Los Angeles Home Staging Info

Moving Mountains Designs works with real estate investors,  bank asset managers and mortgage asset managers to sell their real estate assets or property. We will stage your assets cost-effectively to make them appealing to the greatest number of buyers. Staged homes sell faster and for a higher price. In addition, staging may help lower carrying costs – the less time your assets are on the market, the less you will have to spend on monthly maintenance, property taxes, insurance and utilities.We are experienced working with investors, property managers, asset managers and banks. Call Michelle Minch today (626)385-8852 to learn how we can help you sell your listings faster and for a higher price. We know what makes homes sell!™
Originally posted on my Los Angeles Home Staging Website

I am frequently asked, by the real estate agents I work with, how to make their listing, which is on the small size, look larger to appeal to more buyers. As a professional house stager in Pasadena and Los Angeles, one of my primary jobs is to make smaller homes feel larger, or at least, feel as large as they really are.

   

Here's a list of my tips for making a small home feel larger. You can use these tips whether you are staging a home to sell or if you are planning to stay, but just need some help dealing with smaller rooms. These tips will work with either vacant (if you're bringing in furniture) or occupied homes (dealing with the client's existing furniture):

1. Pare down the furniture in a smaller room to the essentials. Do they really need a chair in your bedroom, or will the room appear larger with just the bed, the nightstands and maybe a dresser?
2. Clutter makes a room feel smaller. Lots of smaller items, like a Hummel collection or bowling trophies displayed on every horizontal surface, eat up visual space. Only display 3-5 items at a time. Store, sell or prepack the rest. You're selling a home, not a collection of treasures.
3. Use fewer pieces of furniture. Its better to have one larger dresser than 2 smaller ones.
4. Use appropriately sized furniture. Having a large sofa in a small family room will highlight how small the room is.
5. Pull furniture away from the wall. Create a cozy sitting area in front of the fireplace, with room to move around the back of the furniture.
6. Cooler colors recede, so painting a room a pale blue, green or gray will make it feel larger.
7. Show more hardwood. The larger the expanse of hardwood, the larger the room will look. See how the room looks without an area rug. If the hardwood floors are hidden by wall to wall carpet, remove the carpet. The home will feel instantly larger.
8. Try using one larger area rug instead of several smaller rugs. Or if the room looks OK without it, don't use any area rugs.
9. Use fewer patterns on upholstery and bedding. For instance, use a solid color blanket or bedspread on a bed in a small bedroom to make the room feel larger. Lighter colored bedding will make the room feel larger.
10. Strategically placed mirrors make a room feel larger.
11. A well lit room feels larger. Make sure every overhead light and table lamp is lit before open houses and showings.
12. Minimize window treatments. The simpler the better. Shutters, blinds or simple drapes (no flounces, ruffles, strong patterns or complicated valences) take up less "visual space".

These home staging tips work if you are staging to sell or just want to make the home you are living in feel larger.

If you need some help figuring out how to make your home or listing feel larger, consider hiring us for a home staging consultation. You'll get some easy-to-implement expert home staging and interior design tips.  Its the best "bang for your buck" and it's a great investment in preparing your home or listing for sale, or making your home more livable if you are planning to stay.

Sell your real estate investment properties faster and for a higher price!

How? Have your investment real estate staged by professional home stagers at Moving Mountains Design.

As a wise real estate investor, you know you have to spend a little money to make even more money. Home staging has been proven to help homes sell faster than unstaged home, usually for a higher price. In one study, published by the Real Estate Staging Association, staged homes sold 74% faster after they were staged than when they were unstaged. That resulted in lower holding costs and less time wasted, which equals higher profits.

Following are some Los Angeles properties staged for local real estate investors. Just click on any photo to see more photos and information about that particular property. This San Gabriel home sold 1 day after staging after being on the market for 6 months unstaged.

This Belair condo sold one week after staging

This home was just recently staged

This Altadena home was staged for investors and sold during the first month on the market

If you are a real estate investor with assets to sell in the Los Angeles or North Orange County areas, call the home staging company that real estate investors, large and small, trust to help sell their investment properties, Moving Mountains Design. We are set up to handle multiple properties at one time and stage properties valued as low as $250,000 and as high as $7M. We will travel to stage properties outside the Los Angeles area (special terms apply).

