Living Room Before

As you can see, when you walked into the living room you were immediately faced with the back of a sofa and the TV was the focal point of the space.

Our solution was to bring in some smaller scale furniture and to reorient the room to open up the space and invite buyers in.

Living Room After

As you can see, not only did we create more seating in the space, but the space suddenly feels a whole lot larger when it’s’ not dominated by an oversized sofa.

This property sold for full price the same day it went on the market!

Here are a few more before and after photos from this staging success story:

Master Bedroom Before

Master Bedroom After

Display Ledge Before

Display Ledge After

Patio Before

Patio After

For more information about Stage to Sell, vacant or occupied staging services, consultations, paint color selection, or furniture/accessory rentals, check out our website at www.StageToSell.biz!

835 Grant St. #2, Santa Monica – $599,000

Bright, sunny, Sunset Park town home with southern exposure and great architectural feel. Living room has a dramatic, 2-story ceiling, French doors to outdoor deck and gas/wood fireplace. Spacious loft/office opens to wraparound balcony that leads up to huge rooftop deck with views of mountains and city lights. Stainless steel appliances & Sub-Zero fridge in kitchen. SxS secured parking. New carpet and a fresh coat of paint. All major appliances included.

Stage to Sell is the premier West Los Angeles Home Staging company. Owner and principal designer Annie Pinsker-Brown was chosen the 2011 Professional Stager of the Year for all of North America by the Real Estate Staging Association (RESA). She is an ASP (Accredited Staging Professional), a member of RESA and IAHSP (International Association of Home Staging Professionals), and an affiliate member of the Beverly Hills/Greater Los Angeles Association of Realtors.

Annie has Staged homes for Bravo’s hit show “Million Dollar Listing” and TLC’s “Property Ladder.” She has also been featured in books and recent articles on Staging in Los Angeles Magazine, The New York Times, Costco Connection and Frontiers Magazine.

Check out the photos of the finished product!

Check out the photos of the finished product!

4733 Marshall Dr., Culver City CA 90230

$639,000

Listed by Todd Miller, Keller Williams Santa Monica

Hidden behind mature trees this 3-bedroom home offers hardwood floors, updated bathrooms and a nice master suite. The backyard has a large grass yard & patio lined with bamboo. The garage could be used as an art studio or office. With a great Westside location (only 3 miles to Santa Monica, 3.5 miles to Venice Pier & 4.5 miles to LAX), the home sits on a quiet Culver City cul-de-sac near shops & restaurants.

If you are selling your Los Angeles home, let us help you get it SOLD so you can get on with your life!

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Annie Pinsker-Brown | Stage to Sell
Owner & Principal Designer
310-384-1084
www.stagetosell.biz

“We get you to SOLD so you can get on with your life!”

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Stage to Sell is the premier West Los Angeles Home Staging Company, and Owner & Principal Designer Annie Pinsker-Brown was named the Real Estate Staging Association (RESA) 2011 Professional Stager of the Year.

Annie is an ASP (Accredited Staging Professional), a RESA-PRO, and an affiliate member of the Beverly Hills/Greater Los Angeles Association of Realtors. She is also a Home Staging instructor for Staging and Redesign (SAR).

Annie has Staged LA homes for Bravo’s hit show “Million Dollar Listing” and TLC’s “Property Ladder.” She has also been featured in recent articles on Home Staging in Los Angeles Magazine, The New York Times, Costco Connection and Frontiers Magazine.

If you would like to see more of our Home Staging work, visit our website . There is an extensive gallery of before & after photos , as well as a list of our Staged properties currently on the market.

10740 Ashton Ave.

Living Room

Dining Room

Family/Media Room

Office/Library

Office/Library

Kitchen

Kitchen/Breakfast Room

Master Bedroom

Master Bedroom

Guest Bedroom

3rd Bedroom

Atrium

Listed by Daniel Bahr – CORE Commercial Real Estate. Call 818-231-2231 for more information or to arrange a showing.

If you have sellers that are “on the fence” about putting their home on the market and want to wait it out for a few months, send them this article from the LA Times.

