Tag: How To Get the Most Money For Your Home

Questions to Ask When Hiring a Real Estate Agent

If you are looking to either buy or sell a home there are a few questions to ask when hiring a real estate agent. First, you want to concern yourself with the agent’s level of experience. You want to find out how long they have been in business. It is also important to know how often an agent works in the area your area if interest. After all, an agent can have a lot of experience in one locale but not have much local knowledge in the area you want to move to.

Experience means that you need to find an agent who sells a lot of homes in your price range. Experience also means finding the right agent for your area of need. This means finding a residential real estate agent if you are looking for or to sell a home, someone who specializes in land if you want to purchase or sell a vacant parcel, or a commercial agent for commercial space.

Questions to Ask When Hiring a Real Estate Agent: For Buyers

When you are looking to buy you want to find out how well your agent can represent you. This means asking questions about some of the agent’s negotiation strategies. How can they present your offer in the best light? In a competitive market this is a lot more than simply offering the largest amount of money. There are a variety of ways to make any buyers offer stand above the rest. Additionally, once you are under contract how will your potential agent support you? Will they continue to advocate on your behalf through inspection and appraisal, or will the next time they speak to you be at the closing table?

For Sellers

As a seller your needs and desires are different than that of a buyer. This likely boils down to two things. You want someone who can sell your home in a timely fashion and for the greatest amount of money. Sellers need to find out how well a potential agent knows their market, and their area. It is also important to understand what methods an agent uses to arrive at a price to list your home at. Money is just one aspect, time is also a vital factor.

For you this could mean a quick sale, or maybe you need a longer amount of time to determine your next move. When it comes to questions to ask when hiring a real estate agent you want to find out how they will remove road blocks during the under contract process to prevent delays. An experienced agent brings with them a specialized team of people, from inspectors to contractors to make repairs. Sometimes we can even negotiate to have the buyer use our preferred local lender to avoid the fly by night online operations which always result in delays. Find out if the agent you are interviewing has access to these types of professionals.

If you need help interviewing a great agent anywhere in the world we would be happy to find a great fit for you. Contact Us and let us ask the important questions so that your interests can be best represented.

Top 20 Home Improvements

Here are the Top 20 Home Improvements to do to get More Money for Your Home when it comes time to sell your property.

First, Deep clean your home.  The cleaner your home the more a buyer thinks that it is effortless to keep the home clean.  You can hire this done.  Ask Lestel for recommendations.

Second and this is so important. The less things around the bigger the home appears and the less things to distract the buyer from loving your home.  Give away, sell everything you will not be taking with you.  Pre-pack everything you don’t use daily, but are taking.

Third, remove personal items like family photos and things that show this house is yours. The buyer needs to imagine the home as theirs, this is hard to do when it looks like yours everywhere.

Fourth, add a fresh coat of paint to the front door.
The Top 20 Things to do to get More Money for Your Home

Fifth, if you have rooms that are painted strong colors, now is the time to consider a more neutral color.  Asked Lestel for the contact information for her painter.

Additionally, replace dated light fixtures. This can cost so little and make such a huge impact.

You should also open drapes and blinds and let the light shine in.

Improve curb appeal. Trim bushes, plant flowers, power wash the front, remove old leaves make the house look ready for company. Make sure the lawn has been mowed.

Additionally, have carpets professional hot water extraction, deep cleaned. This makes the oldest carpets look newer.

Take the time to clean windows.

Another idea is to change out switch plates and outlets so that they match throughout the house.

Always replace burned out light bulbs. When you have multiple bulbs in a fixture make sure that they match.

In the spring use Restore-a-finish on your wood work. Asked Lestel for more information.  Top tip that makes such a difference.

Additionally, make repairs of those small things that you know are broken or need repair. The buyer will notice and it will make a difference in how much the buyer is willing to pay for your home.

Change the furnace filter every season. This will make a difference at time of inspection.

Take the time to wipe off the top of your water heater. Having this clean can make it look well cared for and less concerning for the buyer.

Moreover, develop a plan for showing. What do you need to do when you get the call that you have a showing to insure that your home looks its best every time that it is shown.  Lestel can help with this.

Finally, Check tub and shower caulk in bathrooms. Re-caulk if discolored or missing.

You don’t need to stage the home. Lestel does this for you.  It make such a difference. No cost to you!

You also don’t need to worry about Professional photos. Lestel takes care of this too.  When a home looks good in pictures, you will get more showings.

We hope you enjoyed those Top 20 Home Improvements. Contact us for more recommendations.

Ways To Update Your Small Space

With everything going on right now many of you are stuck at home and may be working on some home improvement projects that have been put on the back burner indefinitely.  If you go on a walk you will see plenty of people working on their yards in expectation of warm sunny days. But what about the folks who live in smaller spaces without yards.

Certainly living in limited square footage is beginning to take its toll as we all stay home these days. Maybe you have gotten tired of looking at the same four walls ceiling and a floor but there are a few things you can do to switch things up, and a lot of these you can probably do without a ordering from Amazon, or having something curb delivered at your local hardware store. So without further ado here are some ways to update your small space, and don’t worry if you live in a larger space you can do these things as well.

Embrace minimalism 

The minimalist aesthetic has been popular for many years now and has other benefits beyond good looks especially when living in a small space. First of all minimalism makes finding things easier. It also means you don’t have to worry about organizing your thinks, or worry about their upkeep (think dusting).  You will also probably save money, as any one thing often leads to the need to purchase something new. For example buying a new phone means buying a new case, this is referred to as the Diderot Effect. So why not give a bit of minimalism a try. While thrift stores are not currently taking donations this is a perfect time to clean out your space and box up items that aren’t bringing value to you or your space. Set these aside to donate later.

Rearrange your furniture

As the days turn into weeks perhaps you are getting bored with your small space. There is no better way to freshen things up than to look into some new furniture orientations. One great option is to utilize Feng Shui in your home decor designs. If you are not familiar with Feng Shui now is a great time to give it a shot. If you hate it moving your furniture back the old way will give you something else to do later.

A Gallon of Paint Can Go A Long Wa

If you’re like us you probably have at least one gallon of paint collecting dust in the linen closet. Why not refresh your laundry room or another room in the house. Local home improvement stores are also still open in many places allowing you to buy a can of cheap oops paint for less than $15 and freshen up part or even all of your home. Painting is probably the cheapest and easiest home improvement task you could embark on and the results are almost instantaneous.
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There are just a few ideas of ways to update your small space. However, updating your space in any manner is a great use of time while you are stuck at home. Contact us for more recommendations.