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!

Firstly, it’s a closeup of a BED. Secondly, it’s a closeup of an UNMADE bed that looks the way my bed does when I wake up after a fitul night’s sleep! A potential buyer can tell absolutely nothing about the room from this photo, except that the seller probably doesn’t care enough about selling his home to at least make his bed before the Realtor takes the photos. You can’t see the size of the room or how much furniture will fit in it. The walls are white and the bedding is white, making it even more difficult to tell anything at all about the room.

By contrast, below are 2 photos of a bedroom I took on Monday after we had Staged a townhome in Santa Monica (full story coming up in my next post). Notice that in the first photo, you get a view of almost the entire room, showing that it’s spacious enough for a queen bed and 2 nightstands, plus a bench (or dresser) along the side wall. You also see that it’s got an en suite master bath. In the second photo, you see the French doors that lead out to the balcony right off the patio.

The buyer who sees these photos on the MLS has already answered several of his/her own questions about the size and layout of the master bedroom & bath before he or she even sets foot in the home.

If you haven’t already read my post about photography tips for Realtors, you may not realize that more than 85% of buyers pre-shop for homes on the internet! That means that your photos have to sell the home before a buyer will come to see it in person.

So this is not just about a photo of a Staged bedroom versus an unmade bed. It’s about the importance of photography as a marketing tool for all your listings. Would you print a flyer that had the first photo as a way to market and sell this home? I certainly hope not. So if you can’t at least make the bed for your client before taking the photo, just don’t take it. No photo in this case is better than a bad photo that will turn off any potential buyer. And if you don’t have a wide angle lens that will allow you to get more of the room in your photos, hire a professional to photograph the home. And better yet, have it professionally Staged first! Then you can guarantee your photos will have buyers knocking down the door to get in.