Monday, October 29, 2012
Seller Guide: 10 Hardcore Staging Tactics
Seller Guide: 10 Hardcore Staging Tactics
Today, homes don’t sell themselves. To win the battle for buyer attention and bring in the best offers, you have
to play an active role in marketing your home. If you’re serious about selling for top-dollar and in record time,
follow these sure-fire tips for staging successfully:
1. Check out the competition.
The first step to selling success is to find out what you’re
up against. Before and during the selling process, visit
other property open houses to see how your home measures
up.
When you’re out, here are a few things to note
• Property condition
• Highlighted features
• Move-in readiness
• Staging tactics that will work for you
Quick Tip
When it comes to eliminating excess, check for
major eyesores that may have buyer value beneath
the surface.
For example: Are your old carpets covering up
beautiful wood floors?
Tips for Home Sellers
2. Create a staging plan.
Great staging requires that you cover your bases like a pro
every time. Whether you hire a professional stager or work
with your agent to do-it-yourself, put together a staging
plan complete with a checklist and photos of what your
home looks like when it’s ready to show.
Follow the plan before every showing to make sure you put
your best foot forward.
3. Get (and follow) professional advice.
If you’re serious about selling you need to enlist objective
professional help. Ask your agent about his or her staging
experience or if he or she has a professional stager or
designer to recommend.
4. Eliminate the excess.
Before you head out to buy new accessories to “spruce up
your home,” focus first on items you can remove that will
enhance a buyer’s experience.
The best signs of things you should eliminate are the
things that you aren’t using and those you’re planning to
get rid of before you move.
Data has shown that homes
prepared by professional
stagers sell for more. Getting
an unbiased review from someone
who sees your property
“as a product” can be invaluable.
5. Pre-pack personal items.
Depersonalizing and decluttering are the most critical steps
of staging, but they can be a challenge. To make it easier,
start by pre-packing and storing away the items you won’t
need until after the move and anything personal (like family
photos) that might prevent buyers from envisioning the
home as their own.
Seller Guide: 10 Hardcore Staging Tactics
6. Clear off the counter space.
When it comes to the tops of your tables and counters, less
is more. Clear off your counter spaces except for the
occasional decorative or functional pieces (clocks or vases
of flowers).
Remember, your goal is to help buyers see themselves in a
home and they can’t do that with your stuff in the way.
Tips for Home Sellers
7. Clean inside and out.
Everyone thinks they know what “clean” means when it
comes to their own home. Here’s where an agent or
professional stager can be super helpful. Invite them in to
get an outsiders opinion on how to make the nooks and
crannies you’ve forgotten about glisten.
Also remember, the best selling homes tend to have
garages, basements, side yards, and other outdoor spaces
that are just as immaculate as their kitchens, bathrooms
and master bedrooms.
8. Dive into the trim and details early.
It’s tempting, when staging, to do the big jobs - painting
walls, polishing floors, moving furniture - and to run out of
steam and cash before the little details get handled.
Some of the least expensive home staging projects can
carry the most powerful buyer-impressing payload. Here
are few details to tackle to make your listing standout
• Clean or paint baseboards and other trim
• Ensure locks, doors, and drawers work properly
• Paint or replace outdoor accents like house
numbers or mailboxes
9. Shoot sample photos
The first contact most house hunters have with your
property is from a computer or mobile phone. Making sure
your property presents well there is a big step toward sold.
Before you show off your home to the public, take a look at
it from their view. Use your camera or Smartphone to take
sample photos and view them on your computer.
10. Be brutally honest with yourself.
When you think you’re done preparing your home, think
again. It’s not overkill to go out on a Sunday afternoon,
walk through a few Open Houses, get back in the car and
drive home to walk through it like a buyer would. Ask
yourself: What can you edit or declutter? What is distracting?
What stops a buyer from seeing the possibilities for
their own family here?
If all else fails, take your agent with you. Arm him or her
with a packet of post-it notes and give them free rein to
stick one on anything that should be removed before
showing the home. Then get that stuff out of there!
Staging Homework: 3 Questions*
• What are the top 3 home features that make your home a great buy?
• What personal items can you pre-pack to declutter your home?
• What do you love to see when touring or viewing a home?
