How Smart Sellers Are Boosting Their Home Value Before Listing

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In this episode of the Real Estate Pros Podcast, host Michelle Kesil speaks with Mickey and Laura from Savvy Home Sellers, who specialize in preparing homes for sale in Southern California. They discuss the importance of home staging, common mistakes sellers make, and how to create inviting spaces that appeal to buyers. The conversation also covers their business growth, networking strategies, and real-life success stories that highlight the impact of effective home preparation.

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Savvy Home Sellers (00:00)
I feel that investors in particular don’t see, many of them don’t see the value in staging. Perhaps they already spent so much money on getting the house, you know, upgraded, thank you, renovated. And then now they don’t want to spend the extra money on staging. They’d rather have it vacant and they want to show the house vacant. But you are doing yourself a humongous disservice by doing it that way because people usually cannot envision their

There are items there that you lose a, a depth perception, of a space perception, so you don’t really understand the size of things when you don’t have a context of what’s supposed to be in there. Also, people sometimes do get confused, like, is that a dining room? Is it a living room? What is that space intended for? And we paint the picture for them that really helps the buyer understand what they’re buying. That buyers

always going to ask which wall do I put my TV on? It’s a common question. So we’re that perception that every buyer can see themselves living in the space. If more buyers can see themselves living in the space, the likelihood that that investor, that seller, that house that’s on the market is going to get multiple offers. If you get multiple offers, you get higher offers. If you get higher offers, you’re going to net more money.

Michelle Kesil (02:46)
Hey everybody, welcome to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil. Today I’m joined by Mickey and Laura of Savvy Home Sellers who help sellers prep their home for sale. So excited to have both of you on the show today.

Savvy Home Sellers (03:04)
Thanks for having us. Yeah, thank you. We’re excited to share our wisdom and our info.

Michelle Kesil (03:09)
of course. I think our listeners are going to take something away from how you’re approaching your design, styling, and yeah, selling process. So let’s dive in. First off, for those not familiar with your world, you give the short version of what your main focus is.

Savvy Home Sellers (03:31)
So what we specialize is in helping the homeowner or the investor or the realtor get the home ready to sell. So that’s most, mostly having to do with the aesthetic process of getting the home ready. So it could be anything from picking paint to getting furniture set up and ready, few pictures on the walls and get it ready for pictures and open houses. Yeah.

Michelle Kesil (03:54)
Awesome. And are you guys operating in a specific market? Where are you guys doing this?

Savvy Home Sellers (04:01)
Yeah, we’re in Southern California. We are located in Huntington Beach, California, which is in Orange County. Not to be confused with Orange County, Florida, which is where Orlando is. Where, where near Disneyland, not near, what’s the one called in Orlando? Disney World. We’re by Disneyland, not Disney World. So, and then we do go to Riverside as well as Los Angeles. San Diego as well. Yeah.

Michelle Kesil (04:24)
Awesome. How did you guys get started with this business?

Savvy Home Sellers (05:17)
Well, I’m a realtor and Laura is a stager. She’s an amazing, amazing stager and I was already staging my own homes.

But I would say that I’m an amateur stager. I’ve gotten a lot better knowing Laura. And so we just would get together and keep talking and talking. And we were just talking about the client. And the client needs to know this. And the client needs to know that. And here’s mistakes that are being made by the client. They should have picked this kind of. Like we would just go on and on and talk hours about when we would view homes. And I remember this one time we drove to San Diego. It was like an hour drive. And we just talked about.

this subject for an hour. was like, this is something we need to record us talking about this. Like, and we just had so much joy talking about how we can help the client, how we can help that seller, whether that seller is an investor or someone who’s just getting their home ready, like little things that we can help, like move this here, move that there, little things that would really create an inviting neutral space. And we always say on our YouTube channel that we want to make a space that is neutral and inviting to all buyers.

Our goal is to net the most amount of money for that seller and so that buyer the quickest right and the amount and the quickest amount of time that buyer needs to see themselves living in that space We’ve realized that a lot of people when they’re getting a home ready to sell they end up wasting a lot of money on things that might not matter over spending so you know we’re there to help them decide what’s worth spending the money on where they’re gonna make the most return and Focus on those things and stay stay within their budget. It’s possible

Michelle Kesil (06:48)
Yeah, absolutely. What would you say are some of the things that people overlook or that people overspend on that’s not necessary?

