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7 Quick Tips for Staging Your Home
July 13, 2010
Now that you put on your house on the market the next step is staging your home for potential buyers. It’s important to de-associate your home as the place you live. Remember, the end goal is to sell your home, so think of it as a product or commodity to potential buyers. The reason for staging your home is to present it in the most visually pleasing way possible so buyers are able to imagine themselves actually living there. Keep in mind that staging does not entail decorating. Executing on effective solutions to enhance your homes appeal will have immediate, positive impressions upon the potential buyer.
Enhance Curb Appeal –Since the potential buyer’s interest first lies in the exterior visibility of the home, you want to make sure that everything is up to par. Replacing front entry hardware alone will increase curb appeal tremendously. In addition, you want to update the front entry further by providing a fresh coat of paint to exterior doors, garages and window trim. You also want to take a look around the patio, walkways and steps to determine if there is cracking that needs to be fixed. In regards to landscaping, keep the lawn edged, cut and watered regularly and trim the bushes. Also, store away any landscaping tools, RVs and old beaten up cars so they are not visible to the buyer.
De-Personalize – Potential buyers ultimately want to picture themselves, family and friends in the home. Pack up all the personal belongings including photographs and family heirlooms. Having personal artifacts on display will distract the buyer from imaging their own personal possessions in the home.
Organize Closet and Storage Space – New homes buyers absolutely love to peek in the closets and cabinets. Make sure everything is well organized and not falling out on the potential homebuyer as they open a door! Neatly stack dishes and glassware, provide an organized utensil drawer, line up shoes, hang or fold clothing and place your hamper in a reasonable location, preferably out of site.
Provide a Clutter-Free Home – In retrospect, you have probably collected a majority of keepsakes and treasures, otherwise known as “junk” that are useless on day to day basis and even a yearly basis! Keep in mind that you will soon have to pack up your home and prepare for moving day. So why not de-clutter your home now, while your home is on the market. Remove books from the bookshelves, put knickknacks away, trash the magazines, donate old toys that have collected dust, dispense old towels, sheets and curtains, etc.
Rent a Self-Storage Unit – I’m sure you have heard of the saying, “less is more.” Keep this in mind when staging your home. Less furniture will actually open up space and have it appear larger by removing the pieces that block pathways or are there for comfort. There are a ton of self-storage locations where you can store all the photographs, books, furniture and RV’s. At FindMySelfStorage.com, you can locate a self storage unit near you, for both indoor and outdoor use. Also, make sure to store away any appliances you don’t wish to sell.
Make it Sparkle – Don’t forget to dust, vacuum and do all the necessity cleaning before opening your doors to the public. Make your furniture look brand new and have the glass and counter-tops sparkle.
Bake Cookies – It’s often recommended that the smell of cookies baking allows potential buyers to feel at home, in a warm environment. Make sure you lure the buyers in and put that cookie dough in the oven!
Of course, there are a variety of additional staging elements that can be done in prepping your home for sale. However, to make the most of the staging process, it is best to hire a staging expert or real estate agent that can better assist in all areas of selling your home.
More Questions to Consider Before Buying
May 25, 2010
Looking into buying a home doesn’t mean just checking the price of the prospective house, the neighboring homes’ values, or the location. Inexperienced buyers may not realize that there is so much more to consider when purchasing a home. It’s the little things that can make or break your final decision.
Do I Need a Lawyer?
Not necessarily. Occasionally, however, there are certain states in the US that require a lawyer be involved in at least one part of the purchasing of your home. Hiring a lawyer could help you a great deal with the legal contracts. Real estate agents, though, will be able to assist you with paperwork and other tedious responsibilities of the buyer.
Who’s the Builder?
If you’re considering a more recently built home, it’s a good idea to check out the builder’s reputation. Perhaps get a list of homeowners currently living or who have lived in houses built by that contractor. Is he well-known and loved among his customers? What are some of the pros and cons they have to give? Do the pros outweigh the cons? Your inspector will be able to tell you what needs improvement. If it’s a fairly new home, there should be very few repairs necessary.
What’s the Traffic Like?
