selling your home: Get on Your Knees!! Trying to Sell Your Home, With Kids? - 04/23/11 03:55 PM
Have Kids? Want to Sell Your Home?  Get on your Knees!!

No, not to beg!  What do I mean then, telling you to get on your knees?

Those of us with little ones know that you don't put anything valuable within 4 feet of the ground. For that matter, box those breakables up until their 18!  But what we often forget is just how much damage those little suckers can do.  Day in, day out, we get immured to the smudges, the spills, the splatters, until we hardly even notice them.  The solution?  Get on your knees and … (6 comments)

selling your home: Got Kids? Selling Your Home Can Be HARD With Little Ones! One Tip for managing the Toy Clutter! - 04/16/11 07:11 AM
Tips on Selling Your Home, when you have KIDS!

One Quick Tip on Selling Your Home with Little Kids

No, I don't mean selling the kids with the home!  I mean, are you trying to sell your home while you've got little ones still at home? 

If you've thought about selling, but looked at those fancy staged homes, looked up at your own crayon-colored home and started bawling, this might be for you. I've been there, done that.  As an agent, noone knows better the oft-repeated advice - "Your home should be de-personalized," "Your home should look … (5 comments)

selling your home: Contact Paper Counters? Hiding the BAD and Taking Shortcuts is NOT a good way to sell your home! - 02/26/11 03:54 AM
Since we tour hundreds of homes each year in the pursuit of finding buyers their next home and finding homes to list, we've definitely seen some odd things.  But every now and then there are still moments that just leave us standing there, wondering what someone was thinking!

A while back, I showed a buyer a home that looked awesome online - kitchen was spacious and had newer looking counters, very homey and livable.  I arrived at the home before the buyer, to turn on the lights and help it show its best.  I got to the kitchen and … (5 comments)

selling your home: Why De-Personalize Your Home for Sale? It's about Buyer Appeal and also YOUR Safety! - 02/18/11 09:17 AM
Why do we say to de-personalize your home before selling?

I've heard the resistance many times and I completely understand!  After all, you bought a house to be your haven, where you can decorate as you wish without consulting landlords or being told what you can and can't do. Your home becomes a reflection of your personality and who you are!  And that's great!
So why does an agent tell you to de-personalize?

1. The person buying your home isn't you.   That is, if people walk into the house and can immediately associate a "personality" to it, that … (0 comments)

selling your home: Selling your Wichita KS Home when you Work From Home! - 06/09/10 06:34 AM
Selling Your Wichita KS Home when You Work From Home!
Photo by Creative Commons License thru El Clinto at Flickr

We understand - believe me!  Many real estate agents also work from home, so we definitely feel your pain!
But just like us, there's some things you'll need to work on and keep in mind if you're selling your house while you work from home!

Getting ready to sell:

If your desk looks like mine, it's not the most productive looking picture (though I know where everything is, really!).  So now's a great time … (2 comments)

selling your home: How can a Pre-Listing Inspection Help You Sell Your Home? Here's a Few Ideas! - 02/20/10 11:06 AM
Pre-Listing Inspection?  What's the Point?

Occasionally I get asked about pre-listing inspections, and I've been recommending them more and more lately.   A pre-listing inspection is in fact a home inspection done by the seller prior to listing their home.  
Now why would you inspect your house before you have a buyer?  That I have many good answers for!

1. If there's a large problem with the home that you were unaware of, you can then decide whether you can price accordingly or whether you might be able to move at all.  Much better to find … (89 comments)

selling your home: Let Us In! You Have to Show it to Sell it! - 02/04/10 01:12 PM
Do You Really Want to Sell? Then Let Us Show!

I've sold my own home a few times, so I know how trying and hard it is to clean house and dart out for showing after showing.  It's inconvenient, it's no fun, and it's sometimes annoying and invasive.  However, if the buyers never get inside the front door, they will not be buying your house!

