Get rid of as much clutter as possible. Stuffed closets, extraneous furniture, exercise equipment in living quarters, crowded countertops, overflowing cabinets, and endless knickknacks make homes seem smaller than they are. Consider putting some things in storage.
Step 2: Hide your pets
Hide all evidence that you own animals. Just because your potential buyer loves his own pets doesn't mean he wants a house that reeks of yours. Get rid of pet stains and odors (pay a professional if you have to) and send the four-legged family members to a neighbor's house when you show your home.
Step 3: Be scarce yourself
And, while you're at it, make yourself scarce during home showings. You know how you feel about those annoying salespeople who follow you around the store, making you uncomfortable? That's how potential home buyers will feel about you.
Step 4: Don't discount the first offer
Think carefully before you reject the first offer on your home; studies show it is usually the highest bid you get. And the longer you hold out for a better offer, the lower your chances are of getting it, because people start to think that something must be wrong with a house that's been on the market for so long.
Step 5: Always negotiate
Don't take lowball offers personally, or you'll lose a lot of potential buyers. Instead of viewing them as insults, look at them as starting points for negotiation.
To attract the most buyers, list your home a few thousand dollars below a major round number. If you're hoping to get about $200,000, for example, list it as $199,000, not $205,000. You don't want to miss out on buyers who have set $200,000 as their cutoff point.
Step 6: Out with the old
Toss or change anything that makes your home look tired - worn carpeting, old throw rugs, dirty light switch covers. Give every room a fresh coat of paint in a neutral color. Don't let cost deter you; this is truly a case where you've got to spend money to make money.
Step 7: Remember curb appeal
Don't discount the importance of a good first impression from the street. Trim hedges, reseed the lawn, plant some flowers, wash the windows, scrape and repaint the front door and windowsills, and put some oversized potted plants at the entrance.
Step 8: Depersonalize your home
Rid your home of all your treasured personal touches - family photos, the kids' artwork on the fridge, religious artifacts, bowling trophies, your ceramic pig collection, the shrine to Elvis. They will only make it more difficult for potential buyers to imagine themselves in your home.
Step 9: Aim for light and bright
Because home buyers are nearly unanimously looking for a light, bright house as opposed to a dark, dreary one, do what you can to make that happen. Ditch the heavy drapes, take down dark wallpaper, put in high-wattage light bulbs, and get rid of wood paneling.
Step 10: Fix anything that's broken
Fix whatever is broken before you list your home. It's almost always cheaper to do it yourself than to let the buyer use it to bring down the price.
Read this now, before you have a fender bender on icy roads in Billings. After the roads have iced up, the news lets us know that the Billings Police Department has instituted it's "Slick Street Policy". Pretty much, it means, if there's no one injured, get out of the way because the Police must prioritize their response and go to injury accidents first. My question was, then what? I emailed the Billings Police Department and got some clarification from Sgt Kevin Iffland, Administrative Sergeant. Thanks Sgt Iffland!
Wanda,
The following is the Billings Police Department Policy on "High Accident Days" also has been referred to as Slick Streets Policy. If you have further questions please feel free to contact me.
High Accident Days:
A. If the Commander finds he does not have the ability to investigate all accidents during a
shift, he can issue an Accident Alert and limit accident investigations to those accidents
that have:
1. Serious personal injuries;
2. Reports of DUI Drivers; and
3. Accidents with disabled vehicles.
B. The Commander will notify the Communications Center that he is issuing an Accident
Alert for the City of Billings. The Communication Center will use their procedure for
alerting local media organizations. The Commander will notify agency personnel and any
relieving Commander about the existence of the alert.
C. The Commander who cancels the Accident Alert will notify the Communications Center
and agency employees. The Communications Center will follow their procedure for
canceling the alert.
D. If accidents are not investigated, the persons should be advised to fill out a Montana
Highway Patrol Vehicle Accident Report (“White Form”). The report can be obtained at
Just lately I was showing a country property when the buyer asked the question "where does the water for the house come from? And where does it go when you're done with it?" While I'm quite comfortable with country plumbing, I could tell the buyer was really working hard to visualize what the heck I was talking about.
