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home selling tips: If You Don't Want It, What Makes You Think The Buyer Does? - 08/11/11 09:05 AM
I know that moving is hard work. After our last move, I informed my husband that I'd rather burn down the house than have to pack up and then unpack all of our belongings ever again. I can't imagine how much harder that would have been if we were forced to deal with items left behind by the previous owner, but I see this happen all of the time.
If you don't want something that's too big, heavy, bulky, old...whatever...chances are the buyer doesn't want you to leave it behind in your home or garage or shed either.
We … (8 comments)
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home selling tips: I'm Not Miss Clairol and You Are Not a REALTOR - 11/15/10 01:05 PM
In an attempt to save time and money, I decided recently to color my own hair. After all, they sell hair color in every drug and grocery store and I’ve watched my hair dresser do it time and time again. How hard could it be, right?
Well, apparently there can be some unexpected results when you are a do-it-yourself hair dresser. In my case, they included:
The need to buy a replacement towel for the one that now has purple spots all over it (no, I did not dye my hair purple, that’s just the color of the stains) Buying … (94 comments)
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home selling tips: Thank You For Your Honesty - 07/11/10 10:59 PM
It amazes me that there are real estate agents that don’t seem to get that being completely honest with a home seller may be hard, but it’s the right thing to do. Not long ago, I heard from someone who had been trying to sell their West Bank home with no success. They asked me to take a look at the house and give them my opinion on pricing it for today’s market.
When I visited, I found several items of deferred maintenance that would keep the house from attracting the most qualified buyers, especially the FHA buyers that are making … (48 comments)
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home selling tips: Are You Selling Your Home or Just Helping Your Neighbors Sell Theirs? - 06/20/10 01:03 PM
There are a couple of kinds of people who help their neighbors sell their home.
The first kind is the neighbor we all want to have. Their yard is perfectly landscaped, the trash cans are never left out by the curb, the cars are tucked safely into the garage instead of parked on the street, they don’t have dogs that would even think about barking or cats that consider your garden a litter box.
They are friendly, courteous and can’t wait to tell anyone they meet what a great neighborhood they live in, including the people who are considering moving to … (46 comments)
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home selling tips: A Home Seller Who Really Gets It... - 06/09/10 08:47 PM
I’ve spent a lot of time writing here about selling New Orleans West Bank homes. How to get them ready, how to get them staged, how to price them right and how to be sure that, as a seller, you are appealing to the broadest home buying audience possible.
Sometimes I feel like I’m talking to the wall, especially when I meet with home sellers who want a sign in their front yard right now, but they are no where near ready to go on the market and put their best foot forward.
Recently, one of my listings (which was … (21 comments)
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home selling tips: When Selling Your New Orleans Home, Online Domination Should be Your Goal - 04/21/10 11:15 AM
Have you looked at the real estate section of the newspaper lately? It’s pretty small these days as fewer and fewer New Orleans REALTORS are willing to plunk down hundreds of dollars for ads that very few people are reading.
Smart agents are focusing their efforts on where the buyers are, and the statistics show that almost 90% of them are searching for homes online. Before they ever call an agent, before they ever make an appointment, they are using their friend Google to help them cull through the mediocre and find the jewels of the market.
Can’t see … (4 comments)
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home selling tips: The Inconvenient Truth About Selling Your Home - 04/01/10 10:38 AM
When you are ready to sell your home, there is a lot of preparation that goes on beforehand. Cleaning, decluttering, choosing a fantastic REALTOR and making the house picture perfect for those oh-so-important marketing photos. This is when you are most excited about the process, the most hopeful that it will sell quickly and for the best price.
When your agent calls to set that first showing appointment, it’s an adrenaline rush. Is everything tidy? Beds made? Kitchen clean? Bathrooms sparkling? Check, check, check and check.
You happily go for a walk or a drive or out to eat … (11 comments)
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home selling tips: Sellers Divorcing! Must Sell!...or What Not To Tell A Buyer Agent - 03/21/10 12:40 PM
Sellers Divorcing! Must sell!!
That was what I read recently in an agent’s remarks in our local Multiple Listing Service (MLS). Now, I’m all for agents communicating with each other that a seller is motivated (although you would think that the mere act of putting their home on the market would mean they want to sell), but this one made me scratch my head and say “really?”
When an agent lists a home they (should) have a few goals in mind:
Net the best price for the sellers Sell it in the shortest amount of time Make the process … (19 comments)
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home selling tips: Good Photos Are Not An Option - 03/10/10 01:26 PM
The speed with which consumers have embraced online shopping amazes me. In just a few short years, the buying habits of most people have changed from window shopping at the mall to browsing across the internet, comparing quality and prices from the comfort of home. This same change applies to the real estate industry as well.
With almost any information about homes for sale available online, buyers are able to narrow down their list of most interesting homes without spending an entire day driving from house to house...and most of them are doing this based on the photos of those … (19 comments)
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home selling tips: New Year's Resolutions for Home Buyers and Sellers - 12/30/09 02:22 PM
Yep, it’s that time of year again when we all decide that we are going to lose weight, quit smoking, start exercising and become more organized. Calendars and planners are flying off the shelves as everyone tries to start the New Year off on the right foot, hoping for an improvement over last year. Whether it was a good year or not, we always want more, more, more and the beginning of the year is the time that we plan out our paths for the next twelve months. While making my own list of resolutions, I put together some suggestions for … (11 comments)
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home selling tips: 12 Tips for Holiday Decorating When Selling Your Home - 12/01/09 02:19 PM
Here we are at that time of year again. The Thanksgiving leftovers are gone and the blitz of shopping has commenced. I was in Target this past weekend, strolling through the Christmas section, hoping that I would not run into any home sellers buying a giant snowman for their front yard.
