When selling a home, your home’s landscaping could be your best advertisement. If potential home buyers are excited by your home’s curb appeal, you will have a better chance of getting them inside to tour your home and eventually make an offer. Home staging services and real estate agents agree that curb appeal is of utmost importance when selling a home, so be sure to create an effective plan for your property by using the following landscaping ideas to sell your home.
Tackle Simple Landscaping to Sell Your Home
If you have a lawn, clean it up. Of all of the landscaping ideas to sell your home, this is one of the most obvious. If you’ve been mowing regularly to a height of about two inches, you should have a nicely maintained lawn. Mowing too low can cause shallow root growth and make your lawn more susceptible to drought and weeds. Weeds are more prone to grow in areas where the lawn is weak. Patch brown spots in the grass by raking and over-seeding any bald spots in your lawn. It is also important to reduce soil compaction. Use sidewalks to walk to your front entryway rather than walking across your lawn. Repeated patterns of use across your lawn can compact the soil and leave tracks where grass will not grow. A well-established lawn can enhance your home’s curb appeal, and home staging services, real estate agents, and even potential home buyers know that a well-maintained lawn will help sell a home faster than a brown one full of weeds.
Clear and fix driveways, sidewalks and patios. Potential home buyers notice things like dirty paving, moss-covered sidewalks, and cracked concrete. If needed, pressure-wash driveways, patios, and sidewalks before putting your home on the market. If you have large cracks in sidewalks or driveways, consider patching or replacing them. Do whatever you need to do to show potential home buyers that you’re serious about your home’s maintenance.
Keep leaves and other debris picked up. Don’t force a potential home buyer to walk over grass clippings, leaves, branches or pine cones. The more tidy your home’s landscaping, the easier it will be to sell your home.
Let color help you when selling a home. Yellow evokes the emotion of buying, so plant yellow flowers near the entryway.
Landscaping Ideas to Sell Your Home in Winter
Experienced landscape architects and garden designers know that one of the first seasons to design for is winter. This is when your home’s garden is at its most stark and dreary. If your home is on the market in winter and you haven’t planned for this, there are landscaping ideas to sell your home even as the days grow shorter. When it comes to home staging, real estate agents will tell you that staging your home in winter is extremely important.
Keep snow and ice at bay. The top tip from home staging services and real estate agents: If the potential home buyer can’t get in easily, the house won’t sell. As stated above, this means keeping walkways and driveways free of ice and snow.
Take advantage of natural light. As much as possible, show your home during the high-daylight hours. If you show your home after work in the winter, you’ll be completely in the dark and potential home buyers won’t be able to see how your landscaping adds to the curb appeal of your home. If you must show your home at night in the winter months, turn on all the lights so your home glows and invites potential home buyers from the street.
Play up seasonal scents. Set the scene and help the buyers see themselves living happily in your home. Consider placing a basket of cinnamon-scented pine cones by the entryway. Once potential home buyers are inside, offer them apple cider or hot chocolate. At this time of year, appeal to the senses that make potential home buyers feel cozy and warm, like they have found a ôhome.ö
Put lights on timers. You can’t be home all the time and you want your home to look warm and welcoming whenever prospective buyers drive past. Put indoor and outdoor lights on timers. Inspect the outdoor lighting around the door. Is there enough light to make it feel inviting and safe? If not, get the fixtures changed or have new ones added.
Prune deciduous shrubs and trees. In winter, while deciduous trees and shrubs are dormant and without leaves, is the best time to prune. Don’t let overgrown vegetation block the windows or path to the entrance. Cutting back shrubs and tree limbs will let the sun inside and showcase the exterior of your home. Be cautious, though, and don’t overdo it! No potential home buyer wants to see a tree with lopped off branches. If you don’t understand proper pruning, hire a home staging service or experienced arborist to tackle this important landscaping task.
