5 Ways to Get Your Home Ready for Sale

There are five simple things you can do to your home to get it ready for sale.

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Selling a home? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation

Here are five ways you can prepare your home for sale:

1. Clean & declutter. Remove any excess furniture and belongings that are on the countertops or shelving to make the interior space feel more open.

2. Depersonalize. Remove any photos or personal items that are specific to your family and lifestyle so that the new buyers can picture their family in that space.

"The way the home looks from the curb
is what draws buyers inside."

3. Do minor repairs. You don’t necessarily need to retile the bathroom or remodel the kitchen, but you do want to take care of other minor things, like making sure the doors and cabinets open and close correctly, patching up holes and nicks in the walls, or repainting the walls and trimming where needed.

4. Enhance curb appeal. Make sure that the exterior of the home and yard is clean and tidy. One thing that makes a big impact is adding bright and colorful flowers and pots. Remember, it’s the way the home looks from the curb that draws buyers inside.

5. Detach emotionally. Start to think of it as a house rather than your home. You want to visualize the new buyers moving in and yourself moving on to the next stage of your life.

If you have any questions or would like more information regarding this topic, please feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to helping you in any way I can.

How to Pick the Best Offer on Your House

When you're considering multiple offers on your home, there are many other 
variables besides price to consider before making a decision.

Buying a home? Click here to perform a full home search

Selling a home? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation

When you’re selling your home and juggling multiple offers, is the highest offer always the best?

Not necessarily. There are a lot of other variables in play, including the terms of the loan, whether or not it’s a cash offer, some contingencies, and the length of the closing. You should consider four things before accepting a buyer’s offer:

1. Their financing
2. The length of the closing period
3. The terms of the loan
4. Any contingencies

Sometimes cash buyers are better than financed offers; however, cash buyers usually come in lower. A qualified professional can help you select the right offer by recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of each one.

If you have any questions about buying or selling real estate, feel free to give me a call or shoot me an email. I look forward to hearing from you.

How Does Housing Inventory Affect Your Home’s Value?

What do you need to know about current housing inventory? Here is a brief rundown.

Buying a home? Click here to perform a full home search

Selling a home? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation

Why is housing inventory an important statistic to track on the market? Housing inventory is measured in months of inventory. This is basically how many months it would take for all of the available homes to sell if no new homes were listed on the market. A good housing inventory would be about four to five months of houses on the market. If that number is smaller than four, it means that the home buyers are dominating the market and that there are relatively few sellers. In that market, home sellers have the advantage. A number over five would mean that buyers have the advantage in the market.
How does housing inventory affect your home’s value? While your home’s value is affected by size, location, and condition, a tight real estate market—or one with a lower inventory—will always drive prices up. It’s the law of scarcity. If you’d like to know the current housing inventory in your area or have any other questions related to real estate, please give me a call or send me an email. I’d be happy to help you!

Sell Your Portland Home Quickly and for Top Dollar: Make Sure it's Priced Accurately!

There are many great Portland area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (503) 427-9233 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

As we move forward into 2014, I wanted to speak with you about accurately pricing your home for sale and why it’s important. Before I get started, I wanted to point out a few of the great features on our blog. If you’re a seller, we have a link for a free, instantaneous home value report. It may not be 100% accurate, but it gives you a wonderful place to start and contains a lot of useful information. As for buyers, we have a home search that utilizes the local MLS which is constantly updated. It also gives you the option to have information sent to you on a daily, bi-weekly or weekly basis.
 
Pricing a home is somewhat of an art form; you don’t want to price it too low (for obvious reasons) but if you price it too high, you can make one of several mistakes that will hurt your bottom dollar. You could end up with no activity, which forces the home to stay on the market for as little as 30 days, and will generate a much lower offer. We have also seen that the first offer you receive is 90-95% of the time is the best.
 
That offer could be lower is you had accurately priced the home correctly in the first place. Pricing your home too low also leaves money on the table. It is extremely important for our clients to maximize your hard-earned equity.
 
Our home evaluation is a great start, but if you would like a more detailed report we would be happy to generate one for you. This will help us see the entire picture before signing off on a recommended value for your property. Thanks and have a great day!

Should You List Your Home Through the Holidays?

Today I wanted to discuss whether or not you should continue to list through the winter months/holiday season. Conventional wisdom would tell you not to, however, I think it is a good idea to be on the market now. If you take a look at the numbers, inventory is down 7% during the winter/holiday season but the asking price for homes is down 0.3% (essentially 0%) meaning less inventory but not lower prices. Also, buyers in the winter time tend to be more serious because if you are out looking for homes with family events and hectic schedules, you want to buy a house.

Thank you for taking the time to watch our educational video blog. If you are thinking about buying or selling a home, check out our free home evaluation website and you’re always welcome to give us a call at (503) 427-9233. Thanks and have a great day!