Introducing Alison McPherson, a Liz Moore Rainmaker

Decluttering Daytripping: Savoring Virginia’s 101 Ski The Slopes Craft Breweries Celebrating the Region’s Most Influential Real Estate Professionals Helping her clients to find their HAPPY place! Alison McPherson REALTOR®, MRP Thriving on the joy of witnessing a client seeing everything they’ve wanted come to fruition, building relationships, and delighting people with above-and- beyond service.

DID YOU KNOW?A FEW FUN REAL ESTATE FACTS In Scotland, Warren Buffet Monica’s A couple sold apartment homeowners paint is one of the richest an acre of land in their front door red men in the world from “Friends” is North Carolina to when they pay off and he still lives in estimated to cost Apple for $1.7 their mortgage. the same house he $3,500,000. million. They paid bought for $31,500 $6,000 for it. 1 in 1958. The White House Aspen, Colorado The landmark is valued at $110 “Hollywood” sign million. has such high real estate prices that in originally read 2011, the cheapest “Hollywoodland” listing was a and was constructed $559,000 trailer. in 1923 as a publicity stunt to Builders in China sell real estate. are able to build a 30 story skyscraper in only 15 days!

Rainmakers are selected based on their sales Alison accomplishments earning them a spot among the top McPherson 20% of Liz Moore & Associates’ top performers. REALTOR®, MRP In addition to sales volume standards, Rainmakers share client-centric philosophies, a dedication to being COMMUNITY/VOLUNTEER masters of their craft, and a commitment to giving back to the communities they serve. Giveback Homes & Habitat for Humanity! A portion of all of my I am thrilled to have been selected as the featured closings goes to Giveback Homes! Rainmaker for the month! FAVORITE RESTAURANT Alison McPherson Venture Kitchen & Bar in Downtown Hampton. GET THE TOTS! AREA’S BEST KEPT SECRET The Cold Brew at Indulge Bakery and Bistro! #1 GOAL Make someone’s day, every day. HOW I START MY DAY Coffee and Podcasts! FAVORITE HANGOUT The Oozlefinch Craft Brewery Alison went above and beyond anything we could have hoped for. She was outstanding in responsiveness, preparation, knowledge and negotiating skills. Misty Prewitt

Rainmaker Spotlight: Alison McPherson Alison McPherson says she is a true Southerner at heart, if not the Peninsula when her husband, Josh, accepted a job at the by birth. “Technically, I was born in Germany, where my dad Newport News Shipyard. Alison’s degree was in marketing was posted in the Army, but I don’t have many memories of it. and event management, so finding a job in this area wasn’t From there we went back to Wisconsin, where both sides of my a challenge for her. “I started working for Kingsmill Resort family is from. Dad then accepted a civilian job in Newport doing social events. I was still in my twenties and job-hopped News and I started kindergarten here.” Virginia definitely for years. Every time I switched jobs I learned different things, became home to Alison, and she jokes that contemplating but once I mastered them I was ready to move on.” By the Christmas visits to relatives back in Wisconsin now make her time she was 27, she had burned out and was more than shiver. “It’s so cold there, and I don’t even have the proper ready to leave the wedding business behind. “I felt like I was wardrobe for those temperatures. I’m a Southern girl!” missing out on my own life. As a wedding vendor, building relationships with clients is hard, because you’re only going During her college years, Alison went slightly north to George to interact with them for a short time, and you actually hope Mason University in Northern Virginia, and then returned to there won’t be any repeat business.”

