Posts tagged home selling

5 Ways to Remove Indoor Air Pollution

Apr19
2010 Leave a Comment Written by Alicia

While you’re trying to sell your home, you know that it’s important for the indoor air to feel fresh and unstuffy. Hence, you might open your windows during an open house held on a warm spring day. However, selling your home with a high quality of indoor air goes further than that.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), indoor air can be two to five times more polluted than outdoor air. There are surprising sources of indoor air pollution all over your house. The sooner you know about these sources, the sooner you can clean up the air quality of your home for your future buyer and, in the mean time, for you and your family.

  • Some of the most common types of indoor air pollution include cigarette smoke, carbon monoxide and radon. To prevent these producers of pollution, always step outside to smoke, and try even stepping away from the doors to your house. Design a backyard patio or shed away from the house for you to smoke in. Make sure your house also has one or two carbon dioxide detectors, which are as important as smoke detectors.
  • Some air purifiers, unfortunately, create more pollution than they destroy. Air purifiers kill mold and bacteria in your home by releasing ozone into the air, which is what the EPA has been working to decrease in outdoor air. Ozone causes lung tissue scarring, asthma attacks and more. TheDailyGreen.com provides a list of potentially dangerous air purifiers here.
  • Paint has been a leading cause of indoor air pollution for decades, with lead paint being banned about 30 years ago. Still, many older houses still contain lead paint, so make sure to maintain paint in old houses well so that cracking or peeling pieces of lead paint aren’t touched and lead isn’t spread. New paints also contain high levels of volatile organic compounds (VOC) that can be damaging when breathed even in low doses, so use low or no-VOC paint, and ventilate well when painting.
  • Carpets are often made with chemicals that could cause asthma attacks or lung damage, such as formaldehyde. Your best bet is to purchase carpeting that is made with nontoxic materials, or better yet, to replace carpeting with hardwood, ceramic, bamboo or other types of flooring that don’t collect dirt, dust mites, fungus and other unhealthy pollutants. If you have carpets, vacuum often, preferably with a high efficiency particle air (HEPA) vacuum.
  • Cleaning supplies trigger air pollutants that, if mixed incorrectly, could even be deadly. Mixing cleansers with chlorine and acid-based cleaners, such as vinegar, create chlorine gas that is deadly. Many other cleansers contain toxic pesticides and chemicals that are dangerous to our health. Mixing a spray bottle of vinegar and water, or wiping a surface with baking soda and water, works just as well.

To learn more about indoor air quality, read this article from TheDailyGreen.com. By removing these five sources of indoor air pollution, you can make your home’s air quality more safe and desirable for you and your future buyers. During open houses and tours, explain the changes you made to your potential buyers so that they know how clean the air is at the home that might soon be theirs.

Posted in Selling Tips, Tips and Ideas - Tagged , , ,

Latest Staging Tips

Apr15
2010 1 Comment Written by Shanna

A recent article in The Orlando Sentinel, “Staging Sells Homes,” examines current staging trends and how they affect what you should do to sell quickly.

According to Sandra Rinomato, host of HGTV’s “Property Virgins” show, “Until recently, ‘Staging meant pulling out all the stops — setting the dining table with your best china and crystal, arranging flowers, lighting candles … Now we take the minimalist approach. Basically, you want to strip the house to its bare essentials, depersonalize it, so potential buyers can superimpose themselves and their lifestyle on the house.’”

Keeping that in mind, what can you do to improve your home’s selling appeal? It’s all about making your home look new, move-in-ready and open for new owners.

Along the lines of answering that question, here are some past Buy Owner Blog articles worth reading!

  • 15 Minutes to a Better Staged Home: Do you have 15 minutes? Then you can start staging your home.
  • Spring Clean Your Way to a Sale: Though spring cleaning is a smart choice for all homeowners or renters, it is increasingly important for those trying to sell their house. Here’s how to get started.
  • Spring Means Declutter!: Beyond planting flowers and trimming your hedges, what do you need to do to prepare a home you’re selling for spring interest? In a word: declutter.
  • Depersonalizing for a Home Sale: There are many common problems sellers face when it comes to depersonalizing their home to make it more marketable. Take a look, and see if any of these hang-ups might be to blame in your home.
Posted in Market News, Tips and Ideas - Tagged , ,

Prepare Your Yard for Spring

Mar29
2010 1 Comment Written by Alicia

In springtime, while it’s easy to excuse yourself from yard work because of constant rainfalls or annoying allergies, you really should prepare your yard for the season, and for the one to follow, summer. If you wait too long, it could take longer for your grass to appear lush and weed-free, for your gardens to redevelop and for your fruit trees to produce.