Why, you ask? Because while holiday decorating is fun and festive, too much can leave buyers unable to picture themselves at home in your house – not exactly the tone you want to set when selling. Not everyone has the same beliefs and customs that you do and … (14 comments)
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home selling tips: I Wish I'd Had My House Inspected First - 10/11/09 08:06 PM
Those are the exact words we heard from a seller recently.
Why? Because after all of the back and forth negotiations were finished and a price and terms were agreed on, the buyer’s inspection report came back with several problems that the seller did not know existed. In order to keep the purchasers from cancelling the contract and walking away from the house, the seller spent over $2,000 having things fixed. Since he had already agreed to a darn good deal for the buyers, he felt a little short changed.
What do Louisiana purchase agreements say about inspections?
The … (15 comments)
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home selling tips: Home Improvement Tips | A Home Improvement That Pays for Itself - 08/06/09 05:21 PM
I live in a house that was originally built in the 1950s. Over the years, the original owners added on (and added on and added on) as their family outgrew the existing space. Lucky for me, by the time they were ready to sell the house, it clocked in at well over 2,500 square feet of living area.
Not so lucky for me, they weren’t as concerned with energy efficiency during their expansion spree.
When we originally bought the house, we knew it would need work. It was definitely what a Realtor would call a “handy man special”, a “fixer upper” … (55 comments)
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home selling tips: How Inaccurate Home Disclosures Can Come Back to Bite You - 02/17/09 08:02 PM
Disclose, disclose, disclose. This is an agent's mantra when advising sellers during the process of listing their home. Hiding defects is not only foolish (since the home inspector will more than likely find it anyway) but deliberately withholding information about defects in the property is also fraud.
So, what happens if you are just careless in filling out the required Louisiana property disclosure?
Let me tell you a quick story.
A young lady purchasing her first home contacted us recently. She had very specific criteria for what she was looking for, from the number of bedrooms and bathrooms to the … (20 comments)
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home selling tips: Holiday Home Selling Tips - 12/01/08 08:20 PM
Although there are fewer buyers actively looking for new homes between Thanksgiving and Christmas each year, it's important to remember that the key word here is fewer. That doesn't mean that no one is looking! In fact, buyers who are searching for a home during the traditional "slow" time are typically very motivated. If they are involved in a relocation to the West Bank, you can bet that the holiday season doesn't put their home search on the back burner.
You have a wonderful opportunity to show your home at its sparkling best when decorated for the season...provided you follow a … (66 comments)
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home selling tips: Where To Find REAL Information About West Bank Real Estate - It's Not Where You Think! - 10/31/08 03:03 AM
Recently, the big daddy of all real estate sites, Realtor.com, changed their look and added several new features designed to make it easier for home buyers and sellers to find out everything they need to know about buying or selling a house. It's a nice looking site. It's easy to navigate. And it's a huge disappointment to me.
Why?
One of the big upgrades to the site is the inclusion of home valuations or "What's My House Worth?". Unless you are the type of person who looks at every inch of a screen or reads all of the fine print, you … (50 comments)
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home selling tips: Selling Your West Bank Home? Here's How to Get From For Sale to Sold in under 60 Days - 10/19/08 09:52 AM
None of us is immune from the news being broadcast every day. The talking heads of the media have had a laser sharp focus on the economy and the real estate industry, mostly forecasting doom and gloom and making people nervous about their futures.
What the media forgets is that people will always need a place to live - a roof over their heads and a place to call home. The changes in the real estate market on the West Bank of New Orleans simply mean that qualified home buyers have many, many (did I mention many?) options when choosing which … (19 comments)
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home selling tips: Reason #264 to Hire a Local REALTOR® to Sell Your Home - 09/09/08 08:18 PM
OK, so I haven't really laid out #1 through #263 for you. We're skipping ahead today, to one of the most important reasons you should make sure that the REALTOR® you hire to market and sell your home is a local one - especially if you have already moved to another city or state.
Now that this week's threat of hurricanes has passed, I spent part of today checking in on all of my vacant listings and putting the signs back up. At each house, I took a quick walk through, making sure that I didn't see any signs of damage … (31 comments)
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home selling tips: 4 Things You Should Expect From Your Listing Agent - 08/11/08 11:39 PM
Choosing the right agent to list and sell your New Orleans West Bank home has become more important than ever. Inventory rates are at historic highs in some neighborhoods and choosing the person who is responsible for helping you move on to the next phase of your life should NOT be based on:
The fact that they charge the lowest commission The fact that they are your sister-in-law's cousin twice removed who just got their license and could use the business The fact that you've seen their picture in the newspaper and they just look like a such nice person Instead, … (43 comments)
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home selling tips: Attention Home Sellers: PLEASE Make Your House Easy to Show! - 07/23/08 04:22 PM
(From West Bank Living) For the last couple of days I've been working with a fabulous military couple who will be relocating to the West Bank as a result of an assignment to NAS JRB New Orleans. Their home in another state is currently on the market for sale, so they know what it's like to be the seller.
They know that sometimes appointments aren't at the most convenient time and they may have to leave their house when they would normally be having dinner They know that it's a pain to be sure the beds are made and no dishes … (18 comments)
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Lisa Heindel, New Orleans Real Estate Broker
New Orleans,
LA
More about me…
Crescent City Living LLC
Address: New Orleans, LA, 70131
Office Phone: (504) 327-5303 x 220
Cell Phone: (504) 616-6262
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