Archive for the ‘Ask the Realtor®’ Category

Top Five Ways to Make your Home Appear Bigger

From looking at the real estate market statistics here day after day we are beginning to see that home buyers are able to afford themselves bigger homes lately. With prices going down, an average priced home of the past has now become pretty inexpensive. As a result, home buyers have begun to expect more from homes. This being a buyer’s market, home sellers and their houses are having to work extra hard to entice these buyers who have many homes to look at – a characteristic that does not help them make quick decisions or sometimes any decision at all.

So what are you as a home seller to do if your living room is especially small? Short of tearing down walls and spending thousands of dollars on a remodel which you may not likely recover in the sale of the home, is there anything you can do to make your home appear not just larger but have that feel Realtors® like to call “light and bright” – the magical characteristic that seems to sell homes?

Here are some time-tested ways to make a space in your house appear larger than it is.

Windows are your Friends

If you have a great view, be sure to show it off. When we live in a home we want privacy but when the home is on the market it is usually a good idea to go the opposite direction and take curtains down, especially if you live in an area with views. Even if you don’t want to take the curtains down – something a home stager will recommend in especially pretty areas – you can at least make the most of the view and the light by opening them. By drawing the eye outward into open space, the space can appear larger. Light also gives the impression of a bigger space. And without curtains, you have one less thing to vacuum – and we all can appreciate that!

Neutral Shades / Not White

There used to be a belief that painting the entire area or even the entire home white could make it seem bigger. Unfortunately what painting an entire area white does is it makes it seem less expensive. When the eye has no place to rest, it tends not to see the main features of the home and glosses over everything. There is no focal point, no interest to draw it. Instead, try painting the rooms in neutral shades. If you head over to the paint department you are sure to see shades of green, yellow, even the characteristically signature colors in neutrals. Try those on for size. You might be surprised with the difference!

Accent Walls

I have seen this used well, but you have to be careful. In the right setting and with the right shade, an accent wall can do wonders for a home in making it appear larger. If you have a living room / kitchen combination or an open kitchen, try painting the far wall of the kitchen an accent color. The accent color should still be compatible with the shade on the other walls (don’t try red unless you are sure it’s the right shade; I’ve seen many accent wall disasters and they’re almost always red!). I have said this and I should reiterate: if you’re unsure of this it’s best you don’t do it. The accent wall if done wrong can seem imposing and make the space appear even smaller. But do it right and it works wonders!

Glass Furniture / Proportionate Furniture

Even though the home buyers are going to buy the house and not the furniture, the sofa, dining table and other end tables and so on shouldn’t be imposing. The furniture should be in proportion to the size of the home. Which means that if you have a small home, you shouldn’t try to cram large furniture into it. Doing so will only make the space appear tinier. Make sure that the furniture in the home is the size the home can handle and store extra furniture in a storage facility until the home is sold. Remember we don’t live in our homes the way we sell them and sometimes that can be a difficult transition. But if the home is to be sold, it is an important one! Glass furniture as opposed to heavy wood furniture can also help make a space appear larger.

Bare Minimum Living

This is the part most home sellers can’t quite get used to: bare minimum living. I’ll admit it. My house isn’t clutter-free. But it’s not on the market for sale! When it comes time to sell the house, it’s very important that it be as clutter-free as possible. This means no more than a coffee pot on the kitchen counter, no more than one magazine on the coffee table and no extraneous anything. As a home seller you are trying to draw attention to the features of the house not your stuff.

If home buyers come in and begin to look at your stuff, your family photographs or other personal items that belong to you, you can be sure of one thing: they won’t remember anything but that. They will not remember your crown molding or your cathedral ceilings; they will remember your personal items and since that is not what they are buying, your home will eventually be forgotten. What a waste! Also clutter makes a home look much, much smaller than it really is and is counterproductive!

Hopefully, these tips help you in making you home appear larger and get it sold! Remember: keep it clean, keep it bright and airy and you will soon be on your way to a new house!

Home Sellers: Top Five Must-Have Products

If you are selling your home and are also living in it, I don’t envy you. Being ready constantly for home buyers to walk through your home is hard enough. But in this real estate market with every potential home buyer wanting to negotiate the best price, the pressure is definitely on you, the home seller to offer that special something in your home that no other house has, that the bank owned property down the street cannot offer. And in light of that, I have compiled a list of products I believe could make your life easier during this transitory phase. By making it easy to keep your home looking and smelling great, these products may get your home sold faster and easier while keeping you sane!

Pledge Pet Hair Remover

We all love our pets. But especially in the summer months (which is when most homes go on the market) we know they like to shed their fur. Dogs, cats – they all do it. And the fur sticks to everything. We can probably live with it, but when you’re having potential homebuyers come through the home in hopes of plunking down hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy it, pet hair is a strict no-no. But they aren’t going to buy the couch, you say. Nevertheless. Any dirt, dust, garbage and yes, pet hair should be removed. It is only a distraction from the home and ruins first impressions.

So what do you do? Get one of these Pledge Pat Hair Removers. Yes, it’s a little pricey – about $14 for one. And it’s disposable. But it lasts a long time and really picks up pet hair from couches and curtains. I’ve tested it! Forget the lint rollers. Get this. You’ll be glad you did.

Glade Plug-In Fragrances

Every home has a smell but because we live in it, we don’t smell it any more. Sometimes I have walked into people’s homes that smell of pets, the food cooked in it (especially fish) and yes, even garbage. If your home is on the market, it’s especially important to take the garbage out two or even three times a day.

But beyond that for that extra boost of warmth and comfort, you can get a Glade plug-in fragrance. Plug it close to the entrance so that is the first thing your potential home buyers smell as they walk in to the home. Pick one that smells like cookies as opposed to one that smells like flowers. Research shows that the smell of home baked cookies makes people happy and brings back memories of childhood warmth.

Swiffer Duster

This is just a personal favorite. One of the best things a home can showcase that home buyers are immediately attracted to are appliances and electrical fixtures like fans, lamps and so on. Most home stagers and interior designers suggest that if you want to make a home look more expensive and grand it is a good idea to use high end fixtures because it catches the eye of anyone who walks through the home.

High end fixtures are a very good idea. However, if they are covered in dust, it detracts from the value of the home. And in this regard, the value of a Swiffer duster is priceless. Especially use it on ceiling fans. Don’t think your home buyers won’t look up! And nothing takes away from a beautiful fan like a layer of dust on the edges!

Swiffer Sweeper / Vacuum Cleaner

This should go without saying. I know, I hate sweeping too. But if your home is on the market, a Swiffer sweeper makes a huge difference if you have hardwood floors. I remember the first time I bought one of these and used them in my first house. My husband claimed we had reached a new level of clean. It was true. You can’t really see the dust on the floor but if you run the sweeper you will pick it up!

Of course, if you have carpet, you want to get it professionally steam cleaned and then vacuum clean every single day. Smells can get trapped in the carpet and hang in the air inside a home. You do not want any bad odors reaching your potential home buyers!

Vinegar (any brand)

Speaking of odors, in my opinion, nothing gets rid of smells like plain white vinegar. It’s also extremely cheap, which is always a plus. Just get some white vinegar on a paper towel and clean the kitchen counters with it every day. That will keep your home smelling great and clean. Don’t worry – the sour smell of the vinegar itself dissolves and doesn’t last in the air. Also, if you’re concerned about other smells in the air, you can pour some vinegar in a bowl and keep in open in the kitchen. This goes a long way in neutralizing odors in the air. Try it. It really works!

Hopefully, I’ve convinced you how important it is to keep a sparkling home when you have potential home buyers walk through the house. Again, remember this is part of a top five series. Keep a look out for more top fives!

Home Sellers: How to Sell an Extra Bedroom

In this series of how-tos we’ve been over how important a kitchen, a bathroom and a living room are to showcasing a home – not just during an Open House – for sale. But what about that pesky extra bedroom? Sure, if you try to add on another room to your home, it costs about $25,000. But does it add that much value to the resale price? To ensure that an extra bedroom adds value to your home, remember the following tips. After all, the only value added is extra square footage, but it has to be usable square footage or home buyers won’t pay the premium for it.

1. Ensure you leave the closet in it.

I once watched a home improvement store where the woman had created a sort of “dream space.” She liked to travel and had remodeled her study closet by taking out the door and using a curtain to separate a space where she could sit on a day bed and dream of where to go next. Oh yeah, did I mention that she had also put up maps of the world and places she liked – also souvenirs collected on previous excursions – in the “closet.” Now, this kind of remodeling is fine if you intend to live in the place for a long time, but if you are planning on selling the home soon, it’s best to stay away from it.

When you are selling a house, you want to avoid doing anything too out of the ordinary. After all, you will be trying to appeal to the largest possible audience. And closets in bedrooms are, well, pretty popular. So no matter how appealing it seems to tear out the closet and put in a “dream room” or bookcases, leave the closet alone. For one thing, it could reduce the value of your property by thousands since appraisers do not consider a room a bedroom unless it has a closet and for another, well, like I mentioned, home buyers like closets. So leave it alone and go get another idea from HGTV.

2. Don’t go overboard with the baby stuff.

I have been to many, many Open Houses and held a few of my own and inevitably have seen a lot of baby and kid’s rooms. I always tell the home sellers that it’s fine to celebrate the arrival of a baby and go absolutely berserk with decorating if – and only if – your home is not going to be on the market soon. If it is, it’s still okay to decorate provided you plan to redecorate before you put the home on the market. So make sure you budget not just for pink and / or blue but also for some neutrals right after.

Any time home buyers step into your home and their attention shifts from the features of the house to the features of your life, you’re in trouble. Because you’ve lost them! They shouldn’t be talking about your life. After all, that’s not what they’re going to buy! Avoid that and keep the rooms neutral. Let them picture their furniture in there… and don’t make them think about chores and remodeling before buying the home!

3. Don’t go overboard with study stuff either!

There seems to be an obsession that comes over some homeowners when there is a bedroom that is not being used in the home. Either it becomes a storage room which is the worst idea ever if you want to sell the place since home buyers cannot get in edgewise to look at it! Or they make it a baby room with the carousel fan that stays long after they’ve moved out. Or they create a study sanctuary and line the walls with books!

Now don’t get me wrong – the idea of a wall full of books is right up there in my list of wants as well. I love the thought of it and probably will have it someday. But not if my home is on the market. The point here is that you don’t know what your home buyers will want to do with that extra bedroom and you don’t want to make the decision for them. They will bring their own ideas to the table and you want to present them with a canvas – your house. So don’t decide what it will be before they get there. Leave it open.

4. Keep it simple, not stark.

Of course, this is not to say that you leave the room empty either. It might come as a surprise to you – and it does to a lot of home buyers when we look at vacant homes – that a vacant room seems smaller than a room with furniture. So don’t leave it stark and empty either. That will just make it seem smaller.

Why not have a day bed in there or just a bed for that matter? Some books in the corner will do just fine. And don’t leave it out of your staging for sale either. You want to pay as much attention to the rooms you don’t use as the rooms you do use! Staging it as just that – an extra bedroom, or a guest bedroom – is a pretty good idea. That way, it remains simple, but not stark.

5. Try to integrate it into the rest of the home.

Whatever you do, you don’t want to give the impression that the home buyers have entered another dimension when they step into the extra bedroom. Make sure to integrate the room into the rest of the home. The first home we ever owned was a HUD home bought during the last wave of foreclosures in Sacramento and they had a bedroom with purple walls. And we’re not talking a nice purple either. The room caved in on you when you walked in – not literally of course – but emotionally it felt like entering a deep, underground passageway. A little paint did wonders for the room.

A good rule of thumb is this: if the home is under 1000 square feet, you don’t want to try and separate each room with a drastically different colors and paints. Try and keep it the same shade or at least the same family of color.

When it comes to the extra bedroom, remember: Everything in moderation will get you more interested home buyers!

After a Foreclosure

With the number of foreclosures, short sales and other financial hardships affecting so many people in Sacramento and elsewhere in the country, the question often comes up: Will I ever be able to buy a home again? Will any bank ever give me a loan to finance a real estate purchase?

The short answer is: yes. The longer answer is: yes, but…

And here’s the “but…” part of it. Lenders will always ask for reasons why. One friend said it very matter-of-factly that you will always have to explain a foreclosure but because there are so many right now, the stigma, if you will, of a foreclosure on your record at this time might not affect you as much as it would have during a financially good time. This does not mean that you will not have to provide documentation that you did not strategically let the home foreclose but getting a home loan might not be as distant and impossible as it seems today.

In approximately two to five years after a foreclosure, the financial situation of the borrower could look considerably different to a lender. And you want to keep in mind that although your FICO scores have suffered as a result of the foreclosure, you might be able to show other factors as a good savings history, employment history and so on. Also, other bills paid on time will have a great impact. A larger down payment might also be necessary.

This is to say that if you have genuinely experienced a financial downturn in your life, all is still not lost. The dream of homeownership might still come true for you. It just might take a little longer than you hoped.

Can California Homeowners Be Sued after a Foreclosure?

Unfortunately, for a lot of homeowners, that might just be case. If you’re one of the homeowners who has had his home foreclose due to lack of mortgage payments, there is a chance that in the state of California the lender may be able to sue you for the difference the home is currently worth and the mortgage amount. This can happen only if you have refinanced the home since you bought it.

