What is your home worth in Westlake Village CA? Are you thinking about selling your home but you're not sure what it is worth? The value of your home is determined by a number of factors, including the selling price of other homes in your area. You can try to search on Zillow.com or Realtor.com but these sites will not give you accurate results. A professional Realtor will give you accurate comparables taking into consideration many factors that an appraiser would consider. To see what some houses in your area have sold for recently, click here. 10/23/2010

If you've decided to start blogging about real estate, we congratulate you. A blog can go a long way to bringing visitors to your real estate site. It also can create for you the "brand" as the real estate expert in your selling area.       Some other things a blog can do: It will let people know that you are friendly and approachable, as well as knowledgeable. Readers will come to believe they "know" you. They'll come to trust you and, when they're in the market to buy or sell property, they'll want to work with someone they know -- you! You can start blogging easily enough. Just go to Blogger.com or Wordpress.com, or even Typepad.com and sign up for a free blog. Be sure to have a link to your RE website on the blog. You also should make a prominent tab on your website that will lead v... 10/22/2010

Many SEO companies are out there vying for your business, so you may be thinking to yourself, "how do I choose the right company?" As a company that does SEO specifically for the real estate market, we thought we could give you some tips to help you avoid the ones that take your money, but deliver little in the way of results. 1) The company promises you the stars and the galaxy for very little money. Thorough and well-done optimization of your site doesn't come cheaply. It's not necessarily expensive, but if a company promises you a great site that comes up first in the search engines immediately -- which is very difficult to do in the ultra-competitive real estate market -- you'll want to think twice about signing on with this company. In addition, if the company promises you high ran... 10/22/2010

Conejo Valley Real Estate is going stong on FACEBOOK. Receive the latest updates about local real estate, listings, real estate news and market updates. Get connected to local real estate information for the Conejo Valley (Agoura Hills, Oak Park, Westlake Village, North Ranch, Lake Sherwood, Thousand Oaks, Newbury Park). Be the first to know when celebrities are buying or selling in the area! Get the scoop and become a fan of Conejo Valley Real Estate on FACEBOOK! 10/22/2010

Get your community reports for the Conejo Valley area and surrounding cities. Community and school reports include detailed demographic, school, employment, housing and climatic information for any area and zip code in the U.S. Start your search today! 10/21/2010

If you are facing foreclosure in Westlake Village CA or the surrounding areas of the Conejo Valley, Thousand Oaks, Newbury Park, Agoura Hills, Oak Park, North Ranch, Wood Ranch, Simi Valley, Camarillo, Ventura and Oxnard, click here to read about the guidance you can receive. You may want to speak with a foreclosure counselor, you may need legal advice. You also may need to know what your options are such as short selling your home. Find the answers you need. Just click here to read more. 10/21/2010

Searching for homes in Westlake Village CA is easy. Just click here and register only once, then come back as often as you like and search for homes in Westlake Village, Thousand Oaks, Newbury Park, Agoura Hills, Oak Park, North Ranch, Lake Sherwood, Simi Valley, Moorpark, Camarillo, Ventura, Oxnard, Calabasas, and all Southern California cities. If you want to search for rentals in Westlake Village CA just click here and register only once, then get started! This search page will give you listings for homes and rentals in any Southern California City. Feel free to contact us with questions. 805-750-8896 or email us at cclayton@troop.com. 10/20/2010

Thousands of homeowners trying to receive relief from too-high mortgage payments are descending on the LA Convention Center between now and Monday. Bringing pay stubs, mortgage documents, credit reports and letters from their lenders, homeowners are hopeful they will get an answer to their mortgage payment problems on the the same day.  It is a a free, five-day, around-the-clock mortgage modification bonanza, and has hundreds of counselors bank representative. You must be able to verify your income and be prepared with your financial documents. If you can pull this information together and get down to the convention center, you could get a loan modification on the spot! Many people in attendance have been trying to achieve a loan modification for 2 years or more. Their lenders have, for... 09/30/2010