The best thing possible for your home is to be very very open and flexible for showing arrangements.  Yes, sometimes things will come up.  And sometimes those buyers only give you half … (8 comments)

selling your home: Are you Selling or Smelling? Senses that Affect YOUR Home! - 01/26/10 11:29 AM
Smelling or Selling - Use your Senses to Sell your Home!

When you're selling your home, it's hard to get into the marketing mindset that your home is the product that you're parading in front of the consumers - but that's basically the theory!   And like any other product, your home needs to grab consumers by their senses - ALL of them!

Everyone knows about Sight - you hear plenty about how your home should be uncluttered, look maintained and updated, be neutral, staged, manicured, and more.   All the senses are involved, but 2 that you … (8 comments)

selling your home: September 2009 Market Report for the Wichita, KS Area - Are we in a Seller's Market here? Really? - 10/15/09 09:46 AM
New WAAR report shows that our market has been a Seller's Market for a bit and although inventory has increased slightly, it's still leaning towards more of a Seller's Market.   Totally different from what you hear on tv, isn't it?I agree with WAAR - it's a Seller's Market here... IN SOME PRICE RANGES.  For instance, this chart was pulled from the marketing report and shows the breakdown of sales in price ranges for September.  
You can see that out of 816 sales for the month, 584 or 72% of them were for homes under $159,999.  That's the ones bracketed in Red … (8 comments)

selling your home: How To Give $69,500 Away When You Sell Your Wichita Home - 10/09/09 03:56 PM
For Sale By Owners - Please, this is why we give you our advice, representation, and services.  It's not all about us, it is actually helping YOU out! Don't believe us, read below.  This is not the only one of these happenings.

I really enjoyed my cousin's wedding last Friday night.  The bride was beautiful, the groom couldn't be happier, there was fabulous food and great music.  There was also a lot of new people to meet.
While taking a break from the festivities on the outdoor patio, I overheard the following conversation take place...
New Home Owner turns to his buddy and … (3 comments)

selling your home: Listed or Not - You Must Disclose Material Facts! - 09/14/09 06:38 AM
Disclosure Q&A - The Law doesn't exempt FSBO's

Q.  I was going to list my home with a real estate agent, but I was told that I'd then have to let buyers know about the water problems in my basement.  If I sell it on my own, I don't have to do a disclosure, right?

A. One important thing that For Sale By Owners often forget, and traditional sellers too, is the rule of disclosure.  By law, you have to disclose something of material fact about the property.  That means that if you KNOW something is wrong with the … (4 comments)

selling your home: When Children Take Listing Photos... - 08/27/09 03:49 AM
(although I've seen grown up Realtors(R) do this too!!)
My darling autistic 6yo has decided he would like to work for our Real Estate Office! He sets up his own office everytime we're there and even had his own cubicle for a while! He adores all things Realty World and I recently got him his own RW logo embroidered kids shirt, and he wears my RW hat plenty! 
My young charge has had plenty experience with buyers - those with kids often ask if I have any I can bring to help entertain theirs! (the more the merrier???).    So I thought … (7 comments)

selling your home: It's Not Easy to Be Groovy, Baby! - 08/25/09 08:51 AM
To Update or Not to Update - that is their question!


Q:  I have retro appliances in my kitchen, original to the home.  I think they're kinda groovy and are a bonus, but agents have said these will hinder my sale.   What do you think - groovy or old-school?


A:  To be honest, it depends on your buyer and how well it's presented.   If the retro appliances are in great shape, work wonderfully, and there's no mechanical need to replace them - that's one thing.  However, if the appliances are half working, half not, … (6 comments)

 
Joel Weihe, Helping you to use your VA home loan benefits (Realty World Alliance)

Joel Weihe

Helping you to use your VA home loan benefits

Wichita, KS

More about me…

Realty World Alliance

Address: 6500 E. Central, Wichita, KS, 67218

Office: (316) 833-2677

Fax: (316) 634-0089

Residential Real Estate the right way! Service with a personal touch! Wichita, Goddard, Cheney, Maize, Andover, Newton, Valley Center and Derby, Kansas!


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