Monday, January 27, 2014
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Selling Your Home? Make it More Appealing to Buyers
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."
"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."
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
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Holiday Retail Sales May Jump 4.5% as Housing, Jobs Rise
Retail sales are projected to
increase as much as 4.5 percent this holiday season, in line
with last year’s gain, as a rise in home prices and decline in
joblessness keeps consumers spending.
Total holiday sales are expected to rise to $963 billion to $967 billion, led by non-store sales from online and catalog retailers, Deloitte LLP, a New York-based consulting firm, said today in a statement.
“Rising home prices with steady job creation may buoy consumers,” Daniel Bachman, Deloitte’s senior U.S. economist, wrote in the note.
Unemployment dropped last month to its lowest level since December 2008, while sales of homes rose in August and housing prices have gained 15 percent since last year. Still, many retailers, from Macy's Inc. to Wal-Mart Stores Inc., missed second-quarter sales estimates and cut forecasts as consumers feeling flush prefer to spend their money on bigger items like cars and home-related products.
“There has been some positive momentum leading into the fourth quarter this year,” Alison Paul, a retail sector leader at Deloitte, said in a phone interview. “The well-heeled, prosperous families continue to be fairly optimistic in spending. Where you’re going to see some of the struggle is in the lower-income and lower-middle class.”
Those lower-income households are restraining purchases as their incomes are restricted by a 2 percentage-point increase in the payroll tax. The proportion of Americans living in poverty in 2012 -- 15 percent-- remained close to a two-decade high and median household income was stagnant, according to a Census Bureau report released Sept. 18.
Some retailers have begun announcing holiday hiring plans. Wal-Mart said today that it would boost holiday hiring to 55,000, a 10 percent increase from last year’s 50,000 seasonal hires. Target Corp. said in a post on its website last week last week it would take on about 70,000 workers, 20 percent fewer than year a year earlier.
The increase in non-store sales is the smallest since Deloitte began estimating the figure in 2010. The estimate is reined-in from previous years, when the forecasts overshot the actual data, rather than a potential reduction in non-store sales, Paul said.
Mobile-influenced store sales will account for 8 percent, or about $66 billion, of in-store sales this holiday season as shoppers use their smartphones to browse retailers’ sites, conduct product research and compare prices, Deloitte said. Customers using their mobile devices are more likely to make a purchase than other shoppers in the store who aren’t, the firm said. Shoppers who research their purchases online also help to boost in-store sales as retailers further integrate their stores and websites with features like in-store pickup.
Last week, Chicago-based researcher ShopperTrak said sales in stores may advance 2.4 percent in November and December, the smallest increase since 2009 as customers visit fewer stores. Retailers may offer promotions for holiday as early as Nov. 1 to take advantage of the shorter shopping season, ShopperTrak estimated.
This year, there are 25 days between the day after Thanksgiving -- known as Black Friday -- and Christmas, compared with 31 days in 2012, and four instead of five weekends.
Lindsey Rupp/Bloomberg
Total holiday sales are expected to rise to $963 billion to $967 billion, led by non-store sales from online and catalog retailers, Deloitte LLP, a New York-based consulting firm, said today in a statement.
“Rising home prices with steady job creation may buoy consumers,” Daniel Bachman, Deloitte’s senior U.S. economist, wrote in the note.
Unemployment dropped last month to its lowest level since December 2008, while sales of homes rose in August and housing prices have gained 15 percent since last year. Still, many retailers, from Macy's Inc. to Wal-Mart Stores Inc., missed second-quarter sales estimates and cut forecasts as consumers feeling flush prefer to spend their money on bigger items like cars and home-related products.
“There has been some positive momentum leading into the fourth quarter this year,” Alison Paul, a retail sector leader at Deloitte, said in a phone interview. “The well-heeled, prosperous families continue to be fairly optimistic in spending. Where you’re going to see some of the struggle is in the lower-income and lower-middle class.”
Those lower-income households are restraining purchases as their incomes are restricted by a 2 percentage-point increase in the payroll tax. The proportion of Americans living in poverty in 2012 -- 15 percent-- remained close to a two-decade high and median household income was stagnant, according to a Census Bureau report released Sept. 18.
Holiday Hiring
Holiday hiring by U.S. retailers may fall about 6.9 percent this year amid shaky consumer confidence and as stores implement more efficient practices reducing demand for seasonal workers, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. Retailers will hire about 700,000 temporary staff this year, down from 751,800 last year, the Chicago-based employment consulting firm said today in a statement. Last year’s hiring reached a 12-year high and was up 14 percent from 2011, the firm said.Some retailers have begun announcing holiday hiring plans. Wal-Mart said today that it would boost holiday hiring to 55,000, a 10 percent increase from last year’s 50,000 seasonal hires. Target Corp. said in a post on its website last week last week it would take on about 70,000 workers, 20 percent fewer than year a year earlier.
Mobile Shopping
Non-store retail sales are forecast to climb as much as 13 percent and “continue to surpass overall retail sales growth,” according to Deloitte’s report.The increase in non-store sales is the smallest since Deloitte began estimating the figure in 2010. The estimate is reined-in from previous years, when the forecasts overshot the actual data, rather than a potential reduction in non-store sales, Paul said.
Mobile-influenced store sales will account for 8 percent, or about $66 billion, of in-store sales this holiday season as shoppers use their smartphones to browse retailers’ sites, conduct product research and compare prices, Deloitte said. Customers using their mobile devices are more likely to make a purchase than other shoppers in the store who aren’t, the firm said. Shoppers who research their purchases online also help to boost in-store sales as retailers further integrate their stores and websites with features like in-store pickup.