Currently, if a homeowner defaults on a mortgage used to purchase his or her home – called a “purchase money mortgage” – the homeowner’s liability on the mortgage is limited to the property itself. Unfortunately, the original law did not extend the purchase money protection to loans that refinance the original purchase debt, even if the refinance only was to obtain a lower interest rate.

Californians who refinance a property currently do not have protection if they default on a mortgage greater than the property’s value. Called a “deficiency” liability, under current California law, the lender can sue the former homeowner for the amount of the deficiency even after taking back the property. This is also called a deficiency judgment.

The California Association of Realtors is sponsoring a Senate Bill to close this loophole. We’ll keep you posted. For more details on the SB 1178 go here.

Homebuyers: Five Mistakes that Could Cost You (Part 2)

Welcome back! This is continued from yesterday’s post of the biggest mistakes homebuyers make that could end up costing them money, time and unmentionable amounts of heartache.

3. Not Getting all Inspections

Most often I notice that when investors are buying the property and it is bank-owned and the purchase price is paid all in cash that many recommended inspections are waived. This could be because some investors don’t live in the area and decide it will take them a while to close escrow if they also decide to throw inspections into the mix and besides inspections are only there to protect the lender, right? Because the bank has not seen the home and the only way it can judge if the home will appreciate or hold value in case of foreclosure is by enforcing the need for inspections. What do banks know anyway?

Think again. Sometimes it helps to see a home like an overcautious bank, not an excited homebuyer. Not the banks that decided to lend to anyone willy-nilly regardless of their credit history, but a sane, extra-cautious bank.

Brokers usually have a form we have homebuyers sign if they decide to waive any inspections. Amongst recommended inspections are termite / wood destroying pest inspections, roof inspections, septic inspections and a whole house inspections. In spite of all these inspections, some things can fall through the cracks. So it is a good idea to get all inspections done as early as possible in escrow. Remember that there is always a built in inspection contingency in your residential purchase agreement or offer. The default time you have to clear this contingency is 17 days, but the bank can decide to reduce this to 10 days. Get your inspections done early and you won’t regret it. If there are flaws in the home, you can always cancel escrow and get your deposit back. So much better than being stuck with a home with unknown flaws!

4. Not Knowing the Neighborhood

Most homebuyers look for homes in known areas. Either they have rented a house or an apartment in this certain neighborhood, or they have friends and / or relatives who live there or they work close to the neighborhood. In some way they have driven through the streets or walked in the area. This is usually a good idea. It is very difficult to get a feel for a strange place you have never been to just by looking at a few homes within that area. While you might be an expert at such a thing, it is nevertheless a good idea to stick to areas you know.

But what about relocation buyers? For such buyers, unfortunately, research is all they can depend on. However, even for these, it is not a bad idea to ask around amongst their friends or even just online. In my experience, advice given online has to be taken with a pinch of salt because some people can be pretty rude and obnoxious while others can be pretty honest. So take from it what you must!

5. Being Indecisive

Besides being difficult to deal with and avoided by Realtors, indecisive home buyers can be a hazard to themselves as well, and not just because they can pass up on good homes that they would otherwise buy because they are indecisive. Indecisive doesn’t mean that they don’t jump on what they are told is a “good deal,” I use “indecisive” in the larger sense here meaning they don’t really know what they want. As such, they wait and wait and wait to buy a home and then either don’t buy at all or pounce on the wrong home and realize they paid too much too late.

It’s always a good idea as a homebuyer to get a good idea of what you want in a home. And “I’ll know it when I see it” isn’t good enough. I have heard from a lot of people that when they tell their Realtor what they’re looking for, they still get shown the wrong homes. While this might be the case as well, I think there are also a lot of homebuyers out there that don’t know what in the world they want in a home. Why not make a list? You can always check it against reality and change it, but it might give both you and your Realtor a good idea!

Happy home shopping!

Homebuyers: Five Mistakes that Could Cost You (Part 1)

From what I’m hearing and seeing out there, the majority of homebuyers looking for homes currently are either investors or first time homebuyers. A more diverse group of homebuyers couldn’t exist – these two are diametrically opposite to one another. Investors have probably previously bought homes and have also perhaps been through times like these where home values are depressed. What’s more, many of them are buying homes with cash and – having been through markets like these before – they are aware of the general trend of the market and also the kind of offers to make to get banks to accept their offer.

On the other end of the spectrum is the first time homebuyer and this post is primarily written to help that first time homebuyer. These buyers tend to be more wary, have limited access to cash and also have never bought a home before. As a result with this being their first foray into the housing market they may have erroneous information about housing or may have heard other outrageous things they are still trying to work through. As a random example, I offer that once a first time homebuyer asked me if homes really could be bought in California for $75. Apparently his friend swore by it and he was upset at me for not showing him homes that were on the market for less than a hundred dollars!

So, first time homebuyers, here are five of the biggest mistakes that could cost you. And even though I have said this post is primarily oriented for the first time homebuyer, it wouldn’t hurt an investor to read it as well. In the world of real estate investing, there’s always more to learn and returning to basics is not just a good idea but an essential requirement of the job. (Now that I mention it, I think I will write another post just for investors.)

1. Not Knowing your Budget / Numbers

This one should be obvious. If you don’t know how much money comes in every month to your household and how much you spend every month on things like groceries and gas, you will be hard-pressed to know what you can afford to spend on your new mortgage. Get a monthly budget established first and then go ahead and contact your bank or mortgage broker for an idea of what you can afford for a final purchase price of the home. He should also be able to tell you the interest rate you will be paying on your mortgage and other details like fees and the like.

Without a good idea and good control over your spending habits, you will get into trouble very easily with your mortgage payments. While rent usually covers things like repairs on the home, taxes, insurance, water and garbage, remember to include these in your budget when you buy your home since you will not have a landlord any more taking care of these things and repairs will crop up from time to time.

2. Not Getting Prequalified

If you are in the market looking for a home to buy over the next six months or so, chances are that you are looking at a lot of distressed property. While this is an important fact to remember for the next point where we will discuss getting all your inspections done as well, getting prequalified is important when you are looking at distressed homes. Why, you might ask.
If you have never bought a home before, you should know that markets come and go. There was a time when potential homebuyers looked at a home, made an offer with just a letter to the home seller attached to it and provided the home seller like the offer, the terms and – most importantly – the letter from the home shopper, he or she would accept the offer and the home would be in escrow. Then the homebuyers had the responsibility of getting approved for a loan and so on.

This can be risky for a homebuyer. For one thing, what you don’t know about your credit could come back to bite you. Are you absolutely sure you can buy a home? Credit standards have gotten stricter in the last few months. Also, even if you’re absolutely certain you can buy a home, do you know what your interest rate would be? Would you be paying fees? What would your monthly payment be? Isn’t it a good idea to get a good faith estimate so you can plan your finances?

Be sure to come back tomorrow for part 2 of this post!

Home Sellers: Five Fixes that Aren’t (Part 2)

To continue our previous discussion from July 3rd, here are the rest of the so-called quick fixes! Let’s get right into them!

3. Patching holes in the wall by hanging an art or mirror frame

It seems odd that people would still do this, but I’ve seen it in a few homes. No matter that they are bank-owned homes. And because the bank has never lived in it, it is even less attached to it. But you wouldn’t do such a thing. Would you?

This “fast fix” bothers me more than the others perhaps because it’s possible it could never be discovered until the day the new homeowner moves into the house. It’s one of those things that could be missed by the home inspector, perhaps because it’s so obvious. And then you can imagine the trouble you would be dealing with. Why not sell the home and be done with it? Why not actually get the wall patched? (By the way, how did you make that hole in it anyway?) Why leave a bad taste in the homebuyer’s mouth at the end of escrow? And then have to talk to your real estate agent and theirs and also deal with small claims court?

4. Using better curtains and light fixtures to make the place look better and then taking them down at close of escrow

While technically this is not a quick fix, I think far too many home sellers are unaware of this rule in real estate: basically, anything attached to the home like curtains and light fixtures goes with the buyer in the sale. In other words, it is included in the sale of the house. Which means you cannot put expensive curtains up and then take them with you to the new house. You also cannot change light fixtures towards the close of escrow.

If you do intend doing something like that, you should clearly spell it out in a counter offer to the buyer. Better yet, spell it out right in the beginning as soon as a homebuyer expresses interest in the home and thinks about making an offer. That way, all your cards are on the table and you avoid a potentially problematic escrow.

5. Leaks and Eeks

One thing I always do when I take a homebuyer into a home and they are especially concerned with leaks in the home (Remember: whether water or fire do more damage is debatable!) I always check under the sink in the kitchen and around the tub and the toilet seat in the bathroom for leaks. What do you do if you’ve discovered a leak in your home and it is on the market? If you have read so far, the answer should be obvious. Get it fixed!

Homebuyers are nothing if not terrified of leaks. Remember that the minute they see one they will run for the door. Especially if the majority of homes on the market are bank-owned and they don’t know what’s wrong with them, it is especially important that you distinguish your home as better than the others by fixing everything that’s wrong with it. Owner occupied homes get paid a premium especially for the reason that they are more cared for. Don’t cheat your homebuyers out of that!

So the idea is that whenever there is an issue that needs to be fixed, either bite the bullet and get it repaired by a professional or disclose it to your potential homebuyers. When in doubt, disclose!

Home Sellers: Five Fixes that Aren’t (Part 1)

We’ve all seen them – the little snickers that come from the home staging shows when someone lifts a piece of carpet or leans against a supposedly solid wall and it falls or – in the case of the carpet – completely lifts it off like it was the skin of a cat. Even if this is not a horror story or a home staging show, when it comes to selling your house, you want to be careful not to indulge yourself in these quick fixes.

Yes, all Realtors recommend you get the house ready for sale fast (I don’t really know why it has be to be that quick!) but try and avoid the following quick fixes. Because, seriously, they are not. Fixes, that is. You might get away with them during the Open House, but the same Realtors and real estate brokers that recommend you get your home ready for sale in a hurry because summer doesn’t last forever also recommend that your homebuyers get a home inspection. And the home inspector is being paid approximately $100 an hour to find flaws and uncover your badly hidden mistakes! So do it right the first time and don’t bother with these quick fixes!

1. Carpet / mat over broken tile or missing hardwood

This is my personal pet peeve, which is why I mention it first. Way too many people indulge in this one, especially when the open house is days away and they want to clean the house and get it ready without making any repairs to it. What we see most often is missing hardwood or cracked tile and the homeowner – as if he’s had a brilliant idea – decides he has an extra bathroom or kitchen mat to cover the area. What an idea! Except here’s the problem – sooner or later, that little mat will be lifted. Homebuyers are getting pretty smart when it comes to these things and know your tricks. It’s one thing to carpet the entire floor space, (Although I have come across many bank-owned homes with uneven floors with carpet on them. Homebuyers see right through these cheap tricks!) and quite another to cover it with something that resembles a place mat.

You’re almost better off to just leave the area uncovered and let them see the flaw. At least they will know you are not lying or trying to deceive. If the home seller covered this little thing up, they think, what else am I not seeing? Their trouble radar goes up. So avoid the homebuyers from thinking that. Because they might just decide the risk isn’t worth it and look elsewhere. And with homebuyers being almost as scarce as some endangered species around here lately, you really want to do your best to keep them in your home, safe and happy enough to want to buy it from you!

2. Electrical “fixes” by cousins

This supposed fix is not just a problem, it’s a fire hazard and an electrical hazard. Let’s say the day before the Open House the central air in the home decides to go kaput. And all this happens in the sweltering heat of August. You’re considering serving ice cream at the Open house to get more people to come in, just drawn by the enticement of something cool. What do you do? Do you decide it’s not worth getting it fixed right away and let the potential homebuyers know that it will be fixed before the home is in escrow? Or do you invite your cousin who you think might be able to fix the issue because he’s supposedly handy around the home and doesn’t mind fooling with some wires until he gets it right.

Seriously, I have nothing against cousins. The same goes for in-laws, siblings, whoever doesn’t have an electrical contractor license and offers to fix something for you for half the price a professional would charge. Again, remember the home inspection. While we have in the past found bad wiring in the attic of a HUD home we had bought and fixed it, (thanks to the fact that my husband is an electrician) there are still switches around the home that power things we have never found – a fact that still scares us a little bit! In the above scenario, it would be better to leave the air conditioner off and let your potential homebuyers know that you are willing to fix it before close of escrow.

Come back tomorrow for part 2!

Five Ways to Sell a Living Room

The good news about living rooms is that people live there and spend most of their time there. The bad news about living rooms is that people live there and spend most of their time there. Get the idea? The living room is usually the second impression home buyers get of the house they might potentially buy. (The first is the exterior of the home.) The living room is as important as the bathroom and the kitchen.

I once showed a home that was perfect in every way – the bathrooms looked great, the kitchen was cozy and pretty – everything was fine, except the living room could maybe seat a love seat. That was all the furniture it could hold. While there’s little you can do about a bad floor plan (one wonders what the builder was thinking!) most living rooms can be shown in their best light with a few tips. Follow these and showcase the most lived in area of the home to your homebuyers.

