THE BLOG

31
Mar

March 2015 Newsletter by Jeanne Kayne

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Welcome to the most current Housing Trends eNewsletter. This eNewsletter is specially designed for you, with national and local housing information that you may find useful whether you’re in the market for a home, thinking about selling your home, or just interested in homeowner issues in general.Please click on this link to view the Housing Trends March 2015 Newsletter http://jeannekayne-northcountycoastalsandiego.housingtrendsenewsletter.comThe Housing Trends eNewsletter contains the latest information from the National Association of REALTORS®, the U.S. Census Bureau, Realtor.org reports and other sources.

Housing Trends eNewsletter is filled with local and national real estate sales and price activity provided by MLSs and the National Association of Realtors, U.S. Census Bureau key market indicators, consumer videos, blogs, real estate glossary, mortgage rates and calculators, consumer articles, and REALTOR.com local community reports.

If you are interested in determining the value of your home, click the “Home Evaluator” link for a free evaluation report:

http://jeannekayne-northcountycoastalsandiego.housingtrendsenewsletter.com/dispContent.cfm?loadid=2&loadtype=0

Sound decisions can only be made with accurate and reliable information, and I am happy to be a trusted resource for you. Thank you for the opportunity to provide you with this monthly eNewsletter, and I look forward to answering any questions you may have and to the opportunity to be your REALTOR® in the future.

Sincerely yours,

Jeanne Kayne
Coastal Premier Properties
12625 High Bluff Drive, Suite 102 San Diego CA 92130 858-755-4663 | 858-356-2351 Jeanne@jeannekayne.com

10
Mar

The Most Important Rooms to Stage!

By Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR® Magazine

If you’re prepping a home for sale, what are the main areas of a home you should target with your staging – especially if you can’t stage every square inch? The National Association of REALTORS®’ 2015 Profile of Home Staging ranks the most important rooms to be staged, based on a survey of real estate buyer agent’s. Here’s how a home’s spaces stacked up:

1. Living room

2. Kitchen

3. Master bedroom

4. Dining room

5. Bathroom

6. Children’s bedroom

7. Guest bedroom

Overall, the survey found that staging can influence buyers’ perceptions of a home and even the home’s perceived value. Indeed, 32 percent of buyer agent’s say that their clients tend to be more willing to increase their offer by 1 percent to 5 percent of the dollar value; 16 percent say they believe a staged home could potentially raise their buyers’ offer by 6 percent to 10 percent.

The following chart shows just how staging can influence buyers’ perceptions of a home.

 

impact of staging

Yet, not every seller opts to stage, nor do the listing agents always recommend it. Forty-four percent of listing agents surveyed said they do not recommend staging but instead suggest that the seller declutters and fixes any property flaws; 13 percent say they only recommend staging for “difficult” homes to sell; and 4 percent say they only reserve staging for their high-price bracket listings. On the other hand, 34 percent of listing agents surveyed say they recommend staging for all the homes they list.

For those who do stage, the median dollar value spent on home staging per home was $675.

But who pays that amount varies. Sixty-two percent of REALTORS® surveyed say that the seller’s agent offers the home staging service to sellers and pays for it; 39 percent say the sellers pay for staging prior to listing the home; 10 percent say the seller pays for the staging after the home is sold; and only 3 percent say the agent’s firm pays for a home staging service.

10
Mar

Why You Should Pay Attention to the Home’s Furniture Layout

By Charlene Storozuk, guest contributor

One thing that occasionally gets overlooked when preparing a home for sale is furniture layout. I’ve been in many homes where I’ve felt that something wasn’t quite right about a certain room as soon as I entered it. Not anything obvious, but more of an indescribable sense of confusion for lack of a better word.

If you’re planning on selling your home, here are some questions you should ask yourself about your current furniture layout:

• Does the room look off balance?

• Is the flow of the room disrupted?

• Does the layout impede pathways?

• Is the focal point of the room concealed?

• Does the room feel “boxed in” rather than open?

• Is there too much furniture in the room?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you might want to take a look at your furniture placement. This is where a professional home stager can help you.

At a recent staging consultation that I carried out, there were some issues with furniture placement. The space in question was an open concept living room/dining room/kitchen. If you take a look at this BEFORE photo, you’ll see that some changes were needed.

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Now let’s ask the questions about this space:

Question #1: “Does the room look off balance?” Although you can’t see it from this photo, the dining area was directly behind the sofa. This area was comprised of a small round table and four chairs along with a small dining hutch. The living area was weighted down in comparison with too many pieces of heavy furniture, which made the overall space look off balance.

Question #2: “Is the flow of the room disrupted?” The large sofa split the space between the living and dining areas in half, making the room look smaller and broken up.

Question #3: “Does the layout impede pathways?” The pathway to get from the dining area to the kitchen was tight due to the length of the sofa. As well, the pathway between the sofa and loveseat to reach the seating area was cramped.

Question #4: “Is the focal point of the room concealed?” Absolutely. In this case, the focal point of the room was the fireplace. With the current furniture configuration and the large TV, the fireplace did not take main stage.

Question #5: “Does the room feel ‘boxed in’ rather than open?” Yes, you can see this from the BEFORE photo.

Question #6: “Is there too much furniture in the room?” Yes, from a staging point of view there was too much furniture in the space. While living in a house and not considering selling, you’re obviously going to arrange your space to suit your needs as was the case here. Due to the amount of entertaining the home owners did, they required more seating. However, now that they were going to sell, they needed to make some changes.

So here’s what we did…

We removed the sofa, moved the loveseat over to where the sofa previously was, and brought in a chair that was being used upstairs in the master bedroom suite. Fortunately, this chair matched the loveseat so we were in luck. While we were at it, we removed the TV for good measure in order to also help open up the space and make the fireplace the main attraction.

Once the TV was gone, we brought in a glass console table that was previously in the basement to help ground that area, yet not detract from the fireplace.

Now take a look at the AFTER photo …

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In the AFTER photo you’ll see how the space is more open, there’s flow, and the fireplace now takes its place of prominence as it should. This photo was taken before any styling took place. You can see how different the space looks already and that’s without any decorative accessories, an area rug or small glass tables.

The way your furniture is arranged while you are living in your home should be configured to suit your needs and to work with your intended purpose for the room. However, remember that if you’re going to sell anytime soon, you should always ask yourself some important questions about furniture placement.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Charlene Storozuk is the owner of DEZIGNER DIGZ, a professional home staging, interior decorating and redesign firm based in Burlington, Ontario Canada. She is certified as an International Staging Professional, International Design & Decorating Professional, Professional Colour Consultant, and Feng Shui Design Professional. Her work is published in the book “FabJob Guide to Become a Home Stager,” 2009 edition. Storozuk is recognized as a local leader in the home staging industry. She founded the Halton & Hamilton-Wentworth Real Estate Staging Association Chapter and served on the association’s Executive Committee for two years as Regional Vice-President, Canada. Storozuk is a past recipient of RESA North American Leadership Awards for Chapter President of the Year (2007) and Regional Vice-President of the Year (2011). For ideas on how to bring “WOW” Factor to your home, follow her HIP TIPZ Series for daily home staging, design and decor inspiration. HIP TIPZ can be found on the Dezigner Digz Facebook Fan Page and on Twitter: @dezigner_digz .