Real Estate News, Tips, and Information » Selling Your House

Selling your home? Online tools level the playing field

Jennifer — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 23:32:28 +0000

Consumers are becoming more independent in the home-buying process, and are educating themselves about real estate issues.

(ARA) – Modern home selling has gone way beyond the “for sale” sign on the front lawn. Nearly 90 percent of home buyers look online when shopping for a home, according to the National Association of Realtors. So your home-selling efforts need to cruise the Information Superhighway at top speed.

“Despite a slowdown in the housing market, real estate consumers have increased their usage of the Internet as their ‘go-to’ real estate information source in order to successfully find the home they purchase,” says Greg Healy, vice president of operations for ForSaleByOwner.com. “Consumers are becoming more independent in the home-buying process, and are educating themselves about real estate issues.”

The number of buyers who ended up purchasing a home they first saw online has soared — from just 8 percent in 2001 to 32 percent in 2008 — according to NAR statistics. Meanwhile, the number of buyers who found their homes through a real estate agent has dropped from 48 percent in 2001 to 34 percent in 2008.

Buyers, however, aren’t the only half of the real estate equation that is turning to more independent use of the Internet to close deals. More sellers are using Internet tools to independently market their homes in an economy where keeping every dollar of a home’s sale price is more important than ever.

“Home sellers need to know how to use the Internet’s full marketing power to attract the growing number of buyers who go online to find their next home,” Healy says. They’re turning to sites like ForSaleByOwner.com that now allow them to list their homes on the Multiple Listing Service and Realtor.com, which were once only available for sellers who used full-service real estate agents. In addition, the real estate website also posts their customers’ homes on Craigslist, USAToday.com, Yahoo Real Estate, Google Base, Facebook and other popular websites.

The Internet and broader access to it have helped even the playing field between professional real estate agents and homeowners who decide to sell their homes independently. With access to many of the same tools the pros use to market homes, private sellers are able to better weigh the advantages of working with a real estate agent against the ability to retain as much of their selling price as possible.

Regardless of who’s doing the selling, a successful online home-selling campaign relies on several factors:

* Placement on the right sites, such as local MLS sites and national sites like Realtor.com and ForSaleByOwner.com.

* Comprehensive and professional-sounding descriptions of the property, including room sizes, overall square footage, selling points and neighborhood assets.

* Multiple, high-quality color images and, if possible, video tours of the home.

* Simple, easy-to-use ways to contact the seller and schedule a showing.

* Competitive pricing based on selling prices of comparable homes in the area.

NAR statistics also show that homeowners who sell their own homes are able to sell for closer to their asking price and four weeks quicker than sellers who hired a real estate agent. To learn more about how to use Internet tools to sell your home, visit www.ForSaleByOwner.com.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

A Great Garage Door: the Lipstick on Your Home’s Facade

Jennifer — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 23:31:58 +0000

One aspect of a home's appearance that is often overlooked, but shouldn't be, is the garage door.

(ARA) – Smaller is apparently better in the minds of many homebuyers looking for the right deal in the prolonged decline of the housing market.

What’s more, it looks like simple is better too, as more homeowners are focusing on simpler exterior elements with an emphasis on durability and sustainability, according to the American Institute of Architects’ recent quarterly Home Design Trends Survey.

One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is consumers’ desire to maintain or create the highest resale value for their homes. Going hand-in-hand with that is the real estate mantra of “curb appeal.” So despite an interest in “simpler” exterior furnishings, consumers don’t want to diminish the overall attractiveness of their home. It is just as important as ever, if not more so, for your home to look its best.

One aspect of a home’s appearance that is often overlooked, but shouldn’t be, is the garage door. Take a look at some homes next time you are out and about. You may be surprised to discover that two of the most prominent elements are the garage door (or doors) and the roof.

Homeowners tend to think only about painting the front door or sprucing up the plantings. Why not focus on the elements that take up the most visual real estate on your home? It’s like putting on lipstick but forgetting to change out of your gardening clothes for an important interview.