1. Avoid big furniture

Interior decorators and professional home stagers will suggest that you get minimal furniture for your home. It’s one thing if you have a large family and need the furniture for everyone. Also specific members of the family like specific items. So Grandpa enjoys his la-z-boy seat but it doesn’t need to stick around when you’re moving. Make it a point to remove excess furniture so your home is the showcase.

In addition to removing extra furniture, also pay attention to the fact that the size of the furniture is in keeping with the size of the living room and the wall it is set against. For example, you don’t want to set a big couch against a small wall or a seat against a long wide expanse. Less furniture and proportionate furniture make a room look tidy and right in terms of square footage, so be sure to give that impression. Not one of an over-cluttered small home.

2. Keep it light and bright

If you need to turn on some lights as soon as you enter your living room or your eyes need time to adjust so you don’t accidentally fall over something in your path, something in your living room is wrong. It may seem like it’s only orchids that need a lot of sunlight, but those are not the only living things that do. Humans (yes, yes, your homebuyers are human, even though at times it may seem like they’ve transmuted into electronic signatures and faxes and numbers!) like sunshine too.

One of the favorite real estate statements in MLS advertising is “light and bright.” And it sells homes. So take a close look at your home and see what you could do to make it light and bright. Add some skylights? Those might have the extra appeal of saving on electricity and making the home “greener.” How about just cleaning the windows and opening all the curtains? Buyers love sunlight. So give them some natural light and see the looks on their faces change!

3. Pay attention to focal points to set the mood

All too often, the focal point of a living room is the television. Again, it seems fine when you live in the home and watch TV often. It seems comfortable enough to arrange the seating around it. After all, how many quiet evenings do we really sit around the fireplace and meditate into it? Come on, admit it. None, right? But here’s the thing: we still like that idea. And we still buy into the image of that idea. We like the thought of cozy family dinners and quiet evenings in front of the fireplace. Rarely do we fantasize of loud evenings in front of the television set. (Sorry sports fans!) So why not make the fireplace the focal point?

Other ideas for focal points are a piece of artwork. I had seen this done exceptionally well at a listing once. There were track lights installed on top and the art caught the light. It was only later that I realized without the art work, the wall would have seemed like an odd obstruction and an oddly placed part of the old construction. Another idea I saw was a screensaver-like image on a flat screen TV which was obviously going to remain the focal point of the living room. But it looked so much better than the black screen that I admired it. So think about focus. Think about where you want your buyers’ attention to be when they enter the home.

4. Remember current trends and draw attention to them

This is where accents come in very handy and is really the only excuse to need home staging. If you have something in your home that is current and trendy, you definitely want to play it up and draw attention to it. Homebuyers sometimes do marathon home viewings of more than 10 – 15 homes a weekend. It can get worse if they’re traveling from another city and are only in town for a few days. While these relocation clients can be seen as the most serious and dedicated home buyers since they have to move and soon, it can be hard to get their attention.

Don’t let your home blend into the others they see that day. If you want them to come away with more than just a fleeting impression of your living room, draw attention to its best features. Do you have skylights? Then make sure you leave the lights off (and pray for a sunny day!) and let them see how much natural light you get in the living room. Does your living room open into the kitchen and create a nice flow for family gatherings, parties and get-togethers? If that’s the case, ensure that everything is sparkling clean and place a few glasses or even a vase of flowers in the kitchen to draw attention to it. Subtle hints with accents can draw attention to most missed features. Don’t let them miss them!

5. Don’t forget paint

Last but not the least and perhaps the most obvious factor is paint. If your home will be on the market, it is imperative that you paint it. Even if the previous paint job doesn’t seem too bad and there are no obvious stains on the walls, a fresher coat can make a world of difference. Not only does a new coat of paint help clear out the corners and brighten crown moldings that can otherwise look dull and worn, the fresh clean lines make the features of the home bolder and clearer in the eyes of the homebuyers. Paint will also cover up smells (cigarette smells for instance) and create a fresh, clean, new smell in the home. Just be sure to maintain it!

Paint is also a great way to set the tone for the home as soon as the home buyers walk into the living room. Is the home classic or modern? Is it suited to a fast lifestyle or a slow lazy one? Paint can create that dream we were talking about earlier, so use it wisely. Also, this is not the time to experiment. Stick with what most people would prefer. You can try your wild ideas in the new home you move into when this one is sold.

Follow these tips and you should be well on your way to moving out! Good luck!

Home Sellers: Top Five Ways to Sell a Bathroom

(If you’re wondering why you would sell just the bathroom and not the entire home, please refer to the earlier post about “selling” a kitchen.)

Oh good, you’re back. I hope you’re beginning to get the idea that selling a home is more than just selling the real estate that the home seems to be. The reason why homebuyers really pick one home over another can be pretty complex. Just for a small smattering of choices in a home buyer’s mind, let’s name price, floor plan, location, proximity (or distance!) from friends and / or relatives, childhood nostalgia for an area or type of home, size of home, features and amenities, neighbors, and so on. And these are just the ones they admit to. Or even are aware of! There could be hundreds or thousands other reasons that lurk just under the conscious mind of the supposedly always-searching-never-really-finding-just-the-right-dream-home home buyer.

But this post is about bathrooms, isn’t it? So let’s get to the top five ways to entice this elusive home buyer into seeing your bathroom as superior to all others he or she has seen.

1. Sell the Dream

I don’t know if, in the past, bathrooms used to be a room that was mainly considered in a practical manner. Did home buyers ever walk in to one of these and think, Great. It has a shower and a toilet and a mirror. Oh, and a sink to wash my hands and face. Perfect. Done. The point is, no one today thinks of a bathroom as a particularly practical place. Remember the kitchen and the fantasy of the gourmet cook? Well, a similar fantasy pervades the bathroom. But it is one of relaxation. There isn’t a single person who doesn’t want a bathroom to resemble a spa. Okay, well, maybe my husband is one. But as a homebuyer, would he deny me that if I wanted it? Of course not.

The fact that home buyers want a bathroom to be a place of relaxation and comfort might be a new phenomenon but it is one you should not overlook. In fact, knowing this is an inroad into the mind of your home buyer. Do what you have to to make the bathroom as relaxing and peaceful as you can. Accessorize without overdoing it. Use a spa theme. Create the fantasy. Home buyers love it!

2. Banish Clutter & Messes

True story: I once found a blender in a bathtub. Don’t ask me what it was doing there. Suffice it to say it was a spare bathroom and listing pictures were not taken that day. Unless you want to be a source of humor for the home buyers to recall at every housewarming – including their own – don’t use the bathroom for storage. Even if it is an extra bathroom, you don’t want to give the impression of it being derelict. In fact, a bathroom can be worth thousands of dollars! Just ask an appraiser. If you have an extra one of these, consider yourself lucky.

Every bathroom must be clean, however. Any trace of any of the following will make the potential home buyer turn tail and run: mold, used floss, pet hair, human hair, dandruff, old band-aids, used cotton swabs, ear swabs, well, you get the idea. Clean might as well mean disinfected. Just don’t go crazy with the bleach. You want the bathroom to smell clean, but you don’t want to give the homebuyers the impression that they’re in a hospital!

3. High End Fixtures Sell

Part of the reason the little soap and shampoo sachets in upscale hotels are so attractive to bring home are not because you’ve paid a lot of money to stay there. It’s because the impression they give you is one of opulence. And you feel like you’ve brought a little bit of the opulence home by using the shampoo you brought with you while you stayed there and “stole” the little packets. Don’t worry – you’re not a kleptomaniac! You were taken in by the luxury of the place.

Creating luxury in a home for sale is easier in the bathroom than anywhere else. If you do have a sizable budget, that would definitely make it simpler, but again you don’t have to be extravagant. A singular piece like a bowl wash basin or a particularly large beautiful mirror with details carved on it, or even a high end light fixture that draws attention to itself can add to the feeling of opulence. And don’t think of it as unnecessary, either. One Realtor® I knew had a listing with a claw-foot tub and he very nearly sold the house because of that tub! In the advertisement, the lady who asks that architect to “build a house around around this” sets down a faucet, she seems ridiculous, but it might not be too far from the truth. Choose your fixtures wisely. It can be the difference between your home and an REO with the same floor plan.

4. Remove all Signs of You!

This can be a tough one and no one likes to hear it, but it’s so important. Especially in the bathroom. Home buyers usually look at resale homes because they are less expensive and less of a gamble in terms of being in an established neighborhood than new home developments. But they don’t necessarily like the idea that someone else has lived in the home before them. Why are newly remodeled homes so attractive? For the same reason: they ensure that they are not going to find anything that belongs to the previous owners in there.

So when home buyers do come through your home, you might want to find a safe spot outside the bathroom (maybe a storage cabinet somewhere that’s not as likely to get opened) to put your shampoo, makeup and whatever personal effects you like to use in the bathroom. My personal pet peeves include razors and lipstick, but there are a host of others. So hide those! Remove all signs that you are selling a place where you still live and get clean every morning. It’s tough but very important to a selling a home.

5. Make Necessary Repairs First

Nothing will put a potential home buyer off like a leaking faucet or a water stain close to the edge of a bathtub. You can have a spa theme and the bathroom can smell wonderful. You can even have high end appliances, but home buyers have a special vision I like to call “problem oriented” and spot red flags like leaks and water stains before they see the features. So unless you have fixed everything that needs to get repaired, I would advise against putting your home on the market.

Sometimes it’s a very simple fix and sellers might not even think about it, but it’s a good idea to walk through your home and be critical to the limit of it. Remember you won’t be living in it any more, so why not consider it critically? Fix everything that needs to get fixed. If it’s in question, it must be repaired. And bathrooms are where most of the repairs need to take place because water damage can develop into a serious problem very quickly. Don’t scare your home buyers away!

If you have a home improvement budget before you put your home on the market, it’s a good idea to pay the most attention to the bathrooms and the kitchen. Next time, we’ll be discussing the living room and the extra bedroom, so come back!

Home Sellers: Top Five Ways to Sell a Kitchen

(Of course I know you’re not just going to sell the kitchen!)

This is part of a series on “selling” various aspects of a home. We know that in the current real estate market, it is even more important not just to add value to your home as a home seller but also to showcase it. While lowering the price is the single most effective way to get more foot traffic through your home when it is on the market, it is also important to show the home buyer just how much more you are offering than, say, the bank-owned home on your block.

The recent dearth of good inventory of REOs might just be your ticket to a move out of your house! Just recently we are beginning to see a tentative interest in owner-occupied homes again. Ask any Realtor® and you’ll hear that kitchens are the most important part of the sale of a home. They can make buyers fall in love and pick a more expensive but better home over a less expensive but plain one. So how do you shine your kitchen and really “sell” it to the buyer? Read on!

1. Think Gourmet

Even though we know we’re not the best cooks in the world (barring some of us at some parties that we can’t stop talking about!) we like to imagine that we are. If your kitchen inspires the word “gourmet” you’re halfway into your new home. All home buyers like the thought of a well thought out, open kitchen where they can whip up a meal in minutes while entertaining ten of their closest friends. Believe me, it’s a fantasy like a sunken tub. Even though all the kitchen ever sees is a take-out every single night of the week, homebuyers still like to own the gourmet kitchen. And their fantasies! So why not give it to them?

If you have appliances that you can boast about, make it a point to showcase them. If you have under cabinet lighting, leave it on during a showing. Little tweaks in lighting can set just the right mood. You don’t have to go and spend thousands of dollars to create a gourmet kitchen; just setting the right things on the countertops like an espresso maker can give a buyer a nudge in the right direction. Think about setting a mood, creating an ambience of luxury. It will go a long way in the mind of the homebuyer and make them more likely to remember your entire home in that very different light.

2. Spit Shine Everything!

This one is a bit of a pet peeve. Homes must be clean and the cleanest area has to be the kitchen. If you are still living in the home I understand how hard this can be. But it is not impossible. You are brave to have your home on the market at this time so it’s even more important to be brave when it comes to work. Clean the area after cooking or eating. If a kitchen looks dirty, home buyers have a visceral reaction to the listing and decide immediately that they will not buy it. They might not even know it, but when they’re with their agents deciding which home to put an offer on the dirty kitchen goes first. Trust me on this one.

Same goes for smells of food and cooking trapped inside the home. Take it from me: you do not want to cook fish in your home ever when the house is on the market. Ever means ever. Go out for sushi if you have to. But don’t dare cook fish. This is especially true in the winter months when houses remain closed for long amounts of time. Steer clear of the fish, clean the kitchen well and air it out after using it. That’s the safest thing you can do!

3. Say “no” to Clutter

I have never seen sales fall faster flatter on their faces than when there is too much in a home where there should be very little. Confusing? Not really. See, in the same way that you wouldn’t put a huge bed in the middle of a tiny bedroom so that you have to walk sideways or even on the bed to get around in the room; in the same way you can’t have all the appliances you have collected since you were in college on your countertops. The countertops need room. Think of it as breathing room.

I was watching a show on HGTV once where the Realtors® talk about a one appliance rule. They say you have one appliance out when the home is on the market. While that might be a bit extreme, I think it’s a good rule of thumb: when it doubt, leave it out. Don’t clutter your counters. Room is important to home buyers. If they see too much junk they’re not going to think, “Wow – look at all this house can hold.” They’re going to think, “Where does our stuff go now?” We are not all blessed with the creative imagination, especially not when we’re shopping for a home. Join the dots for them. Leave out the clutter.

