Tag Archives: sellers

7 Ways To Keep Your Home Showing Ready in the Winter

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12.22_BRitaBoswell

7 Ways To Keep Your Home Showing Ready in the Winter-Some people think it is almost impossible to sell their homes in the winter because it’s hard to keep a buyer interested when the weather outside is frightful. Fortunately, there are a plethora of things you can do to prepare your home for a showing this season. Even small tasks can make the biggest difference when it comes to keeping your home attractive to buyers. Here are seven ways to keep your home showing-ready this winter.

 

Shovel the Snow

Make sure the snow in your driveway and walkway leading up to your house is clear and plowed. Nothing will scare potential buyers away more than having to trudge through a foot of slushy snow. It will also help enhance the curb appeal.

 

Salt the Walkways

On a related note, salting the sidewalks is always a good idea. Eliminate the possibility of a disaster with the potential home buyer and make sure they’re able to get in the house without slipping.

 

Let There Be Light

Add extra lamps to the rooms in your home to brighten it up. Even in the middle of the day it can appear to be a bit gray outside, so adding lamps will help brighten up the space to make it more inviting to a potential buyer.

 

Festive Decor

Something as simple as a holiday welcome mat on your front porch will do wonders. It makes your home seem not inviting, but also festive and ready for the holiday season.

 

Crank the Heat

Ok, you don’t necessarily have to make it 80 degrees, but make it warm enough that it will be a relief for the potential buyers to step in from the cold outdoors. If they walk in cold and remain cold the whole time, it may be a turn off.

 

Display Photos

Sometimes it’s hard to picture what a home will look like in the spring and fall if it’s masked by feet of snow. Display pictures of your home in other seasons to show the potential buyer how beautiful your home will be, year-round.

 

Do Some Baking

Bake some holiday cookies in advance of potential buyers viewing your home. Not only will the wonderful smell take over your house, but you’ll have some festive treats to share with the potential buyers.

 

For more ways to keep you home showing ready this season, visit here.

Staging Your Home To Sell: Secrets From The Experts

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Staging Your Home To Sell - Secrets From The Experts rita boswell

Are you selling your home? You may want to consider staging it to attract buyers and allow them to imagine it being their home.

“Buyers can only imagine what they see, not what it’s going to be,” says Barb Schwarz, a broker who now focuses entirely on staging homes with her International Association of Home Staging Professionals. “If you don’t clean the carpet or don’t take down the flocked wallpaper or the teenager’s walls are painted bright purple, the buyer can’t envision it any other way.”

 

Staging a home can make the biggest difference in your selling process. Investing in staging can actually bring better returns on a home in the long-run!

 

Curb Appeal isn’t just a catchy phrase created to boost landscapers’ income. It’s a crucial first impression that can make buyers either wary of stopping to look or else eager to step inside. Make sure that your lawn and garden look great, trash cans and bikes are put away, house numbers are attractive and easy to see, the front door is spectacular (because you’ve replaced or painted it and perhaps updated the hardware), and you have attractive potted plants by the door.

 

First Impressions come the minute a potential buyer steps inside your home. Coats on a rack, shoes underneath and keys and other doodads in a dish on a console table may show that you’re a fabulous organizer, but this look is not the way to sell a home. Put the coats and shoes in a closet, the keys in your purse and a vase of flowers on the table.

 

Time To Clean! Or hire a cleaning crew to come regularly while your home is on the market, or at least for a one-time super-cleaning. Don’t skip windows (inside and out), behind the toilet, bathroom grout, under sinks. Actually move your furniture to vacuum behind and under it.

 

Rearranging Is Key. Arrange your furnishings to frame — not obscure — views, fireplaces and other architectural details. Put tall objects (furniture, vases, paintings or plants) against tall walls. Highlight, don’t block, the traffic flow. Grab a couple of sturdy friends and play with different ways to arrange your furniture. Pay attention to your friends’ opinions.

 

4 Home Updates That Will Hurt You at Selling

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4 home updates that will hurt you at selling

4 Home Updates That Will Hurt You at Selling- Updating your home is something that everyone wants to do, but thinking that they will make a positive return on their investment isn’t always accurate. Customized updates might be the best thing for you and your vision, however, they might not be the most practical option. Here are four home updates that will ultimately hurt you when you explore the options of selling your home.

 

Personalization

Personalizing your home might seem like the right idea for you; however, it won’t provide you with a positive ROI. It has the possibility of inhibiting the potential buyer from picturing themselves in your home, and therefore not purchasing it in the long run. To avoid an over personalization of your home, give it non-permanent personalized touches like furniture and accent colors.

 

 

Home Office Renovation

Many homeowners dish out a lot of cash to create their very own home office. Unfortunately for them, that isn’t necessarily an important feature that potential home buyers are looking for. To avoid this costly mistake, make updates to your home office that won’t necessarily be permanent. You want to give the person who buys your home the option of converting the room into a bedroom, or recreational room of their choice.

 

Additions

Additions to your home, like a sun room or additional garage, might end up hurting you in the long run. The extra space has the potential to hook the potential buyer into being a homeowner; however, they will not want to foot the bill of your expensive renovation and expansion.

 

Luxury Upgrades

Any type of luxury upgrade to your existing home sounds like it would be a benefit and provide a positive turn on your investment, right? No, not every luxury upgrade is beneficial. Unless you have a very high-end home, making upgrades like marble floors and custom bathrooms, will likely not pay off in the long run.

 

Customized updates to your home might be the best thing for you at the time, however, it might not be the best option for you to get the best return on your investment. To learn more about home updates that will hurt you when you sell your home, visit here.