PHOTOS MAKE OR BREAK LAS VEGAS HOME LISTING SUCCESSES
Your Las Vegas home listing is hands-down, the most likely place prospective buyers will get their first glimpse of the home you are selling. Most serious prospects will go online as an early step in the process of winnowing candidate properties by area, asking price, number of bedrooms, etc.—so the photos in your home listing will be your offering’s face to the world. You probably already know that—and that not all pictures are created equal. What’s important to realize is that some home listing photos scare away buyers! Whether you are preparing for a professional photographer’s shooting day or just helping your REALTOR® choose the shots that will be included in your area home listing, here are some red flag/don’t go there/bad idea/just-say-no off-kilter ideas for real estate photos. If you steer clear of these approaches, you home listing will benefit: Adorable Pets in the Shot Resist the temptation to make your home more appealing and homier by include the cuddliest member of the family—your pet. “But,” (your may be thinking) “half the commercials on TV have a dog or a cat in them! Apparently, animals sell!” Madison Avenue might be able to use four-legged actors to promote some products, but the sight of Fluffy or Fido in a home listing will turn off most buyers. Although no one can smell your pet through an online photo (at least not yet), many people can imagine what smells might be associated with that pooch or feline. “One of the biggest reasons people will or won’t buy a house is odor,” says Don Aslett on the MSN Real Estate website—and few REALTORs would argue the point. So be on the safe side—leave pets on the cutting room floor. Odd Camera Angles It can be tempting to shoot photos from a low angle, pointing the camera toward the ceiling. An idea might be to make rooms look as if they have higher ceilings—or to fit everything into the shot—and sometimes the result does look fine. But equally likely is a photo that ends up looking, well, odd. Off-balance shots can make viewers feel uncomfortable as if something’s just not right. You want your photos to look as realistic as possible, as if it’s what everybody sees on a home tour. IOW, if a photo is in any way jarring, opt for one taken from a normal point of view. Focus Misdirection Most Las Vegas home listings show everything in acceptably sharp focus: in photographer jargon, they exhibit wide Depth-of-Field. But where lighting or lens dictate shallow depth, only part of the shot will be in sharp focus…and that’s an area that will attract the viewer’s eye. Use this to your advantage. For instance, it’s good to show pictures of the master bathroom—especially if it resembles a spa retreat—but it’s bad to focus on the commode instead of the Carrera marble vanity. Putting together a killer Las Vegas home listing is an important part of a comprehensive service my clients receive. Give me a call if you are preparing to list your Las Vegas home!
FOR BUYERS AND SELLERS A BACKGROUNDER ON LAS VEGAS COMPARABLES
Establishing the asking price for a Las Vegas home may not quite qualify as science fiction, but it can be a bit of an adventure in time and space—at least when it comes to establishing the Las Vegas comparables. The logic behind valuing a property by looking at recent Las Vegascomparable sales—the Las Vegas “comps”—is immediately clear. You don’t have to study economics to realize that the value of something (including a Las Vegas house or condo) will ultimately be the amount that someone is actually willing to shell out for it. So recent sales of comparable Las Vegas homes should be the best benchmark. But like so many things that are wonderfully simple in theory, when it comes to establishing Las Vegas comparables for the purpose of setting a fair asking price or mortgage amount, practical matters can complicate things. So for anyone looking to buy or sell a Las Vegas home, demystifying the factors that come into play as appraisers and bank loan officers identify valid comparables is good background information. Among the most important factors are size of the dwelling and (this never gets old) location, location, location! So comparables are same-size homes or condos that have sold recently, close by. What could be simpler, right? Not so fast—it’s much more of an adventure. First, the space part. The fact is, there are different ways to look at the size of the property. Square feet may be a number you can measure, which might be total square feet…but there is also taxable living area, which could be more important. The difference is that anything below grade (for instance, a half-finished basement or tricked-out man cave garage) may not be counted—or may be partially counted (an “adjustment”). For condos, one of those half-height storage areas may be another “adjustment,” as could be a balcony or parking space—valuable to some buyers, but not part of the “taxable living area.” There’s another aspect to the space part of the adventure. Even within a single neighborhood, some streets have homes that are more upscale (and pricey) than others. Or there can be nearly rural parts of a suburban (or even an urban) community—so using the distance from one point to another may not be an accurate way to determine if nearby neighborhood comparables are really, well, comparable. In other words, although within a short distance, to be truly comparable a nearby sale could call for yet another ‘adjustment.’ Furthermore, even though one dwelling might be only a block away from another, they might fall into different school districts. Even if you don’t have kids, school quality can be an important factor for prospective buyers…and another adjustment… Then there’s the time part of the adventure, which comes when we try to figure out what qualifies as a ‘recent’ comp. Within 90 days definitely qualifies as an ideal. But what if there aren’t enough of those? Some lenders will go back 6-12 months—a warping of the time-space continuum (and where would science fiction writers be without those?) If you are buying or selling anytime soon, the Las Vegas comparables will come into play. Call me to explore what they look like in your own immediate real estate future!
