Real Estate Information Center

Selling your home is one of the most life-changing decisions you can make. Having made the decision you will need to meticulously prepare for the transfer by taking steps to ensure that your property is sale ready and that you are aware of the intricacies involved in the process.

These 15 Action Steps will help you to prepare your home and yourself:

1. Find your legal papers, such as the deed, insurance, mortgage documents, etc.
2. Call a title company and ask for a complementary title report to check for discrepancies that may be present.
3. Check your credit rating.
4. Speak to your bank about pre-approval whether you need a mortgage or not.
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Real Estate Staging is the process of preparing a home for sale. Staging is really about un-decorating and removing years of living, collecting & decorating so a buyer can visualize themselves living in the home. When a seller “lets go” of some of their own things, it then gives permission for the buyer to buy! As a realtor, the preparation of a home for sale can be a difficult subject to approach with a seller. Some things are obvious such as warn, dirty carpeting that needs to be replaced. Or maybe there are minor repairs needed throughout the home. But sometimes a home is in good condition but needs a little “TLC” before that first showing.

Here are the top 5 things to tell your sellers.

1. YOU DON’T LIVE IN YOUR HOME THE SAME WAY YOU SELL YOUR HOME – Many of the items that you showcase for the home you live in may need to be eliminated when your home is being shown to potential buyers. This does not mean that those items are not beautiful or important. It just means that they may be a deterrent to a buyer.

Continue reading ‘The Art Of Preparing A Home For Sale’ »

Real Estate Staging is the process of preparing a home for sale. Staging is really about un-decorating and removing years of living, collecting & decorating so a buyer can visualize themselves living in the home. When a seller “lets go” of some of their own things, it then gives permission for the buyer to buy! There are many benefits of staging your home for sale, but here are the top 5.

1. Staging is always less than your first price reduction- The first price reduction can be $20,000 or more, depending on where you live. Staging a home can be a fraction of this figure. Consider this; you have reduced the price for your “empty” property and guess what? It’s still empty. Or imagine that you’ve reduced the price of your home, but the buyers still cannot see the positive features because you still have too much furniture and clutter. Staging your home will ensure that buyers are seeing all the amenities the home has to offer.

Continue reading ‘The Top 5 Benefits Of Staging Your Home For Sale’ »

Everybody reads articles about preparing a home for sale. I think there’s a problem with those articles. Most people don’t really see what they have. Get someone to come into your home, such as a good friend or close relative, who you think will be honest and straightforward and who you think has a good handle on the real estate presentation world. Tell them to be brutally honest about what should be put away, thrown away, given away or stored.

Most owners love what they’ve done to their homes. And they’re color blind too. So if they’re told to depersonalize, reduce clutter or whatever the advice that is coming their way, they ignore it, unless they’re that rare individual who can take off those rose colored glasses and really “see” their home as others will.

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