4. Don’t Forget the Nose

We went over this somewhat in terms cooking fish and other smells that can linger in your home. And while we are on the subject, let me reiterate the importance of getting rid of garbage every single day. Well, let’s make that before anyone comes over as well. So maybe two to three times a day. When we live in our homes, we forget that they have smells. But they do. And you don’t notice until you come in from the outside. The best thing you can do is keep the windows open at all times or use a good exhaust fan.

In our family I’m the one with the nose. And I can smell something from miles away. It doesn’t help that we have a child under one year old as well, so suffice it to say if our home ever goes on the market, it’s going to be quite an ordeal keeping the house from smelling – well, rotten. Remember some people have a better sense of smell than you do, so get one of those plug in scents in the kitchen, air out the home and definitely get rid of the garbage before it starts to smell! You might not smell anything but in this case it’s better to the safe that sorry!

5. Details are Everything

Small touches can make a big difference. Ever hear the term less is more? It’s true, but only partially. Less is more if the less is well chosen and well placed. In the kitchen, this could apply to a fruit basket sitting perfectly on a counter top. (Make sure it’s real fruit, by the way. No one likes the idea of a plastic grape!) Using specific items that are well chosen you can draw the attention of a potential home buyer to specific features of your kitchen.

Here are some simple examples: Have a wine chiller? Why not place a nice bottle of wine out with two glasses close to it? A dining table in a nook can be made into a statement with some bright flowers in the center. Remember the details and you will leave the home buyer longing to be part of the life your home promises them. Never forget you are not just selling a home but also the idea and fantasy of living in that home. And details are your best friends.

It is said that kitchens and bathrooms can sell homes. I think every room is just as important as the other. Come back for more great ideas on decorating and staging your home for sale!

FHA No Flip 90 Day Law

First off, I would like to say the best thing about being part of the Association of Realtors® is the legal hotline. Where else would you have lawyers sitting around the phone waiting to answer your legal questions? For free?

I recently had the opportunity to use the broker’s legal hotline provided by the California Association of Realtors® because we had a question about the 90 day no flip law of the FHA. I think now that most loans are FHA loans I think it’s a law I should mention here and discuss in brief. (Of course, the disclaimer stands: I’m not an attorney and am not providing legal advice.)

If you wish to read the law for yourself, you can click here. Referred to as “24 CFR section 203.37a” or more commonly the “90 day anti-flip law” of the FHA it disallows you from selling the home (or even having it under a sales contract) you have bought with an FHA loan for the first 90 days of ownership. There are various other requirements regarding appraisal and so forth for period after the first 90 days as well.

Now you might say, who’s flipping? But the fact is, many people are, albeit for small profits. From what I hear, the number of bank-owned properties on the market are dwindling and although some Realtors® expect to see more listed later this year, the quality of REOs on the current real estate market leaves quite a bit to be desired. This may have just contributed to the perfect scenario for small profits in the quick-flip area. Rehabilitating REOs and then selling them on the open market might be welcomed by eager home buyers who have trouble finding decent homes that are not REOs (too much competition) or short sales (too unsure.)

Whether the inventory goes up from here with more REOs coming on the market according to predictions or it doesn’t, watch for more of these kind of flip homes as the bank-owned homes start to look less and less attractive because of their condition. As the market starts to recover, we may just see more flips before it stabilizes.

If you’re considering it, just make sure you know the laws around it!

New Homes vs. REOs

During a recent conversation with one of our top producing agents at Elite Properties, Mike Keleshian, he mentioned something that I thought would be worth mentioning on the blog. He said that new homes are lately very possibly beating bank-owned homes as better bargains for home buyers and they are definitely options a home buyer should keep in mind when shopping in this market.

Really?

When one thinks of great bargains in this current real estate market, we tend to think of mainly bank owned homes. While it is true that prices have fallen overall because of the number of foreclosures in the market brought about by the number of bad loans out there, it is also important to remember that prices have fallen for all the homes.

While banks usually price their inventory at rock bottom prices to get rid of it, other homes in the neighborhood are also affected. Their prices have also fallen. (As you probably already know, prices are based on comparable sales of nearby homes. If all the homes in the area are foreclosures and their prices are depressed, the prices of the subject properties fall as well.) So it’s not just the foreclosures that are underpriced – brand spanking new homes have also lost value and are now cheaper than they used to be.

Can a Realtor® Show me New Homes?

Absolutely. In fact, one of the biggest changes that has occurred because of the real estate slowdown is that new homes are now featured regularly in the Metrolist MLS that all Realtors® in the area use. In the past, Realtors® were not welcome in new home subdivisions – and if you can remember the time – home buyers were picked by lotteries and long waiting lists.

Today, the situation is completely different. Home buyers have huge incentives to buy these new homes, whether it be free upgrades or better financing. Some homebuilders are also throwing in luxury vacations and so forth to entice home buyers. Of course, while you’re not really considering a luxury cruise as soon as you buy a new home it is important to know that the home buyers now hold the cards.

What about the Financing Aspects?

If you’re a first time homebuyer in this market, the world is your oyster! Besides the tax credit to first time home buyers, new home builders are now giving you incentives in terms of financing your home purchase. These incentives include a lower interest rate (i.e. lower than what you could get from the bank or any mortgage broker – they discount a point or so) if you use their preferred lender, various upgrades like granite counter tops, landscaping and / or custom paints and so on. Sometimes, builders will even offer to pay a year or two of your mortgage payment.

To compare this with a bank-owned home is to see the advantages of buying a new home right away. Bank owned homes typically need you to jump through their hoops – get pre-approved with their own lender, shorten your timelines to get a loan and various other financing issues. Why not look at new homes and take advantage of the incentives offered to you?

What are the Other Advantages?

I remember attending an appraisal class once and although the emphasis was on how to use comps for Realtors® the appraiser discussing details said something pretty unequivocally – Never compare a new home to a resale home. Why? Simply because it’s a new home!

But besides the fact that some people prefer homes where no one else has ever lived, the fact remains that a new home is something of a novelty for which people will pay a premium. Just from the practical side of things as well it has suffered less wear and tear and less depreciation than a resale home and usually much less than a home that has been foreclosed on someone for non-payment. (Of course, if there were no finances available for the mortgage payment, we can assume there is deferred maintenance on the home.)

It is up to the individual home buyer to decide whether or not he or she prefers a new home subdivision to a resale home, but it is however a choice that should not be ignored if you’re in the market for a home today. There is a host of choices out there and it’s a good idea to at least check each one out before making a decision!

Home Buyers: Top Five Rules of Trading Up Part 2

Yesterday we went over the most basic of rules for trading up or moving out of a small home into a bigger one. It’s important to plan this move perfectly and sell your old home before you buy a new one just because of the general state of the real estate market as it is today. Today we’ll see the rest of the rules of trading up, equally as important as the others mentioned in part 1 of this post.

3. Consider renting the old home

While this is not the conventional practice and can seem like a pretty odd thing to choose, if you are interested in adding real estate to your investment portfolio, this can be a pretty good idea. Many homeowners achieve this when the home they plan on moving from has a relatively small balance left on the mortgage or is completely paid off. While the idea of refinancing that small balance, borrowing against the home seems counter-intuitive, if you are conservative about it, you can manage to do a pretty good job.

The way it works is this: homeowners will refinance the home they currently live in and take some money out as a down payment on another one. (Like I said, this works best if the previous home has a relatively low balance on it and if they borrow conservatively. You can choose to supplement the borrowed down payment with savings to avoid borrowing too much.) The earlier home then will become a rental that brings in money every month (albeit a small amount) in rent which covers the new mortgage, taxes, insurance and other repairs.

It works because buying a home today can be cheaper than renting. But make sure your math is impeccable when you do this and you are not averse to working weekends – at least every once in a while – on your rental property.

4. Do your Research

If you are considering renting out your old property and moving into a new one, I strongly advise you take some time to research the neighborhood you live in and the one you intend moving into in terms of the following questions: Are there a majority of rentals there or owner-occupied homes? What is the average rent? How much visibility would the rental have? What is the average rental period? Are leases more common or month-to-month tenancies? What is the vacancy factor? And finally, how long does a home stay on the market before it sells. You will want to know this and get a good idea of the rental as well as the sales market in the area in case you decide being a landlord takes up too much of your time or otherwise isn’t worth it.

Another aspect you want to be careful of when you decide to rent out your current home and buy a new one is that you understand and are comfortable with the kind of mortgage you get. This is true also when your current home is taking longer than usual to sell and you have your eye on a new one. If you run into the wrong lender, he or she might try to sell you a loan that might work in the short term, and if you are comfortable with that, you may take it. But be absolutely sure that you understand the consequences of it, so you are not stuck with a mortgage you cannot afford or otherwise ruins you financially.

5. Get pre-qualified

Getting pre-qualified early is always a good idea even if you have just begun considering buying a home. The reason for this is that even if you aren’t going to write an offer the next day, you might want to get an idea of your credit. With the recent changes in credit extensions, reduced credit lines and otherwise rising interest rates and balance transfer fees on credit cards, you want to be absolutely sure your credit score gets you a good home mortgage rate.

Even if you are absolutely sure of your credit, still getting pre-qualified helps because you’ll have an idea of your monthly mortgage payment, your interest rate and also your total fees. This goes back to the previous point of doing your research.

That about sums it up for the top five rules of trading up! Follow these and you should be just fine. There are many homes to look at and remember that it’s a buyer’s market currently. So once you have sold your current home (or otherwise rented it out and are happy with the numbers) more than half the battle is won. Trading up into a bigger home – or your dream home – can be done right in any market if you do your homework. Good luck!

Home Buyers: Top Five Rules of Trading Up Part 1

Yes, the real estate market is great if you’re a home buyer. Interest rates are low, prices are even lower and there is a lot of inventory. There are so many homes to look at you might have a harder time making a decision than if there were fewer. Somewhere here I have written about how studies claim that the more options there are the harder it is for people to choose. But all that aside, as a first-time homebuyer, real estate right now seems like an easy “no brainer” choice.

But what if you’re looking to trade up? What if you are like so many of the rest of us who has homeowners already and just don’t want to pass up on this opportunity to buy a bigger home? Perhaps the last one just doesn’t do it. Maybe your family has grown or the kitchen seems to be getting smaller every year as your social circle increases. What then? Is there still room for those of us?

The good news is yes. But trading up is harder now because if you’re hoping to use the value of your old home to buy a new one you might be surprised to learn that your old home isn’t worth what it used to be. While it is easy to say that you will just make up the difference on the other side of the transaction – which is to say that even if the value of your current home is depressed, so is the value of the new one – this is not always an equal transaction.

Here’s what you need to know to make a smart decision about trading up:

1. Plan before you move

It’s easy to dream about a bigger home. If you are like a lot of people, Open Houses are fun and not just because you get to pry into your neighbor’s home. Okay, just kidding. We know you don’t do that. (Do you?) No, if you’re like most people, window shopping homes can be a lot of fun. You get to see different ideas of how homes are arranged and how people live. You get interior decorating images stuck in your head. You wonder if you can make your home look like a picture in a magazine.

When you are seriously in the midst of home shopping though you have to put that starry-eyed version of a house away and focus on practical matters. This can be a tough transition for a lot of people. Planning involves not just making lists of things you hate about your current home that you want to be different in your new home, it involves marrying that list to reality, budgeting for what is already available and can be bought and also making plans for the future to bring in what cannot be yours immediately. If it doesn’t sound like fun, it’s not. Not really. Unless you love doing this sort of thing. Then, more power to you! Go forth and conquer!

2. Sell before you Buy

I did already mention this a little bit earlier but I think it’s worth devoting an entire section to it. If you live in a home you bought a while ago (and by a while I mean before the recent appreciative period in real estate prices) you might still be able to sell it and make a profit. But don’t base your decision of how much your home is worth on the appraisal you got two years ago. And don’t base it on its refinanced value a year ago either. The only way to know how much your current home is worth is to get an appointment with a local Realtor® and have him show you the recent comps. These might surprise you, but it’s the only way to know if you’re looking at this move realistically.

Once you get an idea of how much your current home is really worth, you can then go back to the drawing board and decide if a trade-up seems like a good idea. You might decide that the numbers don’t add up as well as you thought and the old home doesn’t seem so bad after all and you can wait until this current depressed real estate market recovers to make your move. Or then again you might decide that this move is definitely possible. If your decision is the latter ensure that you sell your current home (not just put it on the market) before you head out looking for another. While it might scare you to be without a home for a month or two while your old home is sold and there isn’t a new one, it is the safest way to trade up. And with so many homes there to look at, finding a new home to fit your life into might not be as hard as you think.

Tomorrow, we’ll get into Part 2 of the Five Rules of Trading Up. Come back! If you are one of the many that are moving into a bigger home, you don’t want to miss this!

Home Sellers: Top Five Landscaping Tips

So we all know we’re after curb appeal. Home buyers don’t know it but they decide within the first two minutes of looking at a home (sometimes mostly from the outside) if they are interested in going in or not. And so, home sellers must pay attention to curb appeal. What’s curb appeal? Simply put, curb appeal is how the house looks from the outside, or, the sidewalk and landscaping plays a big part in first impressions for any one.

