Posts in category: Selling Tips

If you’re thinking about selling your home, I’m thinking of telling you NOW’s the time!

Now, I’m not a clairvoyant and I’m not privy to any secret housing information, so all of this is based on my own gut feeling….  But I DO eat, sleep and breathe real estate, every single day!!!

Here’s my take on it:    Due to the negative effects of AB284 on our housing market (see my blog from 6-25-12), our inventory is at an all-time low…..  Interest in buying today’s undervalued real estate is incredibly high.   Together these two things = frenzied buying, overbidding and top-dollars being paid for today’s real estate.    Literally everything from vacant land to condos, manufactured housing to duplexes, single family to luxury homes are all receiving multiple offers, and selling above list price, day in and day out!    Cash buyers and financed buyers alike are overbidding to be the winners.

It’s my belief that the  effects of AB284 causing the current UNDER-supply of houses will conversely cause an OVER-supply when all these kinks get worked out on the bank’s end.   Once this glut of held-back foreclosures begins to hit the system, the generous supply of available properties will put an end to overbidding to win something.    A buyer will simply move along to a better-priced home down the street.

So THIS is why I say that NOW is the time to sell your home!    Even if you are selling short, I certainly believe that your lender(s) would be more likely to approve a sale at a higher price where their loss is less.    It could be a good bargaining tool as well!     And NEW HOME RESOURCE has a lot of experience with short sales!

If you are a traditional seller with equity In your home, selling TODAY could put more $$ in your pocket for investments, to build savings, pay for a college education or wedding, pay off debts or to buy a different home that better suits your needs.

Regardless of the type of sale, you definitely want to be working with the tenacious and knowledgeable Realtors® at NEW HOME RESOURCE!    Call Joanna Piette, Denise Moreno, Debbie Sullivan or Penny Womack today at 702-365-1000 !!   Don’t waste another minute!

One of the simplest, most economical and also eco-friendly ways to provide lighting in your yard is to use solar lights. Solar lights can bring ambiance to your home and yard for all those summer parties and back yard entertaining.

There are a wide variety of solar lighting options on the market that can help you to create the right ambience for an evening on the porch, light your sidewalk and driveway, or simply illuminate your yard for aesthetic appeal.

Solar lighting is simple to install and uses the energy absorbed from the sun during the day to provide the power for nighttime lighting.  This means you can light your yard without affecting your energy bills.  There are a few different options you can use to create the lighting effect you are seeking in your yard.

Lighting Your Yard and Patio

The most commonly used solar yard lights are the classic stake lights.  They can be placed at the interval of your choice, and are great for lining flower beds, placing around the patio, or illuminating the path up to your house.  These versatile lights are perfect for just about any situation.  They give a very classic look that works in both the front and back yard and will fit in with most landscaping or architecture.

To add mood lighting to your patio, solar powered Tiki torches are a great choice.  Unlike traditional torches, there is no risk of fire and no messy oil.  Many even flicker just like a candle to create the same ambience that you would expect from traditional Tiki torches.

Lighting Your Driveway

Another option you might want to consider is driveway solar lights.  These flat lights are designed to light the edges of the driveway to make parking easier at night.  Especially for long or curving driveways, these are a great way to illuminate the way at night. There are two main types of driveway lights; the first type sits on top of the surface, while the second type is actually embedded in the driveway surface, leaving it level. Either type illuminates very well, but the second type will not be damaged if you accidentally drive over it, so if that is a risk you might consider the embedded type of driveway lights.

Solar lights give your home a warm glow at night and require virtually no maintenance.  Install them, let the sun do the work, and then enjoy them when the sun goes down!

Penny Womack, Realtor, ABR,SFR

SELLING SHORT?      NOW IS THE TIME TO SELL YOUR HOME!!

Needing to short-sale your home?  NOW Is the time!     Buyers are abundant and available properties are scarce.

In addition, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have just announced new SHORTENED timelines for short-sale decisions and a couple of the major banks are changing their processes to shorten their timelines as well.

You need a qualified real estate team to handle your short sale – call on the Joanna Piette Team at New Home Resource.    We get the job done!  Many times we already have buyers in place, just waiting for a great home like yours to hit the market.  Don’t delay – call Joanna Piette at New Home Resource today 702-365-1000.

A new home purchase is one of the largest investments a person will ever make.