*Sit down with your agent
to talk through your answers
and how these tips can help
you sell faster.
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
St. Charles County Realtors see signs of market recovery
Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/suburban-journals/stcharles/news/st-charles-county-realtors-see-signs-of-market-recovery/article_17bf5953-ac25-5057-9c21-33b2d737317b.html#ixzz22t1yvQkz
St. Charles County's real estate market, wounded by the economic downturn, is showing signs of recovery, particularly in Wentzville.
That's according to two representatives of the St. Charles County Association of Realtors who last week discussed real estate and housing trends with the Wentzville Board of Aldermen. The association represents about 1,300 Realtors.
While sales and new housing starts are not as high as they were before the recession, they are on the upswing, association President-elect Cheri Peterson told the board during its Aug. 1 meeting. Much of that increase has to do with historically low interest rates.
"All in all, the bottom line is that it can be cheaper to buy a house than rent one," Peterson said. Low interest rates can also increase the affordability of higher priced homes.
"The last time we had interest rates like this was during the Eisenhower administration," said Mark Stallmann, the association's chief executive officer.
The Mid America Regional Information System (MARIS), used by the association to track real estate activity, shows sales and new home starts during the first half of 2012 in St. Charles County were up from the same period in 2011, they said.
Stallmann said 2,249 single-family homes and condominiums were sold in the county during the first six months of this year, up from 1,885 for the same period in 2011. The median home price was $156,000, an increase of 1.23 percent from the first half of last year. Last year, 4,036 homes were sold in the county, he said.
MARIS provides a breakdown of sales based on high school attendance areas. In the Wentzville School District, 300 homes were sold in the area served by Holt High School during the first six months of the year, compared to 267 for the same period in 2011, Stallmann said. The average home price was $165,000, down about 2 percent from the first half of 2011.
In the Timberlake High School attendance area, 292 homes were sold in the first half of the year, compared to 247 for the same period in 2011. The median home price was $165,255, down about 3 percent.
New home construction permits issued in the county during the first half of the year were up by about 25 percent — 696, compared to 559 for the first half of 2011, Stallmann said. In Wentzville, new housing permits increased by 53 percent — 171 in the first half of this year, compared to 112 in the same period a year ago.
Foreclosures remain a factor in sales activity and in limiting new construction, Peterson said. Buyers are finding relatively new homes with many amenities that owners walked away from and are being sold at lower prices.
"This is my opinion — once we clean up some of this inventory and get these houses under contract, we going to start to see more new construction," Peterson said.
Alderman Chris Gard, Ward 2, asked what home builders are building now and whether the city should be checking on what attracts home buyers to Wentzville.
Stallmann and Peterson said buyers are returning to smaller, more economical homes. They are less interested in high-priced two-story, four-bedroom "McMansions" or "mega homes."
Homes with a $100,000 to $150,000 price tag often receive multiple offers, Peterson said. "If they pop up on the market, they usually don't last more than a week," she said.
Some very high-priced homes also are selling, she said.
Peterson said builders should be looking at putting up more ranch houses that are cheaper. "You've got to build what people are looking for," she said.
It could take some time to sell off the inventory of existing and foreclosed homes and build out existing lots in Wentzville. Doug Forbeck, the city's community development director, said there are 1,400-1,500 vacant lots where streets and other infrastructure are in place, and thousands of platted lots — perhaps as many as 10,000 — with no improvements.
Board President Rick Stokes, Ward 3, said if sales average about 300 to 350 homes per year — a standard figure often used — it could take about five years to go through the city's inventory of ready lots. That's a bit less than a few years ago when 1,500 homes were being sold each year in Wentzville, Stokes said.
Stallmann said the county, however, might not have as far to go in recovering from a poor housing market than other areas of the country that were harder hit.
Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/suburban-journals/stcharles/news/st-charles-county-realtors-see-signs-of-market-recovery/article_17bf5953-ac25-5057-9c21-33b2d737317b.html#ixzz22t1yvQkz
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Real-time Saint Louis Housing Trends and St Louis Real Estate Market Housing and Appreciation Data
St Louis County Stats St Louis City Stats St Charles County Stats
Mention that you are a top residential real estate agent in St Louis, there is one question that is asked over and over - by the vast majority of St Louis or St Charles residents.
