Los Angeles Home Staging Info

 

Here's the perspective of a very experienced real estate agent, Patricia Kennedy,  regarding home staging. As Pat points out, neither vacant or occupied un-staged homes show as well as a staged home. She has motivated buyers, but they are having a hard time falling in love with a house.

 

Think I'm only a home stager? Think again...I'm also a source of referrals & listings. Many professional home stagers are - especially the home stagers that are good at marketing their services to consumers.

I first wrote about this in April 2010 Think I'm Only A Home Stager? I'm Also A Source Of Clients! In light of recent negative blog posts and comments about home stagers here on AR, I wanted to let you know that professional home stagers can also be a source of business for real estate agents. Here's one way home stagers can work hand-in-hand with their real estate agent partners to ensure a win-win-win situation for all parties, including the home seller.

Because I put a lot of effort in reaching out to Los Angeles home sellers as my potential clients, I am contacted by people getting ready to put their home on the market on a daily basis. Some of them already have a real estate agent, and some of them don't. Inevitably, I am asked if I can recommend a good Los Angeles, Pasadena or Arcadia Realtor that can list their home.

Since the beginning of this year (2011) I have referred a REALTOR™ partner to 3 different home sellers. She has landed 2 listings, 1 of which is in escrow, and the other will be listed next week. Since I stage so many homes throughout Los Angeles, I'm very aware of which agents do a good job of marketing their listings and which ones are not as good. Since my goal is to have the homes I stage sell faster and for the highest possible price, I am happy to refer listing agents that I think will do the best job meeting those criteria.

Its a win-win-win proposition: The home seller gets their home sold quickly and for top dollar, the listing agent I referred gets a listing that is easy to sell because it looks great, and I have another happy home staging client that will refer me to their friends, plus great statistics on another home sold quickly.

Home sellers that first contact professional home stagers are  highly motivated sellers. They've been pre-screened by virtue of the fact that they want to hire me to stage their home before they even have a listing agent. And they are willing to listen to what I, and the listing agents I refer, have to say about marketing and selling their home.

My home staging website (the one not associated with Active Rain) usually gets 100-200 hits per day. I'm on page 1 of Google for all my relevant home staging search terms. That's potentially 3,000-6,000 home sellers, some of whom could be looking for a listing agent.I have no idea how many hits I get from my Active Rain blog, but I'm sure that's a respectable number too.

What's my criteria for recommending a Pasadena, Arcadia or Los Angeles real estate agent?

• They have to be a believer in the value of home staging
• They have to have awesome marketing packages for their listings
• They have to be internet saavy and excellent internet marketers
• They have to be well connected in the real estate community and community at large
• They have to return phone calls and emails promptly
• They have to have hired my Pasadena home staging company, reached out to me or referred me to their clients (how else would I know about all of the above)

I don't expect payment for these referrals, just that the listing agent does right by my client and continues to refer me. (OK, and maybe a lunch:o))

Oh, by the way, I'm also a source of home buyers, too, and not just in Los Angeles. Many home sellers I stage for are moving out of state and have not yet purchased their next home. Once again, I'm often asked about referring an out-of-state real estate agent. Who do I refer? I call my home staging buddies in that area and ask who they would recommend. I figure they have "boots on the ground" experience with local agents and know who does a good job.

So, if you think I'm just a home stager you'd be wrong. I'm also a source of qualified real estate referrals.

 

This photo is one of my most valuable possessions. If my house was on fire, it would be one of the few things I would worry about saving.

Its a photo of me and my father, Ben Minch, on November 28, 1963. The table is set for Thanksgiving dinner in our dining room in Cranford, NJ, and I was excited because my Aunts, Uncles & cousins were coming for dinner. I was 8 years old.

My father was subdued because JFK had been assassinated less than a week before on Friday, November 22, 1963.

