It seems to me, anyone seeing those photos on-line is not going to be in a rush to purchase those homes.

Since more than 80% of home buyers are searching on-line before going out to look at homes, the photos your real estate agent posts on the MLS are of the highest importance in driving home buyer traffic to see your home.

Did you know that Moving Mountains Design provides big, beautiful, professional-quality photos of the homes we stage, for use in marketing the home on the MLS and print marketing? You can check out our photos in our home staging portfolio or in many of our blog posts. Whether your home requires vacant home staging or occupied home staging, when we stage a home, or provide a home staging consultation, we work doubly hard with  home owners to ensure that their home appears at its best, both online and in person. We want your home to sell faster and at the highest price!

Would you like to get an estimate for staging your home? Just click here: How much does home staging cost?

"Handyman Special"

Today’s Los Angeles Times had an article written by Kenneth R. Harney titled First-time Home Buyers Turn Fussy:

Picky, picky, picky. Are today’s first-time home buyers passing up great deals because they insist on flawless “move-in ready” houses requiring little or no changes — even at the starter-home price levels at which shoppers traditionally have been willing to factor future fix-ups and renovations into their offers?

Or are they simply reflecting market realities? They see record inventories of houses sitting unsold, they have plenty to choose from, and they may not have the money, time or inclination to do fix-ups after making the purchase.

According to the article, a Coldwell Banker survey of 300 first-time home buyers, “87% said finding a move-in ready house is important”. 87%! That’s a significant number of potential buyers.

I often tell my home staging clients “When you put your home on the market, you are entering it in a beauty contest. The best looking homes, in the best condition sell faster and usually for a higher price.” Home buyers today are more sophisticated about what to expect in homes on the market, in part thanks to shows on HGTV and other lifestyle cable channels. They’re more selective. The market is full of homes at all price points. They have lots to choose from.

In addition, home buyers don’t want an “allowance” to make repairs. They will look at the adjusted lower price as the starting point for negotiating a price that reflects the condition of the home. Are you pricing your home $5,000 lower to make up for the fact that the roof needs to be replaced. They’ll take that $5,000 and offer another $5,000 less. Most home buyers are scraping together every penny, to meet the new down-payment rules. They don’t have the money to do repairs or  the inclination to buy a home that needs repairs or is not in top condition. Why should they – they’ve got plenty to choose from.

Smart home sellers are making needed repairs, painting, replacing worn carpet and updating what needs updating to make their homes competitive. An experienced home stager can perform a comprehensive home staging consultation and create a list of what needs to be done to get your home in top selling condition. In addition, if you have any structural, mechanical  or maintenance issues you should consider hiring a professional building inspector for a pre-listing inspection. That way you are less likely to have the sale of your home torpedoed when the buyers building inspector finds something you should have fixed but didn’t.

Michelle Mills, the reporter I spoke to writes:

Minch understands how real estate marketing works and how home shoppers think. With that in mind, she counsels her home-selling clients to identify changes that can make a house more appealing to a home buyer, and how to get those changes done in a cost effective manner.

Click here for a PDF to learn more about hiring an expert home stager to market a picture perfect home page one and page 2.

Just click on the article to be taken to a PDF of the article.