Although, in Shakespeare’s words, “All the world’s a stage,” in the world of theater, a play is rather hard to enact without a stage. It’s been tried over the years, but traditional theatergoers prefer a conventional stage.

And so do homebuyers.

GREAT. Yet another blog on staging, you say. One more appeal to get sellers to pay money they don’t have to sell their home in a market that’s upside down like the Poseidon. Why bother? Haven’t we heard it all?

In the immortal words of Bullwinkle the Moose, “BUT WAIT! There’s more!”

The three pillars of a successful sale are: Preparation, Promotion and Price. Of the three legs, price is without question the most important of the three. Using the Pareto Principle, price actually accounts for 80% of a successful sale. Currently, discount pricing reigns supreme as REOs are flooding into the market like water through the cracked levees of New Orleans. How can a normal seller HOPE to float a normal sale against the incoming surge of lower priced homes?

Believe it or not, there are buyers out there who don’t want an REO.

They aren’t “handi” types. They don’t have the will or desire to “make the house their own.” They can’t “see the potential” and quite frankly, aren’t interested. And not everyone has the Martha Stewart gene for using a twisted fork as a curtain tieback. Many of these buyers are actually willing to pay more to buy a nice house that’s ready to move into.

Scratch most REOs off your list.

This is where an understanding of buyer psychology is critical. Sellers need to realize that

Continue reading this post

We launched a new “what if” feature to our instant home valuation tool earlier this evening. The new feature allows users to receive an instant home value estimate. Once the user gets their estimate they can play “what if” and hypothetically add an extra bedroom, bathroom and/or some extra square footage. After entering the “what if” data the user gets a new home value estimate.

HomeGain’s home valuation tool is part of our AgentView offering that features real estate agent profiles, blogs and listings in an advertising free environment. Continue reading this post

Popular tool becomes part of AgentView

It seems every other day a newspaper reporter or blogger takes note of Home Sale Maximizer.

After getting the value of his home on HomeGain.com, Max finds out which home improvements to make before his home goes on the market, and contacts the featured Realtor to ask questions about his market.

Home Sale Maximizer is an online home improvement tool home on a HomeGain survey of over 2,000 real estate agents.

Home Sale Maximizer helps consumers calculate which home improvements will increase the resale values of their homes.

Last night we integrated Home Sale Maximizer into our popular AgentView product that features Realtor listings, blogs, profiles and other real estate content in an advertising-free environment. Continue reading this post

Karen Breen Elia of RE/MAX Exclusive Properties in Chicago is the special guest in this month’s “Winning Agent Call” on HomeGain Radio, hosted by Peter McCullough. The topic is home staging.

In Karen’s opinion, home staging is on the rise. “The more successful agents are finding that home staging is the key to moving properties, especially for agents in the more competitive markets,” said Karen.

Listen to Karen Breen Elia’s advice to real estate agents on home staging:

On this call, Karen shares how she provides value to her clients, overcomes objections (like personal tastes), and why it’s important to get “commitment” from clients before she begins working with them. Continue reading this post

Part 2 – HomeGain’s Fall 2007 Home Sale Maximizer™ Survey

In part 1, I disclosed six of the top 10 most recommended home improvements (by real estate agents). Now here are the top four!

1. Clean and de-clutter
2. Lighten and brighten
3. Stage home for sale
4. Landscape front/back yards

In each of the four regions, West, East, South and Mid-West, all real estate agents agreed that cleaning and de-cluttering was the most valuable action in getting a home into “home selling condition.”

At a minimal cost of a couple hundred dollars, ROI of cleaning and de-cluttering your home may skyrocket into a high average of 578%. This is added home value in the range of $1,500-$2,000. The highest return on investment was in the West (837%).

Professional home staging came in second place in the South and Mid-West. On a national level, agents reported that home staging costs between $400 and $600 on average, potentially resulting in a $1,900 to $2,500 increase to the home’s selling price, and making the return on investment over 340%. Continue reading this post

Part 1 – HomeGain’s Fall 2007 Home Sale Maximizer™ Survey

What are Realtors® advising homeowners do when it comes time to sell their home?

Turns out it’s what every home seller wants to hear. First, it is not going to cost a lot to see a high ROI. Secondly, it’s not going to be extremely time consuming or challenging.

In HomeGain’s Fall 2007 Home Sale Maximizer™ Survey that included over 2,000 real estate agents across the U.S. the results were just that. The goal of the survey was to find out what real estate agents recommend to homeowners to get their home into home selling condition and maximize their return on investment (at a minimal cost).

By the way, Home Sale Maximizer is a free, online home improvement tool for home sellers. As a Realtor®, it’s a great tool to give to your clients to help them BEFORE the home sale process started.

I’m going to list the results for the top six to 10 most recommended do-it-yourself home improvements in this part 1 real estate blog post, and then reveal the top four in Part 2. Continue reading this post