How to Stage a Home Before Selling

How to Stage a Home Before Selling

Staging your home can help your home sell faster and for more money. When it comes to selling a home, it is all about appearance. This is what staging is about, making your home appear perfect for home buyers. You will want to stage your home before taking any photos for the listing.

Cleaning

The first thing you’ll want to do is to get rid of the clutter. A cluttered home looks smaller, and you want it to appear bigger. Box up all knick-knacks, out-of-season clothing, and personal items and store them. Don’t store them in closets. Potential home buyers will look in the closets, and you want the closets to look big.

The next step to staging your home is cleaning. Not just a normal spring cleaning, but a thorough deep cleaning from the floors to the ceiling. If possible, hire a cleaning crew to clean your home.

Stage the Living Room

According to a 2017 National Association of Realtors survey, 55% of the agents believe that the living room is the most important room to stage. Next are the master bedroom and the kitchen.

You can store your old furniture and rent new furniture for the living room. If this sounds like a lot of money, it could be worth it. Staging your home can add 1-5% to the offer price.

Make it Bright

You want your home to be bright. Before a showing, open up the curtains and blinds. If your lampshades are old and dull, or the fixtures are outdated, consider replacing them.

Even dusty light bulbs can limit the amount of light. Install new LED bulbs and play with different color temperatures that range from soft to daylight. Check the Kelvin ratings to choose the perfect lighting for your home.

Stage the Outdoors

Curb appeal is important since it will be the first thing home buyers will see. Staging the outside of your home should include:

  • Mow the lawn
  • Trim the shrubs
  • Power wash your home, sidewalks, and driveway
  • Clean the windows
  • Plant flowers
  • Add some potted plants on the front porch and have a welcome mat
  • Add some outdoor furniture to the front porch
  • Make sure the house number is easy to read
Important Factors to Pay Attention to Before Buying a Home

Important Factors to Pay Attention to Before Buying a Home

There can be little doubt that the purchase of a new home can be one of the most meaningful and exciting events in a person’s life. But there are certainly several steps that most potential homeowners will need to take before signing off on a big mortgage. Here are just four important considerations to make before purchasing a new house and why buyers must always beware in the housing market.

 

  1. Where is the House Located?

In the current housing market, there can be little doubt that a house’s potential value over time will be in large part determined by its location. To illustrate this fact, simply consider that a vacant lot in Palo Alto, California recently went on the market for $9 million. Indeed, the going wisdom in real estate circles for decades has been that the least impressive house in a good neighborhood is better than the most impressive house in a bad neighborhood.

 

  1. Foundation Damage

If there is visible damage to a house’s construction, potential buyers may want to give a home purchase a miss. For example, cracked concrete or uneven and lopsided floors can both be signs that a house has suffered serious foundational damage over the course of its history.

 

Moreover, fixing these issues can be a major post-purchase investment that can add tens-of-thousands of dollars to a home’s “real” cost. If you don’t want to add to the already-sizable budget constraint of taking out a mortgage, in other words, it is important to be certain that there won’t be hidden repair costs to deal with once you’ve bought a new home.

 

  1. Water Damage

In addition to foundational damage, it is very important for potential buyers to determine whether a house has sustained significant water damage. Issues related to water damage can severely affect both future repair costs on a home and the well-being of the house’s structure itself. To put it mildly, no one wants to be forced to move out of a house that they’ve just purchased! Before you finish your first inspection on a house, be sure to examine ceilings and floors for permanent stains or other signs of flooding.

 

  1. Mold Issues

When given the chance to examine a house, potential buyers should definitely be on the lookout for issues related to the growth of mold. Red or black spots around sinks, toilets, tubs, or tiling can be signs that a house is suffering from serious mold issues; indeed, dealing with these problems can be expensive and time-consuming. More importantly, issues related to mold can also affect the health of you and your family.

 

While it may be tempting to sign off on a house that seems like a dream home, savvy homebuyers should always take a critical approach to invest in real estate. Adding huge repair costs to a mortgage can often strain a person’s financial resources to the limit. Certainly, that’s no way to start a new chapter in your life.

How to Find the Right Real Estate Agent for You

How to Find the Right Real Estate Agent for You

It seems like everyone and her brother is a real estate agent these days. It’s relatively easy to become licensed for the work, but it’s a lot tougher to get the experience, knowledge, and skills needed to help your clients thrive.

 

Which is why it’s so important to find the right real estate agent for your situation. Here are a few important points to consider.

 

Licensing

At the bare minimum, a real estate agent has to be licensed to sell in the state in which you’re buying/selling. (If they’re not, the person claiming to be an agent won’t even be able to help you, so why bother paying their commission?) After that, there are a few more licenses to look out for. Once this crucial threshold is met, consider looking for a professional who is a Realtor, rather than just an agent. Realtors with a capital “R” are members of the National Association of Realtors, a group that requires strict adherence to a code of ethics - and that’s something you want on your side.

 

Locale

Real estate markets vary from city to city - and sometimes even neighborhood to neighborhood. Make sure your Realtor knows what’s going on in the areas in which you are looking to buy/sell.