In 1963, the world was rapidly changing. After JFK was asassinated, Lyndon Johnson became President. The US was being sucked further and further into the Vietnam War. Martin Luther King gave his "I Have A Dream" speech and both good and terrible events swirled around the Civil Rights Movement. The Beatles released their first album.

Gas was about 25 cents per gallon, but my father would buy gas at a gas station on the way to New York City that charged 19 cents. A quart of milk was 26 cents. For 50 cents I could go see a double matinee on Saturday afternoon and have enough money for a Milky Way and a popcorn. My hair, which was normally longer, was cut short because someone in the above mentioned movie theater threw a wad of chewing gum in the dark theater which landed in my hair. I had gotten that haircut 2 weeks earlier.

My father was a tool and die maker. On his salary of $4,800/yr. he was able to support his wife and 3 kids and buy a new 3 bedroom house in a nice New Jersey neighborhood. He drove a 1955 pink and gray Chevy Belair.

This is the last photo of my father. Less than a week later, on December 3rd, he was taken to the hospital in an ambulance where he died of a coronary embolism. He was 49.

I still have the camera this photo was taken with, an old Kodak 35mm film camera. It was my father's pride and joy. He was an avid amateur photographer, a love he passed on to me.

 

This post is written as a submission to the ActiveRain 'Kodak Moments' contest. I have the chance to win the KODAK EASYSHARE M580 Digital Camera.

To participate in the ActiveRain contest, visit the blog post announcing the contest from Kodak and ActiveRain.

My thanks to Kodak and Active Rain for making this contest possible.

I'm often asked by home stagers just starting out, how I started my home staging business. My first home staging job was in April 2001. Of course, I didn't call it home staging. I had never even heard of home staging. But looking back, that's exactly what it was.

My husband and I were living in Denver, Colorado at the time. He is a pilot for United Airlines and he had the opportunity to upgrade to the Captain's seat flying 737s out of LAX (Los Angeles). I jumped at the chance to move back to Los Angeles and so we had to think about putting our house on the market.

I had bought and sold a couple of houses at that point in my life, so I knew the drill. I interviewed 3 real estate agents. The suggested listing price varied from $299,000 - $349,000. My husband was certain that we couldn't get even $299,000 for our house. I decided we should go with Agent #3, Kelli Lamphere, because her marketing package and plan made the the other real estate agents marketing plans look like high school projects. I chose her because of her confidence in her ability to sell our home and because she really seemed to know what she was talking about.

Once we decided to list with Kelli, I got to work. I wanted my home to look as much like a magazine as I could. I'd worked for years as a stylist in film and commecial advertising, and I knew the power of styling a photo to sell something. In the following 30 days:

1. We had the entire interior of the house painted.
   
2. We had the carpets steam cleaned.
   
3. The ducts were cleaned and the HVAC filters were changed. 
4. We hired a building inspector to do a pre-listing inspection and fixed everything he suggested.
5. Every sticky door knob and squeaky hinge was fixed.
   
6. I had a major 2 day yard sale and got rid of tons of clutter (and made a tidy sum). 
7. I rearranged the remaining furniture to make the rooms look larger and more spacious.
8. We prepacked so that the cabinets and closets were half empty and looked spacious.
   

I was so excited about living in Los Angeles again, I didn't want anything to sink the sale.

24 hours after the house hit the MLS we had 3 bids, all over the asking price. We went under contract 72 hours after listing and we wound up selling our home for $20,000 more than the asking price and $60,000 over what my husband thought the house would sell for.

Then next day, there was a headline in the Denver Post Business Section "Bottom Falls Out Of Denver Housing Market" (or something similar). It seems that housing prices were dropping and real estate sales were slowing throughout Denver.

Why did my house sell so quickly and for $20,000 over asking price in a slow market?

1. We staged it.
2. We got it into top condition.
3. We priced it right.
4. We hired the best full service REALTOR we could find.
   