Landscaping Ideas to Sell Your Home in the Fall
Home sales tend to slow down during the fall when kids go back to school and temperatures start to drop. If you’re selling your home in the fall, you need to take extra measures to stage your home and make it stand out above others on the market. If you’re home-staging to sell your house in the fall, consider the following landscaping ideas to sell your home:
Stay on top of raking, raking, and more raking. The landscaping needed to sell your home in the fall involves both color and persistence. Fall color can add the curb appeal needed when it comes to the all-important “first impression.” Deciduous trees, like Katsura or Japanese maple, turning shades of crimson and gold, can add extra appeal to the total look of your home’s exterior. Leaves strewn across your front yard, however, can decrease your home’s visual appeal. You need both fall color and dedicated maintenance to give your home the curb appeal needed to sell your home in the fall.
Celebrate the season. Add a fall wreath to the front door or place a few huge pumpkins or a fall display on your front entryway to welcome potential home buyers.
Landscaping Ideas to Sell Your Home in the Summer
Keep your lawn maintained. Brown patches on lawns ruin the effect of a beautiful garden, so keep grass as green as possible. If you’ve tackled the lawn maintenance tips offered above and you’re still stuck with a brown patch as potential home buyers are about to arrive, strategically place some garden furniture or a birdbath on top of those unsightly lawn blemishes.
Make your landscape feel like an exterior room. Clear patio paving of any debris and use outdoor furniture to make your backyard space feel like an inviting oasis. If you’re having an open house, place an aluminum bucket of ice full of bottled water at the entryway.
Landscaping Ideas to Sell Your Home in Spring
Spring is the best time to sell a home. Inventory almost always rises in the spring, because the largest number of potential home buyers actively searching for a new home occurs during the months of April, May and June.
If your home has been on the market since the holidays, consider taking it off the market for a few weeks and then putting it back on the market. Nobody is going to look at your home in the spring if it’s been on the market for several months. Potential home buyers gravitate toward fresh, new listings.
Here are some landscaping ideas to sell your home in spring:
Mow diagonally and edge your lawn along driveways, sidewalks, and planting beds. Manicured lawns and edging tell potential home buyers you pay attention to small details and care about the maintenance of your home. Mowing diagonally creates an optical illusion and makes your lawn seem larger.
Transplant tulips and daffodils or buy flowers in containers. Yellow stimulate buying urges. After a long winter, potential home buyers are anxious to see the first signs of spring. Yellow tulips and daffodils induce feelings of happiness and contentment. Arrange containers in a grouping of three near the entrance.
Place a welcome mat out for cleaning shoes and an umbrella stand at the entryway. When it comes to weather, spring can be very unpredictable. In some areas, one day it can be 75 degrees and snowing the next. If it’s raining, give potential home buyers a place to stash umbrellas and wipe their feet before entering your home.
Curb appeal can do a lot of your marketing for you. Utilize all of these landscaping ideas to sell your home and you will be showing your home to its fullest potential!
Making an of Offer on a House Without a Buyer’s Agent
Thinking about making an offer on a house without a real estate agent? Nervous about negotiating the best house price in this crazy economy? We don’t blame you. When it comes to buying a home, negotiation can mean the difference between a few thousand dollars and tens of thousands of dollars. It’s stressful and scary, especially if you’re doing it without an experienced real estate agent. Negotiating a home selling contract in this current real estate market is also financially tricky. This is where an experienced agent who has sold in times of real estate booms and past real estate slumps can save you more than the commission you pay them.
For those brave enough to consider making an offer without a buyer’s agent, here are a few tips on negotiating house price:
Negotiating House Price Tip #1: Arm Yourself with Information
The most important information is a Comparable Market Analysis (CMA), which is a neighborhood survey of the similar and recently sold homes in your neighborhood of choice. There are several places you can get partial information about sold houses online these days, but it is important to choose the right homes and get full information. This is another way a professional real estate agent can help you save money. Agents have access to the most up-to-date real estate data and are experts at figuring out which houses truly belong in a CMA. More importantly for today’s economy, a real estate agent can tell you how short sales and foreclosures in the neighborhood can affect negotiating an offer. House pricing is very tricky in this economy.