If your home is set to impress its potential home buyers, the landscaping must be impeccable. This does not mean that you have to get a professional and spend thousands of dollars on landscaping, but it does mean that you should pay extra attention to detail and remember the outside of your home as much as the inside. Grass isn’t just grass!

First, it must be Green!

If you are one of those people who like to water the garden and spend hours outside enjoying digging in the dirt and fertilizing, first of all, I’m jealous. But secondly remember that the potential home buyers might not feel the same way. Most people don’t have the time or energy or simply aren’t interested in spending time in the garden.

They do want a thriving lawn however and some plants that look nice year round. Be sure to have sprinklers. Not only will it be an amenity that should add some extra value to your home, automated sprinklers will guarantee that your property remains green even when you are moving or are away for a week or so, which can happen when you are looking for a new home or have already moved into one. These might be times when you don’t have those extra hours to relax watering the lawn and yellow blotches in it will take away from the curb appeal of the home. An additional benefit in the hot Sacramento real estate summer is that your lawn will look happy (and your home will look cared for) when compared to the bank-owned homes out there and stand out from the competition!

Neat & Tidy wins Buyers

If you have lived in the home for a while chances are you have had fun with your backyard and front yard. You may have been so excited to have a patch of ground you can call your own (if this home was your first, especially!) that you may have grown anything you came across on your strolls through nurseries and perhaps even The Home Depot. I know because I was like that. Anything new that seemed to look good got planted. Sacramento is also forgiving to a lot of plants that seem to need just water and sunshine and as a result almost all kinds of plants do well so it’s easy to go berserk.

When it’s time to sell the home however, you are entering a whole new world. You don’t want your potential home buyers to say they like the home but the garden will need a complete overhaul because it’s messy. Or that they think it might be too much work. Or – oh, God! – do those rosebushes come up? When it comes to selling your home, think like a home buyer. Keep it tidy, neat and green.

Draw Attention to It

If you have a wonderfully maintained and easy to manage landscape, it can sometimes be easy to miss. If it is in the backyard, don’t put your dog there and have the home buyers see it just through the windows. Any amenities and anything beautiful in your home that is going to stay must be showcased. So open the curtains wide to the garden and take the dog somewhere else. Ideally, invite the home buyers outside. In the backyard, this could mean a barbecue or patio area in the middle of where you want them to look or in the front or side yard, it could mean a quiet reading bench or bird bath with a path leading to it. Showcase your garden as you would your favorite china!

Remember the Neighborhood

It’s important not to do overdo it however. It’s always important to remember the demographic of the area. There’s a law in real estate that is called the Principle of Conformity and it says that the home most like the others in the area has the highest value and properties that diverge too much from the others in the neighborhood lose value as a result of their differences. While this does not mean that you should try and make your home a cookie cutter of all others, it does mean that you should give some attention to who your potential home buyer might be.

Sometimes it’s a good idea if you are considering putting your home on the market to take a drive through the area and see what the other homes look like. Better yet, search the MLS and find homes that have already sold for what you would consider a reasonable value that were owner occupied. Your Realtor® can provide this information as well. Borrow some ideas from them. Are they low maintenance with mainly rock? Are they indulgent and extravagant? Do they just have a lawn? You might not want to stray too far from the pack in this regard.

Some Ideas for Sacramento

Lastly, here are some plants tested by me that do well in Sacramento and manage to stay neat and tidy and also look great. Geraniums are always perfect, especially in borders. They do well in the area and are hardy to the occasional freezes. Bougainvillea is a lovely plant and is a wonderful accent to a home but plant it only along a south facing and protected wall. That way, it can get some heat from the wall even in the winters and survive. Honeysuckle is very easy to grow in Sacramento along a fence, but it must be pruned hard every spring. If you’re not a good pruner, don’t bother with honeysuckle. Same with jasmine. Pink jasmine is a lovely creeper, but it must be pruned and needs lots of sunshine. Avoid hard to care for plants like tropicals and orchids.

This is part of a top five series for homebuyers and home sellers. Be on the lookout for more top fives in the weeks and months ahead!

Home Buyers: Stress & How to Deal with It (Part 3)

If you’ve been following this three part series or if you’ve recently made the decision to buy a home (actually, correction: if you’ve EVER made a decision to buy a home or bought one) you probably know that it can be one of the most stressful times of your life. There’s paperwork flying around, Realtors® are talking in acronyms and then, after all that is over, you get to pack and move into a new neighborhood and a new place which you know little about. Welcome to world of purchasing a home! Here we’re trying to break down the more anxiety-provoking days during the process and giving you some tips so you can at least be aware of all that you might encounter during this process. So, onward!

Stressful Day #6: Signing

Okay, so you’ve done inspections and found nothing amiss. All the disclosures have been received and signed. Approved. The loan seems to be going through just fine and the home appraised for its value. Whew! Wait, wait, wait. It’s not time to sit back and relax just yet. There is still the part of the big signing. This might be a day you are looking forward to with bated breath or it might be the one thing besides horror movies that makes your hair stand on end. After all, this is what your friends jokingly call “signing your life away.” (I know, I get that all the time.)

While not really signing your life away, you are agreeing to pay a loan for a home purchase over the next (usually) 30 years. The sheer length of time and total amount can be pretty scary. Also the fact that you come to title company and the escrow officer is sitting there with a stack of papers thicker than your college thesis can be stressful. This is what you need to know: most of that paperwork is just more disclosures. A lot of the paperwork is what you have already seen. What you need to pay the most attention to is the little stack marked “NOTE.” That is the single most important thing you are signing that day.

The note contains the loan amount and the interest rate you are getting. This should have been told to you already by the loan officer, so you simply need to ensure that nothing has changed. Also the type of mortgage will be spelled out as well and that should be unchanged as well. Another document you should pay attention to is the closing (or settlement) statement. This will list the amount you have paid already as your good faith deposit and other charges like escrow fees, loan points, title insurance. If you have negotiated these will the seller, make sure that the closing statement reflects that. The escrow officer will help you out understanding these. This is a good reason to sign at the title company instead of at your home with a notary. The escrow officer is aware of every detail on the settlement sheet and the notary might not and can answer any question you might have.

Stressful Day #7: Keys & Moving Day

Almost there! This stressful time is almost over, home buyer! Once you have signed the loan documents, the escrow officer sends them back to the lender for approval and then the loan is funded. Usually once the loan funds, you can get keys, but we like to wait until you are on record as the owner of the home in the county in which the property is located. That can delay your keys by about 3 – 4 hours. The title company will usually call your Realtor® once the deed is recorded in your name and the county has sent confirmation. Then most Realtors® will just meet you at the property and give you the keys from the lockbox. Welcome to your new home!

Hopefully, you haven’t fainted from the excitement and / or anxiety at this point because you have more work headed your way. What? Haven’t you heard that moving day can be stressful as well? All those things you have to move to the new place without breaking? Unless you’re in a time crunch it’s a good idea to wait a day or two after getting the keys to schedule moving day. Take a breather. Go over to the new house and camp out if you want. Enjoy it. You’ve just bought yourself an investment for a lifetime. Relax, sit back and take it in for a while!

Homebuyers: Stress & How to Deal with It (Part 2)

Buying a home is stressful, right from the day you make the decision to buy one, it seems like. Here we’re going over some of the more anxious days you might have as a new home buyer. Especially as a first time homebuyer, it’s important that you know what to expect during the purchase period and escrow so that you are not thrown off guard.

Stressful Day #3: When the Check gets Deposited into Escrow

Good faith deposit checks are usually between 1% and 3% of the purchase price, so to buy a $200,000 house, the deposit can be fairly large. Upto $6,000 is a sizeable amount of money to anyone so it’s normal to be nervous when it leaves your bank account. Always ensure that you know the money is going to a title company (or a trust account, but mostly a title company is used) and that your Realtor® has a receipt of the money received by the title company going into your escrow. There will be a photocopy of the check on the receipt.

Good faith checks are deposited within three business days of acceptance of the offer, so be sure to move money out of savings and place it in checking if that’s what you need to do so that the check is cleared. Ideally, as soon as you start looking for a home you should try and make most of the money you will use for the purchase as liquid as possible. The down payment goes to the title company last so you might have some time for that, but the good faith should be kept in your checking. It will be deposited by the title company into escrow where it will stay until the end of the escrow at which time it will be added to your account for all the money you are paying into the purchase of the property. (Or course, contingencies in the contract protect it so if anything isn’t resolved in terms of repairs or appraisal, you get the deposit back.)

Stressful Day #4: Inspections

Talk of the good faith deposit segues well into talk of inspections because the contract usually has contingencies associated with it. If the home does not appraise for example for the price you intend to pay for its purchase then you have the right to cancel escrow and get your deposit back. Perhaps the contingencies that protect you most are the inspection contingencies. You should get everything that bothers you checked out, but the most common inspections are termite (also called wood detroying pest inspection), roof and a complete home inspection.

It’s always a good idea for you to be present for each of these. You may have them scheduled on the same day to save time. And since you will be paying for these, it’s a good idea to get your Realtor® to let the listing agent know that they have been scheduled and on what day. Lately with REOs the power does need to be turned on for the complete home inspection. Your Realtor® will have to give the inspectors access to the home.

A pest inspection costs about $100, a roof inspection is usually free (you pay for warranties and repairs) and a home inspection can cost anywhere from $300 to $500 depending on the square footage of the home. The home inspection is the longest and can take about three hours. If you have concerns, it’s a good idea to be there for the entire inspection and speak with the inspector about your worries before he gets started. If not, it’s still good to be there so the inspector can point out what he thinks might be an issue.

Stressful Day #6: Paperwork

This one isn’t so bad because usually you receive the paperwork and have time to look over it at your own home. Remember that the disclosures also are contingencies, so if you do see something in the disclosures that you don’t know about, would like more information on or otherwise is unacceptable, you don’t have to shrug and sign. You can still back out of the escrow at any time provided you are still in the contingency period and have received the disclosures during that time.

Do not remove contingencies unless all disclosures have been received. We are beginning to see that with bank-owned homes that disclosures are beginning to take longer. If that is the case, you should not remove contingencies until all disclosures have been received. Ask your Realtor® to double-check this fact and don’t sign your right to back out of escrow until you receive a positive answer.

Hang in there! We’re almost done with the home purchase now! If this seems anxiety-provoking just to read, chances are you are a potential home buyer. The biggest step you can undertake to protect yourself and make the transaction smoother is just to hire an honest and trustworthy Realtor® to be on your side. Good luck! Tomorrow part 3 concludes this series.

Homebuyers: Stress & How to Deal with It (Part 1)

Let’s face it: buying a home is stressful. Even if you are one of those people who have been waiting with bated breath to finally get into a home of your own and would gladly throw the landlord a party (albeit a very small and cheap one) just to gloat over the fact that you are no longer to pay him rent every month, it is common to have pre-homeownership jitters. So today and tomorrow, I’m going to talk about the most stressful days you can expect to have throughout the home buying process. Hopefully, knowing that you will have these will help you to know how to overcome them and make the experience slightly smoother.

Don’t expect it to be all roses, though. Buying a home is inherently stressful. It involves two very dear things: money and – well – your home, a place you intend to live for a long time. It’s the perfect recipe for worry. But forewarned is forearmed. I know, it’s a cliche, but so true.

Stressful Day #1: Picking the Home

Shopping for a house can be relatively fun. I have only had one client so far who was not excited about looking for the right home. Some clients look on it as an adventure. Others just want it over with. Whatever your idea of house-hunting is, I can’t help but think it is a bit like shopping for clothes and therefore fun. Well, at least for a short while. But once the shopping part is done comes the first stressful day in a homebuyer’s life. It involves choice.

Researchers have found that the more choice we have the harder it is to choose. That is one reason they say life has become more stressful. Just the plethora of choices out there cause us to freeze and make it unable to calculate pros and cons. And on the real estate front, there definitely are a lot more choices today than a few years ago. In the real estate boom, when home buyers found a home they liked – even if it was just one – they had to run home and write an offer before it was gone. Today, you have days and sometimes even weeks to reach a decision. And that makes it harder, not easier.

How do you deal with it? The old fashioned way is as good as any. Get a piece of paper and pick your favorite three homes from all the ones you saw. That by the way is a good measure for when you can take a break from looking as well – once you see three homes you could live in, stop and pick. Then write down the pros and cons of each. Be creative. And don’t stick just to the floor plan and things like bedrooms and baths. Include financials in here as well. If one of them promises to be a long and iffy escrow, put that in as well. Soon, a picture will emerge that helps you decide which one you want to make an offer on. And save the others if you want as back-ups.

Stressful Day #2: Writing an Offer

Any day you just cannot forget your checkbook at home is bound to be a stressful day! But meeting a Realtor® in an office and putting down concrete dollar amounts and dates to be legally bound to can be nerve-wracking, especially to a first time homebuyer. I still remember my favorite couple I sold a home to. They were very savvy first-timers and yet while writing the offer looked so nervous, I brought them a glass of water. Everything worked well for them in the end and they got the home they wanted, but they still remember that day as one of their terrifying ones.