 

Experience

There are a million tiny little things that can go wrong during a real estate transaction, and really the only way to know what signs to look for is from experience. Make sure your Realtor has had experience both buying and selling and specifically in the type of property you are looking for. There are differences, for example having to do with available financing and rental potential for first-time buyers vs. experienced buyers, as well as for condos vs. single-family homes.

 

Fit

Is your Realtor available when you need her or him to be? Markets move fast, so an agent who’s there for you one day and ghosts you the next is a bad sign. Also, just having a genuine, authentic rapport with the person guiding you in the real estate process will go a long way towards having a genuine, authentic experience.

 

While shopping for a Realtor is an important first step in shopping for a property, it can be the most important part of the journey. And all of these factors aside, the right fit always comes down to feeling comfortable with and available to the real estate agent that will be taking you on this exciting journey.

The Best Ways to Increase the Value of Your Home

The Best Ways to Increase the Value of Your Home

When built-ins and fixtures in a home start looking worn and old, it’s time to update.
Homeowners don’t usually think about making changes that can increase the value of their homes until it is time to sell. Then they may be short on cash or the time to make improvements that can add value. The key is to make gradual changes along the way that will keep a home looking fresh and contemporary. Consider the following ways homeowners can increase the value of their homes.

Keep the outside looking fresh 

Nothing grabs attention more than a home with curb appeal. Since the outside of the home is the first impression a buyer will make, the outside should be neat and inviting. Keep shrubs and other vegetation under control with regular trimming. Pressure wash concrete surfaces and siding to keep them looking new. Remove dead flowers and plants. When perennials start to get grassy, it may be time to dig them up, clear out the weeds, and start fresh. Make sure wood trim is painted, and clean the cobwebs from around doors, windows, and light fixtures. Curb appeal is usually a matter of regular maintenance and costs very little.

Consider a kitchen upgrade 

An upgrade can make the kitchen a place where the entire family enjoys gathering, but an out-dated kitchen can be depressing and a deal-breaker for a buyer. Swap out tired looking white or black appliances for edgy stainless steel. When today’s homebuyers walk into a kitchen, they expect to see stainless steel appliances and granite countertops. Something as simple as s trendy new backsplash can add pop to an otherwise boring kitchen.

Turn a bathroom into a spa 

Not only do homebuyers expect kitchens to wow them–clean bathrooms with that spa vibe are also on many homebuyers’ wish lists. If you can’t put in a new shower, consider adding a rain shower head. Clean the tub and shower until it is sparkling. Replace old sink fixtures and faucets with updated versions. Consider adding a new mirror and get rid of the 1990s vanity strip lights. Replace the wallpaper with a fresh coat of paint in a spa-inspired color.

These are just a few simple, and mostly low-cost changes that a homeowner can make to increase a home’s value. Even when a homeowner is not thinking of selling, updates can make a home feel like a brand new living space.

Time to Sell: 5 Ways to Get Your Home Ready to List This Summer

Time to Sell: 5 Ways to Get Your Home Ready to List This Summer

Know Your Home

Potential homebuyers will be looking carefully at your home. Make sure you aren’t caught by surprise. Get your home inspected. Find out how much potential repairs will cost. Even if you don’t plan to make those repairs, it will keep you from being blindsided by the costs, and you will be ready to negotiate with homebuyers who are pushing for deductions.

Get information accessible and organized. Have all your papers: everything from insurance to paint colors. Know if your house has suffered any losses, and have records of any repairs. You don’t want to find yourself in the uncomfortable position of negotiating with a homebuyer who knows your house better than you do.

 

Think About Curb Appeal

If a buyer drives past your house, what will they think? Will they see an attractive facade or a well-maintained garden? Or will their eye be drawn to an ugly tree, a lopsided mailbox, or a badly-paved driveway? Your house’s outward appearance is the first thing that homeowners will see, and that first impression can make a huge difference. If you have the money to hire a landscaper or other specialist, do it. But if not, many of the changes you can make are simply a matter of getting outside, rolling up your sleeves, and taking care of them. Weed the garden, rake the yard, and prune the trees.

 

Clean Thoroughly

Don’t just vacuum. Repaint the walls. Have your carpets professionally cleaned. Move the furniture. Pull out the stove and scrub the floor beneath. Clean under the fridge. Dust the blinds. Clean places you’ve never cleaned before. Be ready to get messy: dirt can really build up when left unattended.

 

Stow Your Stuff

Not only does a cluttered home look messy, it also looks small. Remove at least 30 percent of your belongings from sight. The brunt of your focus should be on countertops, the pantry, and the master bedroom closets, which should be as empty as possible.

Empty shelves and a clear floor scream: Look, there’s so much room, we don’t have enough stuff to fill it all. So hide everything you can afford not to have in the attic or crawlspace, stow it away in a friend’s house, or even rent out a storage facility. And take down any especially eclectic decorations: Homebuyers do not want to see your ceramic chicken collection; they want to see your home.

 

Hide Your Kids, Hide Your Pets

If someone is coming to visit your house, send your kids off to a friend’s or relative’s, and have them take the cat with them. Children and animals are notoriously messy, and you don’t want your guests wondering about how you got the all dog hair out of the carpet (hint: you didn’t) or how you can guarantee that there’s not a hole in the wall somewhere stuffed with legos (hint: you can’t). Besides, kids and pets are also notoriously distracting, and you want your visitors to focus on your home.