Category: Home Values

Real Estate Alert: 3 Tips to Sell Your Home Fast!

4/19/2016

Sell your home fast with these 3 often-overlooked home-staging tricks

(BPT) - If you'll be selling your home this spring or summer, your Realtor will probably talk to you about staging the house to maximize its appeal to buyers. Staging is a simple process that can have a big impact on how quickly your home sells and, Realtors say, how much buyers are willing to pay for it.

If you've decided to stage your home for a speedier, more profitable sale this season, keep in mind these three often-overlooked tricks to make your home look, feel and smell great:

Employ aromatherapy

"Aromas significantly impact emotions, so making your house smell good is a great way to appeal to potential buyers on a very elemental level," says Charlynn Avery, aromatherapist and educator for Aura Cacia, an essential oil brand "But be careful to not overwhelm with scents that are too 'perfumey' or synthetic, as those could cause adverse reactions in people who suffer from allergies. Instead, opt for natural freshening scents like lemon or purifying scents like eucalyptus."

Avery suggests warming water on the stove with a few drops of your favorite essential oil such as cinnamon, clove, vanilla or orange. It's a quick, low-cost way to create a welcoming aroma in your home. Deodorize carpets with a mixture of 18 drops of essential oil and 1 cup of baking soda. Or, you can easily create your own air freshener by mixing your favorite essential oils and distilled water in a spray bottle. For longer-lasting, comforting aroma, try this recipe for aroma crystals:

Vanilla amber aroma crystals

Ingredients:

1 cup coarse-grained, chunky sea salt
1 teaspoon jojoba or grapeseed oil (just enough to make the salts glisten)
25 drops Aura Cacia Vanilla Precious Essentials Oil
10 drops lavender essential oil
10 drops sweet orange essential oil

Directions:
Mix salt and oils, pour into a decorative dish or bowl and set out on a table. Placing the crystals in a warm sunny window or near a heat register will help diffuse the delicious aroma throughout the room. Stir in additional essential oils to boost the scent as needed.

Declutter even where you don't think it counts

Your real estate agent will likely tell you to declutter - removing extra items from kitchen countertops and from tables throughout the home, packing away family photos and excess knick-knacks. All those things are important, but what happens when a potential buyer opens the hallway closet, or goes into the walk-in closet in your master bedroom?

It's important to declutter everywhere, not just the spots you immediately see when you walk into a house. Serious buyers will open drawers, cabinets and closets and if those spots are stuffed full, they'll look smaller, less impressive and unappealing.

Likewise, clean out your garage; it's hard for a buyer to appreciate the expansiveness of your two-car garage if that's where you've stored all the boxes of stuff you removed from the house. If you have a lot of stuff to pack away, consider renting a storage unit for a few months.

Clean as if your life depended on it
Kitchens and bathrooms sell homes, but even a hint of dirt in either room can wipe out a buyer's good impression of your home. A deep clean is essential in these rooms, and will create a positive effect on multiple levels; your home will look and smell clean, fresh and newer.

In the bathroom, be sure bathtubs and showers are meticulously clean. Descale showerheads and glass shower doors, clean and polish metal drain grates as well as fixtures. Clean grout, mirrors and every crevice. Add a few drops of lemon or sweet orange essential oils to sink and shower drains to keep them smelling fresh.

In the kitchen, in addition to clean countertops, floors and appliance exteriors, make sure the inside of ovens, refrigerators and dishwashers are also clean. Since kitchen appliances usually come with the house, buyers may look inside them. Change the filter in your kitchen hood and make sure the light over the stove is working. Finally, while clean windows are important throughout the house, they're essential in a kitchen where buyers want to envision themselves in a bright, welcoming environment.

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Selling your home? Let the bidding wars begin

2/29/2016

(BPT) - No wonder you're thinking of selling your home - it's a "seller's market" right now. The housing supply has dwindled, creating more demand for fewer homes.

At the same time, according to Realtor Tammy Reinke, buyers' expectations are higher than ever. They've become accustomed to model-perfect homes.

What's the upshot? "Sellers have a choice," says Reinke. "You can win the price war - or win the beauty contest." By winning the beauty contest, you'll gain pricing leverage. And if your home shows well, it can even spark a bidding war - generating offers that exceed your asking price.

Here are three top "beauty" tips to set your home apart from other contestants, and set yourself up for a fatter settlement check.

1. Dirt's a deal-breaker: Make a clean sweep

"Buyers want to see a clean home," says Reinke. "And the first thing to deal with is stained carpets and ceilings."

Stained carpets should be cleaned or replaced. Stained ceilings deserve your attention, too. They can scare off prospective buyers who fear that ceiling imperfections might be a sign of bigger problems.

"If you've got a stained popcorn ceiling, don't bother trying to spot paint over it, it doesn't work," Reinke says. Even professionals find it difficult to match the original finish and color. In addition, flocked or heavily textured ceilings are best replaced because they look so outdated.

Instead, consider installing ceiling tiles or panels directly over the offending ceiling, using a simple DIY track-and-clip system. To weigh all your ceiling replacement options, pop some real popcorn and settle back with the Armstrong Ceiling video guide to ceilings for lots of ideas and inspiration.

2. Declutter de house

Buyers can't picture themselves in your home if they can't see past your piles of stuff. "There's a difference between clutter and an intentional collection," says Tiffany Little, a senior interior design at Albion Associates.

Pull together different items - like pottery or framed photography - using a common design element like color, similar patterns, texture or materials. "It's OK to leave some surfaces empty, and to create a display of personal mementos in a stylish, organized manner in other areas," says Little. "This makes the personal items even more special."

3. Spark design interest

So you've cleaned and decluttered, but now your rooms seem blah and uninviting. Nothing enlivens a space like a splash of color. Toss some bright new pillows on the sofa or add tasteful artwork or accessories to complement your color scheme.

Paint adds personality, too, but choose your colors carefully so your wall palette flows naturally from room to room. "I like using a neutral color palette for larger rooms - from ivory tones to values of grey," says Little. She adds mid-tone colors to smaller rooms, while selectively using vivid or deeper colors as accents with accessories and artwork throughout the home.

Finally, don't forget to add texture, whether with a woven area rug or sculptural wire baskets. "Texture adds great dimension and depth to a room," says Little.

"I especially love the look of Armstrong Ceilings decorative metal ceiling panels in textured tin or copper as accents above a kitchen island. This turns the ordinary, smooth sheetrock ceiling into a wow factor. By adding this textured ceiling color in with a few of the dishes, or countertop items, it unifies the room's palette," she added.

With a bit of primping, your home can win the ultimate beauty contest and attract a buyer who's willing to meet your price, or even pay a premium to call it their own.

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Real Estate Alert: 3 Tips to Sell Your Home Fast!

Sell your home fast with these 3 often-overlooked home-staging tricks

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Selling your home? Let the bidding wars begin

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Real Estate Alert: 3 Tips to Sell Your Home Fast!

Sell your home fast with these 3 often-overlooked home-staging tricks

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Selling your home? Let the bidding wars begin

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