When you've decided to hire an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) company to create and optimize a website for your real estate business, you may be wondering how to choose one. As a company that specializes in search engine optimization, we thought we would give you a few tips. Yes, we're biased on this count, but we highly recommend you find an SEO company that specializes in websites for real estate professionals. Real estate websites face extremely tough competition and therefore have needs that are different from those of other businesses. So we think you should find an SEO company that understands the competition you're up against. Real estate-only SEO companies also have the added benefit of knowing exactly what works -- and what doesn't work -- for real estate websites. Regardless... 09/29/2010

This is Part 3  for this Westlake Village Bathroom Remodel.  For previous posts on the progress of this project, please see: I Love the Demolition Phase  and  ..... Tile and Stone and Paint - OH MY! This is simply the final before and after shots as well as a few details on the final selections. You see, Platinum Home Staging, Inc. is so much more than just Professional Home Staging.  We also provide full service Interior Design and Decor, and are located right here in the heart of the Conejo Valley.  In fact, we are currently the ONLY Interior Design Company in Southern CA that is endorsed by Pottery Barn.   For stones and finishes, see the previous post, ..... Tile and Stone and Paint - OH MY!  The new vanity, although smaller in scale, didn't need to accommodate a lot of storage.  Th... 09/26/2010

When you're ready to build or improve your real estate website, be sure to get as many MLS listings on it as possible. Even your competitors' listings!! That's correct. Place your competitors' listings on your website. You'll get more business as a result! RealtyTech.com has created an MLS listings search system unparalleled to any other on the market. Our home search system allows your visitors to see homes that fit their needs (location, price, amenities, etc.) on your site, whether they're your listings, your real estate colleagues' listings or those of a competing real estate firm. Don't know what an IDX MLS property search is? Read our previous blog post to find out! People looking to buy a house search the Internet for listings. They're not going online to look for real estate pro... 09/20/2010

This is Part 2 of 3 of this Westlake Village Bathroom Remodel.  Part 1 was, "We Love the Demolition Phase" which showed the initial process that change and progress were about to be made not only in the home, but in the lives of the Home Owners. You see, Platinum Home Staging, Inc. is so much more than just Professional Home Staging.  We also provide full service Interior Design and Decor, and are located right here in the heart of the Conejo Valley.  In fact, we are currently the ONLY Interior Design Company in Southern CA that is endorsed by Pottery Barn. This dated bathroom had 30 year old tiles in the shower, green slate floors and a red marble vanity counter top.  Nothing matched, not a single element was cohesive, and this was THE guest powder and bath room that every Guest uses w... 09/18/2010

Great Home Staging doesn't have to break your bank, especially if you are still living in your home.  Recently My Company  was called by a Seller in the North Ranch area of Westlake Village, CA.  She wants to sell her home to move on with her life, maybe even tour the world. But listing against 3 other homes within a block of her own, she knew that her home needed to stand out.  However the Living Room of her home was completely void of furniture simply because she, "never knew what to do with it."  Since this was the first room that potential Buyers see as they enter the home, it really needed to have that "WOW" factor.   Bringing in high end furniture, large scale artwork and an amazing area rug to anchor the space made for show stopping results. The room is now beautiful, functional ... 09/17/2010

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Nelson Mandela Westlake Village, California is conveniently located close to several higher education institutions in western Los Angeles and eastern Ventura Counties. Westlake Village adjoins Thousand Oaks, Agoura Hills and Newbury Park as the Conejo Valley. When considering relocating to our area, note our close proximity to some great schools. One doesn't have to travel all the way into LA (USC or UCLA) to get a great education! California Lutheran University (CLU) is located in the center of Thousand Oaks, convenient to the 101, 23 and 118 Freeways. The University offers undergraduate, graduate and professional programs: http://www.clu.edu Pepperdine University is located in Malibu on the Pacific Coast Hig... 09/13/2010