A Home Warranty is simply a service contract.  It helps to safeguard homeowners against the high cost of repairs or replacements to the major mechanical systems and appliances that fail due to normal wear and tear.    A home warranty offers the convenience of one source for most repairs,  so that you can avoid the hassle of finding a service contractor in your area.     When a covered system or appliance breaks down, all you need to do is contact the warranty company to report the problem!      A qualified, pre-screened service technician will contact you to schedule an appointment that works for you.  You can request service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  It’s that simple.

On average, homeowners/contract holders will have 2 service calls per year, saving them hundreds to thousands of dollars on repair/replacement costs.  See below:

Have your agent help you arrange for a home warranty at closing.       Sometimes even the seller will pay toward the warranty cost!!

This information comes to us, courtesy of HSA Home Warranty Company 🙂

Whenever I make a purchase from eBay, I always read through the seller’s “Feedback” before committing to buy.   I need to know if this seller is slow to ship, regularly does a terrible job in describing his product, or is a flat-out thief.   My purchase of that item is going to be heavily-weighted based on what I read.    Frankly, the feedback may determine if I even bid on that product,  or move onto the next guy’s listing.     I’ll even pay MORE money for the same product with an eBay seller whose feedback is stellar.   Ever done that?

When I visit Amazon or Zappos (oooh, my favorite!), I always look at the product reviews.   Does this item run small?    Color not quite as pictured?   Knobs have a tendency to break off within days of the purchase?    Again, my decision to buy that item is going to be heavily-weighted by others’ experience.   I have so much more confidence going into the purchase if by reading others reviews,  maybe I can predict the outcome to some degree.

The same should be true of your real estate agent!   This person is going to be super-instrumental in assisting you with one of the largest commitments of your life!    Whether you’re in investor buying a small  condo, a first-time buyer falling in love with your first home,  or making a multi-million dollar purchase of property, land or even commercial space, you want and need to know if your real estate agent is worthy of your business!!

Google your agent!  Does this person have an internet presence?    Are they unknown?     What do others have to say about their service?    Remember that nothing and no one is ever perfect (how many shades of orange can there BE in a handbag??), but hearing what others have to say BEFORE jumping in surely gives you the confidence you’re making the right choice. 

We LOVE your reviews – keep ’em coming!

Top Ten Home Staging Tips

We know and understand that this is a difficult time for many people. With so many homeowners underwater and looking to “Short Sale” their home, our goal is to sell your home as quickly as possible, at the best price possible!

One of the tricks-of-the-trade used before showing a home is “staging.”

Good staging looks at every feature of a home and finds ways to show it off

to its finest advantage. Whether your home is already picture-perfect or

needs a bit of sprucing up, these staging tips, taken directly from decorating

professionals, are worth considering:

The Top Ten Professional Home Staging Tips

Every Homeowner Should Know

1. Create the illusion of space by rearranging the furniture. Try different

combinations or remove and store pieces that make it feel crowded.

2. Arrange the furniture in living areas into intimate groupings that

suggest entertaining and ideal conversational settings.

3. Consider rental furniture, especially when the pieces you have don’t

match, are badly worn, or are in any state of disrepair.

4. Add decorative pillows and slipcovers in warm neutral tones to hide

flaws and make pieces blend.

5. Eliminate clutter. Store or get rid of appliances, gadgets, newspapers,

mail or anything that takes up space or distracts attention.

6. De-personalize your home so buyers can imagine living in it. Store

pictures, awards, trophies, collectibles, and other personal keepsakes.

7. Paint walls in inviting neutral colors to cover flaws and freshen rooms.

8. Add small luxurious touches to bathrooms and bedrooms. Think plush

towels, fresh flowers, high-end bed linens, and pretty bath soaps.

9. Eliminate unpleasant odors and smells that can kill a sale. Fragrant

candles, plug-ins, and home sprays can help, but nothing smells better

than clean.

10. Plants add an aura of softness and warmth to any room. Large or

small, real or silk—they’re a favorite of professional stagers.

It is good advice to do all you can to make your home cozy, clean and comfortable before listing it for sale.

Penny Womack, REALTOR®, ABR, SFR

We just had to re-post this fantastic article, written by Tara-Nicholle Nelson from ReadersDigest.com.

13 Tips for Selling Your Home
By Tara-Nicholle Nelson from ReadersDigest.com

We’ve all heard about how “bad” the real estate market is. But what’s bad for sellers can be good for buyers, and these days, savvy buyers are out in spades trying to take advantage of the buyer’s market. Here are 13 things you can do to help sell your house.

