As we all know, it is tougher now than usual to sell a home. Buyers are apprehensive due to our country’s economic recession. Those that are ready to buy are expecting a lot in their future homes. Obviously it is important to have your home priced correctly. Hiring an experienced real estate agent to advise you and looking at comparable properties that have sold in your area will help dictate an appropriate price. In addition, sellers need to do everything they can to make their homes look appealing to buyers. To help you out, I have compiled a list of things sellers can do to bring out the best in their homes. First and foremost, a home on the market needs to have curb appeal. You do not want potential buyers to drive buy your home and keep driving because the outside appearance has deterred them! This means you have to do your homework, literally. It is important to keep the grass mowed, bushes trimmed, and walkways power washed. Keep the entrance nice and inviting. Potted plants, hanging ferns, lighted entryways, and doormats are a great start. Just don’t go overboard! This idea ties in with my next tip . . . keep everything uncluttered, both outside and inside the home. It is really important to declutter your home so that potential buyers can actually see your home, not all of your possessions. Also, having fewer nicknacks around actually makes your space seem larger. Start by taking down the majority of your family pictures. Clean out your closets, so it appears there is ample storage. Get rid of extra bulky furniture. You can put all of these things in storage until you move. If you are anything like me, these are probably all things you need to do anyway. Buyers like to be able to imagine themselves is a space. To do this a seller needs to keep everything neutral to appeal to the majority of buyers. So if you have some wild paint colors, tone them down. A fresh coat of paint always spruces up a room. Now this may sound simple, but you would be surprised that not every abides by tip #4. Clean your house! Nothing is more repulsive than touring someone else’s mess! Make sure the kitchen and bathrooms shine! Dust everything off. Get rid of unpleasant odors, especially from pets. This means steam cleaning your carpets, removing kitty litter, and making arrangements so your pet is not there when your home is being shown. Finally, any simple fixes you can do to your home should be done. This may mean fixing a leaky faucet, replacing outdated fixtures, or simply making sure things in your home work as they should. You want a buyer to see all of the positive things in your home instead of making a mental list of things that need to be done. When you list your home on the market, try to keep these five tips in mind. Remember that while these things may not be your taste, it may help sell your home. These things will take time and effort. The sooner your house sells, however, the sooner you can begin the next chapter of your life!
Archive for June, 2010
Top 5 Tips For Selling Your Home
Tips For a Spring Home Sale
In the colder months, as long as your plants are trimmed, and pathways are shoveled, it doesn’t matter if the lawn is mowed or gardens are weeded. Selling your home in the Spring poses a new set of challenges that we don’t see during the winter. When potential buyers drive up and see a cluttered yard, a spotty lawn, or an untended garden, it forms an impression that they will carry with them as they tour through the rest of the house. A positive first impression goes a long way to increasing your chances of an offer. Use this list as a guide to getting your home in shape for a Spring sale. Give your lawn the attention it deserves after a long cold winter. Apply a weed killer that contains nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium to build it up a little. If you’re really motivated, take a soil sample to check the pH level. If the pH reads below 6. 0 you can improve this by spreading lime on your lawn. If it is above 7. 0, apply an acidifying agent such as gardener’s sulfur. When it’s time to cut your lawn, raise the blade to about 3 inches to reduce stress on grass and decrease the need for water. Get out your pruners and trim overgrowth on shrubs and branches. Reduce the chance of mold by ensuring all plant material is kept at least one foot from your siding. Get rid of the weeds now, before they really become a problem. Mulch, Mulch, Mulch! This is the easiest, fastest, and cheapest way to make a garden shine instantly. Chipped mulches tend to last longer than the shredded versions, but the latter do look more stunning. Spread it on thick, stand back and prepare to “wow” potential buyers. Clean up your edges. Define the borders of your gardens by edging them. Run a length of hose or tie a string between two sticks to get a straight line, and using a flat-ended spade, dig a little trough about four to six inches into the dirt. Voila – instant border without the cost. Rev up the power washer. Power wash the porch, walkway, lawn furniture, eaves, siding, and windows. Stay away from soffit vents or other openings where moisture can cause damage. After washing your windows, double check them from inside the house when the sun is shining through. Sometimes you think they’re clean, only to discover they are filled with unsightly streaks when exposed to the afternoon sun. Get out the paint can and short of repainting the whole porch or fence, at least touch up any tired or worn areas. Pay special attention to the front steps and entrance. Invest in a fresh welcome mat to show off your entry. Make your garden come alive by planting bright and colorful annuals. Perennials are great for long term planting, but for quick color, use vibrant geraniums, impatiens, marigolds and petunias. Place some hanging baskets at your entrance or a large container filled with greenery. They aren’t planted in your gardens, so you can take them with you when you move. Find a shady area between two posts or trees and hang a hammock. Show potential buyers what a comfortable, relaxed place your home can be. Create small zones or gathering areas around a focal point. If you have a fountain, or bird bath, place a couple of chairs nearby to give the impression of a seating area. Finally, stand back and view your home from the road to see if you have a favorable first impression.