Garage doors are now available in a wide range of styles, colors and materials to complement any home’s architectural style. In recent years, garage door companies have increased their selection of steel doors that are attractive yet durable and are more affordable than wood doors. For example, Amarr Garage Doors offers steel carriage house doors that look like wood carriage house doors but are lighter and require less maintenance.

“We have found that consumers are hungry for affordable 100 percent steel doors that are stylish and attractive. Our steel doors can be custom painted to coordinate with the house color. In addition, we have a wide array of decorative accents such as ornamental wrought iron windows, handles or hinges that can be added to garage doors to create a unique look for each home without breaking the bank,” says Vickie Lents of Amarr.

Another trend, according to the AIA Home Design Survey, is toward sustainability and green exterior elements. Currently, there are a limited number of green garage doors available on the market. JELD-WEN is one of a few manufacturers offering garage doors that are earth friendly and extremely durable. The door skins are made using at least 80 percent recycled wood fibers instead of cutting new-growth timber. The inclusion of a polystyrene insulated core between the outer composite wood panels of the garage doors makes JELD-WEN garage doors energy efficient and, as a bonus, offers excellent sound-absorbing qualities.

It’s summer. Go outside and plant flowers, manicure the lawn and put a fresh coat of paint on your front door. However, don’t forget about sprucing up your garage door as well. It’s an easy and affordable way to upgrade your small or large home, and it can be done in an environmentally friendly way.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

Selling Your Home in a Buyer’s Market

Jennifer — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 17:07:56 +0000

Selling Your Home in a Buyer's Market

It’s a buyer’s real estate market, so every home seller needs to know how to price their home correctly. Price your home too high, and buyers will look at other houses. Price it too low, and you risk losing money.

To price your home correctly, you need to be savvy about your local real estate market. Understanding the market will help you set an asking price that will compete favorably against other comparable homes. It’s easy to do if you just follow these simple steps:

1. Know the Competition: Visit real estate websites and drive through your local area to search for homes for sale that are similar to yours in size, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, lot size and square footage. Educate yourself about their asking prices and, especially for condos, calculate the price per square foot. Trulia.com will do most of this work for you and allows you to print out a list of comparable homes, but you’ll also want to visit Realtor.com and ForSaleByOwner.com to get a more complete list of available homes on the market.

2. Visit Open Houses: Now that you know what’s on the market, visit as many open houses as you can in order to find out how your home compares to others. Your goal is to learn as much about those homes as possible, such as upgrades and renovations to the kitchen, bathrooms and bedrooms.

3. Learn About Recently Sold Properties: Your next step in educating yourself about the local market is learning how much homes have sold for in the recent past. Home sale information is public information and can be found a number of ways. Your county clerk’s office and/or local town hall can provide you with this data, but the Internet has made the task even easier. Trulia.com and Zillow.com each have a “Recently Sold” feature that will list all information about properties that have sold near any given address.

4. Get a Starting Point: For a simple, cost-effective way to get a ballpark range of how much your home is worth, consider getting an Automated Valuation Model (AVM). Similar to a real estate agent’s Comparative Market Analysis, an AVM will compare your home to similar nearby recently sold properties. The AVM won’t know if your home has an upgraded kitchen, finished basement or new roof, etc., but it will give you a suggested range to price your home. The AVM will also provide you with a list of nearby recently sold properties. An AVM tool is available at http://www.forsalebyowner.com/appraisal.

5. Evaluate Your Research: Now that you have information about homes currently on the market, data on recently sold properties and a price range, you have all the data you need to compare your home to others in your neighborhood and local area. Evaluate the information you have learned and ask yourself how your home stacks up with the others. Be honest. What condition is it in and how does in compare in location, features and aspects like a remodeled master bathroom?