We moved back to Los Angeles and I began working as an interior designer again (Yay!) I had some clients that kept buying houses, fixing them up and moving someplace else. The first house I staged for them was in Kansas City (yes, they flew me out to get their house ready to sell). They were old friends and they had heard of my success in selling our Denver home. We got their KC house ready to sell (still didn't call it staging) et voila! It was one of the highest priced homes in Kansas City. It sold in less than 30 days. The second house was in Carmel, CA. That house took a little longer to sell, but the buyers bought it furniture and all; they loved the way I had decorated and staged it.

In 2006, a REALTOR friend asked me to help her with a listing she had. It was a trust sale, and the trustee didn't want to spend a penny. He felt the old sheets he had tacked up over the windows were fine and the nasty old carpet was fine because he had vacuumed it. The REALTOR was willing to invest some of her own money into staging ($300), so we went shopping. I purchased some dishes for the open kitchen cabinets, some kitchen countertop accessories, a large picture for the mantle. She had the old carpet torn out to expose the hardwood floors, which were worn but servicable. The house sold after the first open house (it had been on the market for 4 months prior).

After that, my Pasadena home staging business took off, mostly because my REALTOR friend had a big mouth and told everyone about her success selling her listing after it had been staged. I'm forever grateful to her for setting me on a new career path. I got a call from the top producer at that particlar Pasadena real estate office to stage one of her listings, and it was game on. My business has grown steadily (knock on wood) since.

That first home staging project seems eons ago - 2001. That means I've been staging homes for almost 10 years, although for much of that time it wasn't called home staging. I was just getting houses ready to sell!

OK, I told you about my first staging job, what was yours?

 

 

I thought this was a really funny (but true) post from Greg Nino, Houston real estate agent. Most of the tips are either tips I've given my home staging clients or information I've passed on through my Los Angeles home staging website. The comment about fake cookies made me laugh. It reminded me of a post I wrote a while back:

Fake Food Is Not Fit For Human Consumption

 

 

I'm lucky to get over 3,000 visitiors per month to my Los Angeles Home Staging website.

Its always great to get positive comments on my blog. Today I got this comment on one of my posts:

"Regards for share pretty excellent informations. Your online is great.I am impressed by the details that you’ve on this weblog. It shows how effectively you realize this subject. Bookmarked this particular page, will come back for additional. You, my friend, awesome! I discovered just the details I already looked for everywhere and just could not find. What a ideal site. Like this webpage your web page is 1 of my new most-liked.I like this info shown and it has offered me some sort of enthusiasm to possess achievement for some reason, so maintain up the fantastic function!"

Umm, Thanks, I think.

I use a WordPress plug-in called Akismet to filter spam comments from my site. It does a great job and has filtered over 2,300 spam comments since I launched this particular website in March 2010.

Obviously this was a spam comment, in attempt to get back links or a phishing expedition of some sort. But I really appreciated the warm enthusiasm and positive reinforcement.

So thanks,Kehler682**, whomever you are. Regards for share pretty excellent spam comment. And yes, I will maintain up the fantastic function!

Today we staged a terrific Hollywood Bowl adjacent condo for a Beverly Hills real estate investment company. This beautifully renovated Los Angeles condo has granite counters, new cabinets, new stainless appliances and new flooring throughout. We love contemporary home staging and we really got to exercise our contemporary home staging muscles today.

We must have done something right because I got a phone call tonight from one of the project managers asking if I had time to look at another condo unit that they want to put on the market next week!

For more information about this centrally located 1 bedroom/1 bath updated Hollywood Hills condo, MLS#: 10-464257.

We recently completed staging this very chic and modern condo loft in Valley Village, Los Angeles.

My clients are real estate investors who understand the added value that home staging brings to any real estate listing. Since I've staged several condos and model homes in Pasadena and Glendale for themthey've experienced first hand that home staging will help their listings sell faster and for more money. As a Los Angeles home stager, I have to be familiar with all areas of the Los Angeles area and understand who the buyers are and what they are looking for. This loft style condo has 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms on 2 floors. I wanted to show there was enough space to have a comfortable seating area and dining table as well as the counter bar in the living room/kitchen great room.