Housing industry consultant Steve Harney says that prices may drop 5-8% as banks unload anywhere from 3 to 8 million foreclosures in the second quarter of 2011.

But here is some good news:

“Harney is among those who believe that the worst is generally over for the market, and that the inventory mess and lending issues will work themselves out in 18 months or so as pent-up buyer demand begins to reassert itself.

Meanwhile, he said, selling earlier this year will probably net a better return than late.”

Click here to read the complete article.

Some of the highlights include:

· List in early January to take advantage of post-holiday home shoppers

“If you hit the ground running and you’re a fresh listing that has done everything right, you’ve got the best shot.” – Louis Cammarosano, general manager of HomeGain.com

· Price it right from the start

“The longer something sits on the market, the more price reductions you might have to make and the more potential buyers will assume that there’s something wrong with the home. So more often than not, it’s best not to try testing the waters with a higher price.” - Louis Cammarosano, general manager of HomeGain.com

· Get the house ready
There are two factors that predict how quickly a home will sell and for what price: PRICE and CONDITION.

In our market, homes in the $1MM and under range are often selling within the first month if they are staged and priced to sell. There is a lot of competition out there, so if your seller is serious about selling quickly, she must make sure that her home stands out from the competition (in a good way).

A well-staged home will feel spacious and inviting. It will appeal to your target buyer (whether it is a family, a young couple or retirees). It will be neutral enough to allow any buyer to envision him or herself living in the home, but will never feel bland and forgettable.

Gone are the days when sellers on the west side of Los Angeles could just put up a sign in the yard and have their property sold within days. In this buyer’s market, it takes a lot more to get a home sold. You as the Realtor know what the best price is for your listing. Let a professional Home Stager help you determine the best way to show the home off in its best light and attract your target buyer. Working as a team, we can get it sold!

But what if you’ve got 3 kids, 2 dogs and a pet parakeet, and plan to live in your home while it’s on the market? You may think that staging is not an option for you. Now I can understand why you might think that, because there are stagers out there who refuse to work on a home unless it is completely empty and they can start with a “blank slate.”

Though it’s true that it’s easier for stagers to start from scratch so that we don’t have to incorporate your existing furniture with what we may need to bring in, there are home staging professionals (including myself) that actually enjoy working on occupied homes!

In fact, staging occupied homes is one of our specialties, and we offer a low-cost staging option that can give you the look of a staged home for a fraction of the price.

The way that I work with occupied listings is to start with a Home Staging Consultation. During a consultation appointment, I will spend 2-3 hours touring your home and making a detailed, room-by-room written report listing what can be done (using mostly what’s already in your home) to prepare it for sale. This might include rearranging furniture to highlight architectural details or views, de-cluttering, neutralizing the decor, painting or minor repairs.

In most cases, you can take this report, check off everything on my list, and there’s no need for me to ever come back to the property. Sometimes, however, there may be certain items that I recommend that you rent or purchase in order to complete the staging – art, accessories or even furniture. In that case, if you prefer to rent these items (and have no use for them in your new home), a professional stager can provide a quote to rent you the necessary items and set them up, putting the finishing touches on your home to really make it shine.

Here are some before and after photos of my most recent occupied home staging. Which photos would you rather see on the MLS?

Living Room Before

Living Room After

The living room was a simple case of too much furniture. The large settee on the right in the before picture was HUGE and made the room feel tight and cramped. By removing it and spreading out the remaining matching pieces, the room felt more spacious. We also brought in throw pillows and art to tie in the colors in the rug, added a few accessories, decluttered a bit, and voila – a staged room!

Kitchen/Dining Room Before

Kitchen/Dining Room After

Hmmm, what is that big thing hiding in the corner of the dining room in the before photo? Yes, you guessed it – a treadmill. Just the thing to stimulate your appetite while sitting down for a relaxing meal! We removed the treadmill and replaced it with a console table from another room in the house, set the table and now this room is staged and ready for the open house.

