This week we met with Realtor® survey respondents, home stagers, staging bloggers and members of the press to discuss the results of the HomeGain 2009 Top 12 Home Improvements Survey on HomeGain Radio.

If you didn’t have a chance to attend, listen to it here:

Participant Comments Included:

Stephanie Decker, Staged Homes Marin: “The timing of the results coming out was amazing because I had an office presentation that day and it was very useful information for me to include. It gave me more substance to what I was trying to say and what I am trying to do to help the Realtors. I really appreciate it.”

Lise Desormeaux, RMR Real Estate Marketing: “More people are becoming aware of what needs to be done to market a property these days. I agree with the survey findings that HomeGain has compiled. I’m appreciative as a home stager for this information.”

Gina Vierra, StagedHomes: “When was the data compiled? Where can I find the data?” (answers: October 2009; blog.homegain.com)

News coverage of the October Home Improvement  includes: Continue reading this post

HomeGain.com recently conducted its third nationwide home improvement and home staging Home Sale Maximizer™ survey (previously conducted in 2003 and 2007) to reveal the top 12 low cost*, do-it-yourself (DIY) home improvements for people getting their home ready to sell.

Nearly 1,000 REALTORS® responded to the survey. (See complete survey results)

Referring to the charts below, the top home improvement per region by return on investment (ROI) is:

• Home Staging (West and South)
• Clean and Declutter (East and Mid-West)

Lightening and Brightening is the 2nd most popular home improvement project in all regions that Realtors recommend to home sellers, except for in the Mid-West, where Landscaping takes 2nd place.

By price increase, the top home improvements are:

• West: Updating Kitchen and Home Staging (Tie for $2,500 each average home price increase)
• East: Updating Kitchen (average of $3,500 price increase) followed by Painting Interior Walls and Painting Outside of Home (Tie for $2,500 each in average price increase)
• South and Mid-West: Updating the Kitchen (average of $2,500 price increase)

The top most recommended home improvement Realtors advise their seller clients are:

• West and East: Clean and Declutter (98%)
• South: Clean and Declutter, Lighten and Brighten, Replace or Shampoo Carpets (all tie with 98% recommendations)
• Mid-West: Paint Interior Walls and Replace or Shampoo Carpets (both tie with 99% recommendations)

Complete Regional results are as follows:

Continue reading this post

HomeGain.com recently conducted its third nationwide home improvement and home staging Home Sale Maximizer™ survey (previously conducted in 2003 and 2007) to reveal the top 12 low cost*, do-it-yourself (DIY) home improvements for people getting their home ready to sell.  Nearly 1,000 REALTORS® responded to the survey. (See complete survey results)

Thousands of REALTORS and Home Stagers use "Home Sale Maximizer" to advise their home seller clients.

Home Staging is reported to be the 2nd most valuable home improvement project to a seller when it comes to selling a home by return on investment (ROI), according to surveyed Realtors.

Home Staging is also the 3rd highest price increase to a home’s resale value ($300 cost / $1,780 price increase to a home’s selling price, which is a 586% ROI)

82% of Realtors nationwide recommend home sellers do DIY home staging.

Staging has rose on the list of priorities over the years. In 2007 survey results, Lightening and Brightening had the second highest ROI followed by Home Staging. Two years later, Home Staging overtakes Lightening and Brightening.

How many Realtors recommend professional home staging the majority of the time? Continue reading this post

Continue reading this post

 Earlier this week, HomeGain, the first website to provide free instant home values, released the national and regional results of our  home prices survey of 1,084 HomeGain members. We asked their opinions on the direction of home values and of  Obama’s performance as President. On this real estate blog we published the complete national and regional third quarter results. 

Earlier this week we published the results of the California home prices, Texas home prices , Florida home prices surveys. Later in the week, we published the Massachusettes home prices survey data, the  New York home prices survey data, the New Jersey home prices survey data, the North Carolina home prices survey, the Illinois home prices survey the Georgia home prices survey data, the Colorado home prices survey data, the Virginia home prices survey and the Arizona home prices survey.

Today we are releasing  the Pennsylvania home prices survey.

Pennsylvania home owners, like their counterparts nationally, think their homes are worth more than their Realtors’ recommended listing price. Forty-two percent of Pennsylvania home owners think their homes should be priced 10-20% higher than their Realtors recommend vs. 38% nationally (see question 2).

Pennsylvania home buyers believe homes are over priced with only 4% believing that prices are fairly valued vs. 20% nationwide. Thirty-eight percent of Pennsylvania home buyers believe homes are priced 10-20 more than they should vs. 30% of home buyers nationally. (see question 3) 

Pennsylvania Realtors are not optimistic about the direction of home prices with 42% believing they will decrease in the next six months, vs 31% who so believe nationally (see question 6).

Realtors in the Keystone state gave President a low approval rating: 37% vs. 42% nationally. Just 8% of Pennsylvania Realtors “strongly approve” of President Obama’s performance vs. 20% nationally, while 46% of  Pennsylvania Realtors “strongly disapprove” of Obama’s performance vs. 40% nationally (see question 9).

Continue reading this post

Earlier this week, HomeGain, the first website to provide free instant home values, released the national and regional results of our  home prices survey of 1,084 HomeGain members. We asked their opinions on home values and of  Obama’s performance as President. On this real estate blog we published the complete national and regional third quarter results.

Earlier this week we published the results of the California home prices, Texas home prices , Florida home prices surveys. Yesterday  we published the Massachusettes home prices survey data, the  New York home prices survey data, the New Jersey home prices survey data, the North Carolina home prices survey, the Illinois home prices survey the Georgia home prices survey data, the Colorado home prices survey data and the Virginia home prices survey.

Today we release the results of the Arizona home prices survey.

Arizona is one of the states that has experieced the greatest depreciation in home prices in recent years. The values of Phoenix homes for sale have fallen fifty percent since 2006. Three months ago according to our 2nd quarter Arizona home prices survey, 24% of Arizona Realtors expected home prices to rise in the next six months vs. just 11% of Realtors who expected an increase in home values in the first quarter survey. Twenty-eight percent of Arizona Realtors surveyed now expect home prices to rise in the next six months and 47% expect prices to remain the same (see question 6).

An increasing percentage of Arizona home buyers believe that homes are fairly priced with 39% believing that homes are fairly priced vs. 23% who so believed in the second quarter. Only 6% of Arizona home buyers believe that homes are 10-20% overpriced, vs. 32% who so believed in the second quarter  (see question 3).

While Arizona home buyers think home prices are becoming more reasonable, Arizona home sellers believe their homes should be priced higher than their Realtors’ recommended listing price. Fifty percent of Arizona home sellers believe that their homes should be priced 10-20% higher than their Realtors’ recommended listing price vs. 35% who so believed in the second quarter (see question 2).

Sixty-four percent of Arizona Realtors surveyed disapprove of  Obama’s performance as President with 58%  “strongly disapproving”. In the national survey 58% of Realtors disapproved of Obama’s performance. In the second quarter, 58% of Arizona Realtors somewhat approved or strongly approved of Obama’s performance as President vs. 57% of their national counterparts.

Set forth below is the first, second, and third quarter  Arizona home values data with the national data in parenthesis: Arizona/National Continue reading this post