Clearwater Real Estate Blog

Though staging is status quo in places like the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, and Los Angeles, it’s a relatively new phenomenon most everywhere else. To get the scoop on the increasingly popular practice, we spoke with Barb Schwarz, an interior designer and real estate broker who developed the staging concept more than 30 years ago and who now serves as president of the International Association of Home Staging Professionals.

What is "staging," exactly?
Staging is anything you do to prepare your home for sale and to make it more attractive to a buyer’s eye. Staging helps present a home in its best possible light, and includes cleaning, de-cluttering, adding color and arranging furnishings. It’s a little bit of theater–your property is the "set" and furniture and accessories are "props." It’s different from decorating, which is personalizing a space. Staging is about neutralizing a home so that it will appeal to the greatest number of potential buyers. It’s selling your space, not your things. Buyers need to be able to "mentally move in"–to picture themselves living in your home–before they’ll make an offer. We always tell people that the way they live in their home and the way they sell it are two different things. Think of it this way: You wouldn’t sell your car without having it detailed first. Staging is the same idea–it’s detailing for your house.

How common is staging?
In certain markets in cities like San Francisco and Seattle, nearly every home is staged. Staging is also taking off in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta, Nashville, Houston, Dallas, and Chicago. Nationally, only about one in five properties on the market is staged, though that number is rising as the concept spreads.

How much does staging cost?
It varies, depending on where you live and the scope of the staging. A consultation with a professional stager, who’ll tour your home and then give you a punch list of things to do before putting it on the market, runs a few hundred dollars. Hands-on staging services can cost anywhere from $1,000 for a small condo where they’re mostly using items you already own to $10,000 or more for a high-end home in an expensive market where they’re bringing in all-new furnishings. But the average cost for home staging in most markets is about $1,500 to $3,000.

How does staging work?
I’ve staged over 5,000 homes, and I’ve never seen sellers not recoup their investment. In fact, we did a survey recently and found that staged listings sold up to seven times faster (in six days compared to 45, on average) and for 17 to 25 percent more than comparable unstaged properties–and I’ve seen a few staged homes go for 50 percent more. Even in slow markets, staged homes sell while others sit. It’s a small investment with a potentially huge return.

Barb Schwarz for HGTV

Points to consider when buying a house

Here are some basic things to know when looking to buy a house:

The cost. Before you start looking for a house, go to a lender and find out how much money you can borrow and get pre-qualified. That will narrow your search to houses that you can afford.

The down payment. A 20-percent down payment is ideal because it allows you to avoid costly private mortgage insurance. If you can't afford such a large down payment, consider taking out a second mortgage that will effectively bring the down payment up to 20 percent. Such arrangements are often called 10-10-80 loans, which means a 10 percent down payment, a 10-percent second mortgage and an 80-percent first mortgage.

The closing costs. Once you decide on a house and a lender, make sure to get an estimate of the closing costs. If they seem high, get an estimate from another lender and compare the two. If the seller is willing to pay points for you, you can lower your interest rate.

The upkeep. Owning a house can be a lot of fun if you are a fix-up kind of person and love to design rooms and have a lot of free time. On the other hand, if your life is just one big rush, you will probably end up paying a bundle for repairs and upkeep. It's a good idea to set up a fund for such emergencies as soon as you can after you move in.

The house's value. Choose the right neighborhood and school district and your house will probably rise in value year after year. Choose the wrong neighborhood or state or time and the value of your house may plummet. In other words, economic forces beyond your control generally determine what happens to housing prices. So when you shop for a house look for something you like and can afford in an area that appeals to you and your children. Read the business section of local newspapers to keep up with local economic trends.

Economic problems. Once you own a house, make sure you pay the mortgage on time each month. This seems like simple common sense but tens of thousands of households fail to do so and go on to ruin their credit record or lose their house. When looking for a house, if you have doubts about being able to afford it, don't buy. Put off the decision until you are on firmer financial footing. And remember, there is nothing wrong with renting. It can be a good choice for those who move around a lot, can't afford to buy a house, don't want to fool with repairs or lawns or prefer living in an apartment in an urban area.

Economic rewards. If all goes well, a house can bring great economic rewards. You may find over time that your equity has grown so large that you can use it to pay for your child's college tuition. Or you may be able to sell the house and use the equity to buy a much better house. Or — well, the list is endless. In fact, a house accounts for the largest portion of wealth in most households.

