Sellers

Ten Affordable Home Upgrades

Since the market turned around in the last three years, buyers have become pickier and pickier. Today's "buyer's market" implies that we are in a de facto "beauty contest" combined with a price war.

Some homeowners believe they have to upgrade everything in their home before it can attract a buyer. While fixing all deferred maintenance issues is essential to achieve the maximum "market price" for your home, you don't necessarily need to spend tens of thousands of dollars in upgrades to get a buyer. Realtor Magazine published today a list of 10 affordable upgrades that you may consider:

1. Make rooms gender neutral. If any of your rooms have a definite skew ...

I read this article in the Daily Real Estate News today which I agree with!

"Daily Real Estate News | August 3, 2009 

There's no ultimate answer to this question, but Tribune Media Services columnist Ilyce Glink has a theory. Here are her six top reasons properties linger on the market:

1. Lousy pictures on the Web. 
2. Priced too high for the neighborhood. 
3. Blah interior; ho-hum landscaping. 
4. Little online marketing and hard-to-find MLS listings. 
5. Low commissions. Practitioners make sure their customers see properties that offer a payoff. 
6. Miserable maintenance, including ceiling stains, leaky faucets, and ancient furnaces.

Source: Tribune Media Se...

Most of us REALTORS® are animal lovers and have pets of our own, but we also share many stories about showing homes where our clients went into a sneezing fit, we got bitten by a cantankerous furry creature, or opened the front door only to helplessly see a cute kitty scoot toward the nearest busy street.

It is essential to take pets into consideration if you put your house on the market. Make sure you work out the showing arrangements/instructions carefully with your REALTOR®, since it is important for showing agents to know what to expect inside your home. Buyers could potentially be allergic or scared of cats or dogs (especially if they bring children along).

Although most pets are h...

The current declining market has put sellers (and listing agents) in a difficult position, since many factors are now coming together to place additional downward pressure on real estate prices.

• Inventory levels are very high, forcing motivated sellers to compete by lowering their price to stay competitive.
• Distressed sales (short sales, foreclosures, lender-owned) have increased dramatically and have reduced values markedly in some areas.
• The sub-prime debacle has caused lenders to be overly cautious and "raise the bar" for loan applicants, to the point where it has become challenging to qualify for conventional loans. Fortunately, FHA came to the rescue.
• Loan underwriters appear ...

Sellers deal with anxiety, especially if they are also buying a home and depending upon the sale and closing of their existing home.

In addition, Sellers may have to deal as well with Buyers' anxiety. For example, you may have reached an agreement with the Buyers and signed the contract for the sale of your home. After the contract was ratified, you notice that the Buyers begin to behave strangely, getting somewhat agitated and making additional (sometimes unreasonable) demands, like asking you to include your new washer and dryer (that did not convey), or may start questioning the structural integrity of your home.

It is important to remember that people (especially first-home buyers) ...

You can bet on it - the KITCHEN is one of the key areas of a home that most buyers will look at to short-list their preferred homes from a long list of available listings.

A smart seller will devote time, attention and money to make the kitchen sparkle! Although many buyers want an updated kitchen (solid surface countertops, modern cabinets, stainless steel appliances, etc.), your kitchen does not have to be state-of-the art to be appealing.

Think first impressions: What would you do to impress your future mother-in-law if she was coming to visit you for the first time?

The first step towards enhancing the appeal of your kitchen is giving it a thorough cleaning and tidying up. Make s...