Savvy Home Sellers (06:58)
The thing that comes to mind first is landscaping. I, I can you know, sometimes people really want to spend on just expensive plants and flowers to try to make it look right. And sometimes less is more. Sometimes just trimming things back and making it look more clean and simple is a better move than, than, you know, filling it up with very expensive plants. and then the new buyer biters are going to rip it out. And one thing that we always say too,

is we have the four D’s. We have depersonalized, declutter, deep clean, and design. If you’re just following those four D’s, no matter if you’re looking at the front door as the first impression, walking into the home, seeing the flow of the home, and applying the four D’s to every room in the house, the kitchen, the bathrooms, the bedrooms, you’re really gonna net the most amount of money. And then we say the bonus D is details. Those details really matter because it’s how that buyer feels walking into that home.

Michelle Kesil (07:51)
Yeah, definitely that makes a lot of sense. What are some of the things that you have found help your sellers get their house off the market that maybe most of like the average people in the real estate industry aren’t commonly talking about?

Savvy Home Sellers (08:09)
I feel that investors in particular don’t see, many of them don’t see the value in staging. Perhaps they already spent so much money on getting the house, you know, upgraded, thank you, renovated. And then now they don’t want to spend the extra money on staging. They’d rather have it vacant and they want to show the house vacant. But you are doing yourself a humongous disservice by doing it that way because people usually cannot envision their

There are items there that you lose a, a depth perception, of a space perception, so you don’t really understand the size of things when you don’t have a context of what’s supposed to be in there. Also, people sometimes do get confused, like, is that a dining room? Is it a living room? What is that space intended for? And we paint the picture for them that really helps the buyer understand what they’re buying. That buyers

always going to ask which wall do I put my TV on? It’s a common question. So we’re that perception that every buyer can see themselves living in the space. If more buyers can see themselves living in the space, the likelihood that that investor, that seller, that house that’s on the market is going to get multiple offers. If you get multiple offers, you get higher offers. If you get higher offers, you’re going to net more money.

So creating that, I don’t want to say illusion, but creating that space, that creating a vital neutral space that more people can see themselves

living in is absolutely advantageous for any kind of seller including an investor.

Michelle Kesil (10:13)
Yeah, definitely that makes a lot of sense.

What are you guys like most focused on solving or scaling to next in your business?

Savvy Home Sellers (10:23)
Thank you for asking. This is a big one on our plate right now is we are growing into a bigger warehouse space where we each have enough office room and we have grown, my business has grown from very quickly from eight houses that I had worth of staging to 15 houses worth of staging in just a year. So that, that you know means that I constantly have to grow my storage space to accommodate for that much

Inventory, but now that’s our main focus right now is getting the right space for us right into And then we want to be able to film there and do all the other things and other projects in that space Yeah, and we’re feeling a shift in the market. So the more investors or homeowner sellers come to us for those Needs it’s like we want to create a space that they can even come to like a showroom or you know Have that opportunity to take on mores more sellers or listings

Michelle Kesil (11:17)
Yeah, amazing. That’s so exciting.

So what are you guys specifically like filming? Is it just like your different staging, you know, aesthetics or yeah, what’s kind of what’s going on there?

Savvy Home Sellers (11:28)
We will.

help people with the tips and tricks of certain, certain what? cert- I mean, a little bit of everything. Like from beginning to end, we have a client right now. We’re like, it and stack it. So tips and tricks anywhere from, well, and that’s a client that’s not an investor, but you know pack it and stack it and applying the four Ds. And then the D is in the detail. We’re getting that beginning to end. You know maybe a hoarder’s house that we’re taking video of. We’re showing us just talking about, hey, this subject came up. Let’s talk about

first impressions. That’s what’s coming out on our YouTube channel right now is first impressions and we’re walking that seller through every room of the house. When that buyer walks in, what is the first impression? Starting with driving down the street and seeing the home and then walking into the home, seeing the flow of the home, the kitchen, the bathrooms, everything that applies to that buyer and seeing it from the buyer’s point of view. What to think about when you’re staging a home. You know, there’s there’s countless subjects that we we have too many thoughts and ideas. Oh yeah.

it was on and on, like, you know, how to choose the right paint color, how to choose the right hardware, how to, you know, what things to think about when you’re looking at new fixtures for the home. And, and, and novice investors, what we find is those, those questions are hard to answer. I’m going to go with this color and it’s like brown. No, no, no, you need a white that’s leaning towards brown. So just those types of things and like the lighting, remember we had the thing with the lighting. Yeah, but like what shade of light bulbs should you choose? There’s so many little tiny details that

into those decisions that are made and yeah we’re finding that’s kind of coming on our plate I guess.