This video is about 16 minutes long and is very well done. I have started to direct inquires about country living to this page online. I hope you enjoy it.
There are some parts of our rural country side where no matter how big your well driller rig is, you may not find drinkable water. Not the best situation, but living with water saving devises and having water hauled to an underground tank near your home can work very well.
Many people think that Montana has unlimited water resources, this is very far from truth. In many parts of the Yellowstone Valley, water can be found in the ground at only 5 or 6 feet. Just up the hill, the water may not be found for 700 feet!
The cost of well drilling is often a big consideration in the domestic water plan for a home. A home with a well sells faster and for more money than one without!
It's always a little fun to listen to a traveler through our state of Montana who can't understand why we don't have a sales tax! Somehow it just makes them happy!
On the other hand, when I travel and have to pay a sales tax, I forget and look stuptified at the sales clerks when they announce the tax on my items.
I don't want you to think we're a tax free state, in fact, some people in our state think we are horribly over taxed (isn't that true everywhere?)
We have state income taxes, property taxes (school tax, state education tax, county tax, economic development tax, county road tax, weed tax, county refuse tax, fire service, soil conservation, medical levy).
We also have vehicle registration taxes, gas taxes, phone taxes, utility tax, coal tax and I'm sure I've missed a few things here that are hidden, but really, we're not doing too bad.
Our State of Montana seems to be fiscally responsible at this point as well. We need to have a pretty big savings plan to cover a bad fire year. We have cut back our state funding of the Public School system over the last 15 years, making up for it on the local level. Some of our school funding this year was funded by Stimulus money, which won't be there year after year.
Personally I think a sales tax will not pass in our State of Montana in the near future, people just like the idea of the status quo.
Our landscape in the Rocky Mountain West is experiencing a change that is just plum scary! A couple of years ago, while heading up to Yellowstone Park from the Cody Wyoming East entrance, I was trying to figure out why there were so many dead trees. I tried to count, (don't worry, my husband was driving) and the best I could do was 1 live tree for every 5 dead ones. The weirdest thing is how brown the mountainside is, not the beautiful green I am used to.
We always try to sign up for the Park Ranger talks available throughout Yellowstone Park (I think my husband wants to become a Park Ranger some day). The Ranger's were explaining about the loss of Grizzly Bear food in the high elevations, the food is the White Bark Pine Nuts. In the late summer, squirrels and chipmunks work like crazy to create their winter food storage in heaps of pine cone middens that contain large amounts of the White Bark Pine Seeds. Grizzly's hunt around for these middens and raid them for this very nutritious food that they need before winter.
The White Bark Pine Trees are being devastated by The Mountain Pine Beetle. These beetles are having a hay day in the forest since areas like Yellowstone National Park have had trouble with drought and above average temperatures for about the last 10 years. When the trees are thirsty and dry, they loose their natural ability to push these beetles right out of their bark with large amounts of sticky sap. No water, less sap; less sap, more beetles in the trees. These beetles then reproduce and contaminate the host tree with a deadly fungus. The tree dies. No more pine nuts. Hungry squirrels, chipmunks, and Grizzly's.
I think these terrible pests will be making the news for the next 5 to 10 years as we cycle through the loss of trees, the fires that will eventually burn them up, and the rejuvination that needs to occur in the future.
I know I need to do my Christmas shopping early, but why should I change my ways now? Maybe I would have less stress if I just planned a bit better instead of rushing around at the last minute. My husband is a real trooper, he expects to shop the week before Christmas, he enjoys it, and he's very good at it (stores love him).
But I must complain, when the Christmas marketing season starts so early, as it has for years now, I am practically worn out by Christmas.
Too much of my brain gets tied up in trying to figure out what everyone wants (almost impossible), how much to spend (always an issue) and what the true meaning of Christmas really is about!
I do love the Christmas movies we have though, especially the ones that remind us that basic human kindness and care are the best gifts of all (and they shouldn't be limited to one season). I have lots of those movies, maybe I should start playing them now.
