Could Your Closets Be Turning Off Buyers?
Homeowners are always looking to fine-tune the look of their homes before they put their house on the market. But all too often an area that gets forgotten is the closet. Everyone seems to have more stuff than ever before and a lot of that stuff gets crammed into the closets. Then when you list the home on the market, and Mr. and Mrs. Buyer come to have a look, they reach for a closet door and are greeted with an overstuffed, unorganized mess. The prospective buyers don’t see your valuables as prized possessions; instead what they see is too much stuff and too little space. Often buyers can’t picture their belongings in a home that’s filled with clutter. That’s why a lot of agents will recommend organizing, not just the space you see immediately upon entering the home, but also the closets.
“I think that instead of being kind of a luxury, now it’s something that everybody thinks they need,” says Paula Gallegos, co-owner of Conejo Closet Designs in Thousand Oaks, California. Gallegos says an organized, well-planned closet can be a huge attraction. “Who wants just a regular shelf and pole when you have all these capabilities of the hangers and the drawers and the belt racks, shoe shelves — everybody needs storage” she says.
The requests for closet organizers are growing in an interesting way. Closets are turning into spaces where people don’t just store their clothes. They’re also considered an important upgrade for many buyers. Just as a large renovated kitchen and bathroom area are typically more appealing to buyers, so too are organized closets.
“They’re getting bigger. They want more bells and whistles. They want more accessory items. There is one home we’re bidding (on the project) right now that has an upstairs bedroom and they’re putting a refrigerator in the closet,” says Gallegos.
At the top of every homeowner’s list is how to maximize space. “Sometimes that might be extending your organizers higher than what you have, maximizing the overhead space and sometimes it’s a matter of using the extra space you have below with baskets and shoe shelves and things like that,” says Gallegos.
One of the newest trends for closets is being borrowed from the dry cleaning industry. It’s a rotary closet device called Rotabob and it literally brings the clothes that are stuck in hard-to-reach places right to you.
“For instance, you probably see a lot of closets that are not too deep — you know a reach-in closet and they’ve got a real long return where you look down the side of it and it’s two or three feet of really hard-to-get-at space. So, with the Rotabob you can install one of those and just basically bring your clothes to you instead of having to reach in for them,” explains Gallegos.
They carry a price tag of about $900 to $1,200 for a unit with installation but after it’s put in there’s nothing else to do. “They are stainless steel units with ball bearings so there’s no maintenance and no electricity and they work for just about any closet,” says Gallegos.
These units are becoming popular not just for closets but also laundry rooms, storage spaces, and garages. “Someone actually put it in a utility closet and loaded it up with baskets and hung their mops and rags on the handles and put their cleaning supplies in the basket,” says Gallegos.
Being organized on the outside of your home creates curb appeal that gets prospective buyers in the door. Then keeping them there long enough to decide they can’t live without your home requires careful, well-thought-out organization inside your home including those areas that you don’t notice right away but your prospective buyers most certainly will.
Written by Phoebe Chongchua
Six Signs It’s Time For Home Buyers To Buy
If you’re waiting for signs of a housing bottom, join the club. Nobody blows a whistle and say, “It’s time to buy!”
That’s why market timing is an art, not a science, but you can improve your odds of buying wisely.
First, stop paying attention to the national media. Fear has sidelined buyers even in good markets, and that’s exactly when you need to take advantage — before other buyers wise up.
Second, be ready to pounce when you see the home you want.
The time is right to buy when you see these signs in your marketplace:
* Inventories start to decline. That means that the best buys are leaving the market, and best doesn’t necessarily mean cheap. It means the homes with the highest likelihood of profitable resale. Desirable homes will leave the market first.
* Days on market reduce. Days on market refers to the period when a Realtor enters a home in the MLS for marketing to other brokers, until the home sells. When DOMs are shorter, that signals a coming seller’s market. A seller’s market has more buyers than homes, so prices go up and selection goes down.