Michelle Kesil (13:04)
Yeah, what are some of the common decisions that maybe people like ask for your support with that they think they know how to do but you guys have to help them out with?

Savvy Home Sellers (13:17)
Yeah.

Yeah. Well, I had a lot of things come to my head just now. was thinking of just the blue paint with other paring clients. She picked a paint and didn’t advise us. And no, she’s like, I just picked something that I really like. And it was like fluorescent blue. And I told her, let’s save that for your home that we’re going to be shopping for. But for this home, let’s keep it as neutral as we can. We added a little bit of gray and mixed it and we actually got the perfect shape. It’s very So I’m glad she we almost made a bad decision.

and she consulted me right in time when she was at the paint store. So we were able to get that shade correct. that, that, those decisions affect bottom line. So we don’t want to, we, don’t want our clients to make those poor choices. We want to have that project ready. Like these are the choices that are going to come down the pike, prepare for what we need to prepare for, be flexible with what we need to be flexible with. You know, it’s not easy getting a home ready, you know, a small design, a job or something that’s a complete tear down remodel. There’s,

lots and lots and lots of choices. Yeah and 30 years ago you would you know you look in a book and you have addresses that you have to choose from you have to go see them so there’s there’s that’s a different process than now you’re on your phone and you have one second to make a decision you like it or don’t like it next like like it or don’t like it next and that’s how quick it goes so that’s why the impact of staging is so much more important and relevant now than ever.

Michelle Kesil (15:27)
Yeah, what are some maybe examples of houses that you or people that you’ve worked with where like the advice and the solutions that you’ve provided have helped themselves?

Savvy Home Sellers (15:41)
Should we talk about Long Beach? I was going to say, should we talk about Irvine? OK. Let’s start with Irvine. Which one was Long Beach, Paula Verde? Yeah, Paula Verde. But that was Yeah, let’s talk about that. So wait, what was the question? Wait, it’s some specific examples. So.

Michelle Kesil (15:55)
Yeah,

just like an example of how your guys’ advice and staging and your prep helped a seller get to their bottom line faster or smoother, whatever.

Savvy Home Sellers (16:05)
Well, let’s put them on Irvine because there was a real, like at

night and day. So, so um a, a client hired me to be their agent and it was already staged. The property was already staged and so…

Laura, we’re a team, so I said my girl is coming in and the first thing I noticed was the photos. Just like Laura just said, a buyer has a very short time to flip through their phone and look at the photos. It’s so important that the photos are…

prioritize, let’s say. And so I immediately noticed their home wasn’t selling, so I immediately noticed that there wasn’t any flow. The furniture was touching, was back to back. The dining chairs- too large for the space. Yeah, the furniture was too large for the space and there was too much of it. And so we- And the style wasn’t quite the style wasn’t matching the architecture. No, it was like a coastal feel for the furniture and then it was kind of an art deco building.

So that was classy already. As soon as you walk in, there’s no cohesiveness there. So that that felt disconnected. let me interrupt you. What happens to the buyers? So this is for any seller and investor, any seller. OK. What happens to the buyer is they get turned off. They see the photo or they walk into the open house and they don’t know why, but they’re like, I don’t know why

What’s gonna happen in that situation when they see that room it’s gonna look too small. Yeah, that’s too small Yeah, there’s no room in there. Yeah, and I can’t see and the rug was oversized and it was covering the really beautiful floor That’s a problem because we’re not trying to sell the rug We’re trying to sell the house with the floor so and I feel like that’s one thing that makes us Different is that we’re looking at the the features of the home. We’re not here to show you furniture We’re not here to show you. look at this beautiful

couch that’s in our… No, we’re here to show the features of the home and create a space inviting neutral space like we keep saying. That buyer needs to see themselves on in the on their phone flipping through and seeing themselves living there enough to go book an appointment either with their agent or show up at open house and then see themselves living there. hmm… Everything that we do needs to elevate the home property and the value of the home and not distract from it. Yes and so we made changes and we got really really

good feedback you could actually like get from the front door to the back door to the stairs. The sight lines changed before your eyes were stopping at like a painting now you were looking outside a window. house looks so much bigger sorry I didn’t interrupt you. No, that’s OK yeah the house looks so much bigger it showed better in photos and then we had more traffic and now we’re getting an offer. Yay! Yay!