GOING THE EXTRA MILE 3 STAGING TIPS FOR LAS VEGAS HOMEOWNERS
A recent Zillow survey again confirmed that extensive renovations are usually not the shortest path to a sale. Across the board, experts agree: it is still curb appeal and home staging—staging that highlight’s a home’s best features while downplaying its flaws—that often prove most effective. So, after your Las Vegas house smells like fresh-baked cookies and your walls have been freed from family photos and a roaring fire has made the living room warm and inviting…what if those basic staging moves still haven’t produced the offers you know your home deserves? Las Vegas staging pros have a lot more tricks up their sleeves. Here are three: 1. Hide Your Demographic Maybe you’re a parent of four, so your house is full of kids’ bedrooms, toys and playrooms. Perhaps you’re selling a home or bachelor pad with minimal decor and lots of high-tech devices. Maybe you’re putting that empty nest on the market after living in it for decades. The fact is; Las Vegas staging veterans work from the premise that potential buyers shouldn’t be able to walk into a house and be able to tell how old you are and who lives there. That does make sense since the goal is to cast a wide net—to make the broadest possible group feel as if the place is a perfect fit for them. Broaden your home’s appeal by eliminating those items that are specific to your demographic. You want potential buyers to see the home as theirs, not as one designed for a large family, a single guy or a pair of empty-nesters! 2. Revamp a Boring Space Potential buyers go through a mental checklist when they evaluate a house. Functional kitchen? Check. Comfortable living space? Got it. Inviting bedrooms? Sure—but lots of other Las Vegas homes may pass the same test. Surprise your potential buyers by transforming an ordinary space into something unexpected. For example, a spare bedroom could be just a duplicate: welcome, perhaps—but indistinguishable from all the other Las Vegashomes’ third or fourth bedrooms. What if you transform it into a cozy reading nook with bookshelves and a comfortable window seat? Or create a craft room centered on a large work table, corkboard wall and shelves? Or appeal to every woman’s fantasy (okay; probably a lot of men’s, too) by creating a spacious walk-in closet with hanging racks, shelving, a full-length mirror and vanity? Smart staging can transform an ordinary space into something extraordinary…and your Las Vegas home into the one with the ‘sold’ sign out front. 3. Appeal to the Type-A Organizer A perfectly organized house may exist only in our imagination, but a well-staged home comes close! Now—how about staging your home to give potential buyers the tools to stay organized? Extra shelving units and organizational features in cabinets and pantry make a well-organized kitchen easy to maintain. A modest investment in custom closet organizers will instantly upgrade ordinary closets. Bike storage, heavy-duty shelves, a workbench—even just a couple of wall-mounted pegboard tool organizers—can keep the garage neat as a pin. Maximize the functionality of your home by demonstrating how easy it will be to stay organized in it! Home staging the extra mile can mean tending to small things that make a difference. Then (one of the larger things) will be to team with an experienced real estate professional—and that’s as simple as giving me a call!
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