Staging and Photography Make a Huge Difference When Selling a Home

It always surprises me just how little effort and expertise goes into prepping and presenting homes for sale.  The way a home is presented in marketing and advertising can mean the difference between getting an offer or sitting on the market and can mean 10’s of thousands of dollars to a home seller.

Photo-comparison

Above is a great example that I came across the other day while searching listings.  These pictures of one bedroom condos for sale in The Village of Redondo Beach make a great impact as they are generally the same room, floorplan and angle.  Honestly which would you be more inclined to see and visit?  Both properties were vacant but the home on the left was staged and professional photographer used.  It simply looks brighter and more inviting and a buyer would be far more likely to want to take a look and tour the home.

So why do some sellers choose realtors that put so little effort into selling their Torrance homes?

That’s a great question but there is really no great answer.  Sellers sometimes use a friend of the family, perhaps someone they know, or someone that sends out flyers to the neighborhood.  Regardless of where the realtor comes from it’s astounding that sellers don’t ask how the realtor will prep and market the property.

So what should a Torrance home seller do?

Research….find out which agents are successful selling in the area and find out why.  Then look at past listings to see how the homes look.  It’s no mistake that some agents just have better looking listings.  Some agents simply do more and want every home they sell to look as good as possible.  Ask to see marketing samples and insist on your realtor using a professional photographer as it can make a huge difference.  Sellers have one chance to be a “new listing” and take advantage of the interest and momentum that comes along with that. Would you rather have your home look like the one on the left, or the one on the right.

Button-Sellers-Gradient

 

Redondo Beach homes for sale - Ford

Our Latest Listing – 1643 Ford in the Golden Hills of Redondo Beach

***Update***1643 Ford has sold.  View the current homes for sale in the GoldenRedondo Beach homes for sale - Ford Hills of Redondo Beach.

Welcome home to this wonderfully remodeled single family home in the Golden Hills of Redondo Beach. This beautiful home boasts a great split level floorplan that offers all three bedrooms on the same floor and a spacious and stylish interior. Features include a gorgeous kitchen with stainless steel appliances, granite counter tops, pendant lighting and an abundance of natural light. Custom paint and dramatic dark hardwood floors extend throughout the home giving the home a true designer feel. Beautiful master suite offers large customized closets, gleaming hardwood floors, newer doors and windows and a beautifully remodeled bath. The 2nd and 3rd bedrooms share another stylishly remodeled bathroom with custom tile and stone shower. Bedrooms are west facing and offer great natural light and sit high above the neighboring home to take full advantage of the coastal breezes. Spacious one car garage has a laundry area, direct access to the home, and a full size access door to the seemingly endless storage space underneath. In addition the ample street parking is a rare find in the Golden Hills! Just a few blocks from both Hermosa and Manhattan Beach this home is the perfect starter home in a fantastic neighborhood.

Contact listing agent Keith Kyle of South Bay Brokers to set up a private showing.

pool and spa at 21345 Hawthorne Blvd Village Court

2 Great Condos for sale in 55+ Village Court Torrance

**Update**please note that this is a post from 2014 and these homes are no longer for sale.  Click here to see the current condos for sale in the 55+ senior condo complex of Village Court at 21345 Hawthorne Blvd.21345_Hawthorne_Blvd_#415_pool1 copy

Village Court, located at 21345 Hawthorne Blvd in the great area of Southwood Torrance may just be the nicest 55+ complex in the South Bay.  Located in a great part of Torrance, with an abundance of shopping and dining options just a short distance away, Village Court offers resort style living.

View the Current Village Court Homes for Sale

Amenities include a fitness center, clubhouse with billiards and social areas, a fantastic pool and entertainment deck with a sparkling pool and spa, outdoor dining areas, fireplaces, and BBQ areas.  Having been built in 2005, the complex and condos still feel very new and have the latest features such as open kitchens, granite counters, and more.

