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Information on Lawnfield Historic House 

Taft Home 

Fixer-uppers aren’t such a good deal anymore

Recent real estate trends in a definitely tight market have driven many of the under-financed “flippers” out of the market. The prime buyers today are those interested in living in the house for the long term and this typical buyer mostly does not want to have to fix-up a property just to be able to move-in.

This just drives home the idea that as a house seller, you need to get your ship in shape and have it ready to sell from day one. If you can wait to sell till things improve down the road, do so. If you can’t wait and must sell now, forget about making a killing on the sale of your house with all that paper appreciation profit. Right now, that doesn’t exist anymore. The value of your house is what someone will pay for it–today! Not what they would have paid for it last year.

Add some curb appeal with a Cupola

When it comes to getting your home ready to sell, sometimes it’s the little things that get noticed the most. Just one interesting piece or well-placed accent can give your home a whole new look.

If you’re looking to update your exterior without breaking the bank, why not try adding a cupola to your rooftop? This small accessory can make a big difference in terms of style and function, and gives you a lot of room to be creative.

We have an article on how to: Instal a Cupola Yourself for more information

3 Rs of House Staging

Some folks have house staging confused with home decorating. House staging is not interior designing or decorating. It is simply marketing a house to appeal to the most buyers using the three R’s – Rearranging, Removing and Refreshing existing furnishings where possible and adding a few extras if needed.

Serious home buyers don’t want to see see all of a homeowner’s personal things when viewing a house– they want to imagine how their personal things will fit in the house. They want to make sure that the living room will accommodate their sectional sofa. They want to see if master bedroom will accommodate their king size bed. In other words, they are looking at square footage, or at least the appearance of square footage.

Most buyers don’t look at a house with a tape measure and calculator in hand to figure square footage. They rely on their memories and how the room feels and looks to tell them if a room is big enough. That means removing as much furniture as possible from the house before showing it. Less furniture means more floor space is visible. What remains in the room needs to be re-arranged to maximize the impression of more square footage.

As a seller, you don’t want prospective buyers having to calculate how much work will be needed to make the house livable. Take away those mental hoops by making sure the house sparkles through cleanliness and fresh paint.

Follow the 3 Rs of Staging and you’ll come out on top.

Curb Appeal Without the Curb

Not every house has a curb. Does this mean that house can’t have “curb appeal?” Curb appeal really has nothing to do with curbs, nor whether you have curbs or not. Curb appeal is creating a first impression of your house from wherever a visitor first sees the property. It is in this first glimpse of the property that an impression is created in the visitors mind. It’s kind of like judging a book by it’s cover and when you’re selling your house, you want the best cover possible.

How to have a garage sale to get rid of the clutter

Labor day is fast approaching and that is one of the most popular weekends of the summer for garage sale. However, you should take some steps now if you’re planning on having your own sale to make it a BIG success. Here’s a few tips:

• Be ready to start — early!
• Lock your house. It’s very tempting for some people to try and do a little shop lifting if given the opportunity.
• Have plenty of change you can keep on your body (a simple coin changer can be picked up at your local office supply store). Keep this with you and not in a cash box that can be easily carried off. One person should be responsible for all cash transactions.
• Set up a packing table to wrap and bag fragile items. This should be next to the checkout table.

ENJOY THE PROCESS and HAVE FUN!

For more info on Garage Sales

Storing the clutter from your house for sale

We all have too much clutter, but we somehow live with it in our daily lives. However, when you’re selling your house and you want to sell it fast and for top dollar, removing as much clutter and excess furniture from the house as possible is an absolute necessity. But what do you do with all that stuff?

If you own a garage, that is probably your first thought. But what that does is really clutter up the garage and it detracts from the overall image. In fact, garages are a big selling point for men, much like a kitchen is for women.

The real solution is to store your valuables off-site, some place like a self-storage center.

Self storage units come in a variety of sizes and styles. Some are drive through a locked gate to access your garage. Others are completely inside. There are also storage options where the company brings a container to your house, you load it, call them up and they haul it away and store it in their facility.