6. Live in the Now: One of the biggest mistakes sellers are doing in today’s market is pricing their home at price points of one, two or three years ago. The national median home price has dropped more than 15 percent from April 2007 to April 2008 (in markets in CA, FL and AZ the median home price has fallen by more than 20 percent!), and those that price their home too high will just see it sit on the market. The homes that are selling today are those that are priced competitively to other homes are on the market, providing buyers with the sense that they are getting “a good deal.”

7. Set the Price: The time has come. You now have a complete picture of your real estate marketplace. Set the price using all the information you’ve learned through the above steps.

Congratulations! You have reached a major milestone in your home selling process. Not only have you arrived at an asking price, you have become an expert in your local real estate market. Prospective buyers will be impressed with your sense of knowledge and honest assessment of your home’s value, and you’ll be able to communicate about its strengths and weaknesses as compared to other homes in your neighborhood, town and area.

For more information, visit www.forsalebyowner.com/info.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

Curb Appeal Takes Starring Role in Competitive Market

Jennifer — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 04:45:44 +0000

Updating Windows and Doors is a Must in a House Exterior Makeover

(ARA) – Real estate may be about location, location, location, but it’s also about looks. Curb appeal is taking on a bigger role in today’s housing market. With the number of available homes for sale growing each day, buyers can afford to be choosy and consider only houses that show well from the street. That means sellers now have just a few seconds to make a first impression, capture interest and draw buyers inside.

Confirming just how important curb appeal is to hooking new owners, JELD-WEN, a leading window and door manufacturer, discovered in a recent survey of real estate agents that 82 percent have had potential buyers decline to look at the interior of a home based on the exterior appearance.

“In today’s competitive market, buyers want upgrades, like windows and doors, that create visual appeal,” says Elizabeth Souders, product marketing manager for JELD-WEN. “A home must present itself favorably in a quick snapshot. The real estate agent survey shows that without strong curb appeal, buyers might not even consider looking inside the home.”

Made from recycled wood fiber content, JELD-WEN garage doors offer a variety of hardware options, glass window inserts and architectural details to deliver high style.

Upgrading curb appeal is proving to be a good investment when selling a home. According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), window and door projects mostly pay for themselves at closing. Typically, homeowners can expect between an 81 to 88 percent return on window upgrades, the NAR said.

Top Five Curb Appeal Tips

In addition to obvious touches like a new coat of paint or fixing cracks in the pavement, updating windows and doors is an ideal first step in boosting a home’s image. Whether owners are listing a home for sale, or simply want to increase their home’s stature in the neighborhood, JELD-WEN suggests these five tips to increasing curb appeal:

1. Stay true to style: Upgrades should fit in with a home’s architectural style. For example, JELD-WEN says contemporary homes call for windows and doors with clean lines and simple profiles, while traditional homes such as Craftsmans or Colonials are better matched with windows and doors featuring appropriate divided lite designs.

By choosing coordinating entry and garage doors that complement the home’s style, this house has greatly increased curb appeal.

2. Add details: Custom features are a great way to achieve one-of-a-kind looks that stand out. Adding a doorknocker, speakeasy, decorative glass or metal accents to an upgraded front door can give an Old World home a heightened level of charm to catch a buyer’s eye. New house numbers and porch lights also provide a fresh look for entry areas.

An easy way to create visual interest, JELD-WEN grilles provide a customized, one-of-a-kind appearance to help any front door “pop” from the street.

3. Remember the garage: The most prominent exterior feature in many homes is the garage door, so this upgrade goes a long way toward elevating curb appeal. JELD-WEN is seeing many homeowners ordering garage doors complete with window inserts, metal accents and hardware to match the main entry door for a coordinated appearance.

A drab exterior with plain entry and garage doors does little to grab a potential homebuyer’s attention.

4. Dress the yard: Make sure the house is the first thing potential buyers see, not overgrown hedges or dead grass. Hire a gardener to spruce up the landscaping and add colorful touches like seasonal flowers, decorative rocks or bubbly water fountains. Shaping bushes and curving lawn borders can shake up a tired front yard.