Michelle Kesil (18:45)
Amazing, I love that. Yeah, that’s I feel like something that people don’t think about yet makes such a difference.

Savvy Home Sellers (18:51)
Yes, would say flow. Flow is important. We, we don’t talk enough about feng shui because feng shui has so many principles in itself. But as far as just having flow through the house, that from one walkway to another, that people know exactly which way they’re supposed to go and there’s no obstructions, that’s very important when it comes to what we do.

I wish I had more examples for that too, like maybe in B-roll or something. It seems, it seems trivial. ⁓ Flo, who cares about Flo? But if a person can picture themselves living there, picturing their TV where they want their TV and they can see themselves kicking their feet up and watching the next Dodger-Toronto game, then that’s a good thing. We want them to picture themselves living in that home. Double French doors are very expensive, right? So if we’re

Michelle Kesil (19:13)
Yeah.

Savvy Home Sellers (19:39)
blocking those from being used, that’s a problem. Yeah And it affects the bottom line.

Michelle Kesil (19:44)
Absolutely. How are you guys? Do you have a specific networking strategy where you meet your sellers?

Savvy Home Sellers (19:56)
Our main one is we’re both very connected to our real estate association in Orange County, which is Orange County Realtors. We both have hold leadership positions in our industry. We attend Broker Preview, which is ⁓ the largest networking meeting in our area in Huntington Beach. So we know everybody there. We’ve established ourselves as a go to people as the specialists in this specific arena.

So if they’re, they know if they’re having issues, they need a contract, they have a contractor and they’re needing help, they come to us and we can get them plugged in. Even if it’s not us that’s actually helping them, we can get them connected to the right people.

Yeah, connected and there’s chamber events. There’s an Orange County, whatever event tonight. So we have, we’re not shy. have no problem introducing ourselves to a little pretty animals. So we love getting out there and meeting people and just connecting and connecting with anyone. mean, any, any contractor in our business, plumber, contractors, electricians, you know, seeing who they know and who we can help. We’re here to help. And we operate with an entire team. Like we don’t, I can’t, we can’t do this ourselves. So we have to. No I can’t dot it myself.

know the right people, be connected to the right people to help us get jobs done really quickly and very well. The quality is not ever going to be compromised in what we do, especially with these top end coastal homes in Orange County.

Michelle Kesil (21:17)
Absolutely, that’s so important. Knowing the right people and networking and relationships are everything in this space.

Awesome. So before we wrap up here, if people want to reach out, connect, learn more from you guys, where can people find you?

Savvy Home Sellers (21:36)
you

We have a YouTube channel called Savvy Home Sellers, so you can find us on YouTube. Laura has her staging company and she’s a realtor, so you can, her name is Laura, well, you can introduce yourself. I’m Mickey Tameifuna And hopefully you’ll put our names on the screen, because my last name is complicated. My first name is the same as Mickey Mouse, M-I-C-K-E-Y. And you can find us all over social media, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, all over. I’m Laura Palacios ⁓ My business is Spatial Expressions.

And Laura.Palace or spatial.expressions for Instagram and Facebook.

Michelle Kesil (22:12)
Perfect, well, I appreciate your time, your story, and your perspective. Thank you guys for being here.

Savvy Home Sellers (22:19)
Thank you so much, Michelle, for having us. We really appreciate the opportunity. Thank you. Absolutely

Michelle Kesil (22:24)
Of course, my pleasure. And for the listeners tuning in, if you got value, make sure you’ve subscribed. We’ve got more conversations with operators like Mickey and Laura who are building real businesses. We’ll see you all on our next episode.

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How Smart Sellers Are Boosting Their Home Value Before Listing

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