You've made the decision to sell your home - now you want to position
yourself for a quick and successful sale. What's the most important
thing you can do to entice buyers?
"The most important thing you can do is to make your home look
welcoming when people drive by," says Kimber Powell, Realtor and sales
manager in Altoona, Iowa.
"You want to invite them in. Make sure your front door looks nice.
Trim and landscape your yard. Accent your entryway with a new door mat
and pots of flowers that contrast with the color of your home," she
says.
Follow these tips to position your house for a successful sale:
Enhance Curb Appeal
A well-maintained house appeals to more buyers and can sell faster and may sell for a higher price, according to Realtor.com.
Maximize your home's exterior appearance. Keep the lawn and
landscaping edged, cut and watered. Inspect doors, windows, trim,
foundation and siding for peeling paint. Repaint and replace items as
needed. Clean out gutters and replace missing caulk and shingles.
Declutter Inside
Make your home look bigger by removing clutter and storing personal
items and extra furniture before prospective buyers arrive. Make repairs
where needed, Powell advises.
"Repairs are ongoing maintenance needs that show your home has been
well-cared-for and kept up-to-date," she says. "Most potential buyers
want turn-key homes that are easy to move into."
Repaint dingy or stained walls with a neutral shade of paint. Repair
cracks or holes in walls, ceilings, tile and woodwork. Replace broken
items and consider updating worn-out cabinet knobs, dated curtains and
battered bath and kitchen hardware.
Show Lifestyle Possibilities
Create a lifestyle story to help buyers envision themselves living in
your home. Have a small kitchen but a big deck? Focus on outdoor
entertaining by adding lights, comfy cushions and showcasing grilling
areas, Powell recommends. If you love your neighborhood, highlight a
front porch with wicker furniture and window boxes.
"You want to show buyers the ways they can use the entire home and
yard," Powell says. "If you don't have outdoor furniture or decorations,
work with a stager to borrow those items." Or consider borrowing items
from friends or family to get your home staged for sale.
Highlight Quality Brands
If your home features or you've replaced items with high-quality
brands, include their names in your home's sell sheet, Powell says.
"People are very conscious of name brands and high-quality products.
They also want to know about energy-saving benefits and warranties that
may transfer to them," she says.
Windows, Door Replacement
Projects like window and door replacements can recoup more than 70
percent of their cost at resale, according to the National Association
of Realtors and Remodeling magazine's 2013 Remodeling Cost vs. Value
Report.
Whether you're preparing your home to sell, or updating it to live in
longer, Pella offers low-maintenance, energy-efficient vinyl, wood, and
fiberglass replacement windows and doors that can help improve your
home's curb appeal, and help lower utility bills.
"Stylish exterior doors that look like wood with the minimal
maintenance of fiberglass are popular replacement options," says Kathy
Krafka Harkema, Pella spokesperson. "Plus, fiberglass offers exceptional
energy efficiency, weather resistance and outstanding durability."
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Ten Apps Every Homebuyer Should Have
When it comes to staying organize and efficient during the home-buying process your best tool might already be in your pocket: your smartphone. Whether you are buying a house, getting a mortgage or doing some remodeling, here are 10 must-have real estate apps.
HomeSnap
It’s hard to keep track of all the details when house hunting, but House Hunter does all the hard work for you by providing a scorecard that organizes notes and photos of potential homes. You can choose from more than 80 different home features to score potential homes and access a quick note feature to enter information about the homes.
When it comes to real estate, it’s all about location. AroundMe shows retailers, restaurants and other establishments located in the immediate area to give you a sense of a potential neighborhood. The free app uses a GPS to determine your location and identifies the closets bank, bar, gas station, hospital, hotel, movie theater, restaurant, supermarket, theater and taxi.
Buying a home can be confusing, especially if you aren’t familiar with real estate jargon. The app, which costs $2.99, has more than 3,000 real-estate specific terms to help navigate conversations with brokers and real estate agents.
Home Value Pro
Eager to sell your home but not sure where to price it? This app lets you view property values, foreclosure information and housing trends in neighborhoods across the country. The app lets you analyze housing data by ZIP code, provides 12 month median home price trends, foreclosure rates and home sales trend activity that can help you properly price your home.
The first step to the house-hunting process is determining how much home you can afford. The Mortgage Calculator from Left Coast R&D is a free app that lets you figure out your monthly mortgage payments based on the price of the house, the down payment and the interest rate.
Once you know how much home you can afford, it’s time to shop for mortgage rates. This app, also brought to you by Left Coast R&D compare mortgage interest rates based on users’ financial situations. The lenders that are competing for your business aren’t the Bank of Americas or Wells Fargos of the world-- instead its’ the smaller banks. If you find a rate you like, don’t worry about calls from mortgage brokers--you decide if you want to be contacted to start the loan process.
It’s hard to picture a fixer-upper in its final state, but Houzz will do all the imagining for you. Claiming to be the largest database of home design ideas on the Web, the Houzz app has more 500,000 high-resolution photos to give you remodeling ideas for out-dated homes. You can browse by style, room and location and save them to a virtual idea book.
For many home buyers, a new home comes with a list of required improvement projects. If you don’t want to hire a contractor you can get your own virtual one with Handy Man DIY and it’s only going to cost you $1.99. This app lets calculate and store room dimensions, figure out floor and wall square footage and create shopping lists for projects. The app also has how to videos and instructions to guide you through various projects.
Picking out paint colors can be tough but the free Color Snap app makes it a little bit easier. See a color you like in a photo, someone’s house or in a flower, all you have to do is snap a picture and the app will show you colors of Sherwin Williams paints that match. You can also browse hundreds of colors and adjust them to get the shade you want.
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
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