FROM HGTV

Greater Tampa Bay Real Estate Blog - Posted by Steel Green (guest writer) on October 1st, 2007

As a first time home buyer this has got to be a frightening yet giddy time in your life. Frightening at first look, because of all the bad coverage in the media about the Real Estate bubbleMoody-Ratings-Fiasco Sep-07 burst or the doom and gloom from the mortgage mayhem. True it has cased the industry to tighten up lending practices and that just means you as a first time home buyer have to do your home work. This is where having a trusted advisor like a Real Estate Professional guide you through the process. Ok now for the giddy part. It is a Buyers market. You might be thinking, well if I wait another month or two the prices will go down even farther and I will get the better deal. Well that really depends on the house you want.

If you are looking for a New Home in Tampa, Builders are bending over backwards to alleviate the excess houses and trim their inventory. However, these deals will not last for ever and as we get into the Holiday seasons these New Home deals will slow to a trickle. As with the existing Greater Tampa home market you will also find many home owners frustrated at the time their homes have been on the market. They will do one of two things. Lower the price one more time in an effort to sell before the Holidays or they will take the home off the Market entirely.

So now is the time for a First Time Home Buyer to purchase a New Home in Tampa. October and the first part of November will also prove to be your best bets for existing home deals in the Greater Tampa Florida Bay Area.

Forbes.com: Housing Trends
Best Places For Real Estate Deals
Matt Woolsey, 10.08.07, 12:01 AM ET

Home sales have sunk to their lowest levels since 2001. Investors are jumping ship, foreclosures are mounting and lenders are exercising caution.

Still, there are areas of the county where it makes sense for some to buy. That's because, in a market slump, sellers eager to unload their homes often accept less money from buyers. New construction also slows. Both bode well for those hoping to score a deal--if the market in which they are buying is expected to experience increased sales.

To find such places, we paired with Moody's Economy.com to research current home sales patterns and sales projections in the country's 40 biggest real estate markets. Based on models that estimated 2008 housing inventory, sales rates and turnover, we arrived at a list of markets that are experiencing price stalls or declines, but where over the coming year are expected to provide deals for buyers.

In Pictures: Best Places For Real Estate Deals

A buyers' market in the purest sense is one where there are far more sellers than buyers, creating a supply and demand dynamic that benefits those looking to invest in a home. However, by that definition, a floundering market like Detroit is a good buyers' market because prices are dropping and inventory is high.

"A market with declining prices and few sales is a strong buyers' market," says Anthony Sanders, professor of real estate finance at Arizona State University. "But it is also a risky market given that prices could decline further."

With that in mind, we required the slumping or neutral markets on our list to have expected volume and turnover increases, based on sales and inventory models run by Moody's Economy.com.

The results turn out three types of markets and three types of deals.

Attractive Arrangements
The first are undervalued, affordable markets like Fort Worth, Texas, which haven't felt huge, post-boom price corrections, but where there is an expected acceleration in sales volume, making now the time to buy.

Second are markets like Long Island, N.Y., and Washington D.C. These are traditionally strong areas that are recovering from speculation, especially in the D.C. condo market and by Long Island's second-home buyers. Once these areas stabilize, the market as a whole should return to health.

"Long Island is continuing to slip, but a modest amount," says Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel, a New York-based real estate appraisal and consultancy firm. "In [Long Island] the upper-end market was the market of choice for speculation and tear downs."

Third are riskier markets such as Las Vegas or Orlando, Fla., which are experiencing lending and inventory problems but relative to regional markets--in Las Vegas' case, Los Angeles and in Orlando's case Tampa and Miami--are expecting to see significant pickups in sales activity, according to Moody's, and therefore become better buyers' markets because of a relatively lower risk.

But economists caution that while over the next year the dust may settle in these 10 spots, buyers should be prepared for future swings. This is especially true in the case of riskier markets like Orlando and Las Vegas, where the expected increase in sales volume and housing turnover doesn't necessarily mean that the price trough is imminent.

"Housing market activity revives when house prices decline sufficiently to restore housing affordability and entice buyers to step up and make a purchase," says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. "Some markets are already approaching those price points, in many others prices will have to decline much more to get to that point."