Torrance homes with pools

Oh How Torrance Home Values Have Changed

By Keith Kylepool-west-new

I received an odd phone call yesterday from a potential buyer that said she had been given a real estate flyer for a listing at 16808 Delia in North Torrance.  She said it was a well priced short sale and it was.  The only problem was that I sold this house at the beginning of 2012.  It had been a while since I thought of this house and upon pulling up the old listing I struck me just how dramatically the market has changed since then.  It was a very nice home, with a great yard and pool but unfortunately the owners were struggling and had to do a short sale.  We listed the home at $520,000 and it closed at $502,000.

What would it sell for now?

It would be just about impossible to find any single family home in that neighborhood, regardless of condition and size for that price in the North Torrance Homescurrent market.  That home that sold only 2 years ago would now sell for at least $750,000 which is simply incredible.  The speed with which the real estate market in Torrance and the South Bay was stunning and the changes to value equally unbelievable.

How Quickly we forget?

Another aspect of all this that struck me was just how short our memories can be.  Just 2 years ago there were so many homes with great prices and most buyers thought it would continue and go even lower.  These days the poor buyers that didn’t buy are priced completely out of neighborhoods that would have been very affordable.  The thought now is that it of course can only continue going up, but is that really the reality and has that much changed?  It’s certainly a great time to be a home seller, but not necessarily a great time to be a buyer.

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Torrance neighborhood real estate map.

Torrance CA Real Estate Map – Search for Homes

Welcome to our Torrance CA Real Estate Map and Home Search

Torrance, California is a big city and it’s neighborhoods and areas vary considerably in the types of homes, feel of the neighborhood, and home prices.

As realtors, we search for homes by neighborhood so that we can best assist our clients to find the right type of homes in the right areas.  Below is a map used by realtors and used in MLS home searches.  The numbers coincide with the areas that we use to search and each has it’s differences and similarities.  The three areas that often cause confusion are area 128 the Hollywood Riviera and areas 122 and 123, Harbor Gateway and County Strip.

Much of the Hollywood Riviera actually has Redondo Beach, 90277, zip codes but the area is actually part of Torrance and services and schools are Torrance.  The County Strip and Harbor Gateway areas actually have Torrance zip codes but are serviced by the city of Los Angeles.  It’s distance from the beach, proximity to commercial and industrial, and the schools being LA Unified makes the homes significantly less expensive then the city of Torrance areas.

The Neighborhoods of Torrance CA

North Torrance homes West Torrance homes Hollywood Riviera homes Walteria Torrance homes Southwood Torrance homes OldTorrance South Torrance homes Southeast Torrance homes Central Torrance Harbor Gateway Torrance

Search Homes in Torrance Neighborhoods

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westtorrancehomes
southwoodtorrance
plaza del amo
old torrance homes
walteria torrance
north torrance homes
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Torrance real estate 2022

Torrance Real Estate Market Trends and Statistics

The market in Torrance has continued to be very favorable to sellers with the demand so high and the inventory still considerably low.  The past 3 months have seen a slight increase in inventory which may be temporary or may be showing signs that the very beginning of a more balanced market is on it’s way.  Keep in mind that Torrance is a big city and prices, demand, values, and trends can vary considerably throughout the city.  The chart below shows the number of active Torrance homes for sale (light green bar) the number of homes that went into escrow (red line) and the number of homes sold in that month (teal bar).  When the trend shows a monthly increase in homes for sale the market is heading towards a more balanced situation.  At the moment it is very much a sellers market.

For buyers, and especially first time buyers, the chart below is a helpful tool to determine what price to offer.  This is for all of Torrance and different neighborhoods vary, and certainly individual homes can be a different situation depending on what price is was listed at.  For the month of September selling prices were within 3% of the list prices.

What does this mean?

For buyers this generally means that “going in low” is probably not the right strategy.  Consult with your realtor as they should have a handle on what the value of the home should be and whether the asking price was set too high, or too low in the hopes of generating multiple offers and a potential bidding war.