Huntley Project High School Burned to the Ground a year ago September 18th 2008. Since then the kids have been in trailer classrooms. The community has rallied together to build a pretty nice school with a groundbreaking ceremony this Friday at the building site in Worden at 8:30.
Despite this rather tough situation, the Huntley Project Red Devils managed to defeat a host of other Montana Class B Football teams last year and become State Champs.
I'm just wondering what will happen this year! After 5 games so far, the Huntley Project Red Devils point totals are 249, the opposing teams have totaled 0. I know that the Varsity only plays part of the game, same as last year. The next serious challenge for this team comes in a couple weeks when they meet the Columbus Cougars in Columbus Montana. If you're looking for a good game to go to, I'd pick this one Friday the 16th of October at 7pm in Columbus.
When I heard this story a minute ago, I told my husband "See, He Used The Secret!"
Mike Blowers just told another broadcaster that Matt Tui, a Seattle Mariner, was gonna hit his first big league home run, the hit count, the pitch, the pitcher, where the ball would go: And It Happened!
So I ask you, how great is that to use the power of believing something like that can happen. What if we all used our own Visual Thinking Cosmic Power? Whatever you want to call it, I grew up with the story of "The Little Engine That Could". I must tell you that I do have a flaw in this area, almost a backward type "little engine", when someone tells me I can't do something, I put my mind--headstrong forward and do whatever they told me couldn't be done.
2009 Assessment Notice came in the mail a month or so ago, have a look at the calculator the State of Montana provides to you to see what your future property taxes will be.
I looked up my personal residence and my land taxes on the calculator and I'm pretty much staying the same, depending on the values of the future mill levy's.
Please see the following checklist prepared by John Sinrud, Government Affairs Director (gad@nmar.com) on behalf of the Northwest Montana Association of REALTORS®. Our thanks toAffairs Director (gad@nmar.com) on behalf of the Northwest Montana Association of REALTORS®. Our thanks to NMAR for sharing.
1. What is the 2009 reappraisal? Montana law requires the Department of Revenue to reappraise or revalue all taxable real property every 6 years.
2. The six-year cycle ended on July 1, 2008
3. Can I protest if I think the reassessment value that I received is too high - YES. o You will fill out a Request for Informal Review (Form AB-26) and send it to your local Department of Revenue office before OCTOBER 2nd.AB-26 form
4. After you submitted the AB-26 form the Department will notify you of the date and time of the review.
5. If you are not satisfied with the review you have the right to appeal the results to your Local County Tax Appeal Board. o In order to appeal, complete a Property Tax Appeal Form-09 and send it to the Clerk and Recorder in the County in which the property is located within 30 days after you have received the results of your AB-26 informal review.
6. Find a more complete description of the appeal process on the State Tax Appeal Board website http://stab.mt.gov/
7. What happens if my client asks me for comps to help them appeal their current tax reassessment values, can I give them comps from MLS - the answer is YES.
8. What if my property taxes become due before my appeal is resolved? If you are appealing your property's market value or classification and your taxes become due before your appeal is resolved, you will need to: Specify the grounds of your protest in writing, use form provided by your local county treasurer for Payment of Taxes under Protest (sample link Pay tax under protest) and pay the taxes disputed under protest by the due date. (November 30, 2009). If you are successful in your appeal, your County Treasurer will send you a refund.
9. If you do not like the decision from the County Tax Appeal Board you also have the right to protest at the State Level. See the State Tax Appeal Board Website http://stab.mt.gov/ for more information regarding this process. The following is a tax calculator provided by the Department of Revenue which will give you the ability to see exactly how much you will pay for your property taxes based upon the current local mills. CALCULATOR
1460 square foot 3 bedroom 2 bath rancher on the west end of Billings Montana.
Over 11,000sf landscaped and underground sprinkled lot with mature landscaping and fenced. Good sized kitchen, living and dining rooms. This home shows it's been well maintained over it's years. Call for your personal showing 406-698-8640
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
On the other hand, when I travel and have to pay a sales tax, I forget and look stuptified at the sales clerks when they announce the tax on my items.
Please see the following checklist prepared by John Sinrud, Government
;)
;)