What is the St Louis Real Estate Market Doing Right Now?
Unfortunately, the vast majority of st louis real estate agents are unable to reliably answer this very basic question with regards to the overall St Louis Real Estate market or any of the submarkets.
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Kelsey Cottrell Realty Group offers the most comprehensive set of real-time data for the St Louis and St Charles housing markets - these data reports are available based on community areas and zip codes - as noted below. The data is provided in real-time from state of the art provider Altos Research.
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Local St Louis Real Estate Market Data You Can't Get Anywhere Else
As a St Louis Home Buyer or St Louis Home Seller, do you understand the dynamics of the local St Louis real estate market? More important, can your St Louis Real Estate provide you with the real estate data you need - either down to the zip code or submarket area. The most common thing we hear is that the National Association of Realtors (NAR) has these reports or The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) - now known as Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA)? The stark reality - Neither does.
Kelsey Cottrell Realty Group stands along in providing the most comprehsensive St Louis Real Estate Market Housing Data and Trend Analysis. In fact, St Louis Home Buyers or St Louis Home Sellers will not be able to find critical and important St Louis local housing data from any of these national sources of data.
St Louis Real Estate Stats and Data Report - Historical Summary
St Louis Metro Real Estate Market Stats and Data - St Louis County - Historical SummarySt Louis Metro Real Estate Market Stats and Data - Historical Summary
Sample St Louis Real Estate Today Market Stats Executive Summary
The following executive summary report is available for the entire St Louis real estate market, any submarket area in the City of St Louis, St Louis County or St Charles County. Reports are available down to specific zip code level by filling out the form on the right of this page.Kelsey Cottrell Realty Executive Summary Ballwin MO
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Thursday, July 5, 2012
Marketing News
After Years of False Hopes, Signs of a Turn in Housing
By BINYAMIN APPELBAUM
Published: June 27, 2012 228 Comments
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
A house in San Francisco that has been sold. Pending home sales are increasing along with sale prices, and construction companies are clearing lots and raising frames for new homes.
Multimedia
Related
Home Prices Rose a Third Month in April (June 27, 2012)
Readers’ Comments
Readers shared their thoughts on this article.
The housing market is starting to recover. Prices are rising. Sales are increasing. Home builders are clearing lots and raising frames.
Joe Niece, a real estate agent in the Minneapolis suburb of Eden Prairie, said he recently concluded a streak of 13 consecutive bidding wars over homes that his clients wanted to buy. Each sold above the asking price.
“I just had a home that wasn’t supposed to go on the market for two weeks sold before it even went on the market,” Mr. Niece said. “It’s definitely a lot different than what we saw” during the last few summers.
Like the economic recovery that began three years ago, what happens next is likely to prove a little disappointing. The pace of recovery will probably be slow, and the prices of many homes will continue to decline.
Millions of people remain underwater, owing more on their homes than the homes are worth, and unable to sell. Millions of families still face foreclosure. And a setback in the still-fragile economic recovery could easily reverse the uptick in housing prices, too.
But roughly six years after the housing market began its longest and deepest slide since the Great Depression, a growing number of experts and people who actually put money into housing believe the end has come.
“Our sense is that the market is recovering, and we’re extremely confident that it’s not going to get worse,” said Ronnie Morgan, a San Diego real estate professional who recently created a $10 million partnership to buy foreclosed homes. The group, Alegria Real Estate Funds, already has bought about 20 homes in suburban communities, most of which they plan to hold as rental properties.
“It feels very much like we’ve hit a bottom and we’re starting to come off of that bottom,” said Stuart Miller, chief executive of Lennar, a major national home builder based in Miami. The company said Wednesday that second-quarter profits were higher than expected, and orders for new homes rose 40 percent.
“I’m a little nervous,” Mr. Miller quickly added in a conference call with analysts, “about saying the word ‘recovery.’ ”
The trend is clear in the data. The widely respected S.&P./Case-Shiller index reported earlier this week that sales prices for existing homes rose in April for the first time this year. Several other measures, including a seasonally adjusted version of the index, show that price increases began in February. The pace of housing construction has increased. And the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday that pending home sales climbed to the highest level since the end of a federal tax credit for first-time buyers in September 2010.