1. Audit your agent’s online marketing. 92% of homebuyers start their house hunt online, and they will never even get in the car to come see your home if the online listings aren’t compelling. In real estate, compelling means pictures! A study by Trulia.com shows that listings with more than 6 pictures are twice as likely to be viewed by buyers as listings that had fewer than 6 pictures.

2. Post a video love letter about your home on YouTube. Get a $125 FlipCam and walk through your home AND your neighborhood, telling prospective buyers about the best bits – what your family loved about the house, your favorite bakery or coffee shop that you frequented on Saturday mornings, etc. Buyers like to know that a home was well-loved, and it helps them visualize living a great life there, too.

3. Let your neighbors choose their neighbors. If you belong to neighborhood online message boards or email lists, send a link to your home’s online listing to your neighbors. Also, invite your neighbors to your open house – turn it into a block party. That creates opportunities for your neighbors to sell the neighborhood to prospective buyers, and for your neighbors to invite house hunters they know who have always wanted to live in the area.

4. Facebook your home’s listing. Facebook is the great connector of people these days. If you have 200 friends and they each have 200 friends, imagine the power of that network in getting the word out about your house!

5. Leave some good stuff behind. We’ve all heard about closing cost credits, but those are almost so common now that buyers expect them – they don’t really distinguish your house from any of the other homes on the market anymore. What can distinguish your home is leaving behind some of your personal property, ideally items that are above and beyond what the average homebuyer in your home’s price range would be able to afford. That may be stainless steel kitchen appliances or a plasma screen TV, or it might be a golf cart if your home is on a golf course.

6. Beat the competition with “condition”. In many markets, much of the competition is low-priced foreclosures and short sales. As an individual homeowner, the way you can compete is on condition. Consider having a termite inspection in advance of listing your home, and get as many of the repairs done as you can – it’s a major selling point to be able to advertise a very low or non-existent pest repair bill. Also, make sure that the little nicks and scratches, doorknobs that don’t work, and wonky handles are all repaired before you start showing your home.

7. Stage the exterior of your home too. Stage the exterior with fresh paint, immaculate landscaping and even outdoor furniture to set up a Sunday brunch on the deck vignette. Buyers often fantasize about enjoying their backyards by entertaining and spending time outside.

8. Access is essential. Homes that don’t get shown, don’t get sold. And many foreclosures and short sale listings are vacant, so they can be shown anytime. Don’t make it difficult for agents to get their clients into your home – if they have to make appointments way in advance, or can only show it during a very restrictive time frame, they will likely just cross your place off the list and go show the places that are easy to get into.

9. Get real about pricing. Today’s buyers are very educated about the comparable sales in the area, which heavily influence the fair market value of your home. And they also know that they’re in the driver’s seat. To make your home competitive, have your broker or agent get you the sales prices of the three most similar homes that have sold in your area in the last month or so, then try to go 10-15% below that when you set your home’s list price. The homes that look like a great deal are the ones that get the most visits from buyers and, on occasion even receive multiple offers. (Bidding wars do still exist!)

10. Get clued into your competition. Work with your broker or agent to get educated about the price, type of sale and condition of the other homes your home is up against. Attend some open houses in your area and do a real estate reality check: know that buyers that see your home will see those homes, too – make sure the real-time comparison will come out in your home’s favor by ensuring the condition of your home is up to par.

11. De-personalize. Do this – pretend you’re moving out. Take all the things that make your home “your” personal sanctuary (e.g., family photos, religious décor and kitschy memorabilia), pack them up and put them in storage. Buyers want to visualize your house being their house – and it’s difficult for them to do that with all your personal items marking the territory as yours.

12. De-clutter. Keep the faux-moving in motion. Pack up all your tchotchkes, anything that is sitting on top of a countertop, table or other flat surfaces. Anything that you haven’t used in at least a year? That goes, too. Give away what you can, throw away as much as possible of what remains, and then pack the rest to get it ready to move.

13. Listen to your agent. If you find an experienced real estate agent to list your home, who has a successful track record of selling homes in your area, listen to their recommendations! Find an agent you trust and follow their advice as often as you can.

Tara-Nicholle Nelson is the Consumer Educator for Trulia.com – the most comprehensive real estate site on the web.