Picture It: Create a Character to Guide Your Design

By Mary Cook, Mary Cook & Associates

Now more than ever, model homes are key sales tools for developers. In the current housing market crisis, people are weighing every factor in their decision on buying a home.

Beyond the typical questions on the quality of the finishes, school districts, and mortgage rates, those who are looking to spend their life savings on a place are looking for deeper psychological reasons to sign on the dotted line.

Does this home speak to me? Can I imagine my lifestyle being a fit here?

That’s why my firm spends so much time getting to know the prospective audience for which we design model homes. We design for specific people, often taking the time to create fictitious characters such as “John the Wall Streeter,” who lets his girlfriend decorate his place. Read more

Biggest Losers: 20 Home Design Features That Send Buyers Running

By Barbara Ballinger, Architecture Coach columnist and guest blogger

Design glitches draw attention away from a home’s best features. Don’t let out-of-date fixtures and unappealing decor cost you a sale. While some buyers may actually appreciate “vintage” features, home and design experts say these 20 features almost always serve as a turnoff.

1. Dated and excessively bold or dark paint and tile colors, such as “Pepto Bismol” pink, avocado green, deep plum, or jet black. “Dark can be cool, but it has to be a color that’s popular today,” says sales associate Jennifer Ames, crs^®, of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Chicago.

2. Lacquered or high-gloss painted walls that are expensive to repaint and show all defects. Likewise, faux- and sponge-painted walls can be so passe.

3. Painted trim that’s very dark-and costly to remove.

4. Wallpaper, which is a lot of work (and potentially expensive) to remove. Most disliked: Dated flowered or striped patterns. Read more

Men From Mars, Women From Venus? Not So Much When Shopping for a Home

By Melissa Dittmann Tracey

Women and men home buyers don’t differ too much when it comes to what they look for in a home, according to a new survey by Coldwell Banker Real Estate, which asked 1,000 women and men about their home buying preferences.

However, women do tend to make up their minds more quickly about a home than men. In fact, according to the survey, 70 percent of women had made up their mind the day they walked into the house compared to 62 percent of men—who often needed two or more visits to decide.

Men and women mostly agree on how they would use a spare 12 x 12 room, if they had their choice. Their top choices: Read more

The Visual Nature of the Internet Has Home Owners More Attuned to Aesthetics

By Erica Christoffer

Two professions greatly benefiting from the Internet’s ability to help connect people visually are interior designers and home stagers.

First, let’s clarify: Interior design and home staging are two very distinct industries. As Jennie Norris, president of the International Association of Home Staging Professionals, points out: “Staging is all about depersonalizing a house and decorating and interior design are about personalizing a house.”

When home stagers work with a seller, they are considering elements that appeal to a broad audience. “It’s not about the seller at all. It is about presenting a product to the market (the house) and ensuring it is appealing to the buyer,” says Norris.

Both trades use design theories to accomplish different goals. But they do share the common bond of visualizing what a home could be – something home owners have grown attuned to with online accessibility and the rise of reality television shows.

“The world, in some ways because of the Internet, has gotten smaller and smaller,” says staging expert Barb Schwarz. “People are very educated and will do their research. The public is pretty darn smart when it comes to selling their home.”

Read more

Should Real Estate Pros and Stagers Join Forces?

By Erica Christoffer

In an effort to form a more perfect union between real estate practitioners, home stagers, and sellers, Matt Stigliano with RE/MAX Access in San Antonio is proposing a new business model. In his ActiveRain blog post, he suggests that practitioners and stagers pair up and charge a joint commission rate to offer their combined services to a seller.

This partnership, Stigliano says, would alleviate seller apprehension about paying for staging costs upfront. The commission would be higher, but it could be approached as a “no money down” option to have a team of professionals working to sell the home.

“The commission is a risk-based pay structure,” Stigliano says. “Maybe with a commission, the stagers would be willing to take that risk.”

The stager would be present at the listing presentation to share their ideas for the home. Instead of staging being a one-time service, having a commission may motivate a staging pro to come back and check on the home – even modify their initial decor ideas until the house is sold.

“It would create a team between the agent, stager, and seller,” Stigliano said. “Sellers like the idea [of staging], and they know it helps – maybe this is the trick to getting them over the cost hump.”

