Thousand Oaks, CA

With lower prices and relatively low mortgage rates, affordability has improved dramatically in recent months, creating great opportunities for well-qualified buyers with a steady job and stable income situation. First-time buyers are in a somewhat better situation than current homeowners, who may have the contingency of selling their current home in order to buy another home. In addition, the Homebuyer Tax Credit (H.R. 1) just signed into law will also make buying a home more affordable to first-time buyers in 2009 than in previous years.

Section 1006 of HR1: First time home buyer tax credit of $8,000. This tax credit updates the 2008 legislation enacted by President Bush. The credit will not need to be repaid if the home is kept for at least 36 months from date of purchase.

As a follow up to a previous blog, Where Is It All Coming From?, I thought I'd give it a little time to sink in and really take a hard look at where my business IS coming from, at least via the Internet. If you haven't taken a good look at how consumers are accessing your Internet presence you may be wasting valuable time (& money) spinning your wheels on fruitless efforts. Through my Yahoo Web Manager I can see that my pesky pay-per-click ad, is actually paying off with over 46% of consumers finding my website through Google Adwords. You can also see that almost 12% are finding my information through Twitter - 12%!!! ActiveRain is right up there as well showing at a close to 9% w/ another 2.8% coming from Localism (May I add that this is usually MUCH higher as consumers have accessed my website via ActiveRain Portfolio, blogs, as well as comments that reflect in Google alerts) And it doesn't cost a dime! Here's what I look at EVERY DAY:

I can even see exactly WHEN, people are accessing my site:

Day	Total Page Views * ( Unique Page Views** )
Sun 03/29		3 (3)
Sat 03/28		12 (12)
Fri 03/27		16 (16)
Thu 03/26		16 (16)
Wed 03/25		11 (11)
Tue 03/24		18 (18)
Mon 03/23		21 (21)
Sun 03/22		11 (11)

Through another FREE internet tool called SiteMeter, I can look at it from a different perspective:

This tells me that on average people who click on my home page, proceed on to learn more about Platinum Home Staging, Inc. or to visit our portfolio. The great thing about SiteMeter also, is that when you really get into the depths, it can even tell you what pages your consumer looses interest and "clicks out".

After reviewing these for the past few weeks it has given me valuable in-site and learnings to where I might be wasting my time, and time is money, right? For example: advertising on Craigslist, although it has great SEO and clients may be seeing my "name", they are not interested enough to click to the website, maybe I should be doing something different, or forego it all together. That I really need to further investigate where the "unknown" 14.87% is coming from so I can maximize it a bit more. That consumers are finding our services and site through SO much more than I would have ever dreamed; such as casamirabella.com - had never heard of that one until today.

Take a few minutes to investigate your website and business, you may be surprised and what you find, and be able to stream-line what works: or doesn't.

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Platinum Home Staging, Inc. does Home Staging, and SO much more!

Call us today at (805) 553-9952

Serving Ventura County and Greater Los Angeles Areas: Los Angeles, Los Feliz, Hollywood, Hancock Park, Sherman Oaks, Encino, Canoga Park, Van Nuys, West Hills, Northridge, Simi Valley, Moorpark, Wood Ranch, Thousand Oaks, Calabasas, Oak Park, Agoura Hills, Westlake Village, Newbury Park, Camarillo, Oxnard, Ventura, Santa Barbara

NAR Released that over 87% of today's Home Buyers first "shop" the internet, or narrow down their "list" of properties to view in person, solely by how a home is marketed and perceived on the Internet by number and quality of the photographs of the home. But did you also know:

That only 10% of Potential Buyers can envision the home's true potential?

Is THIS how your home is being viewed on the Internet? Wouldn't you rather it look like this?

What is this room for? Don't leave Buyer's guessing.

Awkward floor plans, what to do? Staging sets it all straight.

Small spaces can scare away Buyers - Staging sizes up the room.

Staging can also make the best of what you HAVE ~ breathing new life with the services of professional Home Staging.

Platinum Home Staging, Inc. ~ (805) 553 - 9952

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Home Staging for Los Angeles, Los Feliz, Hollywood, Hancock Park, Sherman Oaks, Encino, Canoga Park, Van Nuys, West Hills, Northridge, Simi Valley, Moorpark, Wood Ranch, Thousand Oaks, Calabasas, Oak Park, Agoura Hills, Westlake Village, Newbury Park, Camarillo, Oxnard, Ventura, Santa Barbara

It's happened to all of us, when taking pictures of our prized works or property we inevitably find ourselves sometimes making our own grand appearances in the reflections of our photography. You know what I mean, you take "the perfect shot" only to get back to the office and find yourself, camera pressed to your eye, in the reflection of a mirror.

Keeping the rules of design in mind when Staging or decorating a home, that a mirror should only be placed if it is reflecting something beautiful, you can also use this to your advantage to take some fabulous pictures of your Staging works - from a different perspective.

Note the reflection in the mirror It's all in the details There is a window with lots of light

PLATINUM HOME STAGING, INC.

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Platinum Home Staging, Inc is your Professional Home Stager serving the greater Los Angeles and Ventura County areas. From Los Angeles to Santa Barbara, and everything in between, call Platinum Home Staging, Inc. today for your FREE Home Staging Bid! (805) 553-9952