If you want to get more clients pretty quickly and if you have a good-sized budget, you may want to think about using PPC (pay-per-click) to attract buyers and sellers to your real estate business. Just in case you don't know what PPC is, you see the results of someone's PPC campaign every time you search for something using keywords. When someone, for example, types in "house for sale Alhambra" in a search engine, two kinds of results show up. "Organic" (or free) results show up on a search results page below the PPC ads, almost always those highlighted ads/links that show up at the top and on the right side of a search engine results page. ** Pay-per-click gets its name because advertisers pay a - - certain amount each time someone happens to click on their ad. ** To start a PPC campa... 09/13/2010

     Sweet Arleen's: Sweet Arleen's is located at 960 South Westlake Blvd Suite #4 in Westlake Village, CA, on the corner of Westlake Blvd and Townsgate, right off the 101 Freeway, south 1 block on Westlake Blvd from the freeway. They bake a fresh on-site daily selection of boutique-style cupcakes and bread irresistable gourmet delight. Sweet Arleen's is hosting a FALL CUPCAKE CHALLENGE - Three top winners will receive a dozen of their winning cupcakes as prepared by Sweet Arleen's, a Sweet Reward's card for free sweet treats, and the notoriety of being a Sweet Arleen's Cupcake Challenge Winner! Deadline for entries is 12:00 midnight PST on September 17, 2010. Winners will be notified by October 1, 2010. CLICK HERE TO ENTER. I hope you enjoy this treat as much as I do! Kathy Smiley, REA... 09/09/2010

If you're looking for yet another reason to move to the Conejo Valley, one the best things about living here is the fact that we are soooo close to the beaches in Malibu. One of my favorites is Paradise Cove, right off the Pacific Coast Highway and Kanan Rd, in Malibu. Paradise Cove is a private beach, so you will have to pay to park. They will stamp your parking pass if you buy a little something at the Paradise Cove Restuarant. (Mojito, maybe?) It's an easy, 20 minute drive through the Santa Monica/ Malibu mountains from the Ventura Freeway on Kanan Road at Agoura HIlls. Why not enjoy a little time at the beach with the kids and friends before school starts. You'll be glad you did!   08/30/2010

.....It means that progress and change are about to take place. While the above picture may frighten most, we at Platinum Home Staging  are perfectly comfortable with being "Under Construction".  This is NOT a Home Staging project, THIS is a full Interior Design project getting underway in the beautiful city of Westlake Village, CAright in the heart of the Conejo Valley. You see, Platinum Home Staging, Inc. does Staging, plus SO much more. In fact, we are currently the ONLY INTERIOR DESIGN COMPANY in Southern CA that is endorsed by POTTERY BARN.  Our Design Professionals, Contractors and Tradesmen are ALL Fully Licensed and Insured and we will see you through from the initial concept to full completion. Check back often with us as we walk you through this home's amazing transformation w... 08/29/2010

Before we define what an IDX Home Search System is, ask yourself a few questions: What is that people really search for when they go to a real estate website? Is it the background and work history of the agent or Realtor? Is it how customer-service oriented an agent is? No. What people who visit a real estate agent's website truly look for -- at least at first -- are the home listings! Most of a visitor's time -- about 90 percent -- is spent looking at property listings. So, what is IDX? In short IDX is an acronym that means Internet Data eXchange, which a very technical way of saying a data feed of all the active real estate listings in your MLS available to be displayed on your real estate website. Now that you are aware of the definition of IDX remember that not all IDX’s are created... 08/24/2010

Slip on a Good Attitude - Sunday Might Be Your Best Day of the Week! While they may seem a tad old-fashioned in these high-tech days of facebook, twitter, Activerain, direct email marketing, SEO expertise, etc, Open Houses achieve several things: #1 - good will with the seller; #2 - friendly interchange with the neighbors; #3 - direct contact with buyers actively looking for a home; #4 - potential referrals  (how many people are out there "looking" for a parent, friend or child? Plenty! These are the people who will refer the knowledgable, friendly agent sitting Sunday's open house.) #5 - neighborhood visual exposure by having your signs on every corner; #6 - a great opportunity to sharpen your skills with one-on-one conversation (everyone can use the practice); #7 - practice aggressive... 08/24/2010