Los Angeles Home Staging Info

An experienced house stager has a lot in common with a fully-loaded Swiss Army Knife™.

Since WWII, the trusty Swiss Army Knife™ has been the go-to tool for soldiers, campers, fishermen, construction workers, even Hollywood Bowl goers (mainly for the corkscrew and for slicing cheese:o). I even have a Swiss Army Knife™ in my home staging tool kit! The Swiss Champ™ has 35 tools or "features" and there's not a lot you can't fix or attend to with a Swiss Champ™in your pocket.

The more experienced the home stager, the more tools she is likely to have at her disposal.

I like the think I'm the Swiss Champ™ of home stagers. Like the problem solving Swiss Army Knife™, Moving Mountains Designcan be the solution for many home selling difficulties:

• Need advice on how to add umph to your front yard to enhance curb appeal? A home staging consultation will cover that
• Need a recommendation for inexpensive carpet, granite counter-tops, reliable movers or storage? I've got several to choose from in my contact list
• Don't know what color to paint your living room to appeal to more buyers? I know the perfect color
• Not sure if your furniture will help or hurt the sale of your home? I can assess your furniture and let you know if I think it will advance your goal to sell your home for top dollar
• Is your home vacant and feels empty with no furniture? I can provide a few rooms or a whole house of furniture, artwork and accessories to make your home look like a model home
• Don't have a real estate agent to list your home? I've worked or interacted with 100's, all over Los Angeles, Pasadena and the San Gabriel Valley and I know who does a good job
• Not sure if you should spend the money on remodeling your house for sale? I can tell you which upgrades should help with a faster sale or a higher selling price
• Do you need to sell your home fast and as-is? I work with real estate investors that can close escrow in as little as 1 week for all cash - no banks, no mortgage approvals, no appraisals

If you're the listing agent, I can help you with:

• Photographing your listing after staging. I'll provide professional quality photographs of the homes we stage for use in marketing
• Writing your marketing materials
• Sending an email blast to 1,800+ real estate professionals on my mailing list
• Convincing your client of the importance of doing certain repairs, upgrades or staging in order to effect a faster sale at a higher price

As you can see, an experienced home stager has a lot in common with the trusty Swiss Army Knife™.

Smart home owners, real estate agents and real estate investors have one in their pocket. Do you?    

We staged this San Gabriel home and it sold in 1 day!

This San Gabriel home had been on the market since December, and in June 2011, Moving Mountains Design was hired to stage it. It had been on the market for 6 months and had not sold. The home was beautifully remodeled and updated, had a pool and was in a great San Gabriel neighborhood. Still, it hadn't sold until it was staged. The buyers had seen the home multiple times before it was staged, but didn't see fit to make an offer until they saw how much more beautiful the home was with staging furniture and accessories. The buyers realized they were about to have a whole lot more competition. They were compelled to make an offer because the perceived value of the home had increased after staging. From the listing agent:

Stunning single family home on a larger corner lot in one of the most desirable locations in San Gabriel. This property has been completely remodeled and is ready for you to move in. It has a new roof, windows and re-finished original hardwood flooring. Beautiful updated kitchen with granite countertops and new Kitchenaid appliances.Crown molding, plantation shutters, and new paint inside and out.Short walk to coolidge elementary school. Enjoy your private yard with a pool and outdoor fireplace. Don"t miss this chance to buy a beautiful home in San Gabriel.

MLS# S643162 If you need help selling your San Gabriel, Pasadena, or Arcadia home, please call us at 626-385-8852. We know what makes homes sell™!

Originally posted on our Los Angele Home Staging Blog

Home Staging - A Seller's Secret Weapon - CBS Sunday Morning

Watching CBS Sunday Morning is a part of my Sunday ritual...every Sunday. Today there was a segement on home staging as a seller's secret weapon.

 

While I don't agree with everything that was said, I do agree with the large majority of it. Home staging is a home seller's not-so-secret-weapon for getting their home sold faster and for a higher price. And if its on CBS Sunday Morning, well, it must be true!

There were some statements made during the piece that didn't ring true for me, like "home staging costs about 3% of the listing price" . I've never even come close to charging 3% for a staging job and I think neither have 99% of the professional home stagers out there. I'm guessing that they were including every and all expenses associated with getting a home ready for the market, including painting the interior and exterior, repairs to the structure (not normally the purview of home stagers) and infrastructure (upgrading electrical and plumbing - also not normally considered part of home staging).