Once you have access to a detailed CMA, check out the houses as much as possible. A real estate agent might be able to get inside some of the houses that were just recently sold or have a current offer. You can check to see if the house you’re looking at is up to par or if it falls frighteningly below the homes listed in the CMA. This is a great way to tell if your house is near the proper price point or if there is leeway in negotiating an offer. House pricing is much more complicated these days than it used to be. Rather than comparing features like which houses have pools and which don’t, buyers are weighing short sales against foreclosures and traditional home sales.
Negotiating House Price Tip #2: Figure Out the Seller’s Motivation
Information is key in negotiating house price. But, finding out how your dream house price compares to the market is only part of the process. The second is figuring out the seller’s motivation. It’s the fun part û play detective and look inside the home seller’s mind for a minute. Do they have to sell their house or do they want to sell? Motivation isn’t always revealed û the seller’s agent doesn’t necessarily have to give you this information. However, if you have a good real estate agent, he or she often can get the information from the seller’s agent.
ôHave toö reasons:
- They are relocating for a job.
- They just got laid off and can’t afford the mortgage.
- The house is close to foreclosure and they don’t want to ruin their credit history.
- They just had an addition to their family and truly don’t have enough space.
ôWant toö reasons:
- They are testing the market to see if they could sell their house.
- They want to buy a different house while housing prices are down.
- They want to buy a new house while mortgage rates are low.
You can see what scenarios give you bargaining power. When the seller has to move, you have more bargaining power. Right now, most people aren’t selling to try and ôtest the market.ö They’re selling because they have to. Knowing the timing of a move or how long before the house may foreclose is very important when negotiating house price.
Negotiating House Price Tip #3: Don’t Waste Time
Buying a home can be super stressful. You don’t have time to waste with sellers who won’t budge and you shouldn’t waste the seller’s time with a low-ball offer.
How do you know if sellers are wasting your time? If they won’t discuss asking price in relation to similar homes in the neighborhood, they probably are not serious about selling the home. Sellers will do this when they’re unsure about moving or to figure out how much they can get for their property.
Just as they shouldn’t waste your time, don’t waste theirs. Don’t give them a low-ball offer just to see if they bite. It makes you seem like you’re not ready to buy or that you want to scam them. If you are truly interested in the house, this is not a good negotiating tactic.
Negotiation is an art, not an exact science. Experienced real estate agents have practiced different techniques and know what works when negotiating house price and what doesn’t. Once again, in today’s economy, negotiating house price can be much easier if you have an experienced agent on your side. Negotiating a home selling contract is a tricky proposition if done on your own.
Last week, I discovered a wonderful place for camping, hiking, horse-back riding and fishing almost in my backyard, i.e., within an hour’s drive from my home in Ridgway. It’s Woods Lake, found at the end of Fall Creek road off Highway 145 between Placerville and Telluride. Annabel and I went mid-week, so it was really uncrowded, and the few people we encountered were friendly and happy fellow campers. We didn’t bring our horses this trip, but certainly checked out the adjoining horse campground for future reference. We (well, Annabel) even managed to catch a couple of fish, and I took multitudes of photos of all the beautiful wild flowers. Below is a video of our trip so you can enjoy virtually this wonderful location. We’ll be back!
Baby boomers, baby boomers, baby boomers; we all hear this term over and over again. So who are the baby boomers? Baby boomers are people in the United States who were born between 1946 and 1964. Approximately 78.2 million people fall into this category.
As a group, baby boomers comprise the largest population cohort in the history of the United States. The size of the group gives it vast influence over American politics, popular cultural, and of course, real estate. To evaluate the influence of the baby boomers on the future of real estate, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) conducted a study in 2006. The findings of the research were published in report entitled Baby Boomers and Real Estate: Today and Tomorrow. Below are some highlights from the NAR study.