Green-Staging Your Home
It’s a buyer’s market and selling homes for their maximum sale price is hard in these days of foreclosures and short sales. You’ve heard that home staging is the way to go, but you don’t want to rip out perfectly good fixtures in order to make your home shine. Is there a way you can improve your home’s appearance without putting a huge strain on the environment? The answer is yes!Cleaning is the number 1 home stager’s weapon. Nothing can take the place of soap and water when it comes to marketing your home. Clean homes smell better – even if you or the buyer doesn’t notice it – and look better. Invest in some orange oil cleansers for a fresh citrus scent and scrub, scrub, scrub! Instead of replacing bathroom fixtures, clean and polish them. Have your home powerwashed if it is covered with vinyl siding. You may want to repaint your home’s exterior and interior to give it a fresh, new look. There are low- and no-VOC (volatile organic compounds – bad environmental juju) paints available and recycled paint made from bucket leftovers. By carefully cleaning your brushes and rollers, you can make them last longer and be usable for more paint jobs in the future. Trays can also be cleaned and reused. Reusable dropcloths can be used for years instead of temporary plastic ones. Instead of buying new furniture, reupholster, recover or repair the old. Many chairs and tables only want a couple of turns of their screws to steady out wobbles and a new coat of that recycled paint can make them shine again. You can also buy or make inexpensive slipcovers to quickly and easily cover your couches and chairs to harmonize with your living and bed room walls. Secondhand, good quality bedspreads can completely transform the look of your bed, as can a coat of paint applied to most frames. In the kitchen, cleaning and staining old kitchen cabinets can give them an entirely new look, which is cheaper and less wasteful than buying new ones. When it comes to the kitchen, replacing old appliances with new can be better for the environment – replace your old stove and refrigerator with ENERGY STAR certified ones, which use less energy than appliances from former years. (And don’t forget to buy certified appliances for your new home!) Your old appliances can be disposed of at your local recycling or reclaim center. Bathrooms are another place where ENERGY STAR rated appliances can be better than the old and more appealing to environmentally-minded buyers. Low-water flush toilets can save a lot on water and water-efficient shower heads are a great selling point. This is one room that cannot be too clean, given its purpose. Everything should be sparkling, especially the toilet! You cannot be too scrupulous in this regard. Flooring can be updated with merely a good cleaning. Further work on hardwood floors can be effected by repairing isolated spots, sanding and restaining. Carpets can sometimes look completely new with a thorough vacuuming and steam cleaning. Carpets can also be dyed to remove the traces of stains and provide a more uniform appearance to the room. Keep in mind, however, that some carpets can’t be dyed and a carpet can only be dyed darker, not lighter. Preparing your home for sale, while still trying to keep wastage to a minimum can be easy! Just adhere to the principles of “reduce, reuse and recycle” for an environmentally responsible home staging.
Home Business Means Knowing When to Say “No”
When friends and relations find out that you work at home, a image pops into their minds pretty much straight away. It strength be of you laze about, or maybe of you education them how to do what you do. It’s not often a sensible picture. People just usually feel free to make demands of people who work at home that they wouldn’t consider making of other people. They want your time or services. They don’t appreciate what you do or how important it is that you keep working. Some people will just come up to you and ask if you can (fill in the blank, but keep it clean) for them. Maybe it relates to what you do at home or maybe they just want a babysitter for their kids. In any case, it’s probably completely ignoring the value of your time. These are the things you have to learn to say “no” to. No, you won’t create a free website for them. No, you don’t have the time to watch their children for them for no pay. No you won’t (fill in the blank. Are you still keeping it clean?). Yes, sometimes you can decide to give someone a freebie. If you do this, make sure you explain what you in general charge, and that you won’t keep responsibility it for free. You need to build admiration for what you do at home. The other confront is idle repartee during your best operational hours. It may be retire neighbors.