And this is never more true than when you’re trying to sell. Now is the time to make your home—and its surroundings—look its best.

Here are steps to keep in mind:

  • Remove anything in your yard that doesn’t belong. That means raking dead, crumbled leaves that reappeared from under melted snow, picking up twigs and branches that snapped off of nearby trees, and disposing of any litter that blew into your yard from unknown sources.
  • Dethatch your lawn by using a rake to get rid of the layer of dead grass that has taken residency over your lawn. This is vital for your grass to receive the natural nutrients needed to grow. Also, if you use fertilizer or weed killer, it will not reach the lawn unless you remove this layer of thatch.
  • Lay a slow-release fertilizer on your lawn. This type of fertilizer will slowly release nutrients in your yard that will not cause the grass to grow before it’s ready. This way, even if Mother Nature decides to cover us with an April snowfall, your lawn will still be slowly working its way toward a green June.
  • Dig your lawn mower out of the shed or the corner of the garage and test it. Check for wear on the spark plugs, sharpen the blade, change the oil if needed, clean out old grass clippings and fill up the gas. If the mower is in need of repair, you have plenty of time to fix it. If not, it’ll be all ready for the first cut.
  • Scale back trees and bushes by trimming back limbs that are damaged or have grown beyond the rest. This will make room for the tree to grow faster and healthier. Keep branches out of your walkway and patio/porch area. Evenly trim bushes to look neatly manicured.
  • Now is the time to plant new foliage in the yard. Spring rain creates soft soil that makes digging as simple as ever. Plant new rose bushes, berry bushes or fruit trees now so that they have time to begin their spring growth.
  • While you should wait to plant and decorate with new perennials, you should pick them out now. Research the types of perennials available, find out which will grow in the sunlight and type of soil available in your yard, and plan a layout.
Posted in Selling Tips, Tips and Ideas - Tagged , ,

WSJ: The Forecast This Spring

Mar18
2010 Leave a Comment Written by Shanna

According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, the forecast for real estate this spring is not a bleak one:

“After polling builder communities in North Carolina, Virginia, Florida, Texas and California’s Inland Empire, Ticonderoga Securities Analyst Stephen East says the spring home-selling scene is coming along nicely.

‘The season is indeed under way despite being delayed a bit by bad weather,’ he writes in a client note. What’s more, ‘while the market is benefiting from the tax credit, it is also showing distinct signs of normalizing.‘”

To read the rest of the article, click here.

Posted in Market News, Tips and Ideas - Tagged , , ,

Beating the Market: How to Sell Now!

Mar08
2010 1 Comment Written by Shanna

selling now

It’s true the market shows signs of improvement, but it still has a long way to go before the term “buyers’ market” no longer applies. With so many homes available today, buyers have plenty to choose from, so you have to do all you can to make yours stand out. Here are three ways to get your home sold NOW!

Clean to Sell: It should go without saying that a home on the market needs to be in mint condition, but you’d be surprised at the clutter and disrepair with which so many homes are shown today. By cleaning, decluttering and repairing your home, you set it ahead of the pack, and you make it easier for buyers to imagine themselves inside.

Price to Sell: The basic keys to pricing aggressively are checking out the competition and being realistic. Of course you want to get the best price possible, but in a buyers’ market, you cannot afford to price higher than you need. Are similar homes in your area priced lower than yours? Think like a buyer, and you’ll see why that’s a problem. Do your best to be objective and set the price a little lower than you could.

Market to Sell: Of course, even the most beautifully maintained home, offered at the best price, still won’t sell if nobody knows about it. That’s where Buy Owner comes into play. By advertising at BuyOwner.com, you broadcast your property to a 24/7 audience

Want more information on using Buy Owner? Here are 31 reasons why it makes sense to sell with Buy Owner, especially now!

Posted in Selling Tips, Tips and Ideas - Tagged , ,

The Basics of Pricing Your Home

Sep28
2009 1 Comment Written by Blog Master

save money

You probably already know how significant the listing price of your home can be. Price too high, and you scare away qualified buyers; price too low, and you get less money than you could have. We’ve written here at the Buy Owner Blog about the perils of poor pricing before, but let’s talk now about the way to do it right:

Determine Your Margin
One of the first factors you need to consider is equity. If you’ve been in your home for several years or if you put down a large down payment, you have a pretty good idea how much money you’d like to get out of the house when you sell. That number may be tainted by your financial situation, if, say, you’re in financial trouble and need to sell quickly, in which case it could be best to lower your price, even if you take a short-term loss. No matter what, you need to make sure you’ll get enough money out of your house to pay off the mortgage and find new living arrangements. In today’s market, in some areas, the upside-down nature of real estate could make this a difficult proposition.

