selling your home: Biggest Home Seller Mistakes
- 01/26/14 01:20 AM
Even in a Seller's market, certain mistakes can keep a home from selling quickly and for the most money. A recent ActiveRain survey isolated the top mistakes that sellers make. If you are considering a sale, you should be familiar with these mistakes and make every effort to avoid making them yourself. IF you need advice about how to prepare your Northern Virginia home for sale, give me a call and we can set up a free consulatation. Real Estate Agents Rank Biggest Home Seller Mistakes
A recent survey of real estate agents by ActiveRain has confirmed that there are certain … (1 comments)
selling your home: Will you buy a new home in 2014?
- 12/30/13 09:57 PM
The New Year often means a reevaluation of our personal goals and objectives. We might want to improve our diet, work out more often, volunteer with more consistency--or maybe we just want to like where we live a little bit better! If your 2014 goals include selling your home and buying a new one, here are some things to think about before you jump in. Mortgage rules have changed. Don't begin the process without having an in-depth conversation with a mortgage lender. A good lender is going to want to have a solid understanding of your financial position. Do not be afraid … (2 comments)
selling your home: What to expect if I list your house
- 11/12/13 03:55 AM
You have had with the lack of space/lack of garage/size of your house/long commute. Whatever the reason is, you have decided to list your home. If you call me, what can you expect? A packet of information about selling your home will be dropped off for you to review A meeting to review the listing process and to sign the listing agreement Once the agreement is signed, we will create a custom plan to get your home sold quickly and for the most money We will manage to the plan and get your house ready to sell! A 'coming soon' sign will … (0 comments)
selling your home: Advice for Sellers: 10 TINY things you can do for BIG impact
- 10/01/13 10:22 AM
So much of preparing your home for sale involves big decisions. Should I change the carpet? Paint the foyer? Re-do the landscaping? Sometimes it is just overwhelming. Here are ten tiny things that you can do that will impress buyers: Change the garbage disposal baffle (the rubber thing that keeps things from dropping in) Clean the light switch plates (especially the ones at the front door, kitchen and bathrooms) Make sure all the plug outlets and light switch plates are clean and matching. If not, change them out. Paint the mailbox post and make sure it is sturdy and … (19 comments)
selling your home: How Hard Can it Be? Selling Your House FSBO
- 05/09/12 03:56 AM
I am well aware that the general public believes that Realtors are overpaid (I could spend a whole blog post letting you know how the commission we receive is divided and spent until we get a fraction of it to deposit, but I will save that for another day). Friends of mine are always saying, 'we might try to sell it ourselves.' My response is always, 'you should.' And then I go on to tell them how they should handle the security issues and how they want to be sure to get legal advice as they go through the contract negotiations. … (32 comments)
selling your home: 'Keeping Up With the Joneses' Pays in Real Estate
- 04/22/12 10:35 PM
We live in in a wonderful community in Reston, Virginia. We have known most of our neighbors since about 1994 when our neighborhood was built. We meet for coffee, celebrate birthdays and holidays together and watch one another's lives change and evolve. Inevitably, every time we get together, the conversation turns to who is remodeling their kitchen, installing hardwood, finishing the basement or making other improvements to their home. There are always some who are smug about the fact that they are not falling into the financial trap of 'Keeping up with the Joneses.' While it might not make sense to … (17 comments)
selling your home: What Were You Thinking When You Bought That House?
- 01/22/12 11:33 PM
I see a lot of houses. I see the light, I see the layout, I see the architecture and I see the stuff. It is always interesting to try to figure out why people buy the houses that they buy. Sometimes it is obvious and sometimes not. When I am working with a client and they walk into the house they want, I can USUALLY see it their expression. Not always, however, are the reasons for choosing a house so obvious. Have you ever walked into a home and wondered, 'why would you have ever bought this house?' Maybe the layout … (6 comments)
selling your home: Baby Steps Toward Selling Your House
- 01/12/12 11:43 PM
There is undoubtedly a lot of work to do before you put your house on the market. Not surprisingly, it is the little things that can help convince a buyer that your house is the 'one.' You can't change the architecture or the location, but you can control how your house is presented. Rather than waiting until 2 weeks before you list and then pulling all nighters to get ready, why don't you tackle some of the smaller jobs right now? If you do one thing each day, you might be surprised how quickly you get through the list. Here is a … (5 comments)
selling your home: 10 Things Sellers Should Replace Before Listing Their Northern Virginia Home
- 01/05/12 11:17 PM
10 Things Sellers Should Replace Before Listing Their Northern Virginia Home Most Northern Virginia sellers spend a lot of time preparing their homes for market. Cleaning closets, organizing the pantry, getting rid of old toys/books/stuff...the list goes on and on. Many even paint, recarpet or tackle minor remodeling projects. There are a couple of simple things, however, that sellers often overlook. Because all real estate IS local, I can only comment that these items are off-putting for buyers in the Northern Virginia market--buyers in other parts of the country may not react to them in quite the same way. Hollywood lights: Those bar lights above the bathroom … (7 comments)
selling your home: FSBO--Are Your Emotions Getting in the Way of Your Sale?
- 03/25/11 08:49 AM
When it comes time to sell a house, many of us consider doing it ourselves. After all, who knows and appreciates our home better than the person who has been tending it all these years? There are many technical reasons that I would encourage you to seek the professional guidance of a Realtor® (pricing, preparation, safety, marketing just to name a few), but there are a couple of emotional reasons, too. No one, least of all a buyer, cares how much money you need to get out of the transaction It is very difficult to be objective about your own … (5 comments)
selling your home: Peer Pressure Can Up the Value of Your Home!
