May 27, 2016 | Home Seller Tips
Many people think that staging a home effectively is a matter of money, but there are easy ways to dress it up and make it shine that don’t come with a high cost. If you’re looking for some economical tips that will go a long way in making a positive impression, here are a few ways to get your home prepared.
Pack Away The Personal
There are certain unique features in any house that can have a positive impact on potential homebuyers, but personal items will actually make it harder for guests to imagine themselves in your home. For a cost-free save, ensure that you pack away personal mementos and pictures so that guests aren’t distracted by the details of your life.
Keep It Clutter Free
An untidy home will have an instantly negative impact on the perception of your visitors, so you may want to enlist the help of your entire family to clean it from top to bottom. Instead of keeping papers and magazines that have been sitting around for years, sift through any coffee table piles and bedroom corners and discard all the things that will catch the eye too easily.
Take Out The Toolbox
If you’ve been postponing a few minor fix-ups like a damaged shelf or a loose door, now is the time to head to the hardware store and get these jobs done. Potential homebuyers will be looking at every aspect of your home, and maintenance will figure heavily into how interested they are, so an inability to deal with the small details can cue them to a home they shouldn’t invest in.
Do A Deep Clean
Cleaning the house, especially a sizeable one, can be the bane of many a homeowner but there’s no other time that cleaning properly is more important than when you’re staging it. While a dirty, dusty house may mean your guests won’t pay attention to your home’s best features, a newly clean home will provide visitors with a blank canvas from which to draw their conclusions.
From major overhauls to unique decorations that draw the eye, there are many great ways to stage a home, but making the small fixes and doing a deep clean are easy to do and don’t require a lot of cash. If you’re preparing to put your home on the market, you may want to contact one of our local real estate professionals for more information.
May 25, 2016 | Home Seller Tips
Many people think that staging a home effectively is a matter of money, but there are easy ways to dress it up and make it shine that don’t come with a high cost. If you’re looking for some economical tips that will go a long way in making a positive impression, here are a few ways to get your home prepared.
Pack Away The Personal
There are certain unique features in any house that can have a positive impact on potential homebuyers, but personal items will actually make it harder for guests to imagine themselves in your home. For a cost-free save, ensure that you pack away personal mementos and pictures so that guests aren’t distracted by the details of your life.
Keep It Clutter Free
An untidy home will have an instantly negative impact on the perception of your visitors, so you may want to enlist the help of your entire family to clean it from top to bottom. Instead of keeping papers and magazines that have been sitting around for years, sift through any coffee table piles and bedroom corners and discard all the things that will catch the eye too easily.
Take Out The Toolbox
If you’ve been postponing a few minor fix-ups like a damaged shelf or a loose door, now is the time to head to the hardware store and get these jobs done. Potential homebuyers will be looking at every aspect of your home, and maintenance will figure heavily into how interested they are, so an inability to deal with the small details can cue them to a home they shouldn’t invest in.
Do A Deep Clean
Cleaning the house, especially a sizeable one, can be the bane of many a homeowner but there’s no other time that cleaning properly is more important than when you’re staging it. While a dirty, dusty house may mean your guests won’t pay attention to your home’s best features, a newly clean home will provide visitors with a blank canvas from which to draw their conclusions.
From major overhauls to unique decorations that draw the eye, there are many great ways to stage a home, but making the small fixes and doing a deep clean are easy to do and don’t require a lot of cash. If you’re preparing to put your home on the market, you may want to contact one of our local real estate professionals for more information.
May 24, 2016 | Home Seller Tips
The spring is the most popular time of the year when it comes to real estate, and it’s a good time for a few fix ups if you’re putting your home on the market. While you may have a lot of different things to do before you’re ready for your first showing, here are the four things to keep at the top of the list.
Complete The Forgotten-About Fixes
If you’ve lived in your home for a while, it’s entirely possible that there’s a damaged baseboard or broken door latch that you haven’t gotten around to fixing; however, these are the things that a potential buyer will quickly notice. Instead of leaving it to chance, make a note of the little fixes and complete them before you set a date for a showing.
Do A Spring Clean
Packing up all of your stuff for a big move can be quite a gargantuan task, but taking advantage of spring-cleaning to clear out some old stuff will make the selling process a lot smoother. Not only will this force you to look at your home with new eyes, it means there will be little less to organize and de-clutter when it comes to staging time.
Break Out The Paint Cans
It’s important to stay away from colors that are too bold, but taking your brush to the paint can bring a lot to what viewers will take away from your home. Instead of a dull coat or chip marks, potential homebuyers will see your home in its best light. As painting your home can be quite a sizeable task, make sure you take this on well in advance of putting your home up for sale.
Check Out The Exterior
There’s often enough cleaning to do inside the home that the exterior is forgotten about, but this is the first thing a new visitor to your property will see. Instead of sticking to the inside, make sure that your lawn is mowed, any flowers beds are well groomed, and make sure that nothing appears out of place or disheveled.