So how to do prepare for this? One way is to get a blank copy of the purchase agreement a day or two before the Realtor® writes it for you. That way, you’re not hit with 20 pages of initialing something you haven’t read before. Another way is just to discuss the offer over the phone and have the Realtor® write it out and email it to you. That way you have time to read everything before signing it and sending it back. Whichever way you decide to do it, remember to read everything. Knowing what you have signed and knowing that the offer has been written to be in your best interests and that you are protected with contingencies will make you feel more confident. And writing that check will not be half as hard as before!

As it turns out, there are more stressors than I thought there would be. So this will be a three part series. Come back tomorrow for more ways on how to deal with them as a new homebuyer. If you are a first time homebuyer, these posts are a must-read. They will help you – in the least – become aware of your anxiety and the reasons for it and at the most overcome it to make your home buying experience smoother than usual.

Home Buyers: Making the Move Easier (Part Three)

This is part three of a three part series on how to make a move into a new place easier. So far we have covered various ideas of getting to know your neighbors, joining a group, walking around downtown and so on. Today we’re going to conclude the series with some of my favorite tips. These are the tips I learned from moving four times in eight years. (Seriously, I’m done.)

Join the Local Library

The library is usually my first real connection with a neighborhood. In the past I have joked that it’s because if I don’t come back in three weeks at least someone will care and will come looking for me. But of course, that’s a joke. A library is a good place to join in your first few weeks. Usually, they verify you actually live in the home you say you do. So if you’re not getting mail there yet, you can take your mortgage statement or your loan documents like the HUD-1 to prove that you live there. The library is also free and if you have kids in your home it’s a great way to keep them occupied with something to do.

Another reason for heading to the library early in the move is that it has internet access before you might have it in your new home. Many people I know are lost without internet. I see the library as a place you get to connect – online, in the community, and so on. Local libraries are also places where local events are advertised, which is another good way to get your kids involved in activities in the new place.

Talk to the Grocery Clerks

If there’s something you need in your new neighborhood, another source of information is the nearest grocery store. Usually the best one for such a purpose is the neighborhood store. When we first moved to Pollock Pines, everyone we spoke with was very eager to tell us about where everything was in town. In fact, we eventually got so tired of it that we stopped telling people we were new. And that was just from talking to people at Safeway. Imagine if you were talking to someone at the neighborhood store. (Eventually the clerks at Safeway had to let us go because there were other people in line, but it is a small town, so they joined in as well!)

Identify a good source of information about where to get what and he’s worth his weight in gold. Also, nothing beats being recognised in a new neighborhood. It makes you feel like you belong, like you’ve lived there all your life. And that makes you feel pretty welcome in a place where you’ve just unpacked your boxes.

Offer to Help a Neighbor

As far as belonging to a place goes, nothing will make you feel more needed than just the plain old fashioned notion of helping someone out. It costs nothing and it can make you feel useful and connected. For example, if you see your next door neighbor working on something in the yard and know how to fix it, offer to help. Of course, this goes without saying to some helpful souls out there, but as a new homebuyer it can be an immense sense of relief and you can make some friends in the process.

Don’t Think it Will All Get Done Right Now!

Moving is a huge process. From personal experience, I’ve noticed that it is only after a year of living in a new home that you finally begin to settle down. For the first year, you mostly focus on getting things where they should go and the extra knick-knacks remain stowed away in some corner, still in boxes with the labeling on. Sometimes you find them in closets, hidden away and only saying “Den” or “Downstairs Bedroom.” Every home isn’t perfect. Well, let’s just say no home is perfect to the homebuyer. There have be repairs or remodeling to make it fit you. For example, our hallway closet was a mess until just last month when we put in new shelves and now I finally feel organized. And it’s been more than a year since we moved here.

Don’t think your life will be perfectly organized in the first few months of moving. Getting old things to fit into a new home can be hard. Sometimes you have to get the new home to fit you. This involves going through old stuff and getting rid of a lot. It can be unnerving and sometimes overwhelming. So don’t expect perfection right away.

Enjoy the Unfinished Parts of Living in a New Home

Remember the new home commercials? Where they show the happy homeowners sitting together sipping a glass of wine as unpacked labeled boxes lie around them? How can they be so happy you wonder when there is so much work to be done? So much stuff to put away? So many boxes to recycle? The secret is this: learn to live with it. Learn to enjoy it. If everything isn’t going to get done right away and life is going to be a little messy for a while, learn to enjoy it in spite of the “mess.”

This is the time to remember how excited you were with the idea of buying a new home and moving. try to recall that. And now you’re here. So enjoy being here. I think the problem a lot of the times is that we spend too much time wanting to be other than where we are. This is no more true than when we move into a new home. We miss the certainty of knowing where everything is, we spend way more time looking for cookware than actually cooking, and much more time looking for clothes than usual. Everything seems to be other than where it should be. Living out of boxes is hard and we can’t wait to have everything in its proper place and living an ordinary – even boring – life. But that’s the beauty of moving! It forces you to take a back seat for a while. And it can be enjoyable if you let it.

And that concludes our series on making the move into a new home easier. If you have experiences or tips regarding this, please write to us. And we’ll try and incorporate them into our posts. Happy Moving, new home buyers! Of course, if you would like to be a happy home buyer, our agents are only a phone call away!

Homebuyers: Making the Move Easier (Part 2)

This is part two of a three part series on making relocation or just a move into a new neighborhood easier on home buyers. You don’t have to relocate to feel displaced. When my husband and I moved into our second home together, even though the home was just two miles or so from the one before it, we felt like we had moved to another city. Every neighborhood can have its own culture, so to speak. And as a new home owner, it’s important that you are part of it. Here then we continue with what else you can do so as to be part of the new place without too much stress.

Talk to your Neighbors

The traditional image of neighbors coming over with food the day you move into the home is a good one. It shows that people care about you and that they understand you might not have time (or space, literally!) to cook in the midst of moving. Lately however there aren’t too many neighbors doing it. Perhaps they think it comes across as too nosy.

There’s nothing stopping you though! After you’ve done the unpacking – or even in the midst of it – feel free to get to know your new neighbors. Go over and say hello or just talk to them if they’re hanging out in the yard doing yard work. Everyone wants to know who the new neighbor is that just moved in to the empty house, so go over and introduce yourself. If you’re feeling shy, it’s also okay just to wave or smile and look friendly. Chances are they will head over to your house soon enough to get to know you.

Have a Yard Sale

I actually saw this done and thought it was brilliant. A new couple moved into our first neighborhood and held a yard sale a few days later. Not only did they get rid of a bunch of old things that no longer fit into the new home, they also hung out in their front yard all morning talking to their new neighbors. Later in the evening, those same neighbors came over for a block barbecue. This actually works pretty well with the reference to the above statement of being shy. No one is shy during a yard sale! When there are things to talk about and the sun is shining and you are in an open space, some lovely friendships can be created.

A word of caution, however regarding this: when you have the yard sale, don’t sell (or show) things that otherwise you would throw away. Pick the right items, not junk. Trying to sell your trash will make you seem “cheap” (for want of a better word) and even though they might appreciate your frugality, no one wants a neighbor with trash. Remember the idea of the yard sale is first to meet your neighbors and second to get rid of a few things, not the other way around.

Start (or Join) a Group

The internet is arguably the best thing that has happened for society. No matter where you are, you can find the closest grocery store, restaurants, coffee shops and so on. Not to mention social groups. As an example, when I had a baby, I was surprised at how lonely it seemed in the beginning. None of my friends had babies and I wasn’t working initially, so the world seemed to pass me by. I needed friends that were going through the same phase of life as I was. Finally, I thought it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to check for a playgroup online. Of course, a three month old couldn’t “play” but the group was as much for me as for her. Voila! Turns out it was a great idea – I have five new local friends that make me feel more rooted to this place than I ever did!

Of course, you don’t have to wait for a new group to be created. At the above mentioned yard sale, find out if there are HOA meetings you can attend. Most neighborhoods will have some sort of group for the maintenance and care of their homes and streets. That’s a great way to meet people. Or start your own! What do you care about? Or like to do? Start a group with your interests and you’ll find that there are others who share them.

Talk a Walk!

A great way to get to know your new neighborhood and get some exercise is on foot. You can walk around in the residential area, or you can head downtown. There’s always something going on in the downtown area and a little retail therapy never hurt anyone! Check out the local stores, museums and local goings-on. Downtown will also have flyers and other local posted events that you might be interested in being a part of. It’s a great way to get involved and be part of a larger community.

And who knows? Maybe this new community understands you in ways you’ve never thought about. When we moved out to country, we had no idea there was local homebrewing community and club for my husband, the beer craftsman. But apparently there is – and not just has his beer gotten better, so has our social life. Look around. You might just meet some people that share your interests and make wonderful friends!

Drive, drive, drive!

This might be the only time I tell you to get lost! Haha. Most cars today have GPS that get you from point A to point B with almost no trouble. A good idea however might be to turn that GPS off and just drive. Remember back when you liked to get lost? That way you could get home late? Why not try that? Get distracted. Allow yourself to ramble. Stop and smell the flowers (you can get as or as little literal about that as you like!) It might be the only way to learn new things about your neighborhood. You might end up discovering places you didn’t know existed.

Of course, when you feel you’ve had enough, that GPS might come in handy. Not bad, huh?

Settling into a new home can be hard, but if you throw down new roots quick the process becomes a lot easier and much more enjoyable. Come back to read part three of how you can make the move into a new area easier. This is only part two.

Homebuyers: Making the Move Easier (Part 1)

It isn’t easy adjusting to a new place. First, there’s the homebuyers remorse – the nagging feeling that you have paid too much for a home. (Which, by the way, it’s hard to have in today’s market and yet, reading and hearing constant bad news all around may not be helping your mental state as a new home buyer.)

Then there’s the fact that you have trouble sleeping in a new home. It doesn’t smell the same, when you open your eyes at night it doesn’t seem the same and so on. While physiologically getting used to a new home might take some work, there are a few things you can do to ease into it psychologically.

Decorate

Remember those commercials on television? The ones where there are unpacked boxes and the happy couple are sitting on the floor enjoying a glass of wine? Well, that almost never happens. Which is why it’s a good idea to do it. Take a breather. It’s never getting all done anyway. Take the time to plan out your home the way it will be. If you don’t have something or have to go get it, do it. If you want to paint the bedroom an outrageous color, do it.

A little displacement can go a long way in helping you create the home of your dreams. When you bought the home you adopted someone else’s idea of what would appeal to the largest number of people. Now is your chance to make it your own. Go ahead. Take a day out of unpacking to head out to Cost Plus and get that lamp or that rug if you think it fits perfectly. Make your new home uniquely your own. The benefits to your mood will be immense!

Fix up, don’t wait

Too many home buyers decide to wait a while before fixing up their new home. If you have bought it in a market like today chances are you have got a great deal but also that it needs work, especially if it is an REO. There is no advantage to waiting to settle into a home before fixing up what needs to be done. You might have a better feel for the light and the way it languishes around later in the evening in a certain spot, but that dripping faucet will drive you crazy by then. And so will the peeling paint in the bathroom.

Get the things that are driving you insane done right now. If your mind revolts at the broken crown molding, get it replaced. Doing your repairs right in the beginning – before you move in or settle in – makes a big difference in your attitude to a new place. And it might get rid of that buyer’s remorse!

Have a Housewarming

Yes, there are boxes lying around. Yes, the downstairs is a fixer. Yes, everything needs fixing. However, having a housewarming at this point is still a good idea. For one thing, now your friends know where you live. Believe it or not, just that one detail makes a world of a difference to your stress level. Also, now you can enlist their help unpacking if you want and if they’re willing.

Another advantage to a housewarming? You can invite your neighbors over and get to know them. A good idea is to either go over or just ask your title company to get you the addresses and names of people on your block. Then send them invitations well in advance. Introduce yourself and say you’re having a housewarming and would love to meet them. It’s a great way to get to know them. A word of warning: have food at the housewarming, but make sure it’s easy and prepared in advance. Or buy it from the deli. The last thing you want is to be running around trying to cook when you should be getting to meet people.

Landscape or at least buy Plants

Everyone knows the benefits of gardening. And, granted, so you don’t have time right now to get your hands dirty and spend hours in the sun enjoying yourself planting herbs and flowers. But it might not be such a bad idea to plan a garden. Or better yet just buy a few houseplants. The psychological difference you feel when something living and green is in the home is amazing. Try an easy plant at first like the philodendron – while many people like to buy homeowners orchids at housewarming,s those are not such good ideas because they are generally fussier plants that need a lot of light. Save the orchids for later, like a time when you know exactly where the light is in your home at different times of the day.

If your patio gets morning or late afternoon light, you could consider getting some potted plants. It’s a great way to freshen up the entryway and will lighten your mood to stare at some color as you bring boxes in and out. It’s also a great way to deliver a nice message to your neighbors that you care about your home. If the house you bought has been a foreclosure, they’ll be glad to know that people who care have entered their neighborhood again. A decorated patio with plants also reduces the risk your home will be vandalized – an important concern especially if it has been empty for a while before you bought it.