This home is not yet listed. As soon as it is, I'll update this post

As a top notch Los Angeles home stager, my clients expect me to bring beautiful, realistic silk, faux or fake flower arrangements to use in their homes or listings. While most people would prefer live plants, due to the expense and need to maintain them, it is not always realistic to use live plants. Here's photos of 2 arrangements that I made to use in this Larchmont Village Hancock Park home staging project this week.

I really enjoy creating these plant and flower arrangements. It allows me to create exactly what I want and need for my home staging projects.

Read Los Angeles Home Stager Gets Crafty With Fake Succulents

Read Los Angeles Home Stager Gets Crafty With Silk Flowers

 

This post is in remembrance of all the who fought so valiantly 66 years ago so we could live in freedom today.

On June 6, 1944, 66 years ago, approximately 160,000 US, British and Canadian troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, in a concerted push to defeat Hitler and Nazi Germany. 10,000 American men died on the beaches of Normandy after a perilous crossing of the English Channel.

I was saddened to see that there was no mention of this being D-Day in the Los Angeles Times or the Pasadena Star News, only an AP article about efforts to protect one of the locations from the effects of erosion.

A few statistics:

• 160,000 Allied troops took part in the assault
• There were 10,000 American casualties in one day
• 5,000 ships crossed the English Channel on the morning of June 6 to deliver troops and supplies
• 800 planes dropped 13,000 paratroopers behind enemy lines. Many were shot out of the sky as they drifted to earth

These maps are part of a display at the American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer

A couple of years ago, my husband and I made a pilgrimage to Normandy, France. Neither one of us had family members who participated in D-Day (my father was a defense plant worker and his father served in the Pacific), but we felt it was an important part of our American heritage to stand where so many had died fighting so we could live free.

We booked a tour with Overlord Tours out of Bayeaux, France due to reviews we had read on-line. We signed up for Tour #2, a tour of Utah and Omaha beaches and surrounding areas.

 

Our guide, Laurent, at the start of the tour

Our tour guide, Laurent, was very knowledgeable and passionate about all things D-Day. He, like many other people we met on our trip, love Americans and frequently expressed their appreciation of the sacrifices the American people made to help defeat Nazi Germany and expel them from France.

The tour inspired both sadness and awe. Standing on Utah and Omaha beaches, looking up at the German gun emplacements, it was hard to believe that anyone survived landing on the beach that day. The American troops were caught in a horrific cross-fire from German guns on a very deep beach with no cover for hundreds of yards.

2 movies worth watching are The Longest Day and Saving Private Ryan. Both accurately depict what the Allies were up against landing on the beaches of Normandy.

 

Normandy Beach landing in Saving Private Ryan







Pont-du-Hoc landing in The Longest Day



Another remarkable must see is the mini-series Band of Brothers.

Here's some photos from the American Cemetery at  Colleville-sur-Mer:

Some facts about the American Cemetery at Colleville:

• The cemetery sits on 172 acres on a bluff overlooking Omaha Beach
• It holds 9368 graves of soldiers killed during the assault on Normandy
• 307 graves are marked "unknown"
• 1557 names are listed in the Garden of the Missing, those who's remains were never found
• The cemetery is maintained by the American Battle Monument Commission

There are 4868 British soldiers buried at Bayeaux Cemetery. There were also 946 Canadian casualties as a result of the assault on Normandy.

Map of Normandy Beach assaults as seen from the American Cemetery

View of Omaha Beach with map in the foreground from the American Cemetery. American soldiers had to run across that wide expanse of sand while being fired upon by German soldiers and gun emplacements.

If you only get to make one overseas trip in your life, or are wondering where to go on your next vacation, I highly recommend making a pilgrimage to Normandy. You will be welcomed with open arms by the locals. You will see some beautiful countryside and eat some delicious food. And you will be paying homage to true American (and British and Canadian) heroes, who richly deserve our admiration and respect.