If you are thinking of selling your home, you should know that your Realtor will be asking you for some basic information about what it takes to keep the house running; like what maintenance you do and what your annual utility bills are. You want your home to present itself as green and energy efficient and compare well with other homes out there. Basically, you don’t want buyers looking at your monthly costs for heating or cooling and run out the door.

But what can you do to make your home more green and energy efficient prior to putting it up for sale? The most important thing besides looking for obvious ways to conserve is to make a few energy efficient upgrades. And you start by figuring out what is actually sucking the energy out of your home. The highest energy users in a home depend a lot on the weather, the efficiency of your heating system, and other factors. But for most homeowners here are a few places to start:

1. Hot and cold: These are the top users of energy in a home. First thing you can do is turn down your thermostat to 68 degrees in autumn and winter and set it at 76 degrees in the summer (if you have air conditioning). If you want to do more, an upgrade to your heating system may be an answer depending on its age and efficiency level. If you are relying on an old furnace, upgrading to a brand-new Energy Star furnace can save you hundreds off of your current annual fuel bill. This upgrade also appeals to buyers not only for energy savings, but by eliminating the concern about how soon they would have to replace that old furnace.
2. Appliances eat energy: The U.S. Department of Energy’s home energy saver web site states that often those small appliances are the second biggest users of energy next to heating. The list includes televisions, DVD players and game players. What can you do? Make certain they are turned off when not in use and put them on a power strip plug so you can actually turn off the power that continues to feed into the device even when it is “off”.

Most potential home buyers have an idea of what tops their list of must-haves in a home. And though it may be that the smallest room in the house, the bathroom is often big on the list of importance to buyers. As a seller you may not realize that the first impression your bathroom gives can actually make or break your chances of an offer.

Buyers often look at bathroom as more than just a place to groom themselves. Many feel that bathrooms, especially the master bath, should be personal sanctuary. Ideally they should be able to picture themselves taking a relaxing bath and escaping for a while from the day’s stress. In your bathroom, they will either see that escape or see a bunch of work they would have to complete to achieve it.

So what can you do to improve your bathrooms first impression? Updating an old looking bathroom is one of the best investments you can make to increase a home’s resale value and give buyers that extra reason to choose your home and place an offer. There are many fixes you can do, some not that costly or labor intensive, which will add impact.

• Replace old out-dated towel racks, toilet paper holder and curtain rods.
• Purchase luxurious-looking towels; replace the shower curtain with a calming solid color that goes with the decor and adding candles around a bathtub.
• If the bathtub is old and stained consider a professional cleaning/resurfacing or a bathtub overlay.

So you have been thinking about putting your home on the market recently, but you have not gotten past the worry about all the “unknowns” and unwanted stress…

What you should know is that what you’re feeling is both natural and common, but there are solutions to most of the worries that are stopping you from taking that next important step. The best advice is to talk to a Realtor about the process of selling your home, and get an idea of what to expect and get your questions answered.

What is your first step as a potential home seller? Make an appointment with a Realtor (or a couple of Realtors from which to choose) to do a free market analysis on your home and property. This means the Realtor learns a bit about the home from you; like the number of bedrooms, the style of home, the number of baths, square footage, size of your lot and any extras the home has like a garage, finished basement or the updated kitchen.

The agent will then do a market search of recent properties that have sold in your area that are similar in size and amenities. This is called pulling comparables or “comps” as they are referred to in real estate. The agent will then come to your house and take a tour of your home to see in person how the home truly fits into the list of comps. There will be some additions and minuses as your Realtor compares other homes to yours. For example, if a similar home recently sold, but it had a garage and your home does not, a price adjustment for the value of that garage is made in determining your home’s market value. All this information is then analyzed so that the Realtor can recommend a price to list your home that falls within true current market value. He should price the house so that there is a little bargaining room, but so that in the end you get top market dollar for your property in a reasonable amount of time.

Keeping the “staged look” when your house if for sale with small children can be overwhelming, however, there are some simple things you can do to remedy clutter:

1. Donate or give away out-of-season or clothes that don’t fit.
2. Limit the number of toys (keeping the kids’ favorites) and put the rest in storage, or donate toys that they don’t use, or are just taking up space, and get rid of the broken ones.
3. Pack away stuffed animals and books.
4. Organize the remaining items neatly in baskets, boxes, and bins, leaving only a few remaining items on shelves.
5. Make the closet look bigger by reducing the number of items that are stored in the closet.
6. For those with small infants, be sure the diaper pail is empty, and keep the nursery tidy.

Reminding your children that once your current home sells, their new home will bring them exciting new adventures may help them be cooperative in keeping the place clean.

Although your children can assist with keeping the place tidy, the same conversation can’t happen with your pets. If your cat uses the wood doorways as a scratch post or your dog is extremely large and barks at strangers you may want to consider relocating them with a neighbor, friend, or relative until the house is sold.

If you are a home seller in the winter, you may be wondering how to create curb appeal in this cold weather.

This is not the time of year that blooming flower beds and a well placed planter of colorful blossoms will be available to brighten your entryway. But there are winter options that can take you through the holidays and make your home look warm and inviting from the “curb”.

A festive planter: What better way to bring that summer planter into use? Clean it out and add some fresh greens; evergreen branches of spruce, juniper or pine work very well for this. Arrange them like you would a bouquet of flowers. Add a few pine cones and some red holly berries for color. This winter arrangement adds a point of interest to your front porch and makes it look cheerful and inviting instead of just plain cold. A short string of tiny white lights can make it brighten it up nicely after dark.

Add a wreath; simple and tasteful: Nothing adds more to your front door (other than a fresh coat of paint) than to decorate it with a wreath. Bring in similar greens to the ones in your planter and add a few small brightly colored bows to draw the eye. Make it festive but tasteful, and your front door will be very welcoming to buyers.