- 11/01/10 04:12 AM
Two neighborhoods. Both in Reston, VA. Roughly the same age. Roughly the same price point. Why does one look so much more appealing than the other? While pictures would help tell this story, I am going to abstain, since I live in the community. Let me paint some visuals for you: Neighborhood One: Mature trees with branches hanging over sidewalks and driveways. Bushes crowded up against the houses. Some of have been 'trimmed' (really whacked with some sort of power saw to make them behave). Very few annuals or perennials. Yards are mowed, but the weeds took over long ago and … (5 comments)
selling your home: Sellers ! I did not show your home to my clients because .......
- 09/22/10 12:10 AM
This is information that every Seller should see before their house goes on the market. As Realtors, we should be having a conversation that explains this process to them. We have all had to by-pass homes because the showing times are restricted or the process is too complicated for the limited time we have with our buyer. When you are selling your home, you must make some sacrifices to get the house sold. It isn't always convenient, but if handled properly, the time on market--and therefore the inconvenience--will be shorter. I have disabled comments so that you can leave them for … (0 comments)
selling your home: We Almost have the Contingencies Removed...Don't We?
- 06/18/10 04:11 AM
It has happened often enough this year to be a pattern. A very well qualified buyer with a significant down-payment, a traditional sale (not short sale or foreclosure), standard contingencies (HOA, Inspections, financing and appraisal) and reasonable time frames. Guess what, we can't get the contingencies removed! Yes, we get the inspections done, negotiate and finalize the agreement. Check! We provide documents, the waiting period expires and that one is done, too. Check! But the appraisal and financing contingencies--apparently those are just 'guidelines.' I have read a number of blogs lately saying that communications is the key to this issue. Phooey! … (7 comments)
selling your home: Sellers--Trust Your Realtor, But Don't Bury Your Head in The Sand
- 01/31/10 12:57 AM
I have an automatic search that I run daily on my MLS. Last weekend a new property came up and I contacted one of my clients to see if she had any interest in seeing it. There was no picture, so I described the home to her and she drove by to do a quick check. It was not in an area of the neighborhood that interested her, so we did not pursue a showing. This morning, running my search, the property came up again due to a change in the listing. In reviewing the change, it seems it was a … (3 comments)
selling your home: Sell Your Home: A Series of Posts, Part 3
- 11/15/09 01:09 AM
If you are planning to sell your house, the time to put in the work is BEFORE the property is listed. In my previous post, Sell Your Home: A Series of Posts, Part 2, I discuss how important it is to look at every aspect of your home with a critical eye. The posts below deal with very specific areas and may help you to get started with this process. Getting Your House Ready to Sell Series:What the Mailbox Might Be Saying About Your Home Getting Your House Ready to Sell Series: Plants & Shrubs by Front Door Getting Your House … (3 comments)
selling your home: Sell Your Home : A Series of Posts, Part 2
- 11/11/09 10:46 PM
Now that you have decided to sell your home, it is critical that you look at your property objectively and make the necessary improvements. If you have read any of my previous posts, you will know that one of my favorite sayings is, 'you only get one chance to make a first impression.' This is the time to prepare your home as thoroughly as you would prepare yourself for an important interview. Look at every corner of your home and ask yourself is it 1) clean, 2) well maintained, 3) dated (and replace offending items if necessary). Just as you may … (3 comments)
selling your home: Sell Your Home: A Series of Posts, Part 1
- 11/11/09 05:12 AM
Are you are thinking about selling your house? If you have talked about this to friends and family, you are probably getting a lot of advice--much of which you find conflicting. For the past several years, I have written a number of blogs for sellers which I have called the Getting Your House Ready To Sell Series. I hope that you can benefit from some of these posts. Selling your home is different from many other life decisions because it impacts not only your net worth, but is usually a very emotional transaction. It is a rare seller who can completely … (1 comments)
selling your home: Coming Around Again in Fashion and Real Estate
- 10/22/09 12:19 AM
If you are a woman of a 'certain age,' you have probably heard the fashion adage 'if you remember wearing it before you probably shouldn't wear it again.' In case you are not familiar with this concept, examples of it include: hip-huggers, micro-mini skirts, thigh-high boots and leggings as pants. Like Fashion, the Real Estate industry is experiencing a resurgence/recycling of products and processes from the past. Unlike Fashion, however, the recycled Real Estate practices are worth a second look--both for Realtors and for Buyers and Sellers. There was a time, in the not-so-long-ago-past, when buyers would almost never consider buying … (6 comments)
selling your home: A VERY Simple Piece of Gardening Advice
- 05/29/09 07:22 AM
We have all walked by those beautiful container gardens at the local plant and garden center. Not only are they usually in pretty (not spectacular) containers, but they have such stunning visual variety that we often instantly covet them for our own decks or patios. What makes them special is the variety of textures and colors. This is easily achieved for VERY little money by following a simple formula: Pick a pot that is large enough to hold 3 plants (not large ones). I am partial to plain clay pots, but fancier pottery or urns work well, too. Pick a … (6 comments)
selling your home: A VERY Simple Piece of Decorating Advice
- 04/16/09 12:49 AM
As Realtors, we are in and out of a lot of bedrooms. It never fails to delight when a bedroom is well decorated. Most people are not seeking excitement in their bedroom decorations (and that is all I will say about excitement and bedrooms). Most folks see their bedrooms as a respite from a crazy, busy world. My advice for those of you who are looking for a change in your bedding: Go White! About 15 years ago, my husband and I were in the market for a new bedroom quilt or spread. At the time we had 2 children under … (12 comments)
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