Wendy Cutrufelli, Contra Costa Realtor

Wanted: Walnut Creek Homes for Sale.

Inventory of Walnut Creek Homes for Sale is significantly lower than at any time since January, 2007. This chart shows declining inventory, not declining prices!

Open Houses are busting out at the seams with throngs of motivated buyers. My recent Walnut Creek listing had over 70 people visit the Open House, received multiple offers and sold in 10 days above list price (and it wasn't priced low to start). The following week, an associate with a new Walnut Creek listing had over 150 people attend the Open House.

As of the end of January, 2012 the inventory of homes for sale dropped to 58 homes and 42 homes went into contract during the same month. The lowest For Sale Inventory has been prior to this is 84 homes. By any measurement, Walnut Creek has become a Seller's market for the first time in years.

If you are planning to sell your Walnut Creek home, don't dawdle. There are a slew of interested buyers!

Originally posted on ContraCostaRealEstateResource.com

It can be difficult for sellers to imagine the end result of Staging a Home to Sell so it's not a surprise when balk at the expense, even if it's minimal compared to the returns.

In order to encourage you to read the entire article, I'm going to start with the happy ending. The Walnut Creek, California home for sale referenced in these pictures had multiple offers and sold in 10 days at $12,000 over List price.

Over 94% of home buyers start the house-hunting process viewing the home's photos online and only view the homes whose photos pass the muster but cameras are still not able to process the same amount of information as our eyes.

The living room in the Before photo had a maroon accent wall. While a very rich color to the eye, it appeared extremely dark when photographed. Notice how much brighter the room appears after the wall was painted (by the way, the interior lights were on for both photos).

The furniture was rearranged to demonstrate the expansive size of the room and display the fireplace. The addition of some colorful accessories added the warmth back to the room. The cost of staging this room consisted of a can of paint and accessories.

The adage "Kitchens and bathrooms sell homes" is very true. The bathroom reflected in the Before picture on the left was very functional but dated in appearance. The bathtub tile surround was replaced, adding a 4 inch strip of glass tile for a little custom "bling", bringing the tile up to the same level as the top of the window. The light fixture and faucet were replaced with brushed nickel finishes and the "builder standard" mirror was replaced with a more sophisticated framed mirror. The walls were then repainted with a slightly darker white to offset the cabinetry.

Should you update your home to sell? These sellers initially felt very strongly that the house should be sold As-Is: "There's nothing wrong with the house. Let the buyers paint and update it any way they want to." Given the huge return on their Staging investment, they're extremely happy they changed their minds!

This is a short-story about how Home Stager, Kathy Burke, changes a potential disaster to an opportunity.

It has happened to all of us at one time or another. The listing is signed, Kathy completed the staging consultation and once the seller's typical To Do list is completed (declutter, depersonalize, clean, touch-up paint, some minor purchases) the house will go on the market and be fabulous. That is until the Pest Inspection returns with over $15,000 of unexpected repairs. And worse, the repairs require removing the marble tile in both bathrooms and the cost to reinstall marble tile versus generic tile is a significant additional expense to the $15k bid. Not going to happen.

Kitchens and bathrooms sell homes and now the bathrooms will only be generic. What to do? Call Kathy Burke of Sensational Home Staging! My original question for Kathy was "What color should we pick that will most appeal to buyers?" The answer I received was soooo much better. Kathy provided fabulous design ideas using off-the-shelf tile products, a few inexpensive tweaks and, ta da!, a totally upgraded bathroom with a "designer look" and all within the budget. Buyers are going to love it! Suddenly the potential disaster is a wonderful opportunity.

Kathy's approach to creating a designer-look on a budget suddenly made me realize how valuable her expertise could be to Walnut Creek homeowners (or anywhere in the East Bay) contemplating improvements, not just sellers.

If you own a home in Contra Costa county CA, this home maintenance tip could save you THOUSANDS of dollars in future repairs - get a Pest Inspection every 2 - 4 years!

Pest Inspections cover more than rodents and creepy crawly things. The #1 repair item on Pest Inspections in our market area of northern California is dry rot. The term dry rot is a bit of a misnomer. Dry rot is a fungus that causes wood decay and is the result of water in contact with wood over time. The main culprits for potential problems are kitchens and bathrooms.

Let me share a story that will make the point. I listed a Walnut Creek home for sale and as part of my pre-sale preparation process, I view the home in detail in order to make a to-do list of items that need to be accomplished in order to sell for the highest possible price. During the preview, I noticed that the caulking in both bathrooms was an unusual, grayish color. Given that this home was clean and well-maintained, I knew the cause was more than the need for a good scrubbing so I suggested that the sellers obtain a Pest Inspection. The last thing any seller wants is to be broadsided by unexpected repairs with a short deadline for completion when their home sells.

This is where the story gets painful. Both bathrooms had water leaks, one from the shower and one from the bathtub surround area. Unless you knew what to look for (and most home owners don't), these leaks were not at all obvious because they went through a gap in the caulking to the sub-floor of the bathrooms.....and the leaks occured over a long period of time causing significant damage. The sellers, who did all the appropriate maintenance that they knew about throughout their 18 years of ownership, now need to pull out the shower, the bathtub, all of the beautiful tile and replace the joists and sub-floors in both bathrooms. A very expensive repair.

The sellers summed up their frustration by saying, "If only we had known to add a Pest Inspection to our maintenance, we would have gladly paid the $185 every 3 years rather than face this expense. Why didn't anyone tell us to do this?"

So now you know, get a Pest Inspection every 2 - 4 years and save yourself thousands in future repairs!

For several years I spent Thanksgiving day with a group of people who prepared and served a free Thanksgiving Dinner. It was always a wonderful day spent with interesting people but shocking to learn the extent of hunger in our community. From Senior citizens who had to choose between medication and nutritious food to young families whose primary wage-earner was unemployed, it was a significant eye-opener to a young woman (me, at the time) who never faced a hungry day.

As Thanksgiving approaches, I would ask you to remember the "Giving" in Thanksgiving and donate to the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano counties. Every $1 dollar you donate provides two meals for children, adults or seniors. Really think about that for a minute....a $20 donation would provide 40 meals and over 1/3 of the food distributed is fresh produce (often the first food sacrificed when money runs short).

The Food Bank has an additional - and very creative - donation opportunity called Tiny Tickets. Save all of your BART tickets that have nothing but change left on them - a penny, 5 cents, 20 cents - we all have them stashed in drawers somewhere. Please send them to the Food Bank so they can be redeemed for cash.

With unemployment still above 10%, the need for your donation is greater than ever - and sadly that's true even in our affluent Walnut Creek community - so please remember the "Giving" in Thanksgiving.