AGE DISTRIBUTION
According to the NAR report, baby boomers now range in age from 42 to 60 years old. The typical baby boomer is 50 years old, and the oldest of the baby boomers turned 60 in 2006. About 46% of baby boomers are in their 40s, and about 25% are at least 55 years old.
HOUSEHOLD INCOME
As a group, baby boomers are in their peak earning years. In 2005, baby boomers had a household income of $64,700, and about 25% them had a household income of at least $100,000 per year.
HOME OWNERSHIP
About 78% of baby boomers own a home, which is higher than the national ownership rate of 69%. About 96% of baby boomers believe that home ownership is a good financial investment.
FUTURE REAL ESTATE PURCHASES
About 10%, or 7.8 million of all baby boomers, said they were likely to purchase additional real estate in the next 12 months. Of these potential buyers, two-thirds were planning on buying a primary residence, 26% want to buy land, 19% want rental property, 15% want a vacation home or seasonal home, and 14% want a commercial property.
WHAT FEATURES ATTRACT BOOMERS
When baby boomers were asked about what features are most important to them, 38% wanted a lower cost of living, 38% wanted to be near family, 38% wanted easy access to quality health care, 37% wanted a better climate, and 36% wanted to be near a body of water.
PREFERRED COMMUNITY AMENITIES
When baby boomers were asked about the type of community amenities that interest them most, about 18% wanted to be near cultural offerings, 9% wanted to be closer to their family, 4% wanted to be on a golf course, and 3% wanted easy access to educational facilities.
WHERE DO BOOMERS WANT TO RETIRE
When baby boomers were asked about where they want to retire, 33% of them want to retire in a rural area, 30% in a small town, 25% in a suburban area, and only 12% in an urban community.
BOOMERS AND THEIR REAL ESTATE AGENTS
Baby boomers consistently use the services of a real estate agent. Approximately 60% of home buyers and 79% of home sellers used a real estate agent in their last transaction.
SUMMARY
The baby boomers have had and will continue to have a significant impact on the real estate market. As the boomers near retirement, they continue to value real estate and will continue to invest in properties and land. Real estate agents would be well served to understand what baby boomers want in terms of their real estate investments, and design strategies that target the needs of this enormous population cohort. For more information, read the NAR report entitled, Baby Boomers and Real Estate: Today and Tomorrow
Read more: http://www.articlesbase.com/real-estate-articles/baby-boomers-will-drive-real-estate-growth-87235.html#ixzz0peKzrDs6
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Original Picture Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaronescobar/2179228774/
For the first time home buyer, buying your first home is one of the most exciting things you will ever do. If you have spent years living in apartments, there is nothing more satisfying than owning your own property. The process can be a little lengthy and you might hit a few bumps in the road to home ownership. The following tips will help the first time homeowner avoid some of the hiccups.
Step one is to talk to a real estate agent about the home buying process. It should not be a sales meeting and you should be able to find an agent that will agree to meet with you about the basics without having to sign a sales agreement with them. If you cannot find a good agent to talk to, you might want to consider talking to a loan officer at your bank or a mortgage broker.
An equally important tip is to get your finances in order before you apply for a mortgage. Order a copy of your credit report so you can check it for accuracy. Mistakes are common and you want to make sure that there is no fraudulent activity. You have the right to dispute errors on your credit report. If you come across something that you know is an error, circle it and send it to the reporting agency along with a letter of dispute.
Next, you should really study the mortgage industry. You need to be able to find the right loan and lender most suitable for your needs. Familiarize yourself with industry terms like debt to income ratio and adjustable rate mortgage. Learn the difference between pre-approval and pre-qualified. It will all seem foreign at first, but taking the time to learn the business will spare you from headaches in the future.
Also, you need to figure out what your wants and needs are. What kinds of amenities are you looking for? How many bedrooms? One story or two story home? You also need to consider the size of the down payment and figure out what you need to do to come up with the money for it.
You must learn about how real estate agents work. There are buyers agents and sellers agents. A buyers agents responsibility is to negotiate the best deal for the buyer. The goal of the sellers agent is to get the price that the seller most desires. The best way to find the right agent is to ask your friends for suggestions. They have all probably been in the same boat, so they can probably recommend a good real estate agent.