Do Some Research
The local MLS and a quick online search can help you identify properties that are considered to be comparable to yours. If you want to sell your house quickly, price your home as the best deal on the market by setting your price lower than all similar ones in your area. By using Buy Owner, you’re already cutting the cost of commissions, so lowering your price should be possible to do without taking a significant hit to your profit.

A real estate appraiser can also help you price your home. Most buyers will need a recent appraisal in order to qualify for a mortgage on your home anyway, so it may be worth the small investment required to have the home appraised prior to putting it on the market. Any time you can sell your home “below appraisal,” you have a better chance of selling it quickly.

If you price your home and no one comes to see it, you may have priced it too high. Remember that one of the best reasons to sell by owner is the flexibility it allows, and you can always lower the cost of your home if activity is less than you desire or if offers come in significantly lower than your asking price.

Posted in Selling Tips, Tips and Ideas - Tagged , , ,

The Key to Showing Well: Detailing

Aug03
2009 1 Comment Written by Shanna

house2

If there’s one keyword to keep in mind when you’re planning a home showing, it’s this: detail. And we don’t just mean in the sense of focusing on the details or decorating with attention to details. Instead, we’re suggesting you go back to the word and examine its other implications:

For example, what happens when you get your car detailed? You take it to people who are entrusted to shine, clean, vacuum it so thoroughly that every spot is removed and every stain gone. The idea is that when your car has been detailed, it’s been fixed up, brought to its best possible appearance, perfected.

When you prepare for a home showing, you’re preparing your home in a very similar way. Just like your vehicle needs to smell good, look good, be in absolute mint condition, so should your home be when potential buyers come to call.

Here are some suggestions to get started:

1. Lay the groundwork: Whether your home is totally organized or in utter disarray, the hardest part of preparing it to sell can be getting started. Coach yourself through the process by remembering it will get easier after you begin! Then, working step by step, do a general cleaning of the premises.

2. Go room by room: After the preliminary cleaning, go through your home room by room, examining each space’s functionality, organization and cleanliness. Remove furniture to give rooms a more spacious feel.

3. Call in professionals: For any projects you can’t complete yourself, or any task that will require too much time or work to attempt on your own, consider hiring professionals to do it for you. Examples of larger projects include performing a thorough carpet cleaning, repairing damage to a porch/deck, power-washing the driveway—if have the equipment and skill to do it yourself, go for it! But if you don’t, know that it’s OK to get help.

These suggestions are just to get you started; the real work comes in the hours spent scrubbing, decluttering, washing and organizing. But it will all be worth it in the end—once you’ve gotten your home looking its best, it will be that much more ready to sell, and you’ll be on your way to your next place!

Posted in Selling Tips, Tips and Ideas - Tagged , , , ,

Green Moving

Dec03
2008 1 Comment Written by Becky

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average American moves 11.7 times in his or her lifetime. That’s a lot of moving. Just think of the environmental impact we could make if all moves were done in a green-conscious way. If you are planning a move in the near future, here are some ways to cut back on methods that are harmful to the environment.

Here a few tips you can follow for an eco-friendly move:

• Try contacting companies that rent sturdy boxes made of totally recycled materials. The minimal fee, usually a dollar a week per box, is usually less expensive than buying cardboard boxes made from virgin materials. The company often drops them off, then picks them up at the other end of the move.
• Ask local grocery stores or liquor stores if they have any unused boxes they could donate.
• Consider investing in rubber tubs that can be reused once you are settled into your new home.
• Store things in containers you already have, like suitcases and plastic bins, before you resort to packing things in boxes.
• Consider using Tyga boxes, which are made of plastic that can be reused up to 500 times.
• If you do invest in cardboard boxes, try donating them to someone else after your move (the Craigslist free section is an easy way to do this!).
• Packing supplies such as foam peanuts and petroleum-based plastic bubble wrap can create a lot of extra trash. Try using old blankets and towels as padding in your boxes, or ask friends and neighbors if they have any unused packing materials lying around. Once you are finished moving, try and donate your used packing supplies.
• Newspaper, which is recyclable, is perfect for cushioning breakables and, if you purchase unprinted newspaper, you don’t have to worry about the ink transferring to your hands or your possessions.
• Look for moving companies that use biodiesel rigs, as opposed to trucks that use tons of gas.
• Make as few trips as possible to use the least amount of fuel.
• Don’t throw away unnecessary items that you don’t want to take with you to the new house. Host a garage sale for extra income or donate the items to charity.
• Try to plan your food purchases in the weeks ahead of your move so that you don’t end up with a lot of perishables. If you do have some extra items in the refrigerator, consider giving them to a neighbor or a friend. If you have lots of canned goods and other non-perishables, donate the items to a local food shelter.