5. Coordinate color: Color, when done right, sells. Doors and windows give homeowners ideal opportunities to infuse color into their curb appeal without having to paint. For example, JELD-WEN’s Custom Wood windows come with 41 standard exterior metal clad color choices, meaning a homeowner can select hues such as Redwood or Dark Ivy to match surrounding natural elements.

For more information on garage door materials and trends, visit www.jeld-wen.com or call (800) 877-9482.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

Selling Your Home in a Buyer’s Market

Jennifer — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 04:17:24 +0000

Tips from the Pros on Getting the Price You Want in the Shortest Time

(ARA) – By now you’ve read the headlines announcing the current housing rut. Too many homes are on the market, causing slow sales and falling asking prices. While it’s the perfect time to buy a home, it is certainly more challenging to sell your home. But don’t despair. With tips from the pros you can sell your home in the shortest time and get the best return on your investment. Here’s how.

Do a Drive By
Drive down your street and view the front of your home. Does it look inviting? Well cared for? If not, do something to make your home more enticing from the curb.

According to Mary Lou McHenry, one of Howard Hanna Smythe Cramer’s Best of the Best and one of the top 5 percent of all realtors nationally, “Most sales are made or broken the second a prospective buyer pulls in front of your home.”

Make sure the outside is as attractive as the inside. Weed, cut the grass, edge the beds, trim the hedges and plant flowers. Next, paint or power-wash your siding to give it a fresh appearance. Home improvement expert Leslie Segrete, who has tackled thousands of projects on home-makeover shows such as “While You Were Out” and “Trading Spaces,” recommends adding exterior lighting on pathways and architectural features such as a trellis or archway to the landscaping. “This will add depth and dimension to the home,” she says.

One Foot in the Door
Once they open the door, how will the prospective buyer feel? In this business, appearances are everything, so McHenry advises sellers to make sure the entryway is impeccable. She says, “You’ll want to create a sense of excitement so they can envision themselves coming home and walking through that same door.”

There should be no shoes and no clutter. The front hall closet should have minimal hanging coats and jackets. All sports equipment and miscellaneous items should be removed or stored on shelves in attractive baskets. Segrete recommends purchasing an attractive rug or floor runner to draw the eye into the home.

She adds, “Walls should be freshly painted or at a minimum, the trim should be touched up and clean. Chipped and peeling paint, scratches and dings on the walls can make the home seem old and not well cared for.”

Realtor McHenry agrees, “Those are definite red flags for buyers who may not want to spend the time fixing the home up after they buy it.”

Touching Allowed
Once in the home, potential buyers will touch, turn and open everything. So ensure it is all in working order, especially when it comes to faucets and fixtures.

In the bathroom, look at the sink, faucets, bathtub and accessories. Do they look clean and up to date? Rust and water stains and leaks or drips will be a definite turn-off signaling the age of the home and potential problems to come in the future.

“Switch out or replace the faucet and accessories for a quick upgrade in your bathroom,” advises Segrete. “Go with a faucet that has sleek styling, like the single-handle Icon faucet from Moen.” The transitional style faucet blends with most bath décor and the matching accessories such as a towel ring, robe hooks and glass shelf will pull the room together for a coordinated look.

For the kitchen, you may want to update the faucet as well. If appliances will be included, be sure they are clean inside and out.

Nothing Personal
“While you may love your family photo wall, or your collection of antiques, the goal is for the prospective buyers to envision themselves in your home — not see you still living there,” says McHenry. She recommends removing as many personal items as you can from your walls and shelves.

In the kitchen, clear the refrigerator of pictures, drawings and magnets. Then clean and organize your cabinets, drawers and closets, because the prospective buyers will look in there too. Even if it looks sparse, it will appear more spacious and open, which are key selling points.