This was original posted on Los Angeles Home Stagers Blog

For those of you not, familiar with it, Angie's List is an on-line resource for homeowners and consumers (also known as potential customers) to rate and find high quality service providers in their area. 

According to the Angie's List website:

"More than a million members use Angie's List to find high quality service companies and health care professionals in over 450 categories. From plumbers and painters to dentists and dermatologists, reviews come directly from homeowners in your area."

Consumers can rate their experiences with service providers, including home stagers & real estate agents. Many consumers look to Angie's List to find a home stager, real estate agent, building inspector or house painter. They trust Angie's List recommendations because the service providers are rated by other consumers who have used their services.

You can register your business for free here. Once you are registered, you can send your clients a review form and ask them to review your business. Their reviews will contribute to your Angie's List Grade if they are Angie's List members.

Here's the link to the an online report form your clients can fill out. And here's a link to a review form you can print out and hand to your clients to be mailed or faxed in.

I've been listed on Angie's List for about 1 year, but I have never pursued getting my clients to rate me. That's going to change since I recently got a job from someone who found me on Angie's List.

I'm listed on Angie's List as a Los Angeles home staging company and as an interior decorator and designer.

Are you listed on Angie's List?

 

I got a Los Angeles home staging job today, and it was one of the easiest jobs I have ever gotten. I did not know the agent - I had never worked with her or met her before. She got my name from another Realtor in her office who receives my email newsletter. This Realtor was looking for a home stager in Los Angeles because she was listing one of her own investment properties. She knew the fastest way to get it sold was to stage it.

What did I do to get this job so easily?

• I responded to the Realtor's email promtly
• I responded with the information she had requested
• I anticipated her additional questions and included that information in my response
• My response was professional - it came from a professional sounding email address Michelle@MovingMountainsDesign.com and I have a professional looking home staging website.
  
• I confirmed my appointment
• I showed up on time

I know this is why I got the job because she told me. As she handed me the deposit check, she said she had contacted other stagers regarding this job. I was the first one to respond and she was impressed with my professionalism and the fact that I had anticipated her questions. She appreciated my straightforward attitude - my company policies were clearly defined in my email. I won her trust.

I didn't get this job because I am the best home stager in Los Angeles. I got it because I responded promptly & professionally. It was that easy.

I am constantly astounded at how many jobs I get because other stagers didn't return emails or phone calls promptly, didn't show up on time or didn't present themselves professionally.

Want to get more home staging jobs?

• Respond to emails & phone calls promptly
• Respond professionally
• Anticipate questions
• Show up on time
• Show up prepared

Its that easy!

I'll be posting photos next week after we stage it.

 

This week we staged 2 Los Angeles condos for a real estate auction company.

This was the first time they had worked with a home stager and this was the first time I had worked with a real estate auction company. I think its a match made in heaven. The condos they will be auctioning look 100% better now that they've been staged by Moving Mountains Design. Having a more desirable product to auction should create greater urgency to bid resulting in more units sold and higher prices paid.

Here are photos of the Pacoima condo before and after home staging:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kitchen before staging

Kitchen after home staging by Moving Mountains Design

Master bedroom before staging. The auction company had rented a queen size bed when a king size bed would show how large the master bedroom was. This bed was moved to another bedroom and I brought in a king set.

Master bedroom after home staging with a king size bed. The room actually looks larger with the bigger bed.

This was the second bedroom before staging. I moved the queen bed in here to demonstrate how large the secondary bedrooms were.

There's plenty of room in this second bedroom for a queen bed.

Here's a shot of the living room. Sorry, no before shot.

To see more photos and for more information about these new construction condos in Pacoima read Home Staging A Condo For A Los Angeles Real Estate Auction Company.

If you have Los Angeles area REOs, Foreclosure listings or real estate auction properties and would like more information about how home staging can help improve the appearance of your properties for a faster sale at a higher price, contact Michelle Minch (626)441-8975.

We know what makes homes sell! (TM)