Alison was looking for a new career direction, one where her She does work with a lot of military clients and theorizes that skills in sales and marketing and her desire to be helpful to her particular niche in real estate may change as she grows people and guide them through a complicated process would older. She knows her home turf on the Peninsula best, but be assets. She and husband Josh put their heads together to serves areas as far north as Toano, and as far south as Virginia brainstorm possibilities and landed on real estate as a perfect Beach. “Because of my previous career in wedding planning, fit for Alison. When the couple bought their first home, their I worked in Chesapeake and Virginia Beach as well as in agent had made it painless. Alison thought at the time that Newport News and Williamsburg, so I have friends on the she’d really enjoy real estate as a career, and, as it turned out, other side of the water that still bring me business.” she was absolutely right. Alison and Josh bought their own home in Hidenwood, “I went to night class while still working at my last wedding an older, established neighborhood in mid-Newport News, planner position, and when I graduated in September, 2016 a project house just waiting for renovation. “We bought it and got my license, I interviewed at several companies. I thinking that it would be a good ten-year house for us, and thought I had settled on one, but then I sent an email to Liz then we’d sell,” Alison says. “We’ve already been here for Moore & Associates asking for an interview. Because I had seven years, and haven’t even finished renovating the first floor grown up in this area, I was familiar with the company and yet,” she says with a laugh. There was definitely a learning liked what I had heard. I interviewed with Donna Moyer, the curve with some of the projects, but their DIY efforts have broker for the Newport News office, and loved her. Thankfully, paid off handsomely with a beautiful new kitchen and living I was accepted and have worked here happily ever since.” room, among other things. “The living room originally had dark wood paneling which we harvested. Then we flipped You might say it’s been a marriage made in heaven for both the boards over, whitewashed the raw side, and reinstalled Alison and the company. “It’s perfect, because I’m a total them on the ceiling. We like to salvage and re-use whenever extrovert and want to just plunge in with my clients, eager possible,” Alison says. “Hopefully, it’ll still be in style when to get them to a happy ending. It helped immensely that we sell the house, if we ever get around to that. We really love someone who is detail-oriented and all about the numbers our neighborhood, and our yard is amazing in the springtime trained me as a rookie.” She’s taken her new career seriously, when the azaleas are blooming. The original owners planted worked hard, and achieved the status of Rainmaker, 200 of them, plus a ton of trees which now make it too shady agents in the top 10% of sales, in record time. “I had 24 for almost anything else to grow.” transactions in 2019,” she says. “They seem to come in clusters, and once I had seven in the same month!” She does Alison’s first career in the wedding industry and her degree a lot of social media marketing and targeted ads for sellers, in marketing and event planning meant she was already used even more than the typical agent. Alison treats every client to working together with people in stressful situations and as if they were the only one she has, whether she is listing facilitating successful outcomes. Combine this experience their homes or helping them find their perfect place to live. with everything she’s learned since earning her license, and her present clients now get the complete Rainmaker Alison Alison’s relative youth as a Realtor makes her especially McPherson package. She’s eager to help them make their attractive to young, first-time homebuyers. “I’m probably home-owning dreams come true, and then to live happily among the younger agents in Liz Moore & Associates,” she ever after. says, “so I can relate to them easily. My favorite clients might be single females, though. There’s something special about showing these women how they can afford to buy homes for themselves, sort of a girl-power, ‘You can do this!’ situation that I personally find very rewarding.” As a past wedding planner, Alison was used to guiding her clients through the many decisions to be made and keeping them focused on the goal. “Just like I’d never advise my brides to spend half their budget on out-of-season flowers, I’ll steer my buyers to a home which won’t break their monthly budget and will give them equity when it’s time to sell.”

DECLUTT1ER0IN1G HOME STAGING Home staging is one of the most powerful ways to help buyers imagine IS ONE OF THE themselves in your home and make them want to buy it. Decluttering is MOST POWERFUL the first, and most important step, in home staging. Removing clutter WAYS TO BOOST allows buyers to see the structure and space of your home. YOUR SELLING Sentimentality can be a powerful disincentive to declutter. You might feel guilty packing away your grandmother's china, or your ADVANTAGE budding Picasso’s finger paintings, but doing so allows your home to really be seen. Buyers need to be able to picture themselves living in your home, with their furniture and their belongings, and if too many of your things fill their field of vision, they might not be able to see their life there and they might walk away. Decluttering can be overwhelming, so we’ve broken it down and provided some helpful tips. Study your entire house. Go room-by-room, starting with the entryway. Try and view each room for the first time with a stranger’s eyes. Notice anything that sticks out? Try and make each room resemble a neatly organized, clean hotel. Taking it little by little makes the task more manageable rather than trying to tackle the entire house at once. 5

Making piles is very helpful. shine. A few well-placed home décor items can add sparkle to the space. Home stagers follow a “rule of As you go through each room, make a stack of items three” for clustering items into small groups to create to keep, one to donate, one to sell, and one to pack visual interest but not distract from the room. away. Evaluate the value, need, use, and sentimentality of every item, place it in one of the Purge attics, basements, and garages piles, and move on. This organized approach can make the task easier. of clutter. These storage spaces often don’t get much attention and quickly become cluttered, unorganized Creating a spreadsheet can also help. and untidy. Arranging items by type or holiday into clear, labeled tubs can help keep the space looking Each room will have different needs. Upon nice and neat while keeping you organized. It also evaluation, you might find one room needs new helps potential buyers see all of the storage space your paint, while another needs shelving for organization, home offers. and another needs boxes to pack excess items away. Organizing these tasks and needs into a spreadsheet Make sure your bathrooms are spotless. can help prioritize expenses and improvements. Not every house has a luxurious spa, but by cleaning Emptying closets makes a difference. your grout, tile, toilets and showers you can help your bathroom shine. Clearing off vanities and cleaning out Closets often become catchalls and graveyards; drawers, cabinets, and medicine cabinets can help when homeowners don't know what to do with buyers see the storage your bathroom offers and help something they often stash it in a closet and it them imagine their toothbrush by your sink. becomes forgotten with the out-of-sight out-of- mind mentality. A good rule of thumb is discarding Unfortunately, our homes can become cluttered on the anything you haven’t worn in the last year. Studies outside as well as the inside. Check around your show we only really wear about 20 percent of our home’s exterior for outdoor toys, decorations, and clothes and that extra space will make your closets natural clutter like leaves, branches, etc. This is also a look bigger and more attractive to buyers. great time to evaluate your home's overall curb appeal and make sure your home is making a good first Clearing off countertops impression. Lawns, shrubs, trees, and flower gardens should all be kept trimmed and tidy. and bookcases creates clean, visual lines and neutral style, allowing your home, and not your stuff, to You have loved your home and worked hard to maintain it, you want that care and maintenance to show. By removing unnecessary items, you allow your home to shine and make the great first impression needed to impress buyers. Don’t forget your 6 bathrooms! Clean and clutter free is your goal.









Congratulations, Alison!