* Mortgage applications increase. Interest rates recently turned back the clock, causing many homeowners to jump in and refinance. Purchase applications were also up. Either way, that means homes are about to leave the market, so less inventory means firmer prices. Sellers will stop dropping their prices.
* Sold homes go for closer to listing price. In 2007, home prices dipped for the first time in four decades. With a 1.9 percent decline, homes still sold within 97 percent of listing price. When they get to 98 percent, you’d better be ready.
* Prices remain firm or rise. Prices are a product of demand. To attract buyers, sellers reduce their prices and offer more incentives. If homes are selling reasonably well, prices won’t move downward — they’ll go up.
* Incentives disappear. When a market begins to favor sellers, they don’t have to do as much to sell homes. Watch new homes and see if builders are still giving away swimming pools and granite kitchens. If they aren’t, times have changed.
Any change in condition will change others, so again — be ready. Now’s the time to buy a better house while prices are low, interest rates are low and inventory is still high.
Written by Blanche Evans
Over-Cooked Hype Hikes Kitchen Costs
An update on [tag]kitchen remodeling[/tag] reveals you could be spending a lot more and getting a lot less when you do-over your home’s social center. Consumer Reports “[tag]Kitchen-Planning Guide[/tag]” now includes a new feature, “[tag]Great Kitchens For Less[/tag],” a dissertation on spending less and getting more when you remodel or just swap out old appliances with new. With findings and recommendations based on independent laboratory tests, pricing comparisons and cost analyses, the Consumers Union publication says the hype on stuff you can buy for the kitchen is often just that.
It’s not surprising kitchens get the hard sell.
[tag]Kitchens are the social gathering spot[/tag] for the family and guests and new technology is turning it into the home’s command center.
That’s not all.
[tag]Remodeling kitchens[/tag] is a value added proposition because a large portion, if not all and sometimes more of the remodeling cost becomes added home value.
Finally, [tag]upgrading major appliances[/tag] today comes with both an [tag]energy conservation[/tag] boost and convenience boom.
“Whether you’re updating your appliances or planning a full remodel, seeing past the hype can be tough when everything looks so good,” the magazine reports in an overview that names names and includes an everything-you-wanted-to-know approach to kitchen remodeling and [tag]financing[/tag], as well as the appliances, [tag]furniture[/tag], materials and accessories that go into a job, large or small.
Notable in the exhaustive report is the potential for big money savings in the “10 Most-Hyped Products And What To Buy Instead” side report.
“Mistakes can be costly as well as disappointing, because the most loudly hawked products are often the most expensive,” according to Consumer Reports.
Here are some examples:
Written by Broderick Perkins
Home Selling Tips For Spring Buyer’s Market
If you’re planning to put your home on the market in time for spring, now’s the time to get it ready to show.
But wait, it’s still a buyer’s market. What can you do to catch the buyer’s eye and get them to make an offer?
It’s going to take more than a fresh coat of paint and a new welcome mat. A buyer’s market raises the stakes, and you’ll find you need to do a lot more work on your home than you think, if you want to get the highest price possible.
You’ve heard that you should clean, paint and repair, but that may not be enough. If your home is cluttered and in disrepair, buyers won’t pay top dollar.
Knowing how buyers reason should help you pick which updates are most likely to help you sell your home.
Let’s take the most basic selling suggestions and explore why these are such important mantras.
# Boost your curb appeal. A clean house with cosmetic upgrades like painting and planting flowers can help form a fantastic first impression of your home.
Why? Eighty-four percent of homebuyers use the Internet to search for homes. One-third of homebuyers use the Internet first, before any other source. That means that people are making decisions whether or not to even drive by your home based on how it looks in video, virtual tours and photographs.
# Make big fixes where you can. If your budget allows, invest in bigger improvements. Focus on “make or break” rooms like bathrooms and kitchens, because nothing says “uninviting” like an unattractive cooking space.
Why? The National Association of Realtors found in 2007 that a whopping 59 percent of homebuyers remodeled or made improvements to their homes within three months of purchase. Forty-seven percent made improvements to the kitchen, another 45 percent remodeled or improved a bathroom, and 43 percent remodeled a bedroom.