Last week, Chicago-based researcher ShopperTrak said sales in stores may advance 2.4 percent in November and December, the smallest increase since 2009 as customers visit fewer stores. Retailers may offer promotions for holiday as early as Nov. 1 to take advantage of the shorter shopping season, ShopperTrak estimated.
This year, there are 25 days between the day after Thanksgiving -- known as Black Friday -- and Christmas, compared with 31 days in 2012, and four instead of five weekends.
Lindsey Rupp/Bloomberg
Saturday, September 14, 2013
How to Hire the Perfect Real Estate Agent
A real estate agent can often help you sell your home faster,
and get a better price than if you try to do it on your own. But to get
the best deal possible on your home, you’ll want to hire a real estate
agent that’s a good fit for you and your property. Here’s what you need
to know before you hire someone to sell your home.
Find Someone Local
When selling your home, getting someone who really knows the area is critical. Potential buyers are sure to ask a ton of questions about schools, parks, shopping and other quality-of-life issues in a neighborhood. You want a realtor that’s going to be able to really sell the neighborhood to a buyer. Ask real estate agents how many houses they have sold in the neighborhood, whether they live in the neighborhood, and, if so, how long they have lived there.
Ask For References
A key part of due-diligence on any realtor, asking for references can give you great first-hand information on how attentive a real estate agent will be. Of course, unscrupulous real estate agents can cherry-pick a few past clients that they know will speak well of them, so you should insist on speaking with recent clients. If they have to go back a few years to give you a reference, or if they seem reluctant to give you any names at all, it’s a sign they have something to hide.
Check Their Workload
Most realtors will represent a few people at any given time, but you want one that will really focus on your interests and make time for you. Ask how many clients they currently have and how many hours per week they spend on each client. You will also want to check their availability. Many people are forced to house hunt on evenings and weekends, so a realtor that will only show your house on weekday mornings isn’t going to help you that much.
Make Sure They Sell Houses Like Yours
Not all properties are created equally. If you’re looking to sell a middle-class single-family home, you don’t want to hire someone that mostly sells condos, commercial real estate or million-dollar mansions. So before you hire a real estate agent, make sure the agent has substantial experience selling homes similar to yours and in your price range.
What’s the Timeline?
With the housing market still suffering from sluggishness, it can be a tough time to sell a home. While you should be prepared to sell your home quickly, you should also have a plan in place in case it doesn’t. Ask real estate agents how long they will represent you. If a home doesn’t sell in a month or two, are they just going to abandon you? Do they have experience selling homes that take time to sell? You don’t want to waste a lot of time picking a real estate agent, only to have to do it all over again in two months.
Ask About Fees
Most real estate agents will work for a percentage of the selling price of the home. But many agreements also include a bunch of other fees. Make sure you understand the agreement before you sign and what you will be getting for your money. For instance, many real estate agents will include home staging as part of the contract, but some might add extra fees for these sorts of services.
Are They Part of MLS?
The Multiple Listing Service, or MLS, is a nationwide database of houses on the market, regardless of which company is selling the home. To give you the best chance of selling your home, you’ll want an agent that has access to MLS. Agents that simply list on their own company’s site won’t help you nearly as much as real estate agents that list on MLS.
-Fox News/
Find Someone Local
When selling your home, getting someone who really knows the area is critical. Potential buyers are sure to ask a ton of questions about schools, parks, shopping and other quality-of-life issues in a neighborhood. You want a realtor that’s going to be able to really sell the neighborhood to a buyer. Ask real estate agents how many houses they have sold in the neighborhood, whether they live in the neighborhood, and, if so, how long they have lived there.
Ask For References
A key part of due-diligence on any realtor, asking for references can give you great first-hand information on how attentive a real estate agent will be. Of course, unscrupulous real estate agents can cherry-pick a few past clients that they know will speak well of them, so you should insist on speaking with recent clients. If they have to go back a few years to give you a reference, or if they seem reluctant to give you any names at all, it’s a sign they have something to hide.
Check Their Workload
Most realtors will represent a few people at any given time, but you want one that will really focus on your interests and make time for you. Ask how many clients they currently have and how many hours per week they spend on each client. You will also want to check their availability. Many people are forced to house hunt on evenings and weekends, so a realtor that will only show your house on weekday mornings isn’t going to help you that much.
Make Sure They Sell Houses Like Yours
Not all properties are created equally. If you’re looking to sell a middle-class single-family home, you don’t want to hire someone that mostly sells condos, commercial real estate or million-dollar mansions. So before you hire a real estate agent, make sure the agent has substantial experience selling homes similar to yours and in your price range.
What’s the Timeline?
With the housing market still suffering from sluggishness, it can be a tough time to sell a home. While you should be prepared to sell your home quickly, you should also have a plan in place in case it doesn’t. Ask real estate agents how long they will represent you. If a home doesn’t sell in a month or two, are they just going to abandon you? Do they have experience selling homes that take time to sell? You don’t want to waste a lot of time picking a real estate agent, only to have to do it all over again in two months.
Ask About Fees
Most real estate agents will work for a percentage of the selling price of the home. But many agreements also include a bunch of other fees. Make sure you understand the agreement before you sign and what you will be getting for your money. For instance, many real estate agents will include home staging as part of the contract, but some might add extra fees for these sorts of services.
Are They Part of MLS?
The Multiple Listing Service, or MLS, is a nationwide database of houses on the market, regardless of which company is selling the home. To give you the best chance of selling your home, you’ll want an agent that has access to MLS. Agents that simply list on their own company’s site won’t help you nearly as much as real estate agents that list on MLS.
-Fox News/
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