Very generally speaking, I think most home staging projects cost .5% to 1% of the listing price of the home, although I don't know any home stagers that bid their job based upon a percentage of the listing price. Of course, where the home is located, whether it is a vacant home staging or an occupied home staging, home condition and how many rooms are to be staged all play into the cost of real estate staging.

They interviewed a Chicago real estate agent, Ian Schwartz, who said "You have 2 choices, either stage it or not. And if the answer's "not", I'm not working with you". Schwartz goes on to say that he cannot waste time on ugly houses and doesn't want to have to apologize for any of his listings. I say "Bravo" Ian Schwartz! Ian is one of the top real estate agents in the Chicago area, and now I know why.

So thank you, CBS Sunday Morning for informing home sellers of the importance and benefits of having your home professionally staged. Yes, hiring a professional home stager (and hiring the right real estate agent) are definitely a home seller's not-so-secret weapons when selling a home!

We recently staged this exceptional San Marino home for sale. And guess what: it received multiple offers over asking price!

UPDATE: This home has sold and escrow has closed! The home sold with multiple offers and the owners received $90,000 over asking!

We staged the home using a mixture of the homeowners' furniture with additional rental furniture, Persian rugs, artwork and accessories. The homeowner initially hired Moving Mountains Design for a Comprehensive Home Staging Consultation and followed our step by step instructions. When we arrived to stage the home owner had completed all the recommended work and the home was in excellent condition. The response during open houses was overwhelmingly positive. But the best reaction to the home staging? The home owner has hired Moving Mountains Design to help design their new Monrovia home!

This information from the listing agent's site: This beautiful Traditional home in San Marino affords an opportunity for families looking to move into the #1 public school district in Southern California – San Marino Unified School District at a reasonable price. Given that the median home in San Marino closed escrow at $1,848,000 was in January 2011, 2926 Woodlawn Avenue priced at $574 per sq. ft. makes this a must see property. A marble and wood-paneled entry greets you as you enter the formal living room with gleaming wood floors, inset paneling, a marble surround fireplace and a large bay window. Dining room is accessed through the living room and leads to a gourmet kitchen with porcelain tiled floors, oak cabinets, stainless steel appliances and granite counter-tops. A lovely, wood paneled library with built-in shelving and a fireplace overlooks a family room with wall to wall windows and terra cotta tiles leading to an expansive, professionally landscaped back yard with a rose garden, Camellia and Azalea bushes, fruit trees and a magnificent, mature oak tree providing shade. Perfect for entertaining. Master bedroom with an updated bathroom featuring granite counters and a tub offers a spa-like setting. The other two bedrooms are serviced by a spacious bathroom with a glass shower enclosure and granite counters. For an interactive, digital experience, please use your smart phone to scan the QR Code below: For more information, please visit www.2926Woodlawn.com

Here's an important home staging tip: Don't make home buyers guess if their furniture will fit in your home. Its very difficult to judge the how much furniture will fit in an empty room. Empty rooms look smaller than rooms that have a few pieces of well-chosen furniture. The furniture gives the room scale and lets buyers know that, yes, you can have a queen bed and there will still be room to walk around it.

 

Looking at this photo, you wouldn't know what size bed could fit in this room - full? queen? king? Actually, the room looks pretty small.

 

Same bedroom, taken from the same angle (OK, almost the same angle) with the same lens and camera. The room looks so much larger. Staging a queen bed lets the buyer know his/her queen bed will easily fit, and there is even room for 2 night stands and a dresser.

When you have a home professionally staged, you allow a buyer to see how large the rooms really are and what size/how much furniture can fit. When you leave the house empty - devoid of furniture or lifestyle - you're asking too much of potential buyers. Make it easy for them to fall in love with your home.

So take this home staging tip from a professional home stager - Don't make home buyers guess!

In January I was hired by Pasadena homeowners for a home staging consultation. They knew their home had "good bones", but they also recognized that a house with "good bones" that doesn't look super sharp is not going to sell quickly or anywhere near their target price.

Kitchens are one of the most important rooms home buyers consider when evaluating homes to buy.