Keep in mind that the rate of new home building accelerated during the housing boom, and buyers are used to seeing as much as 25 percent of available inventory as new. That’s your competition, and the closer you can get the buyer to new, the likelier you are to sell your home.
# Be upfront with disclosures. Don’t wait for the buyer to get a home inspection, or the buyer could find a reason to wiggle out of the deal. Get a preliminary inspection yourself, so you can improve the condition of your home before a buyer sees it. Keep receipts of recent improvements and provide estimates on optional upgrades. These actions will reinforce your trustworthiness as a seller and help overcome objections from the buyer.
With new homes, buyers have some guarantees that systems will be fixed by the builder if they fail, but they have no such guaranteed with an existing home. Providing a home warranty will go a long way in assuring the buyer.
# Be realistic. Your price should be competitive with nearby comparable homes with similar features and approximate condition that have sold or are on the market within the last three months. You may find that homes are taking longer to sell and that buyers are more selective. Your buyer may be using the Internet to find home valuation sites, so search those sites yourself and be ready to defend your price with proper comparables from your Realtor.
Remember, your home is competing with new construction and with the buyer’s idea of what a home should look like. Over 33 percent of home buyers prefer a home less than 10 years old, yet the typical home purchased by all buyers was 12 years of age. That suggests that condition is very important. If you can ease your buyer’s fears about the condition of your home, you’re much more likely to strike a deal.
Written by Blanche Evans
Increase the Odds of Selling Your Home by Cleaning Out Clutter
Whether you’re getting ready to put your [tag]home on the market[/tag] or you simply want to get a [tag]fresh start[/tag] in 2007 — [tag]clearing clutter[/tag] is the answer.
Your [tag]REALTOR[/tag]® will tell you when they show buyers a cluttered home, no matter how lovely it could be, [tag]prospective buyers[/tag] just can’t picture it and will usually pass or make an offer for much less than the seller thinks the home is worth. Yes, packaging matters. It matters when you’re buying a product in a store and it matters when you’re selling your home.
Think about the way [tag]model homes[/tag] are packaged for display. There’s so little in them; yet they look just perfectly appealing. Of course, that’s not how any of us really live. But it’s how consumers want to see the home. The fact is, maybe we could live with a little less — at least while our home is on the market. After all, much of the clutter ends up collecting dust! And since you are moving, packing up some of your belongings before you actually move out (or even getting a tax credit for donating items to a charity) will help you when you finally sell your home and are ready to move.
Even if you’re not in the[tag] market to sell[/tag], clearing clutter will give you a sense of freedom (and the ability to eventually accumulate more). Since the holidays just passed, you probably are already bombarded with stuff and maybe even wondering where to put it all.
The problem is many of us have a hard time letting go of things. So clutter builds up fast and furious and undoing the clutter becomes a frustrating task. But it doesn’t have to be. Here are some tips on de-cluttering. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a home that when you stepped inside you felt a sense of spaciousness — everything seemed to have a place rather than items jammed into every last inch of the room? Cabinets and closets closed properly — not like when you’ve gone on a three-week vacation to Italy and now you have to sit atop your luggage and tug roughly on the zipper to get it closed.
De-cluttering is a project that once you take the time to unload a few items, you often find they’re never missed. And consider this, studies have shown that people waste several weeks a year looking for misplaced items that are buried beneath clutter. So let’s get started.
First, don’t de-clutter by making more room for clutter. As crazy as this is, true pack rats merely move their clutter from one location to another throughout the year without ever throwing anything out. When one area is too cluttered, they add shelves or even room additions to house their clutter.
Start with non-emotional items and rooms. You’re less likely to have trouble throwing out things if you don’t have an emotional attachment to them. Do you really need 12 different measuring cups? But here’s a tip, I don’t recommend throwing out your spouse’s trinket collection (no matter how tempted you are) without first consulting him/her. Otherwise, you might end up listing your home by divorce default! Instead, start with your own stuff and lead by example.