This is the fourth consecutive year that the housing market has shown signs of revival, and each previous episode ended with prices renewing their downward slide.
But with each passing year, an eventual recovery has grown more likely. Prices have continued to fall, and the economy has continued to recover, a combination that has expanded the pool of potential buyers. The population has continued to grow while few new homes have been built.
Basic indicators of market health that bulged during the bubble, like the ratio of housing prices to income, have returned to more normal levels.
Government efforts to help homeowners have intensified, allowing more borrowers to refinance or avoid foreclosure.
“All bets are off if anything happens to the economy, but apart from that, I think the fundamentals look better than they’ve looked in 17 or 18 years,” said Richard K. Green, a professor of real estate at the University of Southern California.
Professor Green cited the combination of rising rents and low mortgage rates as a powerful inducement to potential buyers, both renters who would prefer to own and investors who want to become landlords.
“Compared to a lot of other investments right now this looks pretty good,” he said.
The influx of investors is a major reason that the market is looking stronger. Mr. Morgan, 56, built apartments before the housing crash. In 2010, seeing a new opportunity, he and some friends started bidding at the foreclosure auctions then held on the steps of the San Diego County Courthouse.
At first they bought properties to renovate and resell. Now they are focused on potential rental properties in the kinds of gated, planned communities in suburban San Diego that once were populated almost exclusively by people who owned their homes. Some of their tenants are former homeowners.
And competition has increased. The auctions were moved from the courthouse steps last year because the crowds had grown too large.
“There’s not a whole lot of other places to put your money,” Mr. Morgan said.
There are still reasons for caution. An unusually warm winter seems to have given a temporary and misleading boost to a range of economic indicators.
The pace of economic growth remains slow and fragile, shadowed by the risk that politicians in Europe and Washington will fail to address looming problems.
And the rise in prices is happening despite the vast number of vacant houses awaiting buyers, up to two million more than the normal level, with several million more houses still at risk of being foreclosed.
But this “shadow inventory” is not distributed uniformly, according to a new analysis by Goldman Sachs. Even within metropolitan areas like Phoenix, the vacant houses are clustered in less desirable neighborhoods, while buyers are seeking homes in areas where there are few vacancies.
Under these circumstances, the researchers concluded, “It is possible for us to see both house price increases and excess housing supply at the same time.”
Indeed, in a growing number of areas demand for homes is outstripping supply.
The number of homes for sale has been falling for more than a year, according to the National Association of Realtors. Some owners are waiting for prices to rise; some of them must wait because they are underwater.
Mr. Niece, the Minnesota real estate agent, said he and his partner had seen their book of listings decline from about 120 properties to 70 properties, about 45 of which already are under contract.
“I have buyers every single day complaining that they can’t find houses,” he said.
Driving through a neighboring suburb last week, Mr. Niece said that he passed a sign outside another real estate office that read, “The market is great. We’ve sold all of our inventory. We need listings.”
After Years of False Hopes, Signs of a Turn in Housing
By BINYAMIN APPELBAUM
Published: June 27, 2012 228 Comments
WASHINGTON — Announcements of a housing recovery have become a wrongheaded rite of summer, but after several years of false hopes, evidence is accumulating that the optimists may finally be right.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
A house in San Francisco that has been sold. Pending home sales are increasing along with sale prices, and construction companies are clearing lots and raising frames for new homes.
Multimedia
Related
Home Prices Rose a Third Month in April (June 27, 2012)
Readers’ Comments
Readers shared their thoughts on this article.
The housing market is starting to recover. Prices are rising. Sales are increasing. Home builders are clearing lots and raising frames.
Joe Niece, a real estate agent in the Minneapolis suburb of Eden Prairie, said he recently concluded a streak of 13 consecutive bidding wars over homes that his clients wanted to buy. Each sold above the asking price.
“I just had a home that wasn’t supposed to go on the market for two weeks sold before it even went on the market,” Mr. Niece said. “It’s definitely a lot different than what we saw” during the last few summers.
Like the economic recovery that began three years ago, what happens next is likely to prove a little disappointing. The pace of recovery will probably be slow, and the prices of many homes will continue to decline.
