Westchester, CA

Currently there are two open houses scheduled for this weekend in Westchester. The Average price per square foot for Westchester CA was $439, an increase of 0% compared to the same period last year. The median sales price for homes in Westchester CA for Aug 06 to Oct 06 was $730,000 based on 1 home sales. Compared to the same period one year ago, the median home sales price increased 0%, or $730,000, and the number of home sales increased 0%.

There are currently 38 resale and new homes in Westchester, including 2 open houses, as well as 2 homes in the pre-foreclosure, auction, or bank-owned stages of the foreclosure process. The average listing price for homes for sale in Westchester CA was $879,738 for the week ending Aug 19, which represents an increase of 10.4%, or $82,765, compared to the prior week.

For more details contact Rachel.

The home shown above is currently listed for $799,000 by Bob & Kyra Waldon of Coldwell Banker

I do a lot of work for a very successful and hard-working Realtor who pays me to do a Staging Consultation on pretty much every one of his listings. He markets this as a value-added service that his clients get in return for listing their home with him. Everyone wins: the seller feels like they've gotten a valuable service at no cost, and the Realtor is happy because his listings always look great and sell quickly without him ever having to "be the bad guy."

With most consultations, I spend a couple of hours at the property, email out my detailed, room-by-room Staging report and don't usually hear anything more about it. (The whole point of a consultation is providing a low cost, do-it-yourself option for those who may not be able to afford full Staging services.) Sometimes I get a followup question here and there, and every once in awhile I check out the MLS photos of the homes just to make sure the sellers are following my advice, but that's generally the extent of it.

But sometimes the results are so remarkable that they warrant an e-mail like the one I received yesterday from my client, telling me that a Westchester home we recently did a consultation for had been listed at $674,000, it had 6 offers in 6 days, and was now in escrow at $695,000!

Excuse me, but aren't we in a recession here?! And yet these are similar to the results we were seeing at the height of the L.A. real estate frenzy.

Now when you look at the photo below, please note that I did not Stage this property, nor did I take the photo. I merely gave the seller a detailed list of what she could do, using just what she already had in the home, to Stage it herself! That rug was folded up at the bottom of her linen closet. The vase was in another room. The elements were all there, but they just hadn't been properly put together. But this motivated seller followed my directions and got herself many of the benefits of a Staged home at a fraction of the cost!

Now I'd call that a win/win!

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Annie Pinsker-Brown | Stage to Sell
Owner & Principal Designer
310-384-1084
www.stagetosell.biz

"We get you to SOLD so you can get on with your life!"

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Stage to Sell is the premier West Los Angeles Home Staging Company.

Owner & Principal Designer Annie Pinsker-Brown is an ASP Home Stager, a member of IAHSP (International Association of Home Staging Professionals), an affiliate member of the Beverly Hills/Greater Los Angeles Association of Realtors and a member of the Culver City and West LA Chambers of Commerce.

Annie has Staged LA homes for Bravo's hit show "Million Dollar Listing" and TLC's "Property Ladder." She has also been featured in recent articles on Home Staging in Los Angeles Magazine, The New York Times, Costco Connection and Frontiers Magazine.

If you would like to see more of our Home Staging work, visit our website. There is an extensive gallery of before & after photos, as well as a list of our Staged properties currently on the market.

You can't escape the news of the great collapse of the economy in 2008. Drastic depreciation in property values with home inventories and foreclosures on the rise. Thankfully there is some good news (at least for Westchester). What we are seeing in Westchester is a slip in the median sales price for homes. Values for income properties have increased slightly. For condos the news is bad. Condo sales in Westchester (where there are few developments) have slipped over 80% and values dropped about 31%. I have always urged my clients, whenever possible, to stick to "dirt" and not to condos. This is the reason why. For those that can't afford a home, a condo is a good option. However, when the market falls, condos always prices are always the hardest hit. Despite the condo market being hurt, it could be a lot worse. The median price of a home has slipped, as has the number of homes for sale. One could argue that median prices have fallen because many of the homes that have sold are foreclosures and REOs, which are listed at drastic discounts. In other parts of the Westside, we have seen drops in sales volume of up to 50%. In my opinion, Westchester is braving the storm in these tough economic times. Finally some good news!