Next go to the bathroom cabinets. Get rid of old prescriptions and products that you rarely use.
Clean out the clutter from under the bed. There are likely items that you haven’t used in years underneath the bed just collecting dust. Nothing’s worse than viewing a home and the buyer lifts a corner of the bed’s dust ruffle to reveal a mixture of clutter, dust, and pet hair — yuck!
Walk-in-closets are so named because you should be able to move about in them. But some people have them overflowing. Buyers can’t even squeeze inside, nor would they want to in that condition. So, the desirable walk-in-closet now becomes a negative for the buyer. Chances are there are clothes in your closet that haven’t been worn in a long time.
Clearing clutter not only makes your home appealing to others, it’s a richly satisfying feeling to create a sense of organization and space. And just think what you could do if you didn’t have to spend weeks looking beneath clutter to find something you’ve misplaced.
Written by Phoebe Chongchua
Should I Take My Home Off the Market During the Holidays?
When you look at your calendar you may find the months already overloaded with seasonal obligations — shopping, entertaining, children’s pageants, charity work, decorating the house, and so much more. If you are also trying to sell your home, you are under extra pressure to keep your home in “showtime” condition. And that could be the last thing you need before the holiday spirit is broken. It is understandable why you would be tempted to take your home off the market during the holidays. And the list of justifications is long. If you are too busy, buyers may be also, and you may find your efforts unrewarded with not enough showings. And what if you do get an offer? You may be faced with the possibility of packing and moving during the busiest time of the year. Besides, you can give your house a rest, and it will have better momentum after the holidays. Better to just pack it in and start fresh in January, right?
But wait! Most top Realtors agree that taking your home off the market during the Christmas season is a mistake. The house surely isn’t going to sell off the market! What is the advantage of that? So you’re busy. Let your Realtor do the work. You can leave in the morning, go to work, go shopping, and let your Realtor take care of things.
The holidays are a wonderful selling period. Why? Because most people take off work sometime during the season. The husband and wife are both off and want to see houses. Most agents like the holidays because the buyers have more time, and they can look at homes together.
Before you take your home off the market, consider the following points:
# Although buyer activity may appear to slow down, the buyers who are actively looking during the holidays are that much more serious. Agents believe the home market is no more affected at Christmas than during other “busy” periods. If that were so, the market would shut down throughout the year as families concentrate on spring weddings, June graduations, summer vacations, and autumn back-to-school activities.
# Many buyers deliberately choose to shop for a home after the busy spring and summer rush. They know that it will be easier to look, and that negotiations will be less stressful. They may not have children, or they may have grown children, so moving to accommodate the school year isn’t a consideration. Finding the right home at the right price, however, is.
# Relocating families often don’t have a choice when they can leave for their new destination. Although 68% of transferring families have children, many families have to transfer during the middle of the school year. These families are that much more motivated to get their families settled in before either the January semester begins, or to arrange for the move during spring break in March. If you sign a contract by New Year’s Eve, the timing couldn’t be more perfect.
# At Christmas time, our culture focuses on family and the home. Preparing for the indoor activities of winter is one of the most enjoyable periods of family life. Allowing buyers to view your home during this most hospitable of seasons lets them better picture their own family life in the attractive environment you have created.
# When is your home ever more beautiful and inviting? You have cleaned and decorated, and your home looks like a picture postcard. If the results are good enough for family and friends, they will surely be good enough to impress your buyers. Get the family team on board to do a five-minute blitz pick-up every morning to keep holiday messes to a minimum.
# With reduced inventories and motivated buyers, you will have all the members of the MLS on your team. You may find you have more showings than you would if you marketed your home during a busier time of the year.
# If you do get a contract, you can arrange the terms to suit your needs. If moving during the holidays isn’t an option, you can put in the closing date of your choice. Most people can close 30 to 60 days after a contract is written, so there is plenty of time. Possession and closings are very negotiable.
Written by Blanche Evans