A kitchen remodel can be expensive, dirty, stressful and time consuming. When buying a home, home buyers want a move in ready home, not one that's going to cost them more money and stress. During the home staging consultation, I made several suggestions regarding their kitchen:

• Paint the cabinets white (they had a medium brown wood stain). This would brighten the kitchen and freshen tired cabinets.
• Change the cabinet hardware to better reflect the style of the home. Cabinet hardware is like jewelry for your cabinets.
• Replace tile counters with granite or a solid surface quartz material (the homeowners had already researched the cost of granite counters)
• Replace the old sink and faucet with a new stainless undermount sink and stainless modern faucet.
• Remove 2 cabinets that had been added in an earlier remodel and didn't match the style of the other cabinets. This also opened up this galley kitchen.
• Clean out cabinets so they were half empty and neatly arranged.
• Clean off kitchen counters of everything except what they needed to use every day (coffee maker, toaster, etc.) while their home was on the market.
• Remove window treatments that made the kitchen feel dark and small.

Here's what the kitchen looked like before:

And here's the kitchen after the minimal (and cost effective) remodel and home staging:

The floor tile was not changed and the walls were not repainted, thereby saving money. The kitchen now looks fresh, bright and updated. It looks clean and a pleasant place to prepare meals. And, while the kitchen is updated, it blends well with the architectural style of the home.

To see the curb appeal transformation of this home read Curb Appeal & Home Staging

 

This was originally posted at Home Staging Recipe For An Appealing Kitchen on my LA Home Staging website.

Is your home stager insured?

Not all home stagers are created equal and not all home stagers carry home staging liability insurance. Whether you are staging a vacant home, staging an occupied home, staging a model home, or staging a real estate investment property, hiring someone who is properly insured is very important. Its important you make sure that the Los Angeles home stager you hire carries current home staging business liability insurance. And you should also make sure that any employees of the home staging company are covered by Workers Comp Insurance. Accidents happen, and you want to make sure that your personal assets, as the homeowner or listing agent, are protected.

Moving Mountains Design, one of the top home staging company in Los Angeles and Pasadena, carries $4 million in aggregate liability home staging business insurance. And our employees are covered by Workers Comp Insurance as mandated by California law.

Home staging business liability insurance should be a standard business expense for all professional home stagers. If the home stager you have hired is significantly less expensive than other Los Angeles home staging companies, there is a good chance that they do not carry liability insurance that will protect you in the event of a loss caused by the staging company. There is also a good chance that they are breaking California law by illegally hiring employees without paying Workers Comp Insurance.

Protect yourself and protect your assets by asking your home stager to provide you with current proof of insurance for liability and Workers Comp insurance.

This post originally appeared on my Los Angeles home staging website.

If you want to sell your home in the coming year, there's no time like the present to follow through with these 7 home selling New Year resolutions.

7 New Year resolutions to help sell your home:

1. Hire a home inspector for a pre-sale home inspection. Why? A thorough inspection of your home by a building or home inspector before you put your home on the market will tell you everything you need to repair before listing. Starting on those repairs now, before you list your home, will remove many objections home buyers may have. Make the suggested repairs. It will pay off in a faster sale and higher selling price.
2. Start your research to find the best full service real estate agent or REALTOR you can find. Why? When selling a very valuable asset like your home, its no time to be penny wise and pound foolish. Don't go for a discount real estate agent in the hopes of saving a few bucks. It will probably cost you heavily with a lower sales price and more time on the market. Take the time to meet with several real estate agents until you are sure you have found the right one. The right real estate agent will be an expert in your local real estate market, will have a impressive marketing plan (if you wouldn't buy a home from them, why would someone else?), will listen to your concerns & communicate clearly.
3. Hire a professional home stager for a comprehensive home staging consultation. Why? An experienced home stager has participated in the successful sale of hundreds of homes and they know what makes home sell™. A comprehensive home staging consultation will give you invaluable information for preparing your home for sale to maximize its appeal to the greatest number of potential buyers. By bringing in a home stager early in the process it will give you plenty of time to make any needed preparations.
4. Get a head start on getting rid of everything that you don't want to move to your new home. Why? If you already know you don't want it or don't need it, then donate it, sell it, give it away or throw it away now to relieve some stress later when you're packing to move. In addition, the less extra stuff you have in closets, in the spare bedroom and in the basement, the easier it is for home buyers to see how spacious your home is and how it will fit their lifestyle. If you don't need it or don't want it, send it on down the road.
5. Start pre-packing anything you won't need for the next 6 months or so. Why? Once again, the less stuff you have in closets, in the garage or basement, the more spacious your home will look and feel. Additionally, it will start your moving process and help focus your energy on your move to your new home. The holidays are past. Packing up your Thanksgiving and Christmas decor would be a good place to start.
6. Pay some attention to your yard and planting beds. Why? Depending upon when you want to put your home on the market, and where you live, giving your yard a little TLC now, will pay off in better curb appeal in the spring and summer. In Los Angeles, think about putting weed and feed on your lawn 6-8 weeks before you list your home in order to have you lawn looking green and lush. Sprinkle 1/4 cup of Epsom salts around each rose bush 4-6 weeks before listing for gorgeous blooms. You want your home to look inviting on the outside so buyers are encouraged to consider the inside. Clean up any dead or dying foliage or plants.
7. Read: Get Your Home Ready To Sell: Home Buyers Want A Move In Ready House. Why? You'll learn why its important to get your home into top shape before putting it on the market.

