March 5, 2006 - In the past year, 5600 residential properties were sold in South Placer County, but another 4200 listings went unsold – either they expired or were withdrawn - according to the Metrolist Multiple Listing database.
Lincoln residents Chris Meyers and Lorraine Rodrigues approached J.Scott Carpenter about selling their vacant rental home in Rocklin. Their first question was, “what should be done to make our home competitive in this market?” The 17 year old home was in good condition, but to be competitive, the property needed updating.
Mr. Carpenter had a long list of improvements that could be made to increase the marketability of the home. Making every one was beyond the financial ability of the sellers. To help Chris and Lorraine make there decisions, Mr. Carpenter offered to prioritize the improvements by researching past sales of similar homes.
Mr. Carpenter studied 8 comparable sales in Rocklin and Roseville and rated which improvements created the best trade-off between time-on-market and sales price.
The study produced a two-tiered list where the tiers were clearly separated by selling prices and improvement scores. The top tier’s average selling price was 6.5% higher.
| SOLD Properties | 8=Highest | 8=Highest | ||||||
| Address | Bd | Bth | SqFt | Sale Price | Net $/SF | $/SF Rank | Amenity Rank | Comb'd Rank |
| 4609 Mountaingate Dr | 4 | 2 | 2001 | 540,000 | 253 | 7 | 6 | 13 |
| 405 Las Cruces Ct | 4 | 2 | 2023 | 535,000 | 250 | 6 | 7 | 13 |
| 5304 Fairway Dr | 3 | 2 | 1920 | 519,000 | 254 | 8 | 4 | 12 |
| 5313 Fairway Dr | 3 | 2 | 1979 | 498,950 | 236 | 4 | 8 | 12 |
| 2665 TAMARACK Dr | 4 | 2 | 1924 | 493,900 | 240 | 5 | 1 | 6 |
| 1265 Canevari Dr | 4 | 2 | 2046 | 487,000 | 223 | 1 | 5 | 6 |
| 5629 Freeman Dr | 3 | 2 | 2082 | 505,000 | 229 | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| 1514 Lathwell Way | 4 | 2 | 2000 | 480,000 | 226 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
“Because most of the neighborhoods in South Placer County are fairly uniform, we can compare similar homes using the price per square foot. The homes in this study were very similar in size and style, so when the top tier performed 8.1 percent per square foot higher, the advantage of their improvements became crystal clear.
| SOLD Properties | ||||
|
Address |
Bd | Bth | SqFt | Net $/SF |
| 4609 Mountaingate Dr | 4 | 2 | 2001 | 253 |
| 405 Las Cruces Ct | 4 | 2 | 2023 | 250 |
| 5304 Fairway Dr | 3 | 2 | 1920 | 254 |
| 5313 Fairway Dr | 3 | 2 | 1979 | 236 |
| 2665 TAMARACK Dr | 4 | 2 | 1924 | 240 |
| 1265 Canevari Dr | 4 | 2 | 2046 | 223 |
| 5629 Freeman Dr | 3 | 2 | 2082 | 229 |
| 1514 Lathwell Way | 4 | 2 | 2000 | 226 |
Mr. Carpenter’s research showed that staging – the creation of a neat, orderly, and well-decorated environment – was the most widely used improvement, but the top tier homes used professional-level staging, whereas the bottom tier homes where less appealing.
This table shows the scores for the selected amenities in the study:
| SOLD Properties | |
|
Address |
Staging |
| 4609 Mountaingate Dr | 3 |
| 405 Las Cruces Ct | 2 |
| 5304 Fairway Dr | 3 |
| 5313 Fairway Dr | 3 |
| 2665 TAMARACK Dr | 1 |
| 1265 Canevari Dr | 1 |
| 5629 Freeman Dr | 3 |
| 1514 Lathwell Way | 1 |
Charlotte Johnson, the Managing Director of The Perfect Stage in Rocklin, responded “Trusting your own instincts on this is risky”, she said. A home is personal expression. Homeowners focus on making a home comfortable. We appeal to people who are walking through, and accredited staging professionals are trained to excite their imaginations.”
The biggest single difference between the two tiers was upgraded lighting fixtures. All of the first tier homes had consistently higher scores for lighting. Marty Krulee, a former electrical contractor turned mortgage agent with Executive Mortgage, wasn’t surprised with that finding. “Builders of production homes use the cheapest fixtures possible. A key difference between custom homes and production homes is the lighting. While buyers won’t necessarily notice lighting, its contribution to the feeling of value is huge.”
| SOLD Properties | |
|
Address |
Light Fixtures |
| 4609 Mountaingate Dr | 2 |
| 405 Las Cruces Ct | 2 |
| 5304 Fairway Dr | 2 |
| 5313 Fairway Dr | 3 |
| 2665 TAMARACK Dr | 0 |
| 1265 Canevari Dr | 1 |
| 5629 Freeman Dr | 0 |
| 1514 Lathwell Way | 1 |
| Top Tier Total | 9 |
| Bottom Tier Total | 2 |
| Tier Score Difference | 7 |
After staging, the most frequent improvements by both tiers were better window coverings, upgraded interior paint, and remodeled bathrooms. The higher ranked homes got better scores on these improvements.
According to Carpenter, the local results vary somewhat from national statistics. The National Association of Realtors surveyed 25,000 home buyers, and their study revealed a higher interest in features like walk-in closets, new kitchens, and patios. The most-desired feature in the NAR study was central air conditioning.
“The difference between national surveys and the South Placer area is the age of the housing,” said Carpenter. “Most of our housing is newer, so improvements focus on updating existing features to compete with new homes. For example, kitchen designs have not changed very much in the last 15-20 years, but paint colors, windows, and interior trim are very different.”
Property condition and updating are only two of the essential components of a successful home marketing effort, according to Carpenter. He says that all of the best characteristics of the property must be marketed in a way that captures a buyer’s imagination. How the property is characterized, using images and descriptions, has an enormous emotional impact on the number of showings. More showings produce more offers and more competition between buyers.
“Even with thousands of unsold homes on the market, properties in good condition with well-crafted marketing are producing multiple offers. Two of my recent listings were bid-up by multiple buyers,” said Carpenter. “Both sellers got about $40,000 more because buyers were competing for the property.