Get a Dog

If you’ve waited years to get a dog because you didn’t own a home of your own, now’s the time to get a dog. You can adopt one at the local animal shelter or you can buy one from the classifieds. Either way, now that the pet has room to run around and you don’t have to pay a pet deposit, it’s a good idea to get one. Nothing says “I’m home!” to an empty new home with unpacked boxes like a dog who will slobber all over you and bark with joy at your return.

If you’re not into dogs, cats make pretty good housepets too. But remember that a dog is more emotionally involved with you while a cat might care more about the house. Either way, pets are a great way to ground yourself to your place of living. They may also help ease you away from your stress of being in a new home. (And cats love playing in boxes!)

This is only part one of a three part series about settling into your new home, so check back for more. If you are surprised that the home you bought and were excited about buying suddenly seems to overwhelm you, don’t be worried. This is a normal reaction every home buyer has. And while moving can be a pretty jarring experience, it is also an opportunity to truly settle into a unique home that not just reflects your tastes and desires of what you want in the world but also is a complete extension of you. And that, after all, is the purpose of making the move easier on you, the homebuyer.

Last Minute Open House Tips

Let’s face it. There aren’t that many Open Houses held by Realtors® recently. With the amount of foreclosures on the market, bargain properties tend to sell quicker and more often than owner-occupied non-distressed sales. Foreclosures are priced at rock bottom, leading homebuyers away from turn-key properties to bank-owned real estate and short sales. Sometimes, these homes tend to get multiple offers and there is stiff competition, but no matter. Homebuyers are attracted to the wholesale market realizing that asking prices like these were unheard of just a few years ago. This has led to a decline in hope for the real estate market in general and Open Houses in particular.

However, this does not mean that as a seller you should shun Open Houses completely. Even though prices seem to be the focus in a home buyer’s mind, remember that the real concern always has and will be value. If you can show a potential homebuyer the value in your home not just by pricing it right but also by showing it to its full advantage on Open House day, you have a pretty good chance of getting that home sold. In an effort to showcase that value, here are some last minute tips for that fateful day.

Get that Litter Box Out!

Everyone (okay, almost everyone) loves a nice, fluffy cat. But the litter box can drive buyers away. Especially if it is found – as in most places – in the bathroom. Definitely clean it. Or better yet, get all cats out with their litter box for the length of a few hours. Bathrooms and kitchens still sell homes! Buyers like to imagine the bathroom as a spa, a place to relax. If they can’t get the stink out of their nose, they’ll leave in a hurry, leaving you with no chance to sell them your home.

Smell your Home!

All houses have a smell and the worst thing you can do is not notice that. You must ensure that your home smells clean as soon as someone steps in the door. And not just clean. It must be inviting and warm. This means no disinfectant smell – no one wants to buy a hospital – and no flowery spray that has homebuyers sneezing as soon as they enter. Light some candles if you have to. The smell of baking cookies is supposed to be fairly inviting and research suggests it creates an atmosphere of altruism. It might just make your homebuyers more willing to offer a better price!

Let there be Light!

Sunshine is a strong inducer of good feelings and a general sense of wellbeing. If you don’t believe me, just think of how many people feel blue in the winter. So don’t create that sense of foreboding and general depression in your home buyers. There are a million things to stress over when people are looking for a house, so don’t create an atmosphere that will encourage worrying. Open the curtains. Turn on lights – for once, don’t worry about energy savings. Light illuminates and highlights features in your home. Why hide them? This is the time to show off. Your home is on display. Make it feel like a well-lit museum!

Clear Clutter! (And Know where to Hide It)

This might not be a last minute rule because some people have a lot more clutter than they’re willing to admit. But assuming you have been getting rid of excess stuff from the very beginning, make sure that on Open House day things like extra kitchen appliances (yes, even the coffee grinder is an extra!) makeup, and so on are put away. Again, kitchens and bathrooms sell homes but those are also the two areas the most clutter is found. Sweep it all into a drawer if you have to at the last minute. But get it out of the way. The focus should be on the real estate you’re selling and clutter only distracts home buyers. Sure, they’ll probably clutter it up as soon as they buy the home and move in, but no one sells a home the way they live in it. If you think this is artifice, get used to it. No model really looks that way. And for the Open House your home is a model.

Highlight the Entrance to the House

This involves getting rid of all dying, dead or otherwise ugly plants, dirty welcome mats, shoes, cribs, toys, flip-flops, empty pots, gardening tools and whatever else you like to leave by the door in your daily life. The entrance to the home must welcome. Get a new mat if you have to and maybe some new plants. Turn on the porch lights. If you have a lit walkway to the home, turn those lights on as well. If you live in the country like I do it’s also a good idea to put a balloon on the mailbox and shine those house numbers. You want to guide and invite potential homebuyers and lead them through the door. It’s almost like you’re a tour guide without actually being there. If they mistakenly enter the neighbor’s house (like my guests sometimes do) because the entrance doesn’t tell them where to go, your Open House is already a failure. So lead and guide and ensure that along the way they notice all the great things about your garden, your driveway, your property.

Space Still Wins!

Remember how I mentioned value earlier? Sometimes the value homebuyers see is in spaces that the home sellers do not. And that is real estate blasphemy! Let me explain. If you have a patio, ensure that the home buyers see it. Don’t just assume they will read your mind. I mean, of course it’s a patio. Of course, they will see that they can have a barbecue here. And a little set. And sit and enjoy summers. No. You have to spell it out. Why not landscape it with some potted plants, set a patio set and an umbrella out and a few seats? Maybe they’ll actually linger there longer and see how they can use it. What this does is creates an illusion of added square footage. Even if the home is small and it has a great patio, the increased usable space will usually make homebuyers glad. And in California where the weather is great almost year round, they can see how the home can be a great place to live as well as entertain!

The one common thread through all these last minute Open House tips is this: above everything homebuyers must be able to picture themselves in your home. Your clutter, or an odd smell or too many appliances, dirt and so on are things that remind them that the home isn’t theirs. We like resale homes because they come in established communities but think of homebuyers who walk into new constructions. The idea that something has never been lived in has a certain charm to it. And while of course you can’t do anything short of build a new home to give them that, you can certainly create the illusion of a never lived in home by following these tips. Keep it clean, warm, friendly, spacious and inviting and you’ll soon be packing!

Things your Realtor® Should Tell You

If you are home buyer in this market, your Realtor® should tell you these three things:

1. Short sales are selling, BUT they remain an exercise in patience

Statistically, we are seeing many short sales close. In fact, year over year, as reported we are seeing an unprecedented increase in sold short sales. However, I suggest that home buyers still stay cautious. What we don’t know is how long these escrows have been open and how long each one is taking to actually close. Anecdotally, they are taking anywhere from 45 to 60 days to get an acceptance from the bank. You can expect to add another 30 – 45 days to actually get your own loan and the escrow to close. So this can be, as you see, a long time. The days of making an offer and moving into your home 30 – 35 days later are gone. At least when it comes to short sales. So, be advised, home buyers, and learn patience. It isn’t easy, of course when you’re waiting to hear back and then hear a no or a maybe from the bank, but be prepared for it. And don’t get too attached to the home until you have a definite yes!

2. Many REOs are underpriced

Many first time home buyers seem to be having trouble with this fact. They read everywhere that homes are cheap and then they find an REO that seems like an incredible deal. Well, okay, they say, that works. And then they offer the asking price. After making these offers on about five to six homes they lose hope and decide to wait until the market gets better. What happened? The bank was underpricing the homes. The banks assume buyers are getting CMAs and they’re playing the game with them. Realtors® would do well to tell you this, but sometimes they worry that you might think they’re trying to get you to offer more and therefore are not on your side. However, I believe they are doing you a disservice if they don’t tell you that the home is underpriced. If you walk into a pristine home and the price is too good to be true, remember that it probably is! REOs are underpriced by banks and lenders in the hope that they will receive multiple offers and the ultimate price they get for the home is much, much higher.

3. This is a good market, but…

…you must be prepared. Make sure you know the area you are buying in, and get a CMA from your Realtor®. Most importantly, before you even go shopping ensure that you are pre-approved, have spoken to a lender and have the down payment set aside. This market provides incredible opportunities for the home buyer who is prepared to pounce on the right home, but if you are not ready the chance might just pass you by. If you are even considering buying a home today, the first step is to speak with a lender. Check your credit, get pre-approved, know what your payments will be every month and work backwards until you know the price you can afford. Only then, head out to look with a buyer’s agent you trust.

Good luck!

More (!) Good Ideas in Real Estate

I recently responded to a first time homebuyer question from my personal real estate blog. I mention it here as a way of introduction to this post because it seems to me like, this market, even if it is great in terms of prices for the first time homebuyer is harder than others because there are so many REOs and short sales.

First time homebuyers, already a little green behind the ears in the real estate purchase department now find it harder to buy a home than when it is a “normal” market. They have to contend with not just the stress of buying a home and making a six figure purchase with a loan, but also dealing with banks and more paperwork and not very obvious timelines. Everything seems to get a little more mangled when banks are concerned and the real estate landscape today obviously does not follow the norm. What then can a first time homebuyer do? Are there any good ideas for them?

Know your Friends

When you are a first time home buyer (or a subsequent one, I suppose) it is very important that you find a Realtor® who you can trust. A lot of the times people hire a real estate agent just because they are friends or relatives and then wonder if the professional is working in their best interest or they have a raw deal. Many people feel obligated to help a friend who is a Realtor®, but if they are not convinced of the person’s professionalism, it is best they don’t hire him. This kind of charity only results in strained relations long after the real estate is bought or sold. It’s never worth it.

Once you have picked a Realtor® (to represent you as a buyer’s agent); though, trust her. There is nothing worse than a client who is constantly worried that the professional is not on their side. The only way we get paid is if you buy the house. There is no other way. So there is no reason for us to keep you from the house we want. Knowing this, why do clients sometimes think we are trying to wedge a wall between them and their dream home? I believe it’s a lack of trust, that should have been established in the beginning of the relationship.

Know What’s Required

Many times, with REOs the lender has specific instructions that must be fulfilled by the homebuyer. One of them very likely is that the homebuyer get prequalified with a particular lender. The seller cannot require the home buyer to get a loan from a specific lender, but he can require that all applicants be prequalified with a lender they trust. It is in the interests of the bank to do this so they are assured that – were escrow to open – it would not fall through because the buyer did not qualify.

If such a requirement does exist, the listing agent will usually have the instructions on how to carry it out with the listing itself. Ensure that your Realtor® knows what the instructions are – emailing the offer as opposed to faxing it, getting prequalified and other requirements. Also ask your Realtor® to ensure that the offer has been received and acknowledged verbally by the listing agent. This will ensure that it doesn’t simply fall through the cracks and get ignored or missed.

Make Strong Offers – Don’t Play Around

Many times a home buyer will be very excited about prices dropping and will go out looking for homes because he believes he can afford a home at the price offered. But somewhere around the time an offer has to be made, he will decide it would be a much better deal for him if he offered a much, much lower price and “see what happens.” This approach, while seemingly rational, isn’t the best approach. I consider it getting cold feet, and stress and concern and worry almost always go hand in hand with a contemplated home purchase, but it’s not a good idea to base decisions on them. Decisions like offering prices.

A much better way to decide what to offer, instead of speculation, is to understand your mortgage and see what you can easily afford. Look at your personal budget instead of trying to see what’s the least amount the lender will accept. Calculate the difference between what you’re thinking of offering and what is reasonable and see the monthly difference in dollars and cents as it pertains to your pocket book.

Another good idea is to get your Realtor® to make you a CMA – a comparitive market analysis of similar homes in the area and their sold and asking prices. That way you know how much other homes have sold for and can base your judgment on the selling prices of other homes in the area to know if you (and the bank) are indeed in the right ball park in terms of price.

Stay Committed

With REOs, it is easy to get discouraged. Some of them – especially the ones you are likely to fall in love with right away – go fast. Offers are made above asking price, banks encourage multiple offers, there is competition and you wonder where the buyer’s market went! Not to mention the fact that it seems like timelines make no sense and the banks are entirely unpredictable in the offers they pick to work with. You may look at and make offers on ten homes and not get a single one. Yes, REOs are tough to buy. They are however also good purchases if you do your homework and remain committed to the process.

Home buying is stressful and sometimes downright disheartening. But the fruits of your labor are well worth it! So avoid the mental noise and try to remember why you embarked on this journey in the first place. Stay committed to it and you will do just fine!

Problems with Impound Accounts

Hapy Friday! Today, I would like to go over some of the problems clients have faced in the past regarding their impound accounts. No one likes receiving their property tax and home insurance bills and being shocked by them, then angry that there is no money anywhere to pay the two. This is easily avoided, of course, by having your mortgage company take a little bit every month with your mortgage payment and then pay those two charges when you are billed for them.

On the face of it, it’s a perfect plan. Mortgage companies are required to give you the option of having an impound or not, and frankly, some of them feel more comfortable if they do. That way, they know they have a reserve and that you are not going to default on either your property taxes or home insurance, both of which the lender sees as a problem that directly affects them. However, impound accounts are far from perfect. It is necessary to be vigilant if you are a first time homebuyer and of course even if you are not.