When meeting with a potential agent, pay attention to how they treat you. Make sure they listen to you when you talk about what you want. Also, how are their follow up skills? Do they take the time to return your calls or emails? If they do not take the time to respond, move on. There is a better agent out there for you.
When looking for a home, consider all of the possibilities. Look up real estate agents websites. Do not rule out For Sale by Owner Properties and foreclosed homes. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) homes can often be found for very reasonable prices. You do need to find an agent that is approved to sell HUD homes if you choose to take that road to home ownership.
Before you even think about making an offer, you need to consider the resale value. You might plan on being there for a long time, but you just never know. You might opt for a different climate to alleviate your allergies or you could simply be transferred by your company. You want to pick a good location that will be attractive to others as well.
Another issue that cannot be ignored are the deed restrictions, which govern what you can and cannot do with the property. If it has always been your dream to have a pool, you want to make sure that you do not buy a home in a subdivision that will not allow it because of deed restrictions.
Home inspections are an important part of the equation. Talk to your agent to find out when the inspection will be performed. It varies state to state. Sometimes the inspection will be right before the contract is signed and other times, they are performed right after an offer is made.
Finally, make sure you stay on top of things. Any number of problems can crop up at the last minute and delay the purchase of your home. If you are not sure about something with the paperwork, do not be afraid to ask questions. You might think of something that everyone else has overlooked.
Purchasing a home is a time consuming and sometimes frustrating task, but it is worth it when you have your backyard barbecues.
Read more: http://www.articlesbase.com/advice-articles/first-time-home-buyer-tips-74678.html#ixzz0peDG62d2
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Original Picture Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uberculture/4006812170/
Although I work out of my real estate office in Montrose, CO, I also live in Ridgway, Ouray County. I get the occasional listing or buyer looking in this area, which alway pleases me, since I love living here so much. Today, as I work from my beautiful home with the spectacular view of the Cimarron Mountains, I thought I’d take a look at the residential active and sold listings for Ouray County on our MLS. For sold listings, I limited it to sales within the last 6 months. I excluded trailers or mobile homes that do not include the real estate. Otherwise, these listings will include stick-built, manufactured, modular homes and condos and townhomes.
I found 262 such listings, of which 28 sold in the last 6 months. That represents less than 11% of the inventory. Of the active listings, prices range from $99,000 to $7,995,000. Average asking price is $603,916, and median asking price, $408,000. Average days on the market is 332 (and counting).
Of the sold listings, the prices ranged from $99,000 to $770,000. The average sale price was $306,579, and median sale price, $260,000. Average days on market was 225.
Out of the 262 listings, 17 are bank-
owned (foreclosures), which represents less than 7% of the total market. Of these 17 listings, 10 sold within the last 6 months, ranging in sale prices from $148,000 to $328,000. Those 10 sales out of the total of 28 sales means that almost 36% of the sales were foreclsoures.
Of the 7 active foreclosure listings, 3 are under contract ranging in asking price from $144,900 to $292,500. The 4 remaining active listings not under contract range in price from $155,000 to $450,000. The latter started out with an original price of $750,000!
Obviously, what is moving in Ouray County are the real bargains (i.e., bank-owned) or more affordable homes for Ouray County, i.e., close to $300,000 and under. While it truly is a great time to buy in Ouray County, in fact, there is not a whole lot of bargain or affordable inventory. Such inventory that exists goes quickly. So, if you’re thinking of buying in Ouray County, you will need to keep a close eye on the market and move quickly. Snooze, you will loose!
Happy May Day!