Read more about storage options

Taking better house for sale photographs

Even if your house will never show up in House Beautiful, there’s still no reason to have bad photographs. There is a market for every house, no matter the price. YOUR job is to find a buyer for your house and you can improve your chances by having quality photographs.

Interior photographs should use available light if possible. Flash photos, while they usually provide an even light, often have a flat, unappealing look to them. That means using existing light and usually a tripod. The tripod can be any inexpensive tripod. If you don’t have one and can’t borrow one, then buy one.

Turn on all the lights in the room. Open all the blinds and drapes. Try to photograph the room when you don’t have sunlight directly shining into the room. The contrast of the natural sunlight with your artificial lighting will be too great and the results will be poor. However, you do want to take the photograph during daylight hours so the windows don’t look like black holes in the walls.

Use a wide angle lens. If your camera doesn’t have the ability to change lenses, use the widest angle setting on your camera as possible.

Avoid including seasonal decorations in your photographs. If your house stays on the market (and it probably won’t if you follow the guidelines in this site), but if it does stay on the market past the holiday, the decorations will date the photographs. Also, if you put your house on the market during the winter and it still hasn’t sold by spring, re-do the exterior photographs to reflect the current season.

Avoid taking photos from outside a room (from a hallway) looking into the room. You’ll just end up with a photo of the door frame which does nothing to enhance the saleability of the property. Step inside the room.

Exterior photographs should be either as late in the day as possible or as early in the morning as possible when there is sunlight striking the front of the house. Make sure everything is neat and tidy (bushes, trees and lawn trimmed). Look for stray pieces of paper that may have blown onto the property. The front door and garage door should be closed. Porch lights and interior lights should all be turned on. One tip professional architectural photographers use is to hose down all concrete surfaces and driveways with water to give the property an even fresher, just after a shower look.

If your house faces north or you’re situated where sunlight doesn’t reach the front of your house, take the photograph on an overcast day. The even light on an overcast day will allow you to take an appealing photo of your house without the harsh contrast between sunlight and shadowed areas.

Make sure that you include all of the front of your house in at least a few images. Close ups are good for certain things, but good architectural photos should show the entire house. This may mean, if you don’t have a wide angle lens, stepping into the road for the shot.

Make sure that any of your interior and exterior photographs are taken level. Don’t have the house or a room looking as though it’s sliding down a hill.

Another caveat would be to not include people, pets or cars. They only serve as distractions. When doing interiors, be aware of mirrors– you don’t want to see yourself taking the photograph. Take multiple photos of each room and select the best.

Real estate advertising revenues lagging

You thought you were having a tough time selling your house, well you’ve got plenty of company. Newspapers across the country are also experiencing tough times selling real estate advertising space. According to industry analysts, real estate ads aren’t as profitable as they once were. The reason: the Internet. More and more people are turning to the Internet to find a new home and more house sellers are using the Internet to sell their property.

The stakes are big for newspapers since classifieds are highly lucrative and make up more than 35% of their revenues.

Representatives of several major real estate franchisers said in interviews that many home sellers still see newspaper advertising as an essential component of selling a house, but that younger brokers, house sellers and buyers are clearly more focused on using the Internet.

How to get top dollar for your house

Getting top dollar for your property requires several important factors being in your favor. Most important is to price your property at the right price from the beginning.

The best chance for selling your property is within the first 4 weeks of it being listed. The longer a property stays on the market, the less the seller will net.

Here are a few tips for getting top dollar and selling your property faster:

• Price the property right from day 1. Don’t over price the property just to see if someone is stupid enough to pay your inflated price– they won’t. Check the comparables for houses similar to yours within a 1 mile radius of your property.
• Make sure the property is thoroughly cleaned from top to bottom. That includes windows inside and out, floors (especially carpets), do some fixups in the front yard to create some curb appeal.
• Remove ALL of the clutter and unnecessary furniture and accessories
• Stage the main rooms (living room, kitchen, master bedroom)
• Be ready to sell before you actually put it on the market.
• Get a home inspection of the property before you put it on the market. Fix any major items before putting it on the market.

A house that has been on the market for a long period of time may point toward inferior marketing and problems with the house, but mostly it points toward over-pricing regardless of what is right or wrong with the house.

For more information on getting top dollar for your house