Ensure the Bills are Paid

Many times, information just doesn’t get processed right. The insurance company sends you the bill, even though you have informed them that you have an impound account. Or vice versa. Either way, it is still your responsibility to follow up with both companies (insurance and mortgage) and make sure that the billing and payment gets handled properly. Even if the mortgage company says that the payment has been paid, call the insurance company and confirm. I once had an incident happen (to me, nonetheless!) where the mortgage company had sent the payment but the account number was incorrect. Meanwhile, the home insurance company was billing me. Well, many faxes and phone calls later, it was set right.

This is important enough that you take time off from work. That was driven home to me when the forest fires got close enough that I called insurance and made sure it was still valid. Never again will I rely on someone else to do a job I’m responsible for!

The Impound Might Send You a Check…

…but do not spend it! Cash it and keep it in reserve. A few months later, they’ll say that your account is short and you have to cover the difference. There is a reason this occurs: sometimes the property taxes paid by the person to who owned the home before you are much, much lower than you owe. That’s because property taxes get reassessed during a transfer of ownership. This can take a while. Meanwhile, during the mortgage company’s impound account audit, they look at the amount of property taxes on record (low) and how much they have held for your payments (high). That number will soon be revised, but for now, they are not allowed to hold more than a certain amount and so are required to send the money back. Even if your mortgage broker had the number right. So, don’t spend the money! Cash the check and save it. You’ll be glad you did.

However, it is Nice When Things Go Well!

Sometimes, however you do end up paying a lot more unfront when you buy the home, thanks to reserve requirements which some lenders insist on. This is a good thing. Remember the new property tax assessment I just spoke about? That creates a supplemental tax bill. The supplemental tax bill is the difference between what the previous owner paid and what you are to pay for the time in the tax year you moved into the home. That’s when you’re glad the lender had the reserve requirements.

You can call the mortgage company and see if they have more money in the impound account than you will need in the year. They can do the calculations for you. Taxes are usually roughly 1.125% of the transfer price. Add insurance and most mortgage brokers will use the 1.25% formula to calculate your mortgage payment. If the amount in the impound is indeed more than will be required for the year, you can go ahead and fax them the supplemental tax bill(s) as well and have them paid. That’s when you’re really happy with the lender for requiring reserves!

I guess all this means that you have to be vigilant. I know many home buyers like to have an impound account because they’re not good at setting money aside every month to cover expenses like home insurance and property taxes, but if anything goes awry, most companies (and definitely the county your taxes go to) will hold you accountable. Even if it’s a genuine error on the part of the mortgage company. So keep a tab on it and the impound account can be quite a boon!

Home Sellers: How Not to Ruin a Home Sale Part 2

In the first part of this series, I wrote about how bad smells in a listing can ruin a good home sale, even if the house is priced right and shows well in general. I actually intended for this post to be just one post, but the topic of bad smells is such a pet peeve with me, that it seemed never to end. I can’t tell you how many homes I have stepped into with clients and the first thing they say when they enter the home is something like, “They have cats!” or “Smokers!” or “What’s that smell?” I can pretty much lock up and leave right then, because I can tell the outcome is not going to be good – and it never is. Anyway, on to the other things that ruin home sales.

It’s Not Just What They See…

Many home sellers live by the adage, “Out of sight is out of mind.” In my experience, that is not true when it comes to potential home buyers. If you are one of those people that just stuffs the junk into a junk drawer and then every drawer becomes a junk drawer, it would be a good idea to do a major spring cleaning before putting your home on the market. Just because you’ve stuffed your… er… “entertainment reading” into a drawer in the furthest laundry cabinet doesn’t mean no one will notice. They will.

Just assume that all closets will be opened. All dishwashers will be opened. All refrigerators, ovens, hallway closet doors will be opened. Believe me. I’ve walked with home buyers when they are in your houses. And they do check how much room is in these. And when they do see something you’ve stashed away, it’s not just your home that’s being judged, it’s you. And then, by extension, how well you may or may not have taken care of your house. So don’t give then any fodder. Get rid of it, or move it to a public storage facility. Ask yourself what you would keep in plain view and if it’s not going to be in plain view, it shouldn’t be there at all.

Soft Music is a Good Idea, Especially if…

Remember there used to be a time when real estate agents would actually bake cookies at Open Houses to make the home smell good? That’s because research shows that people are actually nicer to one another when the smell of baked cookies is in the air. Try to remember back to malls and how they smell just before the holidays? Heck, think of how malls smell every day of the year! Even if you can’t recreate the smell of freshly baked cookies (I mean, really, is it mandatory to get fat eating cookies when your home is on the market?!?) there are other things soothing to the senses you can create just as easily, perhaps more so. Like music.

Play soft, classical or semi-classical music in the background when home buyers are expected. Keep the light dim. Set a mood. The mood should be one of relaxation, calm and comfort. That is what home buyers want – not just a house, but somewhere they can call home. Some place that is quiet and comforting.

Another reason to play soft music in the home is to drown out other distractions that might occur unexpectedly at the time they are viewing the house. Like brakes squealing outside. Or the occasional passing car with loud blaring music (if you can call it music!). Restful sounds within the home can keep home buyers centered in the space and help them focus on the positive aspects of the house without distracting them. It’s almost as if the house becomes a world in itself and invites them in – exactly what most people want from their own home!

Clean Surfaces

This could be a female pet peeve. And if it is, you should pay even more attention to it since most home buying decisions are made by the women in the family. Call it sexist if you want, but most husbands will agree with me. The surfaces must be clean. Bread crumbs on kitchen counters, random pieces of string (or worse, hair!) on the carpet, these are strict no-nos. Not because they are necessarily disgusting (okay, the hair is!) but because they ruin the appearance of clean, untouched-yet-touchable surfaces.

The same rule goes for pet hair on the couches. Even if you’re going to take the couch with you, it makes the home buyer wonder what else in the home has been ruined by dogs. Trust me on this one – surfaces are important. Many home buyers are kinesthetic, which means they depend more on touch than any other sense. Don’t turn them away with dirty countertops. Make sure to clean the home and then clean it again to ensure it feels clean.

There. I think we’ve covered almost all the senses that really matter. Fortunately, you have only four to worry about. Taste is not one that home buyers depend on. So you get a free pass there! Happy home selling!

Home Sellers: How Not to Ruin a Home Sale Part 1

Okay, the potential home buyers have been walking through the home. Your Realtor® has warned you about the price and you’ve decided there is too much competition out there to push your luck. After all, just the other day, another foreclosed property has popped up for sale in your neighborhood. You wait much longer and the your concern is that your home is going to lose value as well. So you price the home under what you think it’s worth. Everything’s ready. And here come some potential home buyers. Do you drive them away by what you do?

Ooh, that Smell! Can’t you Smell that Smell?

After living in a home for a long time, some homeowners don’t even notice the smells in the home. But that doesn’t mean the home buyer doesn’t. When a person enters an unfamiliar setting, I believe that their senses are heightened and they are usually hyper-aware of things like smells. This is even more true if the home has been closed up for a while. Whether you are aware of it or not, remember that all houses have smells. The idea is to make yours have a better smell that invites people in, rather than makes them run for the car holding their noses.

Culprit #1: That lovely Persian cat
Yes, we all love our pets, but if at all possible, move the cat out of the home when you put the house on the market. If that seems too drastic, at least change the litter box daily and try to stash it away from public view. Get a room freshener in the area the litter box sits, so that its smells are quashed. There’s nothing worse than the smell of cat urine to home buyers and don’t think they won’t notice! More likely that they won’t notice anything but the cat’s… er… doings. And the brand new cabinets, the granite counters, the fresh paint – none of that will matter.

Culprit #2: The Dog!
And before anyone names me a cat-hater, (I own 2 cats and a dog, by the way) let me also say that man’s best friend can be a problem too. If your dog is used to laying on the couch and the bed, please be sure to vaccuum every single day your home is on the market. I know it seems unfair, but there are a lot of people out there who don’t like animals in their home and they will be bothered by the smell. Sure, he rescued your child from a traffic accident last year, he also still needs a bath before people arrive. Better yet, take the dog for a walk when home buyers arrive to look at the house. That way, he won’t distract them by jumping up and down or barking either.

Culprit #3: Dirty Dishes
There will be days (weekends, mostly) in my home when dishes pile up in the kitchen sink. Really, the dishwasher is just a few inches away from the sink, but sometimes it seems like miles. But my home is not on the market. And you can be assured those are cleaned up and put away before guests arrive. So dirty dishes in the sink are a strong no-no. Apart from the fact that they are visually unappealing, they also smell if left too long. Get rid of them. Wash dishes as soon as you finish eating if you’re selling your home. Yes, even if it is just one. Don’t pile them up and wait for a full load. And don’t think hiding them unwashed in the dishwasher is a good idea, either. Homebuyers do open appliances to see if the insides, believe me!

Culprit #4: the Garbage
Okay, this one should be obvious, but perhaps not. Get the garbage out of the home every single day, sometimes twice a day, especially if you like seafood or chicken. Or if you have a baby, like I do, who wears diapers. There’s nothing worse than a potential home buyer wanting to hunt down the source of a bad smell. And yes, on the surface of it, it might not seem like a big deal. It’s only garbage – of course you’re not going to leave it behind when you move for them to take care of, but we’re talking of first impressions and in my experience, home buyers know in the first five to ten seconds if they like the house or not. Those five seconds are hard to get back once they’ve been ruined with smells.

Other Random Culprits
Yes, there are more. Many more. Cigarette smells, unclean bathrooms, mold under the sink, random unknown blobs of dirt on the floor, old beer containers, unidentified spots on the carpet, fertilizer in the house plants, dirty shoes, old laundry, smelly socks, stinky undershirts, food in the sink, rotting flowers in a vase, the list goes on.

Yes, we’re a dirty species. But when our homes are on the market, we must give every pretense of smelling good. Remember you’re selling the home devoid if your selves and that’s how it must appear to every potential home buyer, or you’ve just ruined a home sale!

Home Buyers: Three Ways to Pick the Right Neighborhood

I must be focusing on the home sellers quite a bit lately… and honestly, there aren’t a lot of them out there. Most homes on the market – the ones that catch a first time home buyer’s eye anyway – are bank-owned. (By the way, some of them are such a steal lately. I was in Roseville yesterday showing homes and came across some fantastic finds for under $200,000.)

Anyway, for the purpose of this post, I’m going to focus on how you as a home buyer (first time or not) can pick the right neighborhood and be happy with your purchase. The fact that home prices have fallen so much makes it hard to choose the area you really want to live in. Couple that with the fact that REOs have generally deferred maintenance and unkempt front lawns and picking the right home seems like quite a gamble. But not if you follow these simple tips:

Friends and Family

Sure, you might not be the person to want your mother-in-law over at your home for dinner every night, but having family and friends in the same area might be a good idea. For one, chances are you have already been to their homes a few times, so you know the neighborhood. And instead of checking the newspaper for crime statistics and other details your relatives probably have first-hand knowledge of most of what you care about.

A built-in social life means a lot to many people as well. You might think you don’t care about that now, but sometimes having the yellow book or google as your only friend when you want to head out to just pick up something from the nearest store or find that perfect burrito place in town is not such a great idea.

Distance from Work / Commute Time

Some home buyers like to focus on the time it would take them to get to work. I remember my daughter’s pediatrician saying that he was all but two minutes away from his place of work and he loved it. He almost fainted when I told him I lived in Pollock Pines. Well, to each his own. I like to clear my head before I head home, unlike some others that would rather just get home and then relax.

Whichever camp you belong to, make sure that your home choice matches it. A good way to do this is to drive around during your lunch hour. If you prefer to live close to work, get a drive-by look at the homes listed in the area. You can also just search the area on our MLS search right here, but driving around gives you a visual of the homes, so you are better prepared to judge them. If you are one who likes a commute, time yours and then drive around on the weekends. Don’t judge your commute by the weekend drive time though. Pollock Pines for example is just 45 minutes from Sacramento on the weekends, but during week days it can take almost an hours and a half!

Do your research. Get a look at homes, compare prices and styles. Take your time getting to know the area. Some places are notoriously only business areas. Be sure you can live there or far enough away that you can separate home from work and relax when you’re home. Well, I suppose I should qualify that with an “if that’s important to you.”

Other Ways to Pick

The best things – my husband and I have decided – about moving to Pollock Pines are the neighbors. I have never met nicer people anywhere. Because it is a smaller town than Sacramento, the sense of community is greater but it isn’t so small that everyone knows your name and where you are and what you’re doing. If neighbors are important to you, some footwork might be necessary. It isn’t so odd to knock on a few doors and ask what the area is like. People are quite friendly when you ask about anything that is important to them. And if they aren’t nice, well, move on. Why would you want to live next to a grouch?

Google can be your best friend when looking for a certain interest and then buying a home close to it. For example, if you have a dog and want a dog park close, just search for “dog park” and the place you’re looking at. Same for horses. Or maybe you want to live close to a vineyard or a small home brew club. Google can give you all the answers and then you can do your research from there.

Hopefully, I’ve helped point you in the right direction. It’s usually a good idea to take some time to figure out what is important to you before making the leap to buy a home. Then you come from a place of motivation and reason to buy. Just because home prices have fallen drastically in a certain area doesn’t make it the ideal place. Take some time to do your research and once you know the right place, feel free to pounce on the right home!