Just to quickly introduce ourselves, we are abiRiver Consulting.
We met in 2016 working in real estate. Therese came from a background in rural paramedicine and was a single parent with a full schedule. Erin had her masters in psychology, and had been working in social work prior to real estate. Both of us were working in fields that required advocating for our patients that included high stress situations, regular problem solving scenarios, and coordinating with multiple agencies at a time. Real estate brought flexibility to our schedules that our previous fields did not always allow and with both of us having small children at home, we took to real estate for the same reasons. We no longer had patients, but clients who were still just as cared for and as important to us. And many of our skills from our former lives were a huge benefit when transferred over into real estate.
As our real estate businesses grew, we built the foundation of our businesses on building relationships and making sure our clients knew they were more than just a transaction. We offered cleaning services, carpet cleaning, inspections and even offered to pick up pets for showings if that meant taking a little bit of the stress off our client's plate! Our common ground always came back to, how can we best care for our clients and make the home buying & selling process as stress free as possible? And we didn't have many options to explore, because many services only offered solutions to a single problem at a time.
One reoccurring stressor we've found with clients is their plans can often be held up by not knowing what to do with all the stuff they've accumulated over the years or how to take the next step. Maybe they're moving to the lake, or downsizing after generations in a home, maybe they don't have nearby family and will have to coordinate help to move. Whatever the reason, there was a huge gap between what our clients needed and what services were available.
We also see a huge gap in inclusivity and we hope to bridge that gap in raising awareness for marginalized communities and groups, as well as serve the underserved individuals within our local area.
abiRiver Consulting came to life this summer when we started taking on additional services for our clients that weren't normally a part of real estate, they don't really fit in the box for movers and it is more than just rummage sales. We want to bring solutions to our clients that offer a road map that fits their specific needs, with tools and resources they might not be aware are available. We pride ourselves in working with other small local businesses, and always putting our clients first, with an emphasis on the fiduciary duty to our clients.
We created abiRiver Consulting as a way to offer multiple solutions to multiple problems at a single source. We specialize in managing moves, whether you are downsizing, relocating, transitioning to senior living, or cleaning a home out. We might be moving one person with a few personal items, a family with a whole household, or helping with a late loved one's home to find important and sentimental items for the family and to prepare the remaining estate to sell or pass on to the next person.
From Therese's Anishinaabe heritage, abi is an Ojibwe word meaning "to be home" or "s/he is home" and Erin's last name, Soderstrom means river, which signifies movement and change. As a business that deals with change, the process of moving (which can be rocky at times), combined with the goal to bring clients home, we felt our name "abiRiver" really captured our purpose.
abiRiver Consulting aims to serve our local community with compassion, empathy and sincerity.
Comments