A sturdy but festive welcome mat: In winter weather, the welcome mat can be a great asset to keeping your floors clean as well as offering a colorful splash to your front porch. Replace your old mat with a sturdy winter one and choose something that brightens the doorway and has complimentary colors that go well with your house color and front door.

With shopping, entertaining, school concerts, and a possible visit away to see family, the holidays may tempt you to take your home temporarily off the market. There is also that added pressure to keep your home in “show” condition for those last minute calls from your Realtor. But though your list of reasons is understandable, it is not better to just pack it in and start fresh in January.

Here is where having a great Realtor behind you comes in handy. Let him or her help make showings and dealing with offers before Christmas work for you. Buyers often have more time around the holidays because they have taken vacation from work and they can look at homes together. The number of showings your Realtor sets up may appear to slow down, but the buyers who are actively looking during the holidays are that much more serious.

Facts:

• The housing market is not slowed by Christmas any more than it is during the spring with the wedding season, graduations, summer vacations or Fall back-to-school preparations.
• Some buyers deliberately time their home shopping for when it is not as busy and their competition is less. It will be easier for them to look at homes with confidence that negotiations will be less stressful.

With so much information available online, home listings a click away on the computer, and being an intelligent human being, why should you hire a real estate agent?

People sometimes think they should save a bit of money and represent themselves. To be honest, some people do okay, but more people don’t. As with anything of value, you get what you pay for, and the sale and purchase of your biggest investment should not be something you gamble with. Look at it this way: If you have a Realtor, you won’t end up with the same results as you would’ve without one. Wouldn’t it be better to have the results you get with their knowledge and experience on your side?

Here are 5 reasons why you might want to consider hiring a professional real estate agent.

1. This looks familiar: Education is a great thing to be armed with when trying to market and sell your home as well as making that big home buyer purchase. Experience is next on the list of helpful tools. The Realtor you hire can bring both attributes to any contract negotiation or issue that arises in the process of buying or selling your home. They have seen many contracts, handled many negotiations as well as multiple situations and unexpected delays that can happen during the buying and selling process.
2. They are your go-between: As a seller you need someone to weed out the crop of uncertain and unqualified potential buyers as well as market your home to its highest potential. As a buyer your agent can guide you to properties that truly match your needs and wants so you don’t waste precious time wandering to see homes you would never want to purchase. Top agents can negotiate well because of their skills but also because they are not emotionally involved in the transaction. Realtors are not messengers, delivering offers back and forth. They are trained professionals hired to present their client’s offer in the best light and keep client information confidential from competing parties.

Boosting Your Home’s Energy Efficiency for Yourself, or for Buyers

Before a seller decides to put their house on the market it is inevitable that most will look around their house and wonder how much appeal it will have to today’s buyer.  There was a period of time not so long ago, that new homes were being built impressively larger with each passing year.  But trends now show that many potential homebuyers are looking for energy efficiency, functionality, and comfort more so than an impressive square footage.  Sellers of those moderate sized homes rejoice!  Your time has come.

What are some things to consider in boosting saleability?

Since energy efficiency is important to today’s buyer, consider upgrading one or two things that will highlight well on your listing and draw the attention of buyers to your home. 

1. An energy efficient hot water heater that heats water as it is needed is a great way to save and shows a level of Green living that most homebuyers are seeking in today’s market. 
2. Replacing old windows with ENERGY STAR qualified windows lowers household energy bills by 7-15 percent. Lower energy consumption also reduces greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and shrinks a house’s carbon footprint, which also appeals to eco-conscious buyers.

Your real estate agent will tell you the best way to price your home to sell and make certain you get current market value is to look at what the home has to offer and make comparisons to similar properties and what they have sold for.

There can be a difference between the value of a home and the amount the home is priced at. You do not want to over price your property with the hopes of getting unrealistic offers, nor do you want to offer a bargain price thinking the buyers will just take it and not try to negotiate even further. A Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) is what will show you what price range your home falls into and it provides the statistics to back up your price tag.

Your real estate agent will create a CMA report at no extra cost that pulls data from homes currently for sale and those that have sold in your area, which provides the closest match to your property. In other words, you do not want to compare apples to oranges. The homes in the report should be similar in square footage, lot size, condition, and features. Though no home may be identical to your own, educated guesses regarding the value in the differences will be made and added or subtracted. Say, for example, a home is just like yours in size, age, and features but it lacks a garage. Your Realtor will make the allowance of what a garage is worth and add that to whatever that home sold for to use it as an example for correct pricing.

When you’re selling your home, it’s good for you to remember that the Realtor is not expected to do everything. There are some things you’ll need to do to help sell your home. We’ve looked at some patterns in local real estate, and noticed some do’s and don’t’s when it comes to preparing your house for the real estate market. Below are some ideas of what you should seriously consider doing to increase your house’s chances of being sold faster and for more money.

Maintain a Flawless Condition

You need to make a good impression on potential buyers. So, try to make your house memorable looking in a good way. It needs to be physically attractive on the outside and inside. So, maintain the cleanliness and flawlessness of the house. For instance, you can repaint walls that have blemishes and do some restoration on areas of the house that are cracking.

Take Out Your Personal Mementos

Prospective buyers shouldn’t see your personal mementos scattered all over the house. Remove pictures, souvenirs, trophies, and religious and political memorabilia. These will be off-putting to people who want to envision themselves in the home, instead of you in the home. Clear out what you can and let buyers feel as though they get to start from scratch in the house.

One way of impersonalizing the house is to change the paint on the walls. Make it more neutral. If you have bedrooms that belong to children, clear out the kids’ stuff, and make those rooms look more neutral.