expensive right now: eggs or Airbnbs? In last week’s investor call, Airbnb’s chief financial officer, Dave Stephenson, said that the average Airbnb rental price has jumped 36% since 2019. In the choice between breakfast and Airbnbs, we’re leaving the eggs behind.

We’re bringing the house down, but in a double entendre kind of way. According to recent Redfin reports, the total value of US homes has dropped by $2.3 trillion, which is “the largest drop in percentage terms since the 2008 housing crisis.”

TIP OF THE WEEK

Queen Taylor Alison Swift said it best, “never be so kind, you forget to be clever.” And that rings true especially in real estate. Real estate advice site, The Close, shared their most clever real estate marketing tips for the new year. 

01 — Be consistent on your socials: Social media can help you generate leads, but only if you use it to your advantage. With clean and consistent posting, you can really grow your clientele.

02 — Reviews with views: While 5-star views on Google and Zillow are great, video testimonials from your past clients are even better. After closing, ask your clients for a short video review of their experience with you, and post it to your socials.

03 — Make gift-giving your love language: The relationship with your client doesn’t end at closing. Keeping your client top of mind with thoughtful closing gifts that are really tailored to their interests is a great way to enhance that relationship even more, and boost your chance of referrals. 

WHAT'S BREWING

📚 What we're reading: “Furiously Happy” by the Jenny Lawson details her experience with mental illness in a not-so-sad-girl kind of way. 

👀 What we're watching: The new season of Outer Banks. All of it. We didn’t choose the Pogue life, the Pogue life chose us.

🎧 What we're listening to: Emma Chamberlin’s Anything Goes podcast episode on setting realistic habits, because we can’t all have a 5 to 9 routine before our 9 to 5

🛒 What we're adding to our shopping cart: Practically everything from Ikea’s new VARMBLIXT collection.

SEEING STARS

Madonna’s former property in the Hollywood Hills just hit the market at a hot $21 Million. Talk about living in a material world and being a material girl.

WOMEN OF THE HOUSE

Featuring Chaney Widmer, owner of Mix & Match Design Company

Chaney Widmer discovered her love for interior design in 2010 but little did she know that her passion would turn into a successful e-design business. We chatted with Chaney about how she got started in the e-design industry and how it differs from traditional interior design, along with challenges she had to overcome and how she stays up to date with the latest tools and trends.

Can you tell us about your background and how you got started in the e-design industry?

My love of interior design started in 2010 when I got married and started decorating our first apartment in Richmond, Virginia. It was the first time I had a chance to design and decorate my own space and since that was in the heyday of design blogs, I decided to start writing one myself to document our home’s progress! 

I was working in healthcare at that time, so the blog became my creative outlet on nights and weekends. That blog ended up getting some good traction over the years as I sharpened my design skills, and eventually people started asking me to help with design dilemmas in their homes as well. I decided to jump on that interest and start a little side gig offering design services in 2015. My twist on it? Offering that service online instead of in person.

We were living in Philadelphia at the time and I knew it likely wouldn’t be our forever city, so part of the reason I wanted to offer e-design was to have flexibility on our location - to have the business move with me when needed. Different industries were also starting to offer services online, so I thought, why not interior design? In 2015, e-design was definitely not a well-known thing, but I just had a gut feeling that it would be, and I was ready to be a part of making it happen.

I launched Mix & Match Design Company officially that fall and went full time with the business in the summer of 2016. I’ve been in the e-design industry ever since!

What challenges did you face when starting your own e-design business and how did you overcome them?

The two biggest challenges were educating the consumer about e-design and getting my first clients. E-design was in its infancy when I started Mix & Match Design Company and while being an early mover can have its benefits, I had to spend a lot of time explaining what I did and how it worked. Most people couldn’t wrap their heads around the fact that I could design a home without ever seeing it in person! Over time, as I built a portfolio and e-design became more widely known, people started to trust the process and realize the benefits of working with an e-designer. 

Along those same lines, getting the first few clients to hire me was a big hurdle. I think this is true for many new businesses and mine was no different. To build credibility and show how an e-design service could work successfully, I designed a couple of rooms for free and did a full room design giveaway in exchange for photos of the spaces when they were finished. Those first few rooms were a great launchpad - being able to show instead of just tell really helped the business grow in its first couple of years. 

Can you explain the process of e-design and how it differs from traditional in-person interior design? 

The way I distinguish e-design from traditional in-person design is that it requires more client involvement on the front end and back end of the process. The client is still getting the same expertise when it comes to the actual design, space planning, and selections. 

Rather than an in-person consultation to take photos and measurements, the client fills out a questionnaire, and sends photos and a floor plan via email. Then we enter the “design phase” where I’ll present their customized design through my client portal (DesignFiles), we’ll revise as needed, and they’ll receive their final shopping list at the end. They can purchase whenever they’re ready, which means they are in charge of the final install, which is done by the designer in a traditional in-person design process.

Since the client is involved in the front and back end, e-design is typically more budget-friendly, which draws a lot of folks to this kind of service!

How have you worked with realtors in the past? How can e-design benefit realtors?

I think realtors and e-design can be a pretty amazing combination. I’ve gotten to know several realtors well over the past seven years and have helped many of their clients design rooms in their new homes, which is the most common way I’ve worked with realtors.

Since my company is location-independent, I can be a resource for their clients anywhere - whether it’s a quick virtual consultation or furnishing an entire house. I also think e-designers can be a great resource for realtor’s clients before they even put in an offer on a home. If they need help visualizing the home’s potential, working out space planning, or even think through renovation ideas, an e-designer is a quick phone call or FaceTime away. 

Can you share an example of a project you've completed using e-design and the results achieved for the client?

Absolutely! One of my favorite recent projects was actually a local project here in Richmond where I live. A family was moving into a newly renovated spec home and needed help furnishing an open living room, dining room, and kitchen space. 

The cool part about local projects is that I can offer an in-person consultation as an add-on to my typical e-design service, which is what I did for this one. Everything else from that point happened online. I worked with the client to come up with a beautiful modern-meets-traditional design for her family of four that would be comfortable, inviting, and durable.

We used performance fabrics, leather, and a synthetic rug for the living room to stand up to the wear and tear of toddler boys, and went with a solid wood table and chairs in the dining room. Since the spaces were open to one another, it was important that everything felt unified and cohesive. 

The client did a fantastic job with the ordering and installation - especially with managing the delays that came with COVID supply chain issues! I was thrilled to be able to go back to photograph it after it was finished.