If you’re looking in the city, obviously there’s going to be a heavy load of traffic traveling in all directions. However, maybe you don’t want all that much. If you’re out in the country, how close are you to the nearest highway? Maybe you’ve found the perfect house–white picket fence, Victorian structure, large front and back yards–but it’s right off the main highway. Late at night you might find yourself lying wide awake listening to the anti-lock breaks of tractor trailers rolling up and down your street. Locating airports and nearby train stations will also help you get a better idea of the traffic volume you’d experience on a daily basis.
Why Does Sewage Disposal Matter?
Many buyers forget to ask how the sewage is disposed of. Why is this important? Not all homes have a city sewage system; some have septic tanks. When considering a home with a septic tank, it is important to know the age of the tank and its condition. The best way for a buyer to determine whether his potential home’s septic tank is sturdy enough is to test how the toilets work and how long it takes for the sinks in the home to drain. Asking about the age of the tank is also a good idea.
How Efficient is the Energy Use?
When buying your home, make sure you take this into consideration, as well. How highly rated are the home’s heating and cooling systems for efficiency? Knowing the lighting in each room without the use of lamps would be helpful, too. To fix these problems, you could also get an estimate of the costs to improve the home’s energy efficiency and then determine whether you’d be willing to invest that amount in the house after making your purchase.
These are just a few of the lesser known aspects to keep in mind when purchasing a home. Always be sure to take hiring a real estate agent into consideration, as well, in order to help you invest your money in the house that suits you best.
Need Help Avoiding Foreclosure?
May 21, 2010
Millions of people go through the troubles of foreclosure each year, and in today’s market, that number seems to only increase. What should you do to avoid being the victim of such a predicament? When you come to the realization that you will not be able to or can’t make your mortgage payments on time, you should contact your lender as soon as possible. Ignoring this obstacle will only increase your risk of foreclosure. Not sure how to get a hold of your lender? Just take out an old mortgage statement and his/her contact information should then be easily accessed. Your lender will be able to provide you with some options that will help you avoid losing your home. Getting help early can aid in lessening the amount of damage placed on your line of credit.
Mortgage Forbearance
Forbearance is just one of the options your lender may offer you in order to put off your probability of foreclosure. With this option, the lender will place a hold on your monthly mortgage payments. The hold can usually last for about a year while you pull yourself back on your feet. If stopping payments isn’t an option, it might be possible to work with your lender to reduce your payments. Forbearance can also be combined with a repayment plan or reinstatement, both of which will be discussed in detail below.
Modifying Your Loan
Modifying your loan creates a permanent change within the terms of your original loan. When you collaborate with your mortgage company to modify your loan, you’re making a commitment to continue making payments but this time the amount you pay per month would be less, making it more affordable. It is also possible to change more than one term on a loan.
What is a Repayment Plan?
Often combined with a forbearance offer, this type of plan allows you to pay your required monthly rate plus a certain percentage higher at a specified term after the forbearance. This helps you pay back what was not paid during the forbearance period within an agreed-upon time frame. Once that term is up, you will have paid back those payments you missed and will then be back to paying a set rate.
What is a Reinstatement Plan?
This type of plan is also often used in a forbearance offer, as well. With reinstatement, the lender allows you to pay back what you owe all at once by a set date. If you take advantage of this plan, you’ll seem more credible by showing them that you’ll be receiving some sort of lump sum in the near future, perhaps in stocks or bonuses. This allows the mortgage company to see that you mean business, that you won’t just tell them you’ll pay them back and then go against your word. Showing them proof reassures that they can trust that you’ll be able to return the necessary payments all at one time.
Refinance Your Mortgage
Refinancing your home is probably the most well-known possible option when you feel as though you might soon face foreclosure. By refinancing your home to pay a lower mortgage rate, you may have the money to pay off other debts.
Always be sure to look at all your options before choosing a plan that may not be to your best interest. Look out for those sites that suggest fees for learning how to reduce your risk or get out of foreclosure altogether, because the information you need is completely free and easily accessed by using the Internet. You have the world at your fingertips; take advantage of it!
What Leads to Foreclosure?
May 18, 2010
In order to know how to prevent it, it is important to first know what causes foreclosure. Financial instability is the main reason, which is a result of a number of events.
Losing Your Job
Experiencing the loss of a job, whether you’re “let go” or fired or you just decide to quit for whatever reason, can place a heavy financial burden on your shoulders. If you’re the breadwinner in the household, this would cause problems in that your income would be significantly lower. Not only will you have issues making credit card, insurance, or automobile payments on time, but you may also face the hardship of submitting your mortgage payments on time if you’re able to submit them at all. Fortunately, under certain circumstances, you could file for unemployment; but that still may not provide you with enough money to support yourself or your family.