Below are the year end real estate sales statistics for Westchesterfrom 2007 and 2008:

Property Sales	2008	2007
Single Family Homes	15	22
Income Property	5	6
Condos	2	11
Active Listings (Inventory)
Single Family	86	108
Income Property	17	24
Condos	22	18
Median Sales Price
Single Family	$679,000	$825,000
Income Property	$709,000	$670,000
Condos	$300,000	$437,500
Total Number Sold	258	287
Total Volume (total amount of all sales)	$180,341,687	$226,419,950
Total Average Days on Market (Sold)	65	62

Here's a great website for residents of Ladera Heights, Culver City, Westchester or anyone interested in the plans, renderings or updates on the Westfield Fox Hills Mall:

http://westfield.com/newfoxhills/home.html

The transformation of the Westfield Fox Hills Mall, in Ladera Heights/Culver City, began in January of 2008. We are just 9 months away from the scheduled grand opening in October.

Highlights will include:

Adding 340,000 square feet of new retail space.

Adding Target as a new anchor store.

New architecture and outdoor dining.

The mall continues to be open during renovation.

JB BROOKMAN

CASTLE HOMES AND ESTATES

SENIOR MORTGAGE CONSULTANT

www.teamjb.com

jb@castlehomesandestates.com

310.502.9877

This has got to be one of the biggest transformations I've ever been involved with! We did a consultation on this Westchester home several months back. My assistant was overwhelmed when she first arrived, as it was hard to know where to start! But we dug in and gave the owner a comprehensive list of things to do, including painting (a color we selected), decluttering and rearranging. We also provided her with a quote to come back to bring some furniture for the family room and dining room and some acccessories once the basic work was done.

After a month or so, the Realtor let me know that the painting had been completed. He was amazed at the difference that just the paint alone had made, especially in the family room which was previously covered in dark wood paneling! We scheduled a Staging date and started our prep work. As the date drew near we worried that when we showed up for the Staging that all the furniture we had asked to be removed would still be sitting there, adding hours to our estimated Staging time. We had hired a couple of big guys to move a few items around within the home (the owner had told me that part would not be done), so we figured they'd be there in case of emergency. When we arrived we walked into the front of the home and were relieved to see most of the large pieces gone. Unfortunately once we got to the back room, we saw where they had put everything! The entire room was FULL of books, boxes, extra furniture, old records, a giant pink chair and basically everything that had been moved out of the rest of the house! And the best part was that the furniture delivery guys arrived just at the same time that our moving help arrived. Of course the stuff the delivery people were bringing was supposed to go into the room that was full, so we were all in a mad dash to get everything loaded OUT and into the garage so that the movers could bring in their stuff. It was a race and we did it!

Here are the before & afters...

Living Room BEFORE

Living Room AFTER

View to Dining Room BEFORE

View to Dining Room AFTER

Family Room BEFORE

Family Room AFTER

Eat-In Kitchen BEFORE

Eat-In Kitchen AFTER

Master Bedroom Before

Master Bedroom After

Guest Bedroom Before

Guest Bedroom AFTER

*************************************************************************************

Annie Pinsker-Brown | Stage to Sell
Owner & Principal Designer
310-384-1084
www.stagetosell.biz

"We get you to SOLD so you can get on with your life!"

************************************************
Stage to Sell is the premier West Los Angeles Home Staging Company.

Owner & Principal Designer Annie Pinsker-Brown is an ASP (Accredited Staging Professional), a member of IAHSP (International Association of Home Staging Professionals), an affiliate member of the Beverly Hills/Greater Los Angeles Association of Realtors and a member of the Culver City and West LA Chambers of Commerce.

Annie has Staged LA homes for Bravo's hit show "Million Dollar Listing" and TLC's "Property Ladder." She has also been featured in recent articles on Home Staging in Los Angeles Magazine, The New York Times, Costco Connection and Frontiers Magazine.

If you would like to see more of our Home Staging work, visit our website. There is an extensive gallery of before & after photos, as well as a list of our Staged properties currently on the market.