Master Bedroom Before

Master Bedroom After

First of all, the master bedroom is supposed to be all about romance and relaxation. But there’s a huge TV blocking the biggest feature in the room – a romantic fireplace! Next we have an overabundance of family photos – a real “no no” when selling your home. You want potential buyers to picture themselves living in your house. If they see you and your family staring at them from every wall, it just doesn’t feel like home. And lastly, having your golf clubs and an extra vacuum in the room makes it seem as if there’s not enough storage space in the garage or laundry area for those items. We removed all those items, relocated the TV and played up the fireplace and seating area with new art and accessories. Now that’s romantic!

Guest Room Before

Guest Room After

Once again, the main problem was too much stuff! Removing all the stuffed animals, the extra end tables, the personal photos and the exercise ball made the room feel not only more spacious, but also more “grown up.” This was a 4 bedroom home, but all the rooms (except the master) appeared very kid-like. We wanted to show that one room could still be a functional guest room or home office. Once all the extras were gone, we simply made the bed and added some art and throw pillows to complete the staging of this room.

Guest Bathroom Before

Guest Bathroom After

All the bathrooms in this home had a matching detail in the tile that was quite lovely. But with all the crazy patterns in the bath rugs and different colors of towels, that feature was being lost. We had the seller buy some solid color matching towels, removed the rugs and toiletries and brought in a nice vase with flowers to complete the look. Now the features of this bathroom can be the star, rather than an afterthought.

So as you can see, staging even an occupied home can have dramatic results. And since we used the seller’s own furnishings and they did some of the work themselves, they saved a bundle!

If you’re going to be living in your home while it’s on the market, call a professional home stager in your area. For a few hundred dollars, you will receive  valuable, practical advice on getting your home staged and ready to sell. Your return on that investment will be many times what you pay, not only in terms of a better sale price for your home, but also in a quicker sale. Less time on the market means lower carrying costs for you and more $$ in your pocket.

Make sure to ask for references and before and after photos from the stagers you interview.

Happy selling!

So after 3 months of sitting on the market and $100,000 in price reductions, the seller finally agreed to stage it.

One of the issues with showing this home empty was that the second bedroom was directly across from the dining room and had no door.

Downstairs Bedroom Before Staging (open to dining room)

According to the agent, most buyers of this floorplan had sliding doors installed to wall off the room and create privacy, but this one had not been upgraded in that way. So as potential buyers finished their tour, they inevitably asked “Where’s the 2nd bedroom?” When the agent pointed out the open space across from the dining room, which was visible from most of the downstairs, buyers balked.

The space also felt a bit cold, as modern spaces can tend to when they are not furnished.

Our first task was to create a division so that the second bedroom actually felt like a bedroom. We accomplished this with a simple room divider to create privacy. Adding bedroom furniture, as well as a desk, also helped buyers envision how they could use the space.

Downstairs Bedroom After Staging

Next we added warmth with furniture, art and accessories.

Did it work? Well, after 3 months on the market, this place is now in escrow! I call that success.

As things go in the “small world” of Los Angeles real estate, the buyer’s agent for that property loved my work and hired me to stage one of his listings…and another and another. That agent has been a steady client ever since and tells me he won’t take a listing unless the seller agrees to have me stage it! Aren’t those type of clients the BEST?

So last week this agent calls to tell me that his clients (the ones that bought that Santa Monica townhome) are now selling, and it was time for me to “work my magic” again! It’s not often we get a second chance to stage the same home, so I was excited – especially since it was such a great experience the last time! We both agreed not to mess with success (so to speak) and to keep the basics the same in terms of furniture placement, but I just had to mix it up a bit.

Check out these photos of the home how I staged it in 2008 and now how it looks today. Which do you prefer?

View from 2nd floor 2008

View from 2nd floor 2010

Living/Dining Room 2008

Living/Dining Room 2010

Dining Room 2008

Dining Room 2010

Master Bedroom 2008

Master Bedroom 2010

Office 2008

Office 2010

Guest Room 2008

Guest Room 2010

Master Bath 2008

Master Bath 2010