Medical Surprises
Another financial roadblock can occur if you experience an unexpected medical issue. Perhaps you’re a self-employed roofer who fell off a two-story building while at work. You have no workman’s compensation, and your back is injured to the point where you’re unable to climb a ladder, let alone bend down all day to replace shingles. In this case, again you would lose a significant amount of income which can lead to missed payments on necessities.
Foreclosure as a Result of a Family Devastation
If you are one of two working members in your household, losing the other can lead to financial problems, as well. For example, you and your spouse or significant other experience a falling-out that ultimately leads to a divorce or separation. This causes a decrease in the household income. How much you relied on that person’s income to support yourself and/or your family influences your ability to pay bills. If you can’t pay bills, again, you risk the possibility of experiencing foreclosure on your home.
The death of your significant other can cause severe problems not only emotionally but financially as well, if he or she contributed greatly to the household income and had invested in no life insurance policy.
Declining Credit Increases Risk of Foreclosure
Those credit cards are dangerous little buggers. The more you have and the higher your credit limit per card can greatly influence your spending ability. Some people say, “If I don’t have the money to spend, I don’t use my card.” Many people, on the other hand, dig themselves deeper and deeper in debt every day. Those little plastic cards can damage your credit more than help it in many cases. It is important to watch your spending, because the further in debt you sink, the less likely you are to be able to pay your bills when they come in. You dread trekking down your driveway to the mailbox for fear of what envelopes rest inside each day.
Unprepared for Unexpected Home Maintenance
You should also keep money aside in order to save yourself if anything were to happen to your home, especially if your home owner’s insurance coverage is not up to par. Perhaps a destructive thunderstorm blows through your community one night and you wake up the next morning to a tree on top of your garage. If you don’t have enough money aside to hire a professional to perform the correct repairs, you risk the possibility of having to take out a home equity loan in order to pay for repairs. If this is the case, you’ll need an exceptional credit score. Also, be careful then when hiring someone to fix your garage. You don’t want to hire a quick and cheap company that doesn’t get the job right the first time because then you wind up investing more money to get it fixed by a professional the second time around.
These reasons are just a few scenarios you should be prepared for in order to avoid foreclosure on your home. Soon to come: a post on steps to take in order to avoid this danger.
GetMyHomesValue.com Supports March of Dimes
May 13, 2010
The other day, GetMyHomesValue.com (GMHV) employees gathered around outside during a lunch break that proved to be an exciting event for all involved, even spectators. It was time to get revenge on the bosses. It was time to pie some people in the face.
Fund-Raising for March of Dimes
The event was a fundraiser for March of Dimes, a well-known nonprofit organization that raises money to support the health of unborn babies. Their research and efforts have helped and continue to help reduce premature births, birth defects, and infant mortality. Throwing pies at the owners and employees was just one of the many opportunities offered during a silent auction in mid-April. Other options included offers such as a catered lunch for 6, a one hour massage, a weekend trip to a beach house in Wildwood, flight director of a rocket launch, guitar lessons and more. This and other fundraisers helped GMHV raise over $1600 to benefit the March of Dimes’ March for Babies campaign.
The Results
We all watched at noon as 6 vanilla cream pies were splattered in the managers’ faces, one by one. Donned in trash bags, Dave Conklin, Rory Wilfong, and Steve Young, the founders of GMHV, left the event with vanilla cream and purple dye dripping from their faces. They weren’t the only three though. Sales Manager Jim Bradford and Customer Success Specialist Mike King got pied as well. COO, John Fraunfelter placed the highest bid on his own pie hoping to avoid being smacked with it, so employees urged COO John Fraunfelter to eat his pie with no hands. Take a look to see what happened next!
Pies in the Face for March of Dimes from Dave Conklin on Vimeo.
B-A-B-I-E-S. There were 6 pies and only 5 victims, so the sixth pie was auctioned off on site to hit whomever the winner wanted. After a heated debate, Heather Heffner won the final pie and was thrilled to pie Mike King, smack in the face!
Events like these allow the employees to have fun in the workplace! That, along with the added benefit of a great cause makes for a fun-filled (and messy) day at GMHV!