Posted in Green Living, Tips and Ideas - Tagged , , ,

Home Seller: Storage Matters!

Oct20
2008 Leave a Comment Written by Alicia

These days, everybody seems to need more space. And whether you’re trying to sell your current home or just looking for new storage methods, options are available that you might have overlooked!

Maximize your square footage with these clever ways to de-clutter and add storage space!

In the garage, take advantage of every inch of space. This includes the ceiling! Hang a bicycle rack, place boards across the rafters to create a “loft” or hang a bag of sports equipment. Then add shelves to the walls.

In the bathroom, add a shelving unit over the toilet. Use clear or wire trays in the cabinets so that you can see into them for what you want. Store things together that you use together. If your linen closet is on overload, roll up towels and place them in a basket on the sink. If you own a pedestal sink, surround it with a skirt to store items underneath.

If you absolutely need more closet space, investigate what rests behind your walls. Many areas are just drywall and paneling. Unless you find wiring, you can create a closet or custom cabinetry in the wall!

In the kitchen, add a pantry or an island for extra storage space. On the budget side, add a cart on wheels that you can place anywhere.

Use long table cloths or bed skirts to secretly hide storage underneath a table or bed. From an outsider’s point of view, it’s smart decorating. Only you will know what they can’t see!

Instead of purchasing a coffee table, use a chest that you can fill with blankets, pictures or dishware. Instead of displaying end tables on the sides of your bed, use nightstands with cabinets. Chic furniture can multi-task!

Organize! Label boxes in the closets, attics and under the beds. Write what is inside, number them or take pictures. Decorate the boxes. Make organization fun! That way, you don’t even need to hide your storage.

The key to keep in mind with your organizing is enhancing your home: the better your creative organization, the more spacious your home becomes! This is a plus for you while you live in your home and an even bigger plus for buyers who come to visit. Sellers, take note: storage matters!

Posted in Selling Tips, Tips and Ideas - Tagged , , , , , ,

The Secrets of Resale Value

Sep17
2008 2 Comments Written by Shanna

Whether you’re currently in the market for a new home, looking to sell the one you live in or very comfortable in your current place, one thing’s for sure: you’ll want to think about resale value.

Resale value, a frequent buzzword in the real estate market, simply refers to the ability of a property to be resold after being purchased. When people discuss this factor, they’re looking at probabilities and future conditions, some of which are predictable and some of which are not. Take, for example, neighborhood. There can be indications of what direction a neighborhood is heading (i.e., lots of new, affluent developments may hint at rising value), but some changes come without expectation: the local school system gets featured as a top district five years from now (value up) or crime/violence increases throughout the area (value down).

So what you want to focus on, in terms of making your home’s resale value its strongest, are the factors within your control. There are some characteristics that will, generally speaking, may a home appeal to a greater pool of buyers. Knowing what these characteristics are can help you know what your home (or your potential new home) has to offer.

+ Bedrooms/baths: It just makes sense: because of the versatility, space and accommodations of larger homes, more buyers are looking for places with at least three to four bedrooms.

+ Views: Surrounding beauty, whether waterfront, woods or something else, can make a property stand out amongst the competition.

+ Landscaping: Well-chosen landscaping can make a huge impact on how buyers view your property, especially because it’s often the first thing they notice. According to Plant-care.com, good landscaping can increase property values by up to 15%!

+ Square footage/storage space: Sometimes buyers look for minimum square footage amounts in their searches, meaning a home with too little space could be ruled out. Often, the more finished living space your home offers, the more potential buyers it will appeal to.

+ Garage: If your property is driving distance from most conveniences, anyone who buys it will probably have a car. And if the buyers have cars, they’ll want a place to put them. That’s why adding a garage can be another smart investment, particularly for homes located in colder climates that are prone to harsh weather.

+ Kitchen: To many buyers, the kitchen is a home’s most important asset. It makes sense to replace outdated appliances and fixtures; just don’t go overboard. If looking to add resale value, choose quality materials that aren’t too taste-specific.

+ Fireplaces: Because of their ability to add warmth and coziness to rooms, fireplaces are definite selling features. Centrally placed in the family room or the great room, a fireplace can make a stunning focal point, too, adding visual interest.

Posted in Selling Tips, Tips and Ideas - Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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