Ring in the New Year with these 7 Resolutions For Selling Your Home.

This article was originally posted on my Los Angeles home staging website: 7 Real Estate Resolutions To Help Sell Your Home

Home buyers in the Los Angeles real estate market want a house that is move in ready.

Home buyers don't want an allowance to repair the roof, replace the carpet or repaint. Allowances are for teenagers. They want a well priced home, in a decent location, that they can move right in to without spending another dime.

Its a big fallacy that home buyers want to choose their own carpet or paint colors. If you choose a nice, neutral color carpet and nice neutral color wall paint (both things the best home stagers can help you with) most home buyers will see your home as more desirable because it is move-in-ready. They'll be thrilled they don't have to worry about picking out carpet and having it installed or find a painter who has time in their schedule. If your home stager can't help you with this, then you are working with the wrong home stager.

Most home buyers are maxing out their home purchasing budget by making an offer on the nicest home they can possibly afford. They don't have extra money to paint, install new carpet or retile the bathroom. They want to move in as soon as escrow closes, not after they have to make a lot of repairs to make their new home livable. Here's what happens when you offer a $5,000 allowance for repairing the roof that should have been replaced 5 years ago:

1. The buyer thinks "What else didn't they repair that they should have?"
2. The buyer thinks "What structure got damaged by the leaky roof?"
3. The buyer thinks "Is it really going to cost only $5,000 to repair the roof?"
4. The buyer thinks "How much time will it take me to get bids, hire a roofing company & get the work done?"
5. The buyer thinks "What happens if (fill in the disaster: it rains, the contractor absconds with the deposit, a worker falls off the roof)?"
6. The buyer thinks "The seller must be desperate since the house isn't in good shape."

Here's what happens next: The buyer accepts your offer of $5,000 to repair the roof, and then also knocks off another 10% because they think the house is not in good condition or you are desperate...

~or~

The buyer rejects your house and moves on to the house down the street that is move in ready.

Here's what happens when you offer a $3,000 allowance for new carpet:

1. The buyer thinks "Will $3,000 really cover new carpet for the whole house?"
2. The buyer thinks "I'm not from around here. Where do I buy new carpet?"
3. The buyer thinks "That house down the street already has new carpet. Why should I take on the added stress of shopping for & installing new carpet?"

Here's what happens next:

The buyer accepts your offer of $3,000 to buy new carpet, and then also knocks off another 10% because they think your allowance won't cover all the costs ...

~or~

The buyer rejects your house and moves on to the house down the street that is move in ready and already has new carpet installed.

By not repairing and updating your home before you put it on the market, you are asking home buyers to assume risk and additional expenses. You add more stress and uncertainty to the situation. Many home buyers are already investing every penny they can get their hands on in order to purchase a home. They are unable or unwilling to purchase a home that will require repairs before they can move in.

Additionally, the condition of your home may effect the appraisal causing the buyer's lender to refuse the loan.

Want to get a Los Angeles home sold? Price it right, hire the best full service Realtor you can find, hire a professional home stager and make sure it is in move-in ready condition.

Pasadena Penthouse Condo Pops With Home Staging Last week we were hired by an out-of-town homeowner to stage her Playhouse District Pasadena condo. The condo had been on the market for 84 days before staging. In the best case, we would have staged this condo before it hit the market. But this homeowner was very smart to stage it when it hadn't sold for almost 3 months. While we were staging, some potential buyers came through. This was the second time they saw the condo. The first time, it was unstaged. Their comments: "This looks so much nicer than I remember", "I didn't realize I could fit a king size bed in here" and "Now I'm sure my sofa will fit".

For more information about this 3 bedroom, 3 bath Pasadena Condo, contact the listing agent, Irina Netchaev, Pasadena Views Real Estate at (626)627-7107.

This article was originally posted on my Los Angeles Home Staging blog.