Ninah Hunter
Keller Williams Colorado West Realty
(970) 318-0064
www.NinahHunter.com
Ninah@NinahHunter.com
If you are thinking of buying a home, you must take the following 3 essential steps before even starting to look for a home to buy. Otherwise, you are setting yourself up for possible dissappointment, or maybe selling yourself short:
1. Get a copy of your credit report, and your credit score. Even better, get these from all of the 3 major credit reporting bureaus: TransUnion, Experian, Equifax. Under federal law, you are entitled to get a free report once a year. AnnualCreditReport.com is the official site to order your free report. Bear in mind, this does not include your credit score, which you’ll have to pay for. It’s about $8 per company. You can get free credit scores by signing up for free trials on various credit monitoring sites. Just Google search “credit score” or “credit score free” for such sites. For a terrific report that explains the credit scoring process and some of the myths associated with that process, read the special credit report, Revealed, by Dan Beck of Credit Management Specialists.
2. Review your credit reports very carefully, and make sure all of them are accurate. If you see something you don’t recognize, investigate and make sure it is legitimate. If you recognize something that you know is not yours, that has been paid, or is incorrect, you can formally dispute it. Ideally, all of your credit reports should be accurate before applying for a loan. Otherwise, you risk being denied a loan or not being qualified for the best one, or just delaying the application process.
3. Meet with a local lender to get pre-approved, not just pre-qualified, for a loan. You should not take this step until you know your credit reports are accurate. When you request a copy of your credit report, it does not count as an “inquiry.” An inquiry can adversely affect your credit score, especially if there have been several in recent months. When you meet with the lender, come prepared with copies of your credit report(s) and score(s), information and verifying documents regarding your employment, income (pay stubs, tax returns), monthly household expenses, and monthly debt. Most lenders will have a questionnaire or list of things they will need from you, so ask them for it. With this information, your lender can pre-qualify you to give you and idea of what type of loan and amount you might get. However, to get pre-approved, the lender will need to submit your application, review your documentation to verify the information, and order a credit report (which is an inquiry).
Armed with this preparation, you will have a very good idea of the type and amount of loan you qualify for. You can then begin searching for homes, knowing you can actually buy the one you want when you find it.
For the Best Shopping in Montrose, Colorado–Murdoch’s!
By Ninah Hunter on March 27th, 2011
Montrose, Colorado is not exactly known for its shopping, as in mall shopping, so it’s a good thing I’m not much of a shopper. We do have of a few big box stores, like WalMart and Home Depot. And in recent years, we’ve seen the addition of a couple of new shopping centers, Oxbow Crossing and River Landing, which has Target, J.C. Penney, Sports Authority and the Natural Grocer. Oxbow Crossing is a mix of specialty stores and restaurants, along with a couple of fitness centers and, particular favorites of mine, The Liquor Store and Cold Stone Creamery ice cream shop. But believe it or not, my most favorite place to shop in Montrose is . . . drum roll . . . Murdoch’s Ranch & Home Supply!
If you’re new to Montrose, Colorado, or even just visiting, be sure to stop into this store. It has, in fact, a great inventory of ranch equipment and supplies. So, it’s a great place to see real cowboys and ranch hands. But Murdoch’s offers so much more, esp
ecially for the homeowner: patio furniture, garden supplies and yard art, portable fire pits, fencing and supplies, garden equipment and tools. For the handyman, they have a fine array of power tools and hardware. Murdoch’s carries all your horse supplies, including a pretty good assortment of tack. Cats and dogs and other small animals are well represented in the pet section. You can even buy your baby chicks in season at Murdoch’s in Montrose.
Murdoch’s also has a wonderful gift department with beautiful western style jewelry, pottery, paintings and prints, blankets, handbags, greeting cards, and other knick-knacks. Murdoch’s is definitely the place to go to get yourself outfitted in western apparel, whether you’re the real McCoy or just an urban cowboy. And there are plenty of both in Montrose, Colorado. Actually, Murdoch’s to me is a rather good reflection of the wonderfully rural, active, and diverse lifestyle we lead on the Colorado Western Slope. It is also all I need in one-stop shopping. And for those of you for whom it is not, well, there is always Mesa Mall in Grand Junction.
~Ninah
Thinking of visiting or relocating to Montrose, CO? Learn more at NinahHunter.com.