Millions of people remain underwater, owing more on their homes than the homes are worth, and unable to sell. Millions of families still face foreclosure. And a setback in the still-fragile economic recovery could easily reverse the uptick in housing prices, too.
But roughly six years after the housing market began its longest and deepest slide since the Great Depression, a growing number of experts and people who actually put money into housing believe the end has come.
“Our sense is that the market is recovering, and we’re extremely confident that it’s not going to get worse,” said Ronnie Morgan, a San Diego real estate professional who recently created a $10 million partnership to buy foreclosed homes. The group, Alegria Real Estate Funds, already has bought about 20 homes in suburban communities, most of which they plan to hold as rental properties.
“It feels very much like we’ve hit a bottom and we’re starting to come off of that bottom,” said Stuart Miller, chief executive of Lennar, a major national home builder based in Miami. The company said Wednesday that second-quarter profits were higher than expected, and orders for new homes rose 40 percent.
“I’m a little nervous,” Mr. Miller quickly added in a conference call with analysts, “about saying the word ‘recovery.’ ”
The trend is clear in the data. The widely respected S.&P./Case-Shiller index reported earlier this week that sales prices for existing homes rose in April for the first time this year. Several other measures, including a seasonally adjusted version of the index, show that price increases began in February. The pace of housing construction has increased. And the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday that pending home sales climbed to the highest level since the end of a federal tax credit for first-time buyers in September 2010.
This is the fourth consecutive year that the housing market has shown signs of revival, and each previous episode ended with prices renewing their downward slide.
But with each passing year, an eventual recovery has grown more likely. Prices have continued to fall, and the economy has continued to recover, a combination that has expanded the pool of potential buyers. The population has continued to grow while few new homes have been built.
Basic indicators of market health that bulged during the bubble, like the ratio of housing prices to income, have returned to more normal levels.
Government efforts to help homeowners have intensified, allowing more borrowers to refinance or avoid foreclosure.
“All bets are off if anything happens to the economy, but apart from that, I think the fundamentals look better than they’ve looked in 17 or 18 years,” said Richard K. Green, a professor of real estate at the University of Southern California.
Professor Green cited the combination of rising rents and low mortgage rates as a powerful inducement to potential buyers, both renters who would prefer to own and investors who want to become landlords.
“Compared to a lot of other investments right now this looks pretty good,” he said.
The influx of investors is a major reason that the market is looking stronger. Mr. Morgan, 56, built apartments before the housing crash. In 2010, seeing a new opportunity, he and some friends started bidding at the foreclosure auctions then held on the steps of the San Diego County Courthouse.
At first they bought properties to renovate and resell. Now they are focused on potential rental properties in the kinds of gated, planned communities in suburban San Diego that once were populated almost exclusively by people who owned their homes. Some of their tenants are former homeowners.
And competition has increased. The auctions were moved from the courthouse steps last year because the crowds had grown too large.
“There’s not a whole lot of other places to put your money,” Mr. Morgan said.
There are still reasons for caution. An unusually warm winter seems to have given a temporary and misleading boost to a range of economic indicators.
The pace of economic growth remains slow and fragile, shadowed by the risk that politicians in Europe and Washington will fail to address looming problems.
And the rise in prices is happening despite the vast number of vacant houses awaiting buyers, up to two million more than the normal level, with several million more houses still at risk of being foreclosed.
But this “shadow inventory” is not distributed uniformly, according to a new analysis by Goldman Sachs. Even within metropolitan areas like Phoenix, the vacant houses are clustered in less desirable neighborhoods, while buyers are seeking homes in areas where there are few vacancies.
Under these circumstances, the researchers concluded, “It is possible for us to see both house price increases and excess housing supply at the same time.”
Indeed, in a growing number of areas demand for homes is outstripping supply.
The number of homes for sale has been falling for more than a year, according to the National Association of Realtors. Some owners are waiting for prices to rise; some of them must wait because they are underwater.
Mr. Niece, the Minnesota real estate agent, said he and his partner had seen their book of listings decline from about 120 properties to 70 properties, about 45 of which already are under contract.
“I have buyers every single day complaining that they can’t find houses,” he said.
Driving through a neighboring suburb last week, Mr. Niece said that he passed a sign outside another real estate office that read, “The market is great. We’ve sold all of our inventory. We need listings.”
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