Sacramento Real Estate Staging Blog

This is a great explaination of why staging is so important in vacant homes and investment properties! Enjoy!

From December to April of this year, Sacramento real estate investors and some limited liability companies earned approximately $1.4 million. According to ForeclosureRadar, May of 2010 far exceeded 2009 for investment purchases. So what does this all mean?

These investment groups bought hugely discounted properties, most are sight unseen, with major renovations to deal with. Profit margins may not be what was proposed after finally getting a personal view of the property that they just bought. So what happens? They need to be repaired before they are put back on the market. Sometimes, they are going through an eviction process with the tenant and/or giving them cash for their keys.

So is this process called "flipping"? Sure these investors are buying, fixing, and selling. It is hard work to get a house back in shape. If a quality investor purchases a home to resell, they go through many hurdles just to do so. First they need to qualify at auction. Then they need to deal with the possible eviction, and/or, the left over house. They are left with the anger from the late homeowners. No appliances, writing on the walls, dead landscaping... sometimes homes are completely stripped. The process that they go through to prepare that home for sale can be an expensive one.

I would like this process to be called "renovation". The investors that we work with go above and beyond in renovating each home that they pick up. Most all do landscaping for curb appeal, they repaint, they replace/upgrade appliances, they replace or professionally clean carpets and flooring, they call the best pool company to rejuvenate the pool, and they stage each and every home that they have. These investors do everything to bring that home back to a lovely product on the shelf! Stage Right Design has had the pleasure of helping our investors by staging and selling over 18 million worth of real estate just in the first quarter of this year. That number is what Stage Right Design did in the entire 2009. Of the 48 homes that we have staged since January, 39 of them have been investment properties.

I think for many quality investors, they are past the "flipping stage". A new, experienced breed has evolved.  They have a plan and they are changing this market and neighborhoods, one home at a time.

With this being Sacramento's biggest niche right now, what would you call them?

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