Do You Need An Experienced Stager When Selling Your Home In Spokane?

In case you are selling your current home in Spokane you have probably heard about home staging. Many individuals selling their house have employed a home stager previously and received good success. It is pretty pricey; but if done correctly you can make your money back with a profit.

Finding a Spokane home stager In order to locate an excellent home stager in Spokane you should know precisely what you are looking for. Home staging is a very difficult activity. You need to find a person with a lot of experience and know-how. He or she should have a portfolio of other jobs they have performed. Somebody who is just getting started could seem desirable because they will usually charge a cheaper price, nevertheless, you will almost certainly have superior results by using a more knowledgeable person.

What does home staging accomplish?

Having your home staged will increase its attractiveness to many likely Spokane homebuyers since they will find it more inviting and homey. Also, it could boost the actual selling property value of your house and in some cases actually bring in additional money as compared to you had initially projected for when listing your property.

What home stagers accomplish

A home stager will come into your home and set up a good looking living space which buyers can bond with. Fresh paint is generally applied and the furnishings are arranged to flow with the layout and colors of the house. Whenever you are selling your Spokane home you should definitely give some thought to employing a home stager to beautify and improve the value of your house.

Locating a home stager could very well be the toughest part of helping your home ready to be sold. The individual you finally choose must have a lot of expertise and you need to become familiar with their work. The stager will organize household furniture and design it in a way that things are all flowing with each other and is very appealing to prospective buyers. If performed correcly, home staging will increase the swiftness of the transaction as well as the home’s value when you are selling your house in Spokane.

Spokane Homes Sales Monthly Report (December 2009)

Checking the pulse of the city of Spokane's real estate market

By Jim Grapes January 1, 2010

The supply of residential homes for sale in Spokane Washington continues to drop as sellers take their homes off the market for the cold winter months or to avoid opening their home during the holidays. In the city of Spokane there were 1968 active listings as of the end of December 2009. One month ago on November 30th there were 2375 active listings so the inventory of available homes has dropped by 407 residential units. Of the current inventory 94 are Lender Owned or REOs (4.8%), and 173 are potential short sales or (8.8%) – about the same percentages as the previous month.

According to the Spokane MLS today, there were 273 home sales in the city of Spokane for December 2009. Another 272 are currently pending under contract for a 13.8% pending rate. At this rate of sales we currently have an inventory of 7.2 months supply of homes on the market. The pending rate went slightly down month-to-month which isn't a huge trend. However, anything over a 6 month supply indicates a buyers market and the trend continues to increase slightly to favor buyers this past month.

The median asking price of homes on the market the end of December was $185,000. These homes currently on the market represent the median home for sale in Spokane: Click Here to View Listings. Of the homes that sold in December the median asking price was $164,900 and they sold for a median sales price of $158,000 or 95.8% of the asking price at the time of sale.

With the home buyers tax credit set to expire in April 2010 and the Fed scheduled to wind down its purchases of mortgage-backed securities by the end of March, the housing market faces a test of its ability to sustain a recovery without as much government aid.

Out of number of homes sold in the city of Spokane in December 2009 my brokerage, Keller Williams Realty Spokane, represented itself quite well representing 38 sellers and 44 buyers for a total 13% by total dollar sales volume in each category. Fifty-one real estate offices had a listing sell in December and fifty-nine represented a buyer

Time running out on $8000 tax credit

Adding in the time it takes to close on a home purchase the time is getting tight to get the first time home buyers tax credit. Buy your Spokane real estate now!

clipped from www.spokesman.com Buy a house, get paid Market gets boost as tax credit motivates first-time buyers Jared and Meredith Lyda expect to receive a check from the federal government within the next few weeks. The $8,000 tax credit should cover the renovations the Coeur d’Alene newlyweds made to their first home, a three-bedroom, two-bathroom rancher they moved into on July 31. The tax credit for first-time homebuyers also allowed the Lydas to buy a slightly bigger, newer home than they expected. “We knew immediately when we walked in the door,” said Meredith Lyda, an assistant manager at Starbucks. “It was a no-brainer.” Activity has amped up as the tax credit’s Nov. 30 expiration approaches, Realtors say. Because closing a sale usually takes 45 to 60 days, buyers who hope to take advantage of the tax credit need to find homes soon, real estate professionals said. Though interest rates and low prices also are driving sales, Hardie and other Realtors said the tax credit’s impact on the market is undeniable.

Home sales pick up in Washington state

This is good news for Spokane real estate. Buyers and sellers are making deals and commerce is beginning to move quicker.

clipped from www.spokesman.com Business in brief: Home sales fare better than same quarter last year Home sales picked up in Washington state in the second quarter compared with last year – the first quarter-over-quarter improvement in sales numbers in more than two years, according to the “housing market snapshot” produced quarterly by Washington State University’s Center for Real Estate Research. Glenn Crellin, director of the center, cautioned in a news release that “a one-quarter improvement should not be considered a trend,” and that the sales increase likely was fueled by a new federal first-time homebuyer’s tax credit. Home sales statewide increased 11.6 percent in the second quarter compared with the same period the previous year. Sales in Spokane County were up 13.4 percent over the year-ago period. Crellin said sales prices are another indication of market stability, and that only four counties in the state experienced higher median sales prices during the second quarter.

I'm Hot

clipped from www.spokesman.com Spokane hits triple digits for first time in ‘09 Carolyn Lamberson The Spokesman-Review Yes, it really was that hot. The National Weather Service recorded an official high at the Spokane International Airport of 101 degrees today, tying the record for the day set in 1971. It also marked the first time this year that Spokane reached the triple digits, said Laurie Nisbet of the weather service.

Spokane Foreclosures Rising

It takes some time for unemployment to result in foreclosure but the recession's job losses is painfully ending in foreclosure for more and more homeowners in Spokane. This will likely have an impact on the Spokane real estate market.

clipped from www.spokanejournal.com Six-month foreclosure filings jump Further rises said likely to push default level here near or over 2002 peak The Spokane County Auditor recorded 378 foreclosure filings here in the first half of this year, up 49 percent from 254 filings in the year-earlier period. If that rate were to continue, total foreclosures here for the year would reach 834, which would be the highest since 2003, when foreclosure filings in the county totaled 1,030. Foreclosures here peaked at 1,152 in 2002. In Washington state, one in 138 homes was the subject of a foreclosure filing in the first half of the year, up from one in 283 homes in the first quarter. Spokane County, however, had more than double the foreclosure filings as of June than it had in the first quarter, when RealtyTrac reported that one in every 1,060 homes here faced foreclosure. The company ranked Spokane then as having the 26th lowest foreclosure rate of 203 metropolitan areas in the U.S. with populations of more than 200,000.

Great Affordable Housing

Fabulous work! A great addition to Spokane real estate.

clipped from www.kxly.com Spokane Urban Ministries unveils Walnut Corners SPOKANE -- A new apartment complex opened in in the West Central neighborhood Thursday that will help fill a need for affordable housing in Spokane. James Kashork is the president of the board of Spokane Urban Ministries, a non-profit created by four local Lutheran churches behind Spokane's newest affordable housing complex dubbed Walnut Corners, a 47-unit complex with one to three bedroom apartments built for people struggling to survive on $300 a month or less. "These are most likely the folks who are on the lowest end of the income scale in the city of Spokane," Kashork said. The complex also includes a community garden and residents will learn to grow vegetables and then they will all share the food grown here. Workers are also just completing a ground floor space that will house a small grocery store and coffee shop.