Home Remodeling Tips to Sell Your Home Faster

In any market, one of the things I'm constantly asked is how best to improve the way a property looks to potential buyers. It's even more essential in this market when you must do anything and everything you can to sell your property at any price. So here are a few of the tips I consider with my clients to help make a property sell quicker and for more money:

1) PAINT -- Inside or outside, fresh paint is most important to me (and it must not be sloppy). Here's a link to A Primer on Exterior Painting. And here's a link to some suggestions on Interior Color Choices.

2) ODORS -- You may not think of this because you may have lived there long enough that you don't smell the odor. So must definitely get an outside opinion on this one. But I know from first-hand experience that it's extremely difficult to sell a house that people want to leave as fast as possible to get a breath of fresh air.

3) CURB APPEAL -- Anybody's whose watched HGTV has this one drilled into their brain. But what exactly does curb appeal mean. Here's a few tricks (summarized from a recent Realtor magazine article):

• Add Splashes of Color -- "It's best to use one or two colors and repeat them," according to Landscape designer Michael Glassman.


• Size Trees and Shrubs to Scale -- Don't block windows, doors and other architectural features of the home. And while you may love a dense canopy of trees, many buyers worry about maintenance.


• Maintain a Perfect Lawn -- Nobody wants to buy a home AND a project lawn.


• Light Up the Outside -- Have you ever noticed how almost every home looks better at night? A few well-placed lights (but not too bright) can work wonders.


• Let them Hear the Water -- A water feature really puts buyers in a relaxing mood when they're at the house, and more likely to want to come back -- permanently.


• Use Decorative Architectural Elements -- Examples include: new mailbox, planted window boxes, a low fence wraped in vines, a few well placed colors.

4) REDUCE CLUTTER -- Chances are if you're selling your house before you've moved out, you're going to have to alter your lifestyle. That is, if you want to sell quickly and for top dollar. This is because there are many things that almost everyone keeps in their home for everyday life that make a home less attractive to most buyers. This is going to mean removing personal photos, removing some of your favorite art, eliminating some furniture, even reducing what's in your clostes and more.

OK, those are my Top 4, but there's so many things you can do to so here's links to even more tips:

• HGTV's 10 Best-Kept Secrets for Selling Your Home


• 6 Affordable Staging Tips


• A Whole Bunch of Ideas from Other Realtors


• Design*Sponge Before and After


• Excellent Local Interior Designer #1


• Excellent Local Interior Designer #2

How to Sell a Luxury Home When Nobody's Buying

For the past six months, people wanting to sell luxury homes have had to realize a cold, hard fact: Nobody's buying.

While the real estate market at the bottom of the spectrum has seen increased sales activity, things have been different for luxury properties. This is for three primary reasons: 1) The decline in the market hit the most expensive properties in earnest beginning in late 2008, 2) The global financial market hit the wealthy hard, 3) Large loans have become extremely difficult to get.

Still, there are ways to increase your chances of selling even when no one's buying (like now). I'm going to group them as three "P"s. (It seems almost anything in life can be boiled down to three "P"s, huh?):

1) PRICE -- In this market "Price," may seem like the only "P" that matters. That's almost -- but not entirely -- true. If you are a seller justifying your price because you think your house is better than something on the market or better than some recent sale, then you are thinking wrongly about your price. With this frame of mind, you likely won't sell your home, or you'll sell for less than you could by pricing it more competitively. I'm sorry. That's just the reality of this market. However, if you happen to think your price is lower AND a better home, then you've got the right frame of mind.

2) PRESENTATION -- With luxury homes, you can't just be priced better, you have to look better, too. Think about it. If you've got a good amount of money, and you're going to buy a house in this market, you're not going to buy something that isn't ALREADY in good shape. Nobody wants fixers these days -- espcially the few-to-almost-zero luxury buyers out there.

3) PEOPLE -- OK, this is where the real challenge comes in. Getting your home -- instead of all the other luxury homes on the market -- in front of the most number of potential buyers. There are very good ways to do this, but many luxury agents don't do them. I'm talking more than just advertising in the same old places. Also, with so few people actual buyers out there for luxury homes, you also must consider getting your home in front of people who don't even know they're buyers right now but have the means to buy. This is extremely important, and dare I say, a specialty of mine.

Christopher & TerraFirmaLA featured in LA Times

Chip Jacobs' excellent story in today's Los Angeles Times about the current real estate market featured quotes from myself as well as a recommendation for this blog.

Welcome to all the new readers!

Here at TerraFirmaLA, we try to bring an unbiased and analytic approach to the Los Angeles real estate market. We do a lot of research with the intention of putting our clients -- whether buyers or sellers -- ahead of the competition when it comes to finding the right property, or selling for the most money. TerraFirmaLA is a way to share some of that research and insight.

I felt the LA Times story gave a very accurate account of some of the dynamics buyers and sellers are encountering in the current real estate market. Basically, no one is happy. Many buyers in the nicer areas of LA aren't getting the crazy good deals they had hoped for. It's something we've been chronicling here at TerraFirmaLA for quite some time.

My only issue with the story was very minor. One of my quotes was erroneously attributed to Burt Slusher. Here's the passage, which ends up with the quote that should have been attributed to me (I have corrected it here):

• In classic economics, buyers should have a decided advantage in neighborhoods in which supply dwarfs demand. Where there's typically a six-month inventory of houses for sale in coveted Beverly Hills, Pacific Palisades and West Hollywood, for instance, there's a year to two years' worth today, agent Christopher Hain said.


• Hain has a theory about why all that supply hasn't translated into blocks full of delirious new homeowners. He calls it the "sucker syndrome," in which buyers are nervous about overbidding when nobody truly knows whether Southland home values have reached their bottom.
  Said Hain, "Nobody wants to be the sucker who paid too much, so they combat that fear by offering unrealistically low amounts. But if you're trying to time the bottom, you're going to end up with junk. It's always the best houses and cheapest houses that sell first."

New List of Top 10 Real Estate Deals in Los Angeles

Once again, I've updated my list of the Top 10 Best Real Estate Deal in Los Angeles.

Several homes sold from our last list, including the $31.5 million Beverly Park residence that was a steal at that price, the second Sherman Oaks fixer we've featured in a row, a beautiful home in Cheviot Hills, the two downtown condos we featured, and a Marina Del Rey condo.

The prizes this month are:

1. The Best Venice Canal Deal ... Ever

2. Our Third Sherman Oaks Fixer Deal

3. The New Best Deal in Beverly Hills

To check out the entire list of the Top Ten Real Estate Deals in Los Angeles, CLICK HERE