“Be prepared to do the work on your home, before listing it,” says McHenry. A critical eye is your best tool. Walk through each room to be sure it appears clean and uncluttered. With these tips, you’ll beat the odds — selling your home in the shortest amount of time without having to lower the asking price.

For more information on Moen’s Icon faucet visit www.moen.com. For more information and helpful home improvement tips from Leslie Segrete visit www.lesliesegrete.com or her radio show Web site, www.themoneypit.com.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

VSI Certified Installers Bring Out the Best in Your Home

Jennifer — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 04:15:21 +0000

If you’re thinking about a makeover for your home this spring, vinyl siding offers a valuable investment for your new exterior. According to “Remodeling” magazine, homeowners who re-side their homes with vinyl typically recover more than 95 percent of the cost when selling their homes.

Vinyl siding’s versatility, low-maintenance durability, attractiveness and value have made it the most popular exterior cladding choice for North American homeowners. And with product quality and color retention certified through the Vinyl Siding Institute’s (VSI) program, it’s not hard to find a great product for your re-siding job. Once you’ve chosen vinyl siding, however, the most important decision is who installs it.

“Vinyl siding’s appearance and performance depend on proper installation,” says VSI President Jery Y. Huntley. “Hiring installers who have been trained using industry-approved installation techniques will bring out the best in your home’s vinyl siding for years to come. That’s why VSI sponsors a certification program for qualified siding installers.”

Through the VSI Certified Installer Program, experienced vinyl siding installation professionals must demonstrate knowledge and skills based on ASTM 4756, the industry standard for vinyl siding installation. In order to become certified, candidates must have a minimum of one year of experience installing vinyl siding and accessories, attend VSI’s hands-on training course, and pass an examination on correct installation techniques. Candidates with three years or more of experience may qualify to take the examination without the course, and all VSI Certified Installers must apply for recertification to ensure they stay up-to-date on the latest products and practices.

More than 1,200 vinyl siding installers have become certified through the VSI Certified Installer Program since its launch in 2005, making it easier to find a qualified professional in your area.

When you hire a VSI Certified Installer, you can be confident that he or she has the knowledge and skills to:

* Correctly hang siding to allow for normal expansion and contraction and keep the siding straight and secure on the wall.
* Properly prepare the area around doors, windows and other openings to prevent water infiltration.
* Pay attention to the details that will give your home a beautiful appearance that will last over time.

In addition to certifying installers, VSI also offers certification for vinyl siding installation companies that have at least one Certified Trainer or Installer per crew present on each worksite where vinyl siding is being installed, as well as an established program for the ongoing training of installers. Certified Installer Companies must also implement a quality assurance program that has been reviewed and approved as meeting minimum program requirements by the Program Administrator, Architectural Testing, Inc. of York, Pa. Look for VSI Certified Installer Companies later in 2007.

Certified vinyl siding and colors, installed by certified professionals — that’s one reason that nearly twice as many Americans side their homes with vinyl than any other cladding material. Don’t trust your home’s exterior to just anyone — use a VSI Certified Installer. Visit www.vinylsiding.org/certifiedinstaller to find a qualified professional in your area.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

SIDEBAR:

Vinyl Siding Installation Tips

Because of vinyl’s versatility, it’s important to remember a few important steps, which you can check on any vinyl siding installation job:

* Don’t nail vinyl siding tight: Always leave about 1/32-inch (the thickness of a dime) between the nail head and the siding.
* Leave room for expansion: At any corners, doors, windows or other openings, leave 1/4-inch where the vinyl hits the edge, to allow for normal expansion and contraction properties.
* Allow for movement: Vinyl siding should be able to move slightly from side to side during installation.
* Never face nail: Never nail directly into the vinyl siding, but only through the “nail hems” at the top of the panel.

For more information or a free download of VSI’s Vinyl Siding Installation Manual, visit www.vinylsiding.org.

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