Blog

When to Consider Buying a “Diamond in the Rough”

Let’s face it. When you visit a home during a scheduled viewing or open house, you’re usually seeing it at its best. The rooms are tidy. The sinks are clean. The closets are organized and uncluttered. Even the lighting is set to its brightest. That’s just good old-fashioned marketing. However, not every ...

Increasing Foyer Appeal

You’ve heard of curb appeal. It refers to the good impression buyers tend to get when they first see your house “from the curb”. The greater the curb appeal, the more enticing your house will seem. But there’s another type of appeal you may not be aware of: Foyer appeal. That’s ...

Lighting Matters When Selling Your House

Remember the last time you were in a furniture store or other major home retailer? Remember the fully decorated displays of furniture, appliances and other products? Some of those may have even been organized as model rooms. What did most of those displays have in common? Chances are, they were well lit. In ...

Preparing Your House for Sale in Less Than a Week

It’s great when you have lots of time to prepare for something important. But life doesn’t always happen that way. Sometimes you have to move quickly, and do the best you can with the time you have. Say, for example, you had to get your house ready for sale, and you ...

Stay or move? How to Decide

Do you sometimes review the real estate ads in your local paper? Do you drive by an open house sign and feel the urge to stop and check it out? Those are common indications that, at least on some level, you’re thinking about the possibility of making a move. But how ...

Understanding Market Value

If you were going to sell your car, what would you do? Well, you would probably check to find out how similar vehicles to yours are priced. Then you would set your advertised price within that range. What you would be doing, perhaps without knowing it, is determining the “market value” ...

5 Things Home Buyers Don’t Want To See

When preparing a property for sale, homeowners often focus on the things that will impress buyers, such as clean and uncluttered spaces, well lit rooms, staged furniture designed to maximize appeal, and so forth. But it’s equally important to pay attention to those things you don’t want buyers to see… those ...

Getting A Handle On The Home Selling Process

You probably know there’s more to selling a home than putting up a FOR SALE sign. But if you don’t understand the process in detail, you might feel intimidated and stressed when it comes time to put your property on the market. Fortunately, the home selling process isn’t that difficult to ...

The Advantage of Getting Pre-approved

One of the best things you can do to ensure you get the home you want is to arrange for financing before you go shopping. This is often referred to as getting “pre-approved”. Getting pre-approved simply means that your lender has calculated how much of a mortgage they’re willing to offer ...

Does Location Really Matter?

You find a beautiful home available on the market, but you’re not so sure about the location. Does it really matter all that much? Yes, it does. That’s why you’ll often hear real estate professionals say, “Location, location, location.” The location of a home you’re considering buying will affect you in two ways. First, ...