Home Staging: The Key to Moving Properties

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.

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Posted by Jessica Gopalakrishnan on Jun 10, 2008 under Home Improvement, HomeGain Radio

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On The Home Seller’s Radar: Home Staging

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’s 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%. read more

Posted by Jessica Gopalakrishnan on Dec 26, 2007 under HomeGain Market Data, Home Improvement

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On The Home Seller’s Radar: Kitchen and Bathrooms

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 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 get the home sale process started.

I’m going to list the results for the top six to 10 most recommended home improvements here in Part 1, and then reveal the top four in Part 2. read more

Posted by Jessica Gopalakrishnan on Dec 21, 2007 under HomeGain Market Data, Home Improvement

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