Tips and Tricks to a Clean and Clutter-Free Home
Cleaning is such a ghastly activity, above all to busy moms like me. One thing I erudite as I went through this whole SAHMhood (Stay at Home Mom) procedure am to clean as I go. I pick up the mess little by little as it has no chance to collect. Otherwise I would end up attack heaps of junk that would take me ages to come to an end. Make a calendar and stick to it! That’s the basic rule. Expenditure too much time in a room will definitely digression your cleaning strategy. Just note the portions that would need major cleaning or fixation and do it some other time. Don’t leave from one room to another, start at one spot and finish the cleaning at another. This would save you from bringing dirty stuff to a room that you’ve already cleaned. If you don’t have that much time every day, pick at smallest amount two jobs, like dusting the bedrooms and doing the laundry. Vacuum those dusts away as the washing machine is doing its job. This way you have saved valuable time and pointed your laundry and dust piles a bit. My mom taught me to “dust away everyday” to avoid build up. It’s true. Believe me. Keep masses of toys in roofed bins.
Create a Comfortable Atmosphere at Home
Houses are now buildings made by man. There are some made from tangible, while some are built from wood yet strong. No matter what kind of house you have it can never be a home when fundamentally going inside makes you feel painful. Uneasiness is a sign that having expensive furnishings or paying the bills every month is not enough to make a house into a home. Utmost home care and personal attention is very sensible here are a couple of helpful tips to attain that comforts that every man and woman should feel within the walls of their house. Place Sufficient Seating Available This doesn’t mean you need to acquire three sofas that can seat 4 butts each. Think about the number of family members and decide on the best size of furniture to purchase. Go buy a sofa along with a love seat and an arm chair that can house two people. You may also buy two love seats with middle and side tables and bean bags. Ensure that everyone can be accommodated and nobody will be squatting on the floor. Go with Some Pillows Thus, having more pillows income more comfort. However, this does not mean you’re supposed to buy tons of pillows. Just get extra pillows and ensure they are extra soft as well. Get Rugs in The House Cold floors can easily drain the high temperature of a house. If there are rugs to walk around on, the cold under your foot will be easily avoided.
Recycling in a Staged Home
When you’ve got your home on the market it can be difficult to keep up with your regular daily life. Especially in a market like we are experiencing now, where some homes are languishing while they await prospective buyers. One of the areas in your daily life that can be a bit daunting when you’re trying to keep your home in tip top condition is with your recycling. Sometimes recycling can get out of hand, attract insects, or just be downright smelly. Some types of recycling just work best in a kitchen area while others are best relegated to the garage or laundry room. The kitchen is often where people prefer to keep their composting. If you’re composting, make sure you use a composting bin with a charcoal filter on it and empty it before you leave the house if there’s any chance that your house might get shown while you’re out. Try not to leave compost in your kitchen if it’s warm as it can quickly break down and start to smell, making prospective buyers wonder about issues in your kitchen. Most other types of recycling can be delegated to a closet or garage so that they don’t add clutter to your kitchen area while you’ve got the house on the market. Set up a recycling area with some attractive bins; many recycling bins are stackable or modular so that they take up less space and look more attractive.
Do You Really Need a Feng Shui Designer to Sell Your Home?
Feng Shui (pronounced “fong shway”) principles for staging homes and offices is growing ever-more popular. The overall goal of Feng Shui is for one to live in harmony with one’s environment and encourage “positive energy”. The way to this nirvana is apparently to arrange one’s living situation and entire life to fall in with the vagaries of “chi”. Some of the advice that Feng Shui gives the home seller makes sense. It’s a good idea to clear out your clutter and air out the home to provide clean, fresh air. ”Green” or “eco-friendly” cleaning products can be another positive step – they often smell better and are better for you and the environment. Balancing the colors in the home can also be useful if you find a room is too “one color”. However, what Feng Shui devotees attribute to positive energy may just be the result of clearing out clutter, cleaning your home until it sparkles and putting some touch of greenery here and there – things that most home stagers would advise be done anyway. It doesn’t take an esoteric expert to surmise that a home that is easy to move around in and that is clean will be more attractive to buyers. Feng Shui has a darker side as well, with people claiming to be “Feng Shui experts” charging hundreds to thousands of dollars for consultations that end up costing more money.