Stigliano has yet to try this business model himself, but says he would if he found a stager who is willing.

“It’s frustrating to me because I have homes I would love to have staged, but the sellers don’t have the cash,” says Stigliano.

In less than 24 hours, Stigliano had nearly 100 comments on his blog post, with opinions varying greatly on the topic. Even if his idea doesn’t come to fruition, Stigliano says it’s worth getting people talking and thinking of ideas outside the box.

Preventing Termites From Biting Up Your Investment

By Melissa Dittmann Tracey

I recently learned a surprising statistic: Termites cause an estimated $5 billion in property damage a year in the United States, which makes these pesky creatures highly destructive. In fact, they cause more damage to wood-based structures than fire, flood, or wind, according to the National Pest Management Foundation.

That said, we should be talking about termites a lot more! For the article in this month’s REALTOR Magazine “Termites: The Silent Destroyers,” I spoke with Ron Harrison, an entomologist for Orkin Inc., who offered some insights into how home owners can avoid these insects from biting into their homes.

Also, take a look at this video from Termites101.org to learn more.

Do you find your buyers asking for special termite inspections before they purchase or is it even a concern? Do your state or lenders require a termite inspection before a purchase can be completed?

Is Virtual Staging Deceiving?

By Melissa Dittmann Tracey

A recent article from The San Francisco Chronicle (”Virtual Staging Sparks Sales of Vacant Homes” by Judy Richter) took a look at the growing trend of real estate professionals using virtual staging to move listings.

Virtual staging is where you take an empty room and then digitally enhance it with furniture to make the space more inviting. For example, a stager may digitally add some artwork, chairs, tables, and other items to liven up a vacant space, allowing buyers to see the potential of the home. The enhanced photos may then be used on the sales practitioner’s flyers, Web site, MLS and in advertisements for the listing.

But some are beginning to question whether the altered photos may deceive buyers.

Virtual staging can work in driving more buyer traffic. Many practitioners report an increase in buyer traffic after virtual staging photos are posted than if they just posted photos on the Web of the vacant rooms in the house.

Some in the business are attracted to virtual staging, particularly now, because of the huge cost savings of staging on the Web rather than paying for actual physical staging. For example, some real estate practitioners say they have saved thousands of dollars in staging costs by opting for virtual over physical staging.

But are these altered photos accurate renderings of the space? Or are they misrepresenting the property by sprucing them up digitally?

Real estate practitioner Kirk Lebowe, owner-broker of PreVue Properties in Los Angeles County, told the San Francisco Chronicle that he views virtual staging as a great way give buyers decorating ideas. Plus, he said, it’s not like you’re selling the home with the furniture.

What do you think? Do you think virtual staging is deceiving?

To Stage or Not to Stage?

Read a recent post from REALTOR® Magazine’s Speaking of Real Estate blog that says 95 percent of staged homes, on average, sell in 35 days or less, even in a slow market. The finding comes from the new book Staging to Sell: The Secret to Selling a Home in a Down Market by Barb Schwartz. Read more >

More Mosquito Bites? Blame it on Foreclosures

Another thing to blame the increase in foreclosures on: A surge in the mosquito population.

“Current economic and weather conditions have created the perfect storm for what could be a very troubling mosquito season,” said Ron Harrison, Ph.D., Orkin entomologist and technical director, in a recent press release. “Through May, our mosquito treatments are up more than 20 percent over the first five months of last year.”

Foreclosures can create the perfect home for mosquito swarms because vacant homes tend to have standing water that attract the pesky bugs, as well as holes in windows and doors that mosquitoes can easily slip through.

The prime biting hours for mosquitoes are between dusk and dawn. Here are tips from Orkin on preventing those nuisance mosquito bites: Read more

How to Deal With the ‘Neighbor From Hell’

By Melissa Dittmann Tracey

A messy neighbor can hamper your property–by as much as 20 percent off the market value, says Sid Davis, author of A Survival Guide to Selling a Home (AMACOM, 2005), who is also a real estate broker.

No one wants to live next to the neighbor with the overgrown yard, broken stair railings, littered yard, and completely neglected property.

So what should you do if you find that your property is living next to the “neighbor from hell?”

A recent Universal Press Syndicate article by Ellen James Martin provides tips from Davis on how to resolve the problem amicably.  Read more

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