There’s a lot to be done before putting your home on the market, but by following these tips you’ll be well on your way to a positive home staging. If you’re almost ready to sell and are weighing your options, contact your trusted real estate professional for more information.
May 20, 2016 | Home Seller Tips
From the cleaning to the organizing to the small fix-ups around the house, there can be a lot of minor details that go into staging a successful open house. However, there are a few essential items you should be sure not to forget about when you prep your home for an influx of potential buyers.
Choose The Right Time
If you happen to be selling your home in the busy season, it’s important to set your open house at a time that gives potential buyers room to breathe. While weekends are a popular time for open houses, you may want to choose a day or time that is a little different from other homes in your area. This means visitors to your home will be able to take their time and really see the details that make your home distinct and worth a second look.
The Exterior Speaks Volumes
With so much cleaning and so many small maintenance duties, it can be easy to forget about the first thing that guests will see when they show up at your doorstep, the exterior. However, this will provide the initial impression so you’ll want to ensure that it’s a positive one. Before organizing your open house, make sure the lawn is cleared and cut, the hedges are trimmed and your doorway is well maintained.
Make The Marketing Count
If you’ve primed your home for your open house, it’s important to ensure your marketing efforts are up to snuff and will get people through the door. While your real estate agent should feature your home and some professional photos on their website, you should also consider handing out flyers to your neighbors and advertising on social media to reach anyone who might be interested.
Engage All The Senses
It might sound strange, but a house that smells and sounds good in addition to a house that looks good can actually work wonders in swinging a buyer in the direction of your home. While having a clean, clutter-free place is ideal, you may want to consider baking beforehand or even leaving a little music on so people will feel relaxed and right at home.
There are a lot of little tricks that go into a successful open house and it’s important to utilize all of them to get the best results. If you’re putting your home on the market, contact your trusted local real estate professional for more information.
May 5, 2016 | Home Seller Tips
Many people rely on the price they paid for their home as a starting point for selling, but with the ever-shifting tides of the real estate market, the price paid is not always the best metric to go by. If you’re putting your home up for sale and are looking for the ideal price point, here are some ways you can arrive at a number that will keep potential buyers interested.
Check Out Your Neighborhood
Your house may have a lot of different features than the homes of your neighbors, but checking out what real estate in your area is selling for can still be a good means of determining the price you’ll be able to ask for. Instead of just perusing the pricing, ensure you’re looking at the listings for what’s been successfully sold in your neighborhood as only this will allow you to determine the conditions of the market and what people will be prepared to offer.
Complete A Home Inspection
Instead of being surprised by repairs that need to be completed after an offer price has been accepted, organizing a home inspection before your home is sold can make a difference in the price you’re able to ask for. Not only will this provide you with a determination of what needs to be repaired or overhauled, it can be a boon to potential buyers who won’t have to worry about your inspection revealing any hidden flaws.
Utilize Your Agent’s Advice
Even if you’ve done your research and carefully considered the value of your home, it can still be complicated to come up with the right price, so be sure to enlist an agent who will be able to determine a fair amount with you. Since your agent has no attachment to your home, they’ll be able to objectively strike the right balance between what won’t sell and what’s too low. The right price, after all, may mean you’ll get to spend a lot less time selling it.
There are a lot of factors that go into arriving at the proper asking price for your home, but by organizing a home inspection and being aware of what’s going on in the market, you should be able to arrive at a reasonable sum. If you’re planning on putting your home on the market soon, contact your local real estate professional for more information.
Apr 13, 2016 | Home Seller Tips
Whether you’ve done a lot of research on the real estate market or you’ve sold a home before, you may be aware that there can be a lot of trepidation around how long your house remains up for sale. If you’re concerned about your home’s market potential, here’s what you need to know about “Days on Market” and how it can impact your home sale.
“Days on Market” Explained
A fairly no-nonsense phrase, Days on Market (DOM) refers to how long a home has been listed on the real estate market. The DOM stat can be found on many Multiple List Systems (MLS), and this can be seen as a signifier to agents and buyers of a home’s overall popularity. The way days on the market is determined varies from listing to listing, but the common belief is that after a certain period of time, a home’s valuation can be diminished.
What It Means To Potential Homebuyers
When it comes to real estate, the general hope is that a home will sell within the first 60 days of being put up for sale, and this is why the DOM can say a lot to potential buyers about your home’s value. While people may assume that a home that’s been sitting on the market for longer than this timeframe is either overpriced or in poor condition, there are ways the seller can get past this hiccup and still have selling success.
If “Days on Market” Are Adding Up
In the event that the first 30 days are drawing to a close and you haven’t received any offers, you may want to sit down with your real estate agent and decide on a new strategy together. While a home without offers can be a sign that your price is too high, you may also need to switch to an agent that will take a more assertive approach to selling. It can even be a good idea to remove your home from the market so the DOM can go back down to 0 and you can start from scratch.
A DOM in the double digits can often signal to buyers that there are issues with your home or asking price, so it’s important to keep this in mind when your home is on